We're Cooked: AI is now smarter than PhDs

January 27, 2025 | Read Online

Happy Monday and welcome to Issue #31 of the Tech Fizz newsletter!

🔥 Is the Universe Breaking Its Own Rules? From an artificial sun burning for record time to a potential rewrite of cosmic history, cutting-edge discoveries are reshaping what we know about space 🪐, energy 🔋, and even extraterrestrial life 👽.

🧠 Brain Blast
Hot tech discoveries and breakthroughs from last week

Synthetic Star: Chinese researchers report a major step toward limitless clean energy by maintaining an "artificial sun" for more than 17 minutes—nearly tripling their previous record set in 2023. Despite over 70 years of research, practical applications remain distant.

Search for Celestials: A research team has secured $2.4 million in funding to explore a new approach to finding extraterrestrial life. Their plan involves placing specialized sensors on the ocean floor to detect "dark oxygen"—oxygen generated without sunlight. If successful, this could provide insights into how life might exist on planets without direct solar exposure.

Lunar Latency: The quest for advanced AI is heading to the Moon. Space startup Lonestar Data Holdings is preparing to send a solar-powered data center to the lunar surface next month aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. The facility will use the Moon’s natural cooling properties to enhance energy-efficient data storage, keeping pace with AI’s increasing computational demands.

Expanding Existence: A groundbreaking study may have upended our understanding of physics by confirming the existence of the "Hubble tension"—discrepancies in measurements showing that the universe is expanding much faster than expected. This finding challenges decades of established theories and could offer new insights into dark matter and dark energy.

Orbital Origin: Scientists have long believed that the Moon formed from a collision between Earth and the protoplanet Theia. However, new research suggests it may have originated from Earth's own mantle, with material ejected into space. This theory also questions previous assumptions about how water first arrived on Earth.

📸 Industry Snapshot
A candid look at layoffs and venture capital funding

On January 21st, Stripe laid off 300 employees (3% of total workforce) who were considered to be low performers.
On January 21st, Renesas Electronics laid off 68 employees from its office hubs in the Bay Area.

🤖 Anthropic, the AI company behind Claude, raised $1B on January 22 with Google as the lead investor.

🛰️ Loft Orbital, a company that leases space on satellites for any organization to collect information about the Earth, raised $170M on January 14 with AXIAL Partners as one of the lead investors.

🗂️ Instabase, a platform designed to automate document processing workflows and analyze unstructured data, raised $100M on January 17 with Qatar Investment Authority as the lead investor.

🚘 Harbinger, a commercial electric vehicle company that focuses on chassis architecture design, raised $100M on January 14 with Capricorn Investor Group as one of the lead investors.

📱 Social Cues
What's poppin' in tech on social media

Failing Forward: SpaceX’s rocket exploded into countless fragments just minutes after takeoff last week. However, Musk didn’t seem bothered, sharing a video of the debris scattering through space like a meteor shower and joking, “Success isn’t certain, but at least it’s entertaining!”

Doctor GPT: A ChatGPT user claims the AI may have played a crucial role in saving their life by identifying a serious health issue while they were at the gym, prompting them to seek medical attention just in time.

Supermassive Star: A video of a neutron star recently went viral on X. These bizarre celestial objects are remnants of supernova explosions, measuring under 12 miles in diameter yet containing the mass of the Sun.

Cyber Scholar: Wharton professor Ethan Mollick shared his research on X, revealing that AI models have outperformed PhD holders in a graduate-level Q&A exam, sparking intense debate across social media.

Massive Machinery: A viral Reddit clip showcases an enormous Hitachi mining machine, so massive that it dwarfs most highway overpasses. The footage has left many viewers wondering how such a giant piece of equipment even makes it to its worksite.

😎 Only Good Vibes
A boost of positivity to jumpstart your week

Mind Games: A groundbreaking interface has allowed a tetraplegic participant to control a virtual quadcopter using only his thoughts. Brain-implanted electrodes translated his intended finger movements, enabling him to steer the drone through an obstacle course. This technology could open new possibilities for people with paralysis, allowing them to game, work, and interact with the digital world purely through mental commands.

Tissue Tetris: Researchers at the University of Galway have pioneered a 4D bioprinting method that creates shape-shifting tissues, mimicking the way organs develop naturally. This innovation brings us closer to engineering fully functional lab-grown organs, with significant potential for disease research and regenerative medicine.

Lost and Found: A fossil site lost to WWII bombing has led to an astonishing discovery—paleontologists have identified a new 32-foot-long dinosaur species from the Cretaceous period using old photographs. This breakthrough highlights the potential of historical archives in reconstructing prehistoric life from sites long thought to be destroyed.

Mini Medic: Paris-based startup Robeauté has secured $28M in funding to develop its microrobot, a device no bigger than a grain of rice. Initially designed for biopsies, this cutting-edge technology could revolutionize neurosurgery by delivering drugs and implanting devices deep in the brain with minimal tissue damage.

Cardiac Cure: Scientists may have found a way to regenerate heart tissue after heart attacks. Inspired by zebrafish, which can naturally heal their hearts, researchers have identified a dormant gene that shows promise in repairing damaged heart tissue in mice—human trials could be next.