Hello and welcome to Sync #501!

Last week, tech companies, both big and small, met in Las Vegas to showcase their latest products at CES 2025. We will take a look at what the major players—Nvidia, AMD, and Intel—brought to the show, as well as some interesting or outright crazy inventions from smaller companies and startups.

Elsewhere in tech, Anthropic is reportedly in talks to raise $2 billion at a $60 billion valuation, while Microsoft is expected to spend $80 billion on AI-enabled data centres. Meanwhile, Sam Altman gave an in-depth interview with Bloomberg, sharing his perspective on the last two years at OpenAI.

In robotics, Boston Dynamics has settled a patent suit with military robotics firm Ghost, and we’ll explore how robot vacuum cleaners are becoming smarter and more efficient at cleaning our homes.

Additionally, we’ll cover an electronic tattoo that can be printed directly onto a head to measure brainwaves, the "world’s most powerful" robotic exoskeleton, Anthrobots—biobots made from unmodified human cells—and a list of the top 25 biotech companies to watch heading into 2025.

Enjoy!

CES 2025

Each year in January, innovators, startups, and major tech companies gather in Las Vegas to show the world their latest inventions, products and innovations.

Let’s take a look at what the major players—Nvidia, AMD, and Intel—brought to the show, as well as some interesting or outright crazy inventions from smaller companies and startups.

Nvidia—the star of CES 2025

Nvidia is at a point where wherever Nvidia and Jensen Huang go, they are treated like rock stars. CES 2025 was no exception. All eyes were on Nvidia and the new products the company has prepared for gamers, AI, and robotics.

For gamers, Nvidia has unveiled the highly anticipated RTX 50-series GPUs. The lineup includes the flagship RTX 5090, RTX 5080, RTX 5070 Ti, and RTX 5070. All GPUs in the RTX 50-series are based on Nvidia’s latest architecture, Blackwell, and feature significant improvements in both specifications and performance. According to figures presented by Nvidia, the RTX 5070 Ti offers more AI computing performance than the RTX 4090, the flagship GPU of the previous generation. The new flagship, RTX 5090, promises to deliver 2.5 times the AI computing performance of the RTX 4090.

The numbers Nvidia has presented look impressive, assuming they are accurate. However, I would like to remind you that the last time Nvidia promised double the gaming performance uplift was during the introduction of the RTX 30-series. The reality turned out to be less impressive. I suggest waiting for independent reviewers to verify Nvidia’s claims.

The prices are $1,999 for the RTX 5090, $999 for the RTX 5080, $749 for the RTX 5070 Ti, and $549 for the RTX 5070. Apart from the RTX 5090, whose price rose by $400, the prices for the RTX 50-series GPUs have decreased compared to their RTX 40-series equivalents at launch. Nevertheless, I wish good luck to everyone hoping to grab one at the MSRP.

If you are interested in learning more about the RTX 50-series, I recommend this video from Gamers Nexus which goes deeper into specs, benchmarks and unpacking Nvidia’s marketing buzzword.

Aside from the new RTX 50-series GPU, Nvidia revealed a new product—Project DIGITS, the world’s smallest AI supercomputer, as Nvidia described it. Inside this small gold box, Nvidia has packed its 20-core ARM-based Grace CPU, 128GB of unified memory, a 4TB SSD, and the GB10 Superchip—a GPU based on the Blackwell architecture. Together, Project DIGITS promises to deliver up to 1 petaflop of AI performance at FP4 precision.

Aimed at AI researchers, engineers, and data scientists, Project DIGIT is specifically designed for developing and prototyping AI models and applications. Project DIGIT can locally run large AI models of up to 200 billion parameters, meaning it can either run one huge model or several smaller models simultaneously.

Project DIGITS will be available in May from Nvidia and its partners, with prices starting at $3,000.

I cannot recall anything in the PC world offering so much computing power in such a small form factor. The closest in terms of form factor and computing power to Project DIGITS is Apple’s Mac Studio. However, a similarly specced Mac Studio with 128GB of RAM and a 4TB SSD costs twice as much while offering less computing power. It will be interesting to see what Apple will bring to the table with the updated Mac Studio with the M4 chip, which could be released in June at WWDC 2025, and how will it compare to Project DIGITS.

Last but not least, Jensen Huang presented Nvidia Cosmos—a new addition to Nvidia's solutions for robotics. Nvidia Cosmos is a platform consisting of state-of-the-art generative world foundation models and other tools to generate realistic virtual worlds used to train physical AI systems such as autonomous vehicles (AVs) and robots. Huang said that Nvidia Cosmos can generate photo-realistic video which can be used to train robots and self-driving cars at a much lower cost than using conventional data.

AMD’s new flagship CPUs and GPUs for gamers, creatives, and AI

AMD also brought its new lineup of CPUs and GPUs to CES 2025.

Let’s start with AMD’s new flagship CPU—the Ryzen 9 9950X3D. Aimed at gamers and creators, the 9950X3D features 16 cores based on AMD’s Zen 5 architecture, clocked at up to 5.7GHz. Alongside the 9950X3D, AMD has also released the Ryzen 9 9900X3D—a slightly lower-tier processor with 12 cores clocked at up to 5.5GHz. Both CPUs are scheduled to hit the shelves in Q1 2025, with pricing yet to be announced.

According to benchmarks presented by AMD, the 9950X3D is, on average, 8% faster across 40 games compared to the 7950X3D and 20% faster compared to Intel’s Core i9 285K. Once again, these claims will need to be verified by independent reviewers.

Apart from new desktop CPUs for gamers and creatives, AMD also introduced new AI PC chips designed to power the AI features in the next generation of Copilot+ PCs—the Ryzen AI 300 series and the Ryzen AI Max series.

The Ryzen 300 series chips feature between 6 and 8 cores clocked at up to 5GHz and deliver “24-plus-hour” battery life in the best-case scenario (such as light workloads). They are expected to be available in Q1/Q2 2025.

Ryzen AI Max—AMD’s flagship offering for Copilot+ PCs—features between 6 and 16 cores clocked at up to 5.1GHz, paired with built-in graphics and a new memory interface. AMD claims that Ryzen AI Max chips can deliver leading 3D rendering and AI application performance.

For gamers, AMD prepared new Radeon GPUs—Radeon RX 9070 XT and Radeon RX 9070. They’re based on RDNA 4 architecture, a 4nm architecture that the company says features improved ray tracing performance, better media-encoding quality, and improved AI acceleration.

If you want to learn more about everything AMD announced at CES 2025 in greater detail, I again recommend Gamers Nexus and their breakdown of AMD’s new products.

Intel’s hope for a better year

Unlike Nvidia and AMD, which arrived at CES 2025 as leaders in the GPU and CPU spaces respectively, Intel attended the show following its worst year since going public in 1971.

The new Core Ultra Series 2 lineup features processors ranging from the lightweight Core 3 to the high-performance Core Ultra 200H, designed for thin and light systems, and the Core Ultra 200HX, aimed at enthusiast notebooks. Improvements include AI-based power management, Intel’s latest Wi-Fi 7, and AI acceleration through the AI Boost feature. Select models have neural processing units (NPUs) for AI tasks, with the Core Ultra 200V offering double the NPU bandwidth compared to its predecessor.

Intel claims the new Core Ultra 285 delivers 2.9x better graphics performance than its predecessor, while the 285H runs AI models like Meta’s Llama 3 8B 3.3x faster. Systems featuring these chips will be available starting this month, with broader rollouts continuing into Q1 2025.

The interesting side of CES

To finish off, let’s explore other interesting (or outright crazy) products presented at CES 2025.

In the "interesting" category, we often find products that take ordinary, unexpected items and attempt to upgrade them with technology—such as this electronic spoon that enhances salty and umami taste. And speaking of things you wouldn’t expect to get an “AI upgrade,” how about an AI-powered smart spice dispenser? Or this AI-powered, sensor-packed crib that monitors nearly everything an anxious parent might worry about.

Less crazy but still interesting is Saros Z70—a new robot vacuum cleaner equipped with an arm to pick up items from the floor. Later in this issue of Sync, in the Robotics section, I have included an article exploring this and other innovative new robot vacuum cleaners.

On the cute side, Nékojita FuFu from Yukai Engineering is an adorable mini robot that cools down hot drinks and food by blowing on them so you don’t have to. The Tokyo-based firm says the robot combines a fan and a “special algorithm”—or a “Fu-ing System” — to blow at random strengths and intervals, like a person.

If you prefer something at the intersection of cute and creepy, you might be interested in Mirumi, also from Yukai Engineering. Mirumi is a tiny furry robot that can attach to your wrist or bag, and simply twists its head. “Designed to re-create people’s joyful experiences of noticing a human baby as he/she tries to interact with them, Mirumi moves its head in several different ways to express its curiosity, bashfulness, and other baby-like qualities and emotions,” writes Yukai Engineering.

CES is a massive show, and it is impossible to highlight every interesting product presented this year in Las Vegas. Apart from the products I have highlighted, there were also new self-driving cars, EVs, personal passenger drones, smart glasses, exoskeletons, the latest and greatest TVs, and much more.

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🦾 More than a human

Electronic tattoo decodes brainwaves
Researchers have developed a new conductive ink that can be printed directly onto a patient’s head to measure brainwaves. Unlike traditional methods requiring bulky caps, wires, and time-intensive setup, this new approach uses an algorithm that uses a map of the patient’s head to design customised sensors, and a robot printer to apply the ink without touching the patient. While currently effective only on short-haired patients, the system offers a low-profile, user-friendly design that enables longer and more mobile EEG recordings.

German Bionic’s new exoskeleton supports 80-pound lifts, revealed at CES 2025
At CES 2025, German Bionic unveiled the Apogee Ultra—the "world’s most powerful" robotic exoskeleton, as the company describes it. Designed for labour-intensive jobs such as baggage handling, construction, and nursing, the system provides up to 80 pounds (about 36 kg) of dynamic lift assistance. To illustrate, a person wearing the exoskeleton would perceive the weight of a 70-pound (about 32 kg) payload as just 9–11 pounds (about 4–5 kg). This significantly reduces strain on the lower back while improving efficiency for workers who frequently lift or walk long distances. Although Apogee Ultra is available for purchase, the pricing details were not disclosed.

My Experience Biohacking
In this post, Declan Chidlow shares his experience of having a magnet implanted in his hand. The post describes the entire process, from the idea's origin to the research and implantation, as well as his experiences of living with a magnet inside his hand.

🧠 Artificial Intelligence

Sam Altman on ChatGPT’s First Two Years, Elon Musk and AI Under Trump
In this in-depth interview, Sam Altman discusses the origins of OpenAI, the company’s early years, and how it has evolved since the launch of ChatGPT. He reflects on the dramatic rise of ChatGPT and OpenAI’s transformative journey since the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022. Altman also discusses OpenAI’s founding principles, its evolution from an AGI-focused nonprofit to a for-profit entity with global influence, and the challenges accompanying its rapid growth. Additionally, Altman was asked about his relationships with figures like Elon Musk, the role of AI in governance, and his optimistic yet pragmatic outlook on AI’s future.

Reflections
In this post, Sam Altman reflects on OpenAI’s journey since the launch of ChatGPT, transforming from a quiet research lab into one of the most valuable and transformative startups in the world. He shares lessons learned through the challenging transition from a pure research lab to a product-focused company and looks ahead to a future where superintelligence significantly enhances abundance and prosperity.

Meta is killing off its own AI-powered Instagram and Facebook profiles
Meta has removed its AI-powered Facebook and Instagram profiles after renewed scrutiny and controversy following viral user interactions. These profiles, introduced in 2023, responded to messages and posted AI-generated content but faced backlash for controversial responses and a bug preventing users from blocking them. Meta clarified that these accounts were part of an experiment and removed them to address the issue. While Meta users can still create custom AI chatbots, concerns persist about moderation, legal responsibility for chatbot behaviour, and ethical implications, especially as the company plans to expand AI characters on its platforms.

OpenAI is losing money on its pricey ChatGPT Pro plan, CEO Sam Altman says
People are using the $200-per-month ChatGPT Pro plan so much that OpenAI is losing money on it, Sam Altman revealed. “I personally chose the price,” Altman wrote in a series of posts on X, “and thought we would make some money.” The ChatGPT Pro plan provides access to an upgraded version of OpenAI’s o1 reasoning model, o1 Pro mode, and removes rate limits on several of the company’s other tools, including its Sora video generator.

Anthropic reportedly in talks to raise $2B at $60B valuation
Anthropic is in talks to raise $2 billion in a funding round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, according to The Wall Street Journal. If successful, this would value Anthropic at $60 billion, making it the fifth most valuable US startup, after SpaceX, OpenAI, Stripe, and Databricks.

FACTS Grounding: A new benchmark for evaluating the factuality of large language models
DeepMind introduces FACTS Grounding—a benchmark and online leaderboard designed to evaluate how accurately large language models (LLMs) ground their responses in provided source material and avoid hallucinations. Responses generated by LLMs are automatically judged by three frontier models—Gemini 1.5 Pro, GPT-4o, and Claude 3.5 Sonnet—based on their factual accuracy and adherence to the source material. The scores are then aggregated to ensure fairness and minimise bias. Currently, an experimental version of Google Gemini 2.0 Flash holds the top spot in this benchmark.

Microsoft expects to spend $80 billion on AI-enabled data centers in fiscal 2025
Microsoft is planning to invest $80 billion in data centres to support AI workloads, with half of that spending allocated to the US. This substantial investment aligns with the company’s focus on AI-driven growth—Azure and other cloud services reported a 33% revenue increase in the fiscal first quarter, with AI services contributing 12 percentage points to this growth.

▶️ The Gigawatt Gamble: The Economics for Global AI Inference Deployment with Positron AI (23:46)

I highly recommend watching this talk in which Thomas Sohmers argues that the next industrial revolution, powered by AI, will be different from previous ones because AI introduces a new paradigm where labour is scaled exponentially. With this in mind, Sohmers argues that, unlike past tech booms, massive investments in AI infrastructure are not speculative but justified by the immediate and tangible demand for AI applications which will only grow.

Getting LLMs to Generate Funny Memes is Unexpectedly Hard
How hard could it be to create a site that uses large language models to generate memes roasting GitHub repos? Not as easy as it sounds, as depicted in this post documents the process of making a code-roasting AI memelord.

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🤖 Robotics

Apptronik’s Apollo humanoid robot gets to work at CES 2025
There were many humanoid robots present at this year’s CES. One of them was Apptronik’s Apollo and this post describes the experience of meeting the robot in person and the impression it left.

Boston Dynamics settles patent suit with military robotics firm Ghost
After two and a half years, Boston Dynamics and Ghost Robotics have resolved their dispute over the alleged infringement of a Boston Dynamics patent related to legged robots. “We are pleased to resolve this dispute on mutually advantageous terms,” said Boston Dynamics Chief Legal Officer Jason Fiorillo. “We look forward to collaborating on common ground issues where our two companies might work together in the future to advance the state of robotics in the United States and around the world.”

Robot Vacuums Are Now the Tiny Butlers of Your Dreams
Robot vacuum cleaners have gone a long way since the very first of them entered our homes. They can make maps of our houses to better navigate around them. They can empty themselves and recharge themselves. And now, the next evolution in their design and capabilities may be just around the corner. This article highlights a new robot vacuum cleaner equipped with an arm to pick things up, but innovation in this space doesn’t stop there—Samsung’s latest robot vacuum can detect intruders, and soon, these robots will be able to climb stairs, in order to make them even more useful as robotic butlers to keep our homes clean.

🧬 Biotechnology

Meet the Anthrobots: a new living entity with much to teach us
Dr Michael Levin presents Anthrobots—biobots made from unmodified human cells, such as lung epithelial cells, which are capable of novel behaviours and interactions with other tissues. Anthrobots can self-assemble and exhibit coordinated, autonomous behaviours. They can heal gaps in neural tissue by promoting neuron growth across defects. These biobots do not exponentially reproduce, are biodegradable, and maintain a safety profile due to their unmodified genome. Dr Levin sees potential applications of Anthrobots in regenerative medicine, including wound healing, plaque clearance, and repairing spinal cord or retinal damage. They could also be valuable tools for studying diverse intelligence, basal cognition, and morphogenesis.

Top 25 Biotech Companies Heading Into 2025
This post not only lists the top 25 public biotechnology companies but also provides a brief analysis of the biotech market. According to this post, the total market cap of the top 25 biotech companies reached $1.909 trillion, up 11.6% over the combined $1.711 trillion of the market caps of the list for 2024. 21 of this year’s top 25 biotechs recorded year-over-year gains in market cap, with 15 of those gainers enjoying at least double-digit gains, signalling a strong recovery and a bullish market for biotech in 2025.

💡Tangents

▶️ Self-Repairing Machines (31:38)

In this video, Isaac Arthur explores the concept of self-repairing machines and how advances in robotics, materials science, and AI are transforming this science-fiction idea into reality. He highlights the potential benefits of self-repairing systems, including reduced maintenance costs, increased efficiency, and improved sustainability across industries such as construction, aerospace, and electronics. The discussion also addresses challenges and the transformative impact these technologies could have on industries and future endeavours like space exploration.

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