Before diving into today’s email, I filmed a quick video last week breaking down Notebook LM. They’re a killer new platform built off of Google’s Gemini product. Feel free to check it out below:

Click here to check it out now.

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Today’s Menu

• UC Berkeley’s $450 AI Model Challenges OpenAI

• Bitcoin Rebounds to $95K—Is a Bigger Move Coming?

Markets

TODAY IN AI

UC Berkeley’s $450 AI Model Challenges OpenAI

UC Berkeley’s NovaSky team just dropped Sky-T1-32B-Preview, a fully open-source reasoning model that competes with OpenAI’s o1—all for a mere $450 in training costs.

Here’s what makes Sky-T1 remarkable:

• Built from Alibaba’s Qwen2.5-32-Instruct, it was trained using open-source data from QwQ-32B-Preview.

• Training took just 19 hours on 8 H100 GPUs, highlighting efficiency that slashes the typical budget for AI development.

• It matches or outperforms earlier o1 versions on key benchmarks, excelling in math and coding tasks.

• Completely Open-Source Pipeline: From training data to model weights, everything is freely available.

Why it matters: Sky-T1 demonstrates how cutting-edge reasoning models can be developed on a shoestring budget, democratizing AI research. This breakthrough could ignite a new era of innovation from smaller labs that were once priced out of the game.

OpenAI’s moat isn’t shrinking—it’s being dismantled by brilliant, scrappy minds.

^{Today In Crypto}

Bitcoin Rebounds to $95K—Is a Bigger Move Coming?

Bitcoin is back near $95K, finding stability as bargain hunters stepped in at the $90K-$93K support zone—a level that’s held firm at least six times since November. The next big test? Friday’s U.S. nonfarm payrolls report, which could spark volatility depending on job growth and wage data. Analysts expect 164,000 jobs added in December and a steady 4.2% unemployment rate, with cooling wage growth at 0.3% month-on-month.

Meanwhile, altcoin sentiment is deeply bearish, but analytics firm Santiment sees potential upside for contrarian traders. Memecoin DOGE has lost 28% in market cap over the past month, and crowd sentiment is at a yearly low. Futures markets hit record open interest earlier this week before tapering, hinting at a potential reversal if broader crypto momentum picks up.

On the mining front, U.S.-listed miners now account for 25.3% of global BTC mining, per Jefferies. Mining profitability rose 7.1% in December as BTC prices outpaced hashrate growth. MARA Holdings led the pack, mining 890 BTC, followed by CleanSpark at 668 BTC.

With macro pressures looming and sentiment swinging, this bounce could be short-lived—or the setup for a broader rally.

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Thanks for reading!

Until next time,

Damon James