Ari Goldschmidt:

Pentagon Expands Grok AI Into Classified Systems Despite Rising Scrutiny Outside U.S.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Monday that the Pentagon will begin integrating Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence chatbot, Grok, into U.S. military networks later this month. He made the announcement during remarks at SpaceX headquarters in Texas.

The move marks a major expansion of military AI use. It also arrives amid growing international scrutiny of Grok’s content controls and governance. The Pentagon plans to deploy the system across both classified and unclassified environments.

“Very soon we will have the world’s leading AI models on every unclassified and classified network throughout our department,” Hegseth said.

Hegseth also announced a new “AI acceleration strategy” at the Department of Defense. He said the plan aims to speed adoption while reducing internal friction.

The strategy will “unleash experimentation, eliminate bureaucratic barriers, focus on investments, and demonstrate the execution approach needed to ensure we lead in military AI and that it grows more dominant into the future,” Hegseth said.

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Davis Wilson:

Bitcoin Climbs Above $93K as U.S. Inflation Holds Steady

Bitcoin has reclaimed $93,000 for the first time in nearly a week, rising more than 2% in the past 24 hours.

Earlier this morning, the U.S. reported that consumer prices rose 0.3% in December. In the past year, consumer prices have risen 2.7%, according to the new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, with the rate remaining steady from the previous month.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin was changing hands for $93,406, according to crypto price aggregator CoinGecko. Volume in the past day has increased substantially, climbing 20% to $88.9 billion, according to on-chain analytics platform CoinGlass.

Users on Myriad, a prediction market platform owned by Decrypt parent company Dastan, are as optimistic as they've ever been that Bitcoin will regain $100,000. The prediction market, which was published in late November, now shows an 80% probability that BTC will keep climbing to six figures rather than fall back to $69,000.

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James Altucher:

Bitcoin After Venezuela

As Venezuela transitions, cryptocurrency could play a significant role. María Corina Machado, Venezuela's opposition leader, said Bitcoin should be part of Venezuela's national reserves. She called it a "lifeline" that some Venezuelans used to protect their wealth and to finance their escape. Bitcoin could become the new standard.

Also, with Venezuela under U.S. control, some of the nation's Bitcoin stash could soon belong to the U.S. government.

In countries with broken banking systems, crypto provides an alternative. Because this is bigger than just Venezuela. Iran and Cuba could also undergo political change soon, and citizens in both countries are turning to Bitcoin as their local currencies collapse.

Bitcoin, as the original cryptocurrency, carries a legitimacy that newer coins can't yet match. 

The anticipation of mass adoption will drive up the price enormously in the coming months. Investors who position themselves with the right investments, like Bitcoin, can create massive wealth from this transformation.

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