Anthropic Reaches $61.5B Valuation, SEC Says Meme Coins Are Not Securities, and Early Universe May Have Had Water

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In this episode of 'Discover Daily', we explore groundbreaking developments in AI, cryptocurrency regulation, and early universe water formation. AI startup Anthropic has reached a staggering $61.5 billion valuation after closing a $3.5 billion funding round, showcasing impressive growth with an annual recurring revenue of $800 million. The company's latest AI model, Claude 3.7 Sonnet, introduces innovative 'hybrid reasoning' capabilities, pushing the boundaries of artificial intelligence.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has made a landmark decision, declaring that meme coins generally do not constitute securities under federal law. This significant shift in cryptocurrency regulation has far-reaching implications for the industry, though it comes with important caveats and has sparked debate among regulators.

Our main story delves into a revolutionary study published in Nature Astronomy, suggesting that water may have first formed in the universe just 100 to 200 million years after the Big Bang. This discovery challenges our understanding of cosmic evolution and implies that conditions for life may have existed far earlier than previously thought. The research opens up exciting new avenues for investigating the potential for early habitable environments and the emergence of life in the universe.

From Perplexity's Discover Feed:

https://www.perplexity.ai/page/anthropic-reaches-61-5b-valuat-goxeBd89TI6.SXIGLTUGUQ 

https://www.perplexity.ai/page/sec-says-meme-coins-are-not-se-yn4ZON0XRmyFivwgjKtRuQ

https://www.perplexity.ai/page/early-universe-may-have-had-wa-fUgTawHmSWGvtriYXLndsA

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https://www.perplexity.ai/hub/blog/introducing-perplexity-deep-research 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Discover Daily, by Perplexity, your
AI-curated digest ofbreakthroughs in tech, science
and culture.
I'm Sienna.
Today we're exploring how watermay have existed in the early
universe, potentially changingour understanding of cosmic
evolution.
But first let's look at whatelse is happening.
Anthropic has reached astaggering $61.5 billion

(00:28):
valuation after closing a $3.5billion funding round led by
Lightspeed Venture Partners.
This represents more than athreefold increase from its
previous $18 billion valuationjust last year.
The funding round attracted adiverse group of high-profile
investors, including SalesforceVentures, cisco Investments,
fidelity Management and ResearchCompany and others.

(00:49):
Amazon remains a majorsupporter, having previously
committed $4 billion to thecompany.
Anthropic plans to use thefunds for global expansion,
particularly in Asia and Europe,and to deepen its research in
areas like mechanisticinterpretability and alignment.
And to deepen its research inareas like mechanistic
interpretability and alignment.
Anthropic's latest AI model,claude 3.7 Sonnet, introduces

(01:09):
hybrid reasoning capabilities,allowing users to choose between
quick responses and in-depthstep-by-step thinking.
The model excels in coding,instruction following and
multimodal understanding.
Its predecessor, claude 3.5Sonnet, offers advanced features
like content recommendationsand automatic summarization,

(01:31):
while outperforming competitorsin various benchmarks.
Moving on to the world ofcryptocurrency, the US
Securities and ExchangeCommission has issued a landmark
statement declaring that memecoins generally do not
constitute securities underfederal law.
This marks a significant shiftin cryptocurrency regulation.

(01:52):
The SEC's Division ofCorporation Finance defined meme
coins as cryptoassets inspiredby internet memes, characters,
current events or trends, aimedat attracting enthusiastic
online communities forpurchasing and trading.
Key characteristics includebeing primarily purchased for
entertainment and socialinteraction, having limited

(02:12):
functionality and exhibitingsignificant market price
volatility.
As a result of thisdetermination, individuals
involved in offering or sellingmeme coins are not required to
register their transactionsunder the Securities Act of 1933
.
But the SEC included severalimportant caveats.
The guidance does not apply toproducts labeled as meme coins

(02:34):
that attempt to evade securitieslaws, and fraudulent conduct
related to meme coins may stillbe subject to enforcement or
prosecution under different laws.
In response, sec CommissionerCarolyn Crenshaw issued a
dissenting statement expressingconcerns about the regulatory
implications of this decision.
She argued that meme coinscould potentially meet the

(02:55):
criteria for securities underthe Howey Test, a legal
framework established by theSupreme Court to determine if a
transaction qualifies as aninvestment contract, and warned
that the SEC's current stancecould create a regulatory
loophole.

(03:19):
Now let's dive into our mainstory of the day.
A new study published in NatureAstronomy suggests that water
may have first formed in theuniverse just 100 to 200 million
years after the Big Bang.
This challenges ourunderstanding of cosmic
evolution and suggests thatconditions for life may have
existed far earlier thanpreviously thought.
And suggests that conditionsfor life may have existed far

(03:39):
earlier than previously thought.
According to the study, thefirst water in the universe
likely formed during theexplosions of the earliest most
massive stars, known asPopulation III stars.
These cosmic events occurredwhen the universe was only about
5% of its current age, a timeso distant that the light from
those regions is significantlyredshifted as it reaches us.

(04:00):
These primordial supernovaewere crucial nucleosynthetic
engines forging heavy elementslike oxygen that were essential
for water formation.
While the overall amount ofwater produced was modest, it
became highly concentrated indense molecular cloud cores.
This discovery has implicationsfor the formation of habitable
worlds and the potential forlife much earlier in cosmic

(04:21):
history.
Recent simulations suggest thatplanetesimals, the building
blocks of terrestrial planets,could have formed around
low-mass stars in the debris ofthe first cosmic explosions just
200 million years after the BigBang.
These early planet-formingbodies orbited their stars at
distances similar to Earth'sorbit around the Sun, with
temperatures that couldpotentially support liquid water

(04:42):
, placing them in the Goldilockszone, where life as we know it
could potentially exist.
They contained water massfractions only a few times less
than those found in our solarsystem today.
This indicates that habitableworlds may have emerged among
the first generation of stars,even before the formation of the
first galaxies.
The presence of water-richenvironments so early in cosmic

(05:04):
history expands ourunderstanding of when and where
life could potentially haveoriginated in the universe,
pushing back the timeline forpossible habitable conditions by
billions of years.
The study employed advancednumerical simulations to model
two types of primordialsupernovae a core collapse
supernova from a star 13 timesthe mass of the sun, and a pair

(05:27):
instability supernova from astar 200 times the mass of the
sun.
These simulations demonstratedthat as supernova ejecta
expanded and cooled, oxygenreacted with hydrogen to form
water vapor in the growingdebris halos.
Scientists are now looking atdeveloping methods to detect
water signatures from the earlyuniverse, potentially using

(05:48):
next-generation telescopes likethe Atacama Large Millimeter
Array or the Square KilometerArray.
They're also exploring howearly water formation influenced
the chemical and structuraldevelopment of the first
galaxies and examining thepotential for early habitable
environments and theirimplications for the emergence

(06:08):
of life in the universe.
That's all for today's DiscoverDaily.
Before we conclude, some newsfrom Perplexity.
Our new deep research feature,launched earlier this month, now
analyzes hundreds of sources inminutes.

(06:29):
Think of it as deploying apersonal research team through
our web and mobile platforms.
This cutting-edge tool combinesautonomous reasoning with rapid
processing to deliverexhaustive reports on
specialized topics.
Deep research excels atexpert-level tasks across
various domains, from financeand marketing to product
research, and is available onour desktop and mobile apps.

(06:50):
I'm Sienna and I'll see youtomorrow for more cutting-edge
insights from the world ofscience and technology.
Stay curious.