Inflation Rises Unexpectedly, Musk To Withdraw Bid If OpenAI Remains Nonprofit, and China Establishes Planetary Defense Force

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In today's episode of 'Discover Daily', we begin with January's unexpected inflation surge to 3% that has rattled financial markets and diminished hopes for early Fed rate cuts. The Consumer Price Index showed significant increases across multiple sectors, with egg prices jumping 15.2% in a single month due to ongoing avian flu outbreaks. These developments have triggered widespread market adjustments and raised concerns about persistent inflation pressures.

The tech world continues to watch the escalating battle between Elon Musk and OpenAI, with Musk offering to withdraw his $97.4 billion bid for OpenAI's nonprofit arm if the company halts its for-profit transition. This latest development adds another layer to the complex relationship between the Tesla CEO and the AI company he co-founded, highlighting the ongoing debate about artificial intelligence's future direction.

In our final segment, we explore China's groundbreaking entry into planetary defense with their newly announced asteroid monitoring and deflection program. Led by the National Space Science Center, this initiative includes a sophisticated dual-spacecraft mission planned for 2027, targeting asteroid 2015 XF261. The mission represents China's first attempt to alter an asteroid's trajectory using both observation and impact techniques.

From Perplexity's Discover Feed:

https://www.perplexity.ai/page/inflation-rises-unexpectedly-Cd_AyeSHSLahWzYkxxAZeg 

https://www.perplexity.ai/page/musk-to-withdraw-bid-if-openai-z5zXTCfGSMac79T.IzlL5w 

https://www.perplexity.ai/page/china-establishes-planetary-de-V8DlCMkoREiyu6AEMVOHRw

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to Discover Daily by Perplexity, an
AI-generated show on tech,science and culture.
I'm Sienna.
Today we're exploring China'snew planetary defense force a
deep dive into the country'slatest efforts to protect Earth
from cosmic threats.
But first let's look at whatelse is happening across the
economic and tech landscapes.
The economic and techlandscapes.

(00:28):
The latest Consumer Price Indexreport reveals inflation
accelerated to 3% year-over-yearin January 2025, the highest
rate since May, surpassingeconomists' forecasts of 2.9%.
Prices rose 0.5%month-over-month, marking the
steepest single-month increasesince August 2023.
Core inflation, which excludesvolatile food and energy prices,

(00:50):
climbs 0.4% monthly and 3.3%annually.
Federal Reserve Chair JeromePowell maintained the central
bank's cautious stance recently,stating policymakers don't need
to be in a hurry to cut rates.
With inflation now well abovethe 2% target, analysts predict
extended higher interest rates,slashing the likelihood of a

(01:12):
March rate cut to just 15%,according to CME Group market
data.
Market reactions were immediateS&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures
dipped, while Treasury yieldssurged.
The US dollar hit a three-monthhigh against major currencies.
Notably, egg prices soared15.2% monthly, the sharpest jump

(01:33):
since June 2015, driven byongoing avian flu outbreaks
across commercial poultry farms.
Turning to tech, elon Musk hasoffered to withdraw his $97.4
billion bid for OpenAI'snon-profit division, but only if
the chat GPT maker abandons itsplanned transition to a

(01:54):
for-profit structure.
This bombshell comes from courtfilings in Musk's ongoing
lawsuit against his former AIventure.
The conflict escalated whenOpenAI CEO, sam Altman, rejected
Musk's offer via a sarcasticex-post quote no thank you, but
we will buy Twitter for $9.74billion if you want Musk fired

(02:16):
back by labeling Altman a quoteswindler.
It's the latest salvo in alegal battle court documents
suggest could drag into 2027.
Musk co-founded OpenAI in 2015,but left three years later
after demanding majority equityand CEO control during failed
2017 talks about converting to afor-profit model.
The current lawsuit allegesOpenAI violated its original

(02:40):
mission by letting Microsoftgain influence through board
appointments, like LinkedInco-founder Reid Hoffman.
Openai's board formallyrejected Musk's bid, calling it
an attempt to disrupt their $40billion funding round with
SoftBank.
The company maintains itstransition to a limited-profit
model Backed by Microsoft's $1billion investment remains

(03:01):
essential for competing in AIdevelopment.
Now to our main story China'sambitious plan to defend Earth
from asteroid threats, announcedon February 11th.
A new team of experts willfocus on monitoring asteroids

(03:24):
and developing early warningsystems.
The most concrete aspect ofChina's planetary defense is
their upcoming asteroiddeflection mission, which has
been delayed from 2025 to 2027.
The mission's new target isAsteroid 2015 XF261, a
30-meter-wide space rock.
What makes this mission specialis its dual spacecraft approach

(03:48):
.
A single Long March 3B rocketwill deploy both an observer
spacecraft and an impactor.
The observer will spend threeto six months mapping the
asteroid structure, followed bya high-speed kinetic impact to
alter its path.
Post-impact observations willcontinue for up to 12 months to
evaluate the deflection'seffectiveness.

(04:08):
A 30-meter asteroid like 2015XF261 might seem small compared
to other larger asteroids, butthe physics of space travel make
this mission significant.
Even a tiny deflection of just3 to 5 centimeters early in an
asteroid's journey can alter itspath by more than 1,000
kilometers after three months.

(04:31):
China isn't waiting idly untillaunch day.
They've already activated theNorthern Hemisphere's largest
time domain survey facility, the2.5-meter Wide Field Survey
Telescope.
This observatory joins forceswith two other powerful
telescopes in trackingnear-Earth objects.
Even more ambitious is theCompound Eye, a network of 25

(04:52):
radar antennas set to beginoperations next year.
This system will strengthen ourability to assess potential
cosmic threats, bouncing signalsoff space objects to determine
their risk to Earth.
Looking ahead, china's roadmapis remarkably comprehensive.
They aim to catalog 90 ofnear-Earth asteroids larger than

(05:12):
140 meters by 2035.
Even more ambitious are theirplans for a constellation of six
satellites in Venus-adjacentorbits, designed to serve as an
early warning system forincoming threats.
As a member of theInternational Asteroid Warning
Network since 2018, china sharesdata and coordinates with

(05:33):
observatories worldwide,including those in the US, chile
and Australia.
The mission also builds uponNASA's successful DART test,

(06:06):
adding to humanity's growingarsenal of asteroid defense
capabilities.
Thank you on the go, with themobile app available for both
Android and iOS.
There's also the Perplexitydesktop app for macOS.
In other Perplexity news, thecompany has launched Sonar and
Sonar Pro APIs enablingdevelopers to integrate

(06:27):
real-time AI search capabilitiesinto their applications with
unparalleled factual accuracy.
The new offering stands out forits affordability and advanced
features, including double thecitations of standard search and
the ability to customizetrusted sources, with companies
like Zoom already leveraging thetechnology to enhance their
video conferencing platform.
We'll be back with more storiesthat matter.

(06:48):
Until then, stay curious.