• Bill Gates, in a recent Journal interview, said Elon Musk's DOGE could be "a valuable thing."
• Gates said the federal deficit will "create a financial problem" for the US if it isn't reduced.
• But the Microsoft cofounder also said it was important to retain vital programs.

Bill Gates, in a recent Wall Street Journal interview, said the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency could be a "valuable" effort, adding that it's important to reduce the size of the federal budget deficit.

"I think the idea that looking at government expenditures on a sort of zero-based budgeting approach could be a valuable thing," he told the newspaper. "I'm amongst the people who think the deficit needs to be brought down because otherwise, it will create a financial problem for us. That effort could come up with some good things."

DOGE, which recently saw the departure of businessman Vivek Ramaswamy as a co-lead, aims to tackle government inefficiencies and reduce the deficit.

After DOGE was first proposed, Musk set a goal to cut $2 trillion in spending. However, during a conversation with political strategist Mark Penn earlier in January, Musk said the $2 trillion figure was a "best-case outcome" and that the commission had a "good shot" at saving $1 trillion.

DOGE announced on Friday that it had canceled roughly $420 million worth of existing or forthcoming contracts, in addition to two leases. However, according to Business Insider's calculations, the commission would need to be far more aggressive in its spending cuts to meet any of its goals.

During Gates' interview, Journal editor in chief Emma Tucker asked the Microsoft cofounder where he'd look to find savings if he was leading DOGE.

"Well, given the numbers that they've tossed around, they'll have to look at everything, including pension, defense, healthcare," he said.

However, Gates said he had concerns about the government shutting down resources that have "long-term benefits" for citizens, specifically citing HIV.

"I obviously believe in HIV medicines, where the US is keeping tens of millions of people alive," he said. "If you cut those off, not only would they die when we have a cure on its way, but the negative feelings you'd have, say in Africa, would be worse than never having done the thing at all."

While rising to prominence in the technology sphere, Gates has also long been known for his philanthropic work through the Gates Foundation, which he cofounded in 2000 with his then-wife Melinda French Gates.

During the 2024 presidential race, Gates didn't publicly endorse Vice President Kamala Harris. But the New York Times reported in October that he privately donated $50 million to a pro-Harris super PAC. After the story was published, Gates released a statement pointing to his bipartisan background while adding that "this election is different."

In December, Gates traveled to Mar-a-Lago to dine with then-President-elect Donald Trump and recently told The Journal he was "impressed" with the president's interest in global health issues.

• DeepSeek, an open-source Chinese AI company, has riled Silicon Valley with its rapid rise.
• Meta's chief AI scientist said DeepSeek has benefited from the open-source community.
• Meta's AI program has remained open-source, while OpenAI has shifted to closed-source.

Silicon Valley was on edge this week after DeepSeek, a Chinese AI company, released its R1 model. In third-party benchmarks, it outperformed leading American AI companies like OpenAI, Meta, and Anthropic.

For Meta's chief AI scientist, Yann LeCun, the biggest takeaway from DeepSeek's success was not the heightened threat posed by Chinese competition but the value of keeping AI models open source so that anyone can benefit.

It's not that China's AI is "surpassing the US," but rather that "open source models are surpassing proprietary ones," LeCun said in a post on Threads.

DeepSeek's R1 is itself open source, as is Meta's Llama. OpenAI, which was originally founded as an open-source AI company with a mission to create technology that benefits all of humanity, has on the other hand more recently shifted to closed-source.

LeCun said DeepSeek has "profited from open research and open source."

"They came up with new ideas and built them on top of other people's work. Because their work is published and open source, everyone can profit from it," LeCun said. "That is the power of open research and open source."

When DeepSeek unveiled R1 on January 20, which it said "demonstrates remarkable reasoning capabilities," the company said it was "pushing the boundaries" of open-source AI.

The announcement took Silicon Valley by surprise and was easily the most talked-about development in the tech industry during a week that included the World Economic Forum, TikTok uncertainty, and President Donald Trump's busy first few days in office.

Days after DeepSeek's announcement, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Meta planned to spend over $60 billion in 2025 as it doubles down on AI. Zuckerberg has been an outspoken advocate of open-source models.

"Part of my goal for the next 10-15 years, the next generation of platforms, is to build the next generation of open platforms and have the open platforms win," he said in September. "I think that's going to lead to a much more vibrant tech industry."

Those who support open source say it allows technology to develop rapidly and democratically since anyone can modify and redistribute the code. On the other hand, advocates for closed-source models argue that they are more secure because the code is kept private.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the closed-source approach offers his company "an easier way to hit the safety threshold" in an AMA on Reddit last November. He added, however, that he "would like us to open source more stuff in the future."

• After dropping out of college, I worked for AmeriCorps and then became a firefighter in Washington.
• I often fight wildfires, which can be grueling; I sometimes have little food and terrible shelter.
• Although it's a difficult job, I'm glad I can help save people's lives and homes.

Last year, I fought wildfires on a fire engine with the Washington Department of Natural Resources.

I worked in the Washington Methow Valley district, and whenever there was a wildfire in that area, they sent me and my fellow firefighters out to deal with it.

While the conditions are sometimes grueling, I'm glad I could help out communities in some way.

I took this job because it's where my expertise was

I dropped out of college during the pandemic because I felt that college was not preparing me for real life or developing me into an adult.

From there, I joined AmeriCorps and worked a couple of seasons doing green-collar work. During that time, I lived out of my car, built hiking trails, and ripped out invasive trees.

It all taught me more than college ever could. On my own, I learned how to manage my finances, how to fix a chainsaw in the field, and how to sneak into a state park for a free shower.

When I learned I could make slightly more money working as a firefighter for Washington state and had the necessary skills, I decided to switch jobs and help save communities.

The job is often brutal and miserable

Firefighting requires a lot of work. For starters, there is no such thing as a work-life balance. If something is on fire, we have to be there until it's out.

Sometimes, we'll have to hike two or three miles up a mountain with five gallons of water in bags on our backs to extinguish a lightning-struck tree. Sometimes, we'll have to spend all day digging ditches in the sun to contain a fire, and then we'll have to stay there all night to keep watch.

Once, we were sent out to a fire on 10 minutes' notice and spent the next 17 days without a break chasing fast-moving brush fires. You have to be ready to go anywhere and do anything whenever it's required of you.

We sleep wherever and whenever we can. Sometimes, the state pays to put us up in hotels. Sometimes, we're in tents or on the cement floor of a rural firehouse. Often, we have to grab sleep in the back of the engine whenever we get 15 minutes of downtime — with the understanding that if someone kicks you awake, you have to be ready to go.

We eat whatever is available. Sometimes, local restaurants near the fires will cater free meals for us. In emergencies, we eat pre-packaged military rations and whatever we have squirreled away in our packs. It's grueling, and it grinds you down to the nubs.

I'm glad I get to help communities stay safe

After all my experience fighting fires, I'm now very concerned when I watch the fires in Los Angeles on the news. To me, it's clear that the fire season is becoming longer and making fires more intense. As regions across the world get hotter and drier, fires burn brighter and for longer.

Wildfires are destroying homes and livelihoods all over the country in towns you've never heard of. I just hope governments are prepared to provide housing, food, and healthcare to us firefighters.

Nevertheless, I'm glad to see so many fire crews from around the country and the world gathering to save Los Angeles. Although I haven't been brought down to Los Angeles myself, I'm still glad to be part of this brotherhood determined to save lives and homes. I wouldn't trade that for anything.

The Trump White House instructed the Pentagon to release the hold imposed by the Biden administration on the supply of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel, three Israeli officials told Axios.

Why it matters: President Biden's decision to halt the delivery of one shipment of 2,000-pound bombs last May triggered one of the biggest crises the U.S-Israel relationship has faced during the 15-month war in Gaza.

State of play: The Israeli government was notified by the Pentagon about the release on Friday, an Israeli official said.

• The officials said that 1,800 MK-84 bombs, which were held in storage in the U.S., will be put on a ship and delivered to Israel in the coming days.
• The White House didn't immediately respond to questions about the release of the bombs.

Zoom in: The hold — which Biden used to protest Israel's invasion of Rafah — became a political symbol much more than a military operational issue, and was used by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to mobilize Republicans against Biden.

• The Biden administration was concerned that Israel's use of the 2,000-pound bombs in densely populated areas of Gaza would cause significant civilian casualties.
• Netanyahu and his loyalists in Israel and the U.S. used Biden's decision to falsely claim there was a U.S. "arms embargo" on Israel.
• Biden's decision also generated significant criticism from the Jewish community in the U.S., which is mostly Democratic leaning.
• On the other hand, the hold did little to diminish progressives' criticism of Biden over his support for Israel.

What they're saying: The outgoing Israeli ambassador to the U.S. Mike Herzog told Axios a week ago that Trump was expected to release the bombs.

• "We believe that Trump is going to release, at the beginning of his term, the munitions that haven't been released until now by the Biden administration," Herzog said in an interview last Friday.