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December 29, 2025, 1:20 AM
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| Cheyenne MacDonald / Engadget: |
Sam Altman says OpenAI is seeking a new Head of Preparedness, noting “the potential impact of models on mental health was something we saw a preview of in 2025” — CEO Sam Altman posted about the role on X, saying the models ‘are starting to present some real challenges.’
More: OpenAI, Digit, PYMNTS.com, Moneycontrol, The Verge, TechCrunch, Business Insider, Mashable, SiliconANGLE, PCMag, Benzinga, Livemint, The Decoder, and Blockchain.News
X: @sama, @deredleritt3r, @deredleritt3r, and @kimmonismus
Bluesky: @newmexter, @theunixman.com, @iramjohn, @stevepittelli, @danmitchell, @carnage4life, @goreckis.co, and @skynetandchill.com. Forums: Slashdot
| Patrick Oster / Bloomberg: |
Lou Gerstner, a former IBM CEO and chairman credited with turning the company around, died at 83; IBM's market value rose from $29B to ~$168B during his tenure — Louis Gerstner, who took over International Business Machines Corp. when it was on its deathbed and resuscitated it as a technology industry leader, died Saturday.
More: IBM, Reuters, The Register, SiliconANGLE, Tom's Hardware, Business Insider, and The Guardian
X: @lisasu and @robdthomas
LinkedIn: Eron S., Dave McDonnell, Prasanna M Sridhara, and Peter Nilsson. Bluesky: @harrymccracken.com. Forums: Hacker News
| Lawrence Abrams / BleepingComputer: |
Ubisoft reopens Rainbow Six Siege after shutting down the server amid a breach exploiting the game's internal systems, and says the Marketplace remains closed — Ubisoft's Rainbow Six Siege (R6) suffered a breach that allowed hackers to abuse internal systems to ban and unban players …
More: Dexerto, Cointelegraph, SiliconANGLE, Gizmodo, KitGuru, Tom's Hardware, Tom's Guide, Destructoid, Comic Book, TheGamer, Engadget, CyberInsider, The Verge, Cyber Security News, Notebookcheck, Android Headlines, Neowin, and iPhone in Canada
Forums: r/RainbowSixSiege, r/RainbowSixSiege, and r/technews
| Dan Primack / Axios: |
Sources: ~90% of Groq employees will join Nvidia and be paid cash for all vested shares; most shareholders will get per-share payouts tied to the $20B valuation — Shareholders in Groq, a hot AI chipmaking startup, will receive handsome payouts from the company's $20 billion deal with Nvidia …
More: The Information, The Decoder, Robotics News, TechSpot, and Pulse 2.0
X: @joshconstine, @nathanbenaich, @peterj_walker, @wmf, @sperand_io, @danprimack, @jfischoff, @villi, @joshconstine, and @danprimack. Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.to. Forums: Hacker News
| Stephanie Stacey / Financial Times: |
Global hotel groups are intensifying efforts to get customers to book directly, as they seek to save on online platform commissions and prepare for AI agents — Companies including Marriott and Hilton push to improve perks and get more direct bookings — Major hotel groups are intensifying efforts … | Noam Scheiber / New York Times: |
How tech worker activism has grown more cautious as companies crack down and once-privileged workers realize they don't have much leverage — They increasingly see themselves as rank-and-file workers who have traditional gripes with their companies. — Five weeks into a strike …
More: Times of India. X: @noamscheiber. Bluesky: @opeiu.org, @veenadubal, and @tnewmsblues
Mastodon: @demarko@xoxo.zone, @mason@partychickens.net, and @annmlipton@esq.social
| Washington Post: |
ChatGPT told a teen who died by suicide to call for help 74 times over months but also used words like “hanging” and “suicide” very often, say family's lawyers — Help Nitasha Tiku report on mental health and AI by contacting her securely on Signal at nitasha.10.
More: The Decoder and Moneycontrol
X: @washingtonpost. Bluesky: @xaxxon, @jordanscarroll, @snig, @solomonmissouri, @hmdob, and @justinhendrix
| Cecilia Kang / New York Times: |
Big Tech got almost everything it wanted from President Trump, as he backs policies that allow the industry to grow unfettered, worrying some conservatives — Before President Trump returned to the White House in January, the titans of the tech industry went all out to win …
Forums: r/technology and r/politics
| Lydia Wheeler / Wall Street Journal: |
Sources and a memo: the US DOJ is using a novel reading of a federal anti-fraud law to probe contractors, including Google and Verizon, over their DEI programs — Google and Verizon among those being investigated under novel interpretation of law applying to government contractors| Bloomberg: |
China's draft rules on the use of human-like AI would require companies to inform users they are dealing with AI when they log on and at two-hour intervals — China plans to tighten rules around the use of human-like artificial intelligence by requiring providers to ensure their services are ethical, secure and transparent.
More: The Information, Gizmodo, Reuters, The Register, DigiTimes, and Tech in Asia
LinkedIn: Georg Zoeller and Raghav Tankha
Forums: r/LocalLLaMA and r/singularity
| Sean McLain / Wall Street Journal: |
How executives at humanoid robot startups like Agility Robotics and Weave Robotics are managing safety risks and tempering expectations for the technology — Despite billions in investment, startups say their androids mostly aren't useful for industrial or domestic work yet| Martha Muir / Financial Times: |
US data center developers, facing grid access wait times of up to seven years, are turning to aeroderivative turbines and diesel generators to power the AI boom — Supply chain shortages drive developers to use smaller and less efficient power sources to fuel AI power demand
More: Robotics News. LinkedIn: Mukund Mohan, Prateek Alkesh, and Adil Mohammad
Bluesky: @heidykhlaaf, @real-me, @climatecentreuk, and @kostyack
| Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch: |
Tracxn: VC funding for Indian startups fell 17%+ YoY to $10.5B in 2025 across 1,518 deals, down ~39% YoY; AI startups raised $643M, up 4% YoY, across 100 deals — India's startup ecosystem raised nearly $11 billion in 2025, but investors wrote far fewer checks and grew more selective …
More: DigiTimes and Inc42 Media
| New York Times: |
Sources: Peter Thiel and Larry Page may leave CA over a proposed ballot measure, opposed by Newsom, that levies a one-time 5% tax on those with $1B+ in assets — It's uncertain whether the proposal will reach the statewide ballot in November, but some billionaires like Peter Thiel and Larry Page may be unwilling to take the risk.
More: Forbes, Cryptonews, Times of India, Raw Story, Fortune, Fox Business, Benzinga, RedState, ZeroHedge News, Gizmodo, The American Bazaar, The Information, twitchy.com, NewsMax.com, and NewsNation
X: @billackman, @armanddoma, @nick_field90, @ashleyschapitl, @benspielberg, @dscheinm, @sarthakgh, @colindhernandez, @rtylercrown, @jonahdispatch, @maxhodak_, @rokhanna, @amuse, @jhong, @garrytan, @garrytan, and @teddyschleifer
Bluesky: @chardr, @karlbode.com, @kellumdander, @allyearfootball, @crexpat, @authorstuartmiller, @cbdawson, @terigoodson, @elifriedman, @tinyklaus.com, @ericumansky, @paulthedogman, @vortexegg.com, and @rincewind.run
Forums: r/sanfrancisco, r/seculartalk, r/economy, r/California_Politics, r/ThielWatch, r/California, r/politics, and r/Economics
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