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December 29, 2025, 4:35 AM
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Top News

Aisha Down / The Guardian:
A Kapwing study of the 15,000 top YouTube channels finds 278 of them have only posted AI-generated “slop” videos, amassing 63B+ views and 221M+ subscribers  —  Low-quality AI-generated content is now saturating social media - and generating about $117m a year, data shows
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.’
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.
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 …
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 …
New York Times:
Sources: Peter Thiel and Larry Page may leave California over a proposed ballot measure, opposed by Gov. Newsom, that levies a one-time 5% tax on $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.
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 …
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  —  Adam Raine's life hurtled toward tragedy soon after he began talking with ChatGPT about homework last fall.
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.
Joel Khalili / Wired:
Since the GENIUS Act's passage in July, the total value of stablecoins circulating rose from ~$250B to $300B+, as they become the “respectable” face of crypto  —  In a year that began with a memecoin trading frenzy, stablecoins have emerged as the respectable face of the crypto industry.

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From Mediagazer

David Ellison / @ellisonskydance:
David Ellison announces that the combined Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery will be called Skydance “to preserve what has made each of these studios iconic”

New York Times:
Sources: Trump personally told his budget director to use taxpayer money for TV ads praising his presidency; at least four spots have run at a cost of ~$5.5M

Todd Spangler / Variety:
Disney licenses a large group of titles to Netflix, including all five Ice Age movies, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Felicity, Elio, and more

More News

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

Earlier Picks

Gavin Baker / @gavinsbaker:
As inference splits into prefill and decode, Nvidia's Groq deal could enable a “Rubin SRAM” variant optimized for ultra-low latency agentic reasoning workloads
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