|
January 2, 2026, 7:15 AM
|
Mediagazer
memeorandum
WeSmirchTop News
| Stephanie Palazzolo / The Information: |
Sources: OpenAI is taking steps to improve its audio AI models, in preparation for its AI-powered personal device, which is expected to be largely audio-based — OpenAI is taking steps to improve its audio AI models, in preparation for its eventual release of an AI-powered personal device, said a person with knowledge of the effort.
More: TechCrunch, Tech in Asia, Benzinga, SiliconANGLE, Digit, Implicator.ai, and The Decoder
X: @zhihuipikachu, @gregkamradt, @keytryer, @mark_k, @andrewcurran_, @jukan05, @beffjezos, @jukan05, @kimmonismus, @steph_palazzolo, @kylebrussell, and @btibor91
Bluesky: @druce.ai and @carnage4life
Forums: r/singularity and r/OpenAI
| Rishabh Jaiswal / Reuters: |
SpaceX plans to lower its Starlink satellites from orbiting at ~550km to ~480km in 2026 to improve space safety and reduce the likelihood of debris collisions — Starlink will begin a reconfiguration of its satellite constellation by lowering all of its satellites orbiting at around 550 km …
More: Business Insider, The Verge, Computerworld, Interesting Engineering, Digit, Moneycontrol, Tech in Asia, Channels Television, Analytics India Magazine, Neowin, Nairametrics, Engadget, and Hürriyet Daily News
X: @michaelnicollsx, @wagamemnonglenn, @marcushouse, @philipjohnston, @bassonbrain, @iniallanderson, @justin_je_mabie, @teslatino, @yrouel86, @blaze_r935, and @seattle_rt. Bluesky: @fack
Mastodon: @jknodlseder@mastodon.social and @hannorein@mastodon.social
| Vincent Chow / South China Morning Post: |
DeepSeek researchers detail mHC, a new architecture they used to train 3B, 9B, and 27B models, finding it scaled without adding significant computational burden — DeepSeek has published a technical paper co-authored by founder Liang Wenfeng proposing a rethink of its core deep learning architecture
More: arXiv.org, Computerworld, The Economic Times, Business Insider, Implicator.ai, SiliconANGLE, Blockonomi, and Pandaily
| Philosopher Count: |
How AI automation can fulfill Thomas Piketty's predictions on rising economic inequality, and why highly progressive taxes on capital can help slow the spiral — Piketty was wrong about the past. He's probably right about the future. — 1. Introduction
X: @elocinationn, @erikbryn, @saikatc, @pawtrammell, @tszzl, @garrytan, @besttrousers, @harryh, @dwarkesh_sp, @pawtrammell, @jankulveit, @yonashav, @stevehou, @jackwiseman_, @deepdishenjoyer, @t_holden, @alltheyud, @garrytan, @daniel_271828, @krishnanrohit, @briancalbrecht, @briancalbrecht, @digeconlab, @jsevillamol, @daveg, @mylesudland, @ks_kulk, @robinhanson, @mortenstostad, @alltheyud, @garrytan, @drydenwtbrown, @dwarkesh_sp, @dwarkesh_sp, and @dwarkesh_sp. LinkedIn: Viktor Shvets
| C.J. Chivers / New York Times: |
Ukraine has become a live-fire test range for AI drones like the Bumblebee, provided by a secretive Eric Schmidt-led venture, raising alarms in Kremlin circles — As the war grinds on, sophisticated Russian defenses have pushed Ukraine to develop a frightening new weapon: semiautonomous killing machines.| Rachel Clun / BBC: |
UK crypto buyers are required to share their account details with tax officials starting January 1 or face penalties, as the UK seeks to collect unpaid taxes — People buying cryptocurrency in the UK now need to share their account details or face penalties, in changes that came into effect on 1 January.| Sneha Kumar / Reuters: |
Baidu says its AI chip unit Kunlunxin has confidentially filed for a Hong Kong IPO, aiming for a spin-off; a December fundraising reportedly valued it at ~$3B — Chinese internet search giant Baidu (9888.HK) said on Friday its AI chip unit Kunlunxin has confidentially filed a listing application … | Meghan Bobrowsky / Wall Street Journal: |
How Meta's Reels became a hit, with a $50B+ annual run rate; Sensor Tower: users spend 27 minutes/day on Instagram Reels, 21 on YouTube Shorts, and 44 on TikTok — Once a TikTok wannabe, Instagram's video feature is now a hit with users and advertisers. Can it make the leap to television?| Bloomberg: |
Chinese AI chip startup Biren surged as much as 119% in its Hong Kong debut, after raising ~$717M in an IPO priced at ~$2.52 per share — Shares of Shanghai Biren Technology Co. surged nearly 119% in their trading debut, on track for the best first-day performance since 2021 among Hong Kong listings that raised at least $700 million.
More: Fortune, Reuters, Nikkei Asia, South China Morning Post, Reuters, The Information, and SiliconANGLE
| Kieran Smith / Financial Times: |
How Nokia has reinvented itself for the AI revolution by expanding into cloud services, data centers, and optical networks, and by partnering with Nvidia — Finnish company that brought the world the 3310 has reinvented itself for the AI revolution — Few digital sounds have burrowed into the human brain like the Nokia ringtone.
More: COINOTAG. LinkedIn: Gennaro Cuofano, Dr Marko Sjoblom, and Robert Byggmästar. Bluesky: @robertscotthorton
| Nikkei Asia: |
How Arizona is training talent for its growing chip industry as suppliers fear tighter US immigration policy; Arizona has drawn $200B+ in investments since 2020 — PHOENIX, Arizona — On a late afternoon in autumn at Mesa Community College, a diverse group had gathered for their “Quick Start” …
Bluesky: @whortana
| Financial Times: |
A look at the rise of AI companionship apps; a researcher found 206 on Apple's App Store and 253 on Google Play, with a total of 220M+ downloads as of July 2025 — The technology is changing the way many people meet and form relationships but some experts believe it may do more harm than good| Miles Kruppa / The Information: |
Brookfield is starting cloud company Radiant and a new $10B AI fund, after saying it plans to acquire up to $100B in land, data centers, and power assets for AI — Private-equity firm Brookfield is starting its own cloud business, going up against tech giants like Amazon by arguing it can bring down the costs of developing AI.
More: SiliconANGLE, Yahoo Finance, and Reuters
| Angel Au-Yeung / Wall Street Journal: |
Startups have started to offer free nicotine pouches as a perk, as some employees claim the products help them focus during the workday, despite health hazards — A nicotine replacement for smokers has started popping up in offices in the tech industry, despite health hazardsSponsor Posts
Subquadratic:
SubQ Snap 1.1: the first long-context decision model for real enterprise work — Tied for #1 on the AA Decision Index, Snap is a multimodal model with a 384k-token context window for fast reasoning and agentic decisions.
SubQ Snap 1.1: the first long-context decision model for real enterprise work — Tied for #1 on the AA Decision Index, Snap is a multimodal model with a 384k-token context window for fast reasoning and agentic decisions.
Command Line:
GitHub Universe 2026: Highlights from the developer's developer conference — Copilot Fusion was the belle of the ball, but the hero at the heart of the two-day event was the developer community.
GitHub Universe 2026: Highlights from the developer's developer conference — Copilot Fusion was the belle of the ball, but the hero at the heart of the two-day event was the developer community.
Zoho:
3 smarter updates for your staffing pipeline — Staffing recruiters manage multiple client requirements, large candidate databases, and tight submission deadlines. Finding suitable candidates is only the first step.
3 smarter updates for your staffing pipeline — Staffing recruiters manage multiple client requirements, large candidate databases, and tight submission deadlines. Finding suitable candidates is only the first step.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data — Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data — Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.Featured Podcasts
Big Technology Podcast:
Big Tech's Ugly Week, Getting Rich At Anthropic, AI Costs Plunge
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Machine Gods:
OpenAI's Latest Discoveries Spark a Backlash + Help! My Kid Hates AI
The official podcast of the singularity, from Casey Newton and Kevin Roose. Twice-weekly news, analysis, and interviews with the people who are building the future.
Subscribe to Machine Gods.
The Upstarts Podcast:
The Accidental YC Founder Solving AI's GPU Crisis | SF Compute's Evan Conrad
Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad sits down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more.
Subscribe to The Upstarts Podcast.
Cheeky Pint:
Why Sam Altman is against a single superintelligence
Stripe cofounder John Collison interviews founders, builders, and leaders over a pint.
Subscribe to Cheeky Pint.
Great Chat:
The case for AI optimism
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Sources:
Tobi Lütke on the AI agent revolution and future of Shopify
Candid conversations with the leaders shaping what's next in AI and the broader tech industry. Hosted by Alex Heath, who has covered Silicon Valley for more than a decade.
Subscribe to Sources.
About This Page
This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 7:15 AM ET, January 2, 2026.
The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.
From Mediagazer
Reuters:Gavin Blair / The Hollywood Reporter:
Selome Hailu / Variety:
Upcoming Tech Events
More News
| Adi Robertson / The Verge: |
| Song Jung-a / Financial Times: |
More: The Irish Times, iPhone in Canada, and Fortune
Earlier Picks
| Iris Deng / South China Morning Post: |
More: The Decoder, SiliconANGLE, DealStreetAsia, and Caixin Global
X: @poezhao0605, @rohanpaul_ai, @zephyr_z9, @macastel3, and @sino_market
| Simon Willison / Simon Willison's Weblog: |
More: Ben Werdmuller and Don't Worry About the Vase
Bluesky: @daniloc.xyz, @carnage4life, @mikehadlow.com, and @jeremymorrell.dev. Mastodon: @Khrys@mamot.fr
Forums: Hacker News and Lobsters
| Michael Acton / Financial Times: |
| Karissa Bell / Engadget: |
More: On my Om, The Hindu, Mashable, Business Today, Social Media Today, The Verge, Ben Werdmuller, Implicator.ai, Moneycontrol, HotHardware, KnowTechie, The Economic Times, Livemint, NDTV Profit, Business Insider, The Decoder, Digit, and The Verge
Bluesky: @ykomska, @thatoldbear, @mattschrader, @joeuchill, @karissabe, @iansociologo, @brocktoon, @blackamazon, @bwjones, @benmffowler, @sarkastiklover, @chronotope.aramzs.xyz, @mathewolson.com, @danhon.com, @voidfemme, @highway62, @violetsalazar, @thetrudz.photo, @hypervisible.blacksky.app, and @jrosenbaum.com.au