|
January 1, 2026, 8:00 PM
|
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: SiliconANGLE, TechCrunch, The Decoder, Phandroid, and Digit
X: @zhihuipikachu, @jukan05, @jukan05, @keytryer, @gregkamradt, @mark_k, @kimmonismus, @andrewcurran_, @kylebrussell, @btibor91, and @steph_palazzolo. Bluesky: @carnage4life
Forums: r/OpenAI and r/singularity
| Simon Willison / Simon Willison's Weblog: |
Some LLM takeaways for 2025: reasoning as a signature feature, coding agents were useful, subscriptions hit $200/month, and Chinese open-weight models impressed — This is the third in my annual series reviewing everything that happened in the LLM space over the past 12 months.
More: Ben Werdmuller, Ars Technica, and Don't Worry About the Vase
Bluesky: @mikehadlow.com, @carnage4life, @daniloc.xyz, and @jeremymorrell.dev. Mastodon: @Khrys@mamot.fr
Forums: Hacker News and Lobsters
| 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.
More: Fox News, Business Insider, and UPI
| Reuters: |
Elon Musk says that Neuralink plans to start “high-volume production” of its BCI devices and move to an “almost entirely automated surgical procedure in 2026” — Elon Musk's brain implant company Neuralink will start “high-volume production” of brain-computer interface devices …
More: The Hans India, Mashable, New York Sun, The American Bazaar, Business Insider, Livemint, Moneycontrol, News9live, Digit, and Eschaton
X: @brij, @elonmusk, @kskgroup2017, @teortaxestex, @cathiedwood, @checkcanopy, @mmjukic, @astrodanish, @serobinsonjr, @quinnypig, @0xunihax0r, @moneyacademyke, @andrewzywiecmd, @sovmichael, and @teslaradiox
Bluesky: @hooli, @jowolff, @steveparks.me, @t0nyyates, @webrant, @shwshnkdufresne, @hellocullen, @malwarejake, @yermazaguddin, @segfaultvicta.aludel.xyz, @dburbach, @sharonk, @anamusingaddress, @whynotscott, @ktfalvey, @harrymckillen.com, @hushuo, @parismarx.com, @keithfitzgerald, @juniorhoncho, @bumblesnuff, @rowyourbot, @samwhyte, @rowyourbot, @fiddledidi, @lorak, @brienneofsnark, @niedermeyer.online, and @fagankara
Forums: r/RealTesla, r/behindthebastards, r/musked, and r/EnoughMuskSpam
| 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 hazards| 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| 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_, @dwarkesh_sp, @deepdishenjoyer, @t_holden, @alltheyud, @garrytan, @daniel_271828, @krishnanrohit, @briancalbrecht, @briancalbrecht, @garrytan, @digeconlab, @jsevillamol, @daveg, @mylesudland, @drydenwtbrown, @ks_kulk, @dwarkesh_sp, @robinhanson, @mortenstostad, @alltheyud, and @dwarkesh_sp. LinkedIn: Viktor Shvets. Bluesky: @tachikoma.elsewhereunbound …. Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.to
| Michael Acton / Financial Times: |
IDC expected Apple to ship just 45,000 units of the Vision Pro in Q4 2025; Sensor Tower said Apple cut digital ad spend for the headset by 95% in 2025 — High prices, limited apps and comfort issues expose difficulty of turning futuristic hardware into a mass-market product| Miles Kruppa / The Information: |
Brookfield is launching a cloud company called Radiant and a new $10B AI fund, and 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, Reuters, and Yahoo Finance
| Iris Deng / South China Morning Post: |
Report: China-based Moonshot AI, which makes Kimi AI models, raised a $500M Series C at a $4.3B valuation led by IDG Capital; Alibaba and Tencent also invested — The Kimi AI model developer is now valued at US$4.3 billion, with cash reserves worth US$1.4 billion
More: The Decoder, SiliconANGLE, DealStreetAsia, Caixin Global, and TechNode
X: @rohanpaul_ai, @poezhao0605, @zephyr_z9, @macastel3, and @sino_market
| Karissa Bell / Engadget: |
Adam Mosseri details trends shaping Instagram and says it'll be more practical to authenticate real media than label AI, as AI gets better at imitating reality — Adam Mosseri says creators should prioritize “unflattering” images to prove they are real. — It's no secret that AI-generated …
More: The Verge, On my Om, Social Media Today, Moneycontrol, KnowTechie, Livemint, HotHardware, Implicator.ai, Mashable, Business Insider, The Decoder, NDTV Profit, Ben Werdmuller, Digit, and The Verge
X: @milkkarten. LinkedIn: Stuart McDonald. 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
| Rishabh Jaiswal / Reuters: |
Starlink plans to lower its satellites 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 (342 miles) …
X: @michaelnicollsx, @blaze_r935, @seattle_rt, @wagamemnonglenn, @marcushouse, @philipjohnston, @bassonbrain, @iniallanderson, @justin_je_mabie, @teslatino, and @yrouel86. Bluesky: @fack. Mastodon: @hannorein@mastodon.social. Forums: Hacker News
| 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, SiliconANGLE, Bloomberg, and Blockonomi
| Song Jung-a / Financial Times: |
Analysts and manufacturers expect smartphone, PC, and consumer electronics prices to rise by as much as 20% in 2026, as AI demand drives up memory chip costs — Manufacturers and analysts warn AI data centre build-out is crowding out market for semiconductors
More: The Irish Times, iPhone in Canada, and Fortune
Sponsor Posts
Subquadratic:
Subquadratic: the LLM built for 12M-token reasoning — SubQ can reason across entire codebases and document sets in one pass with no RAG workarounds. Read how SubQ 1.1 Small holds near-perfect retrieval out to 12M tokens.
Subquadratic: the LLM built for 12M-token reasoning — SubQ can reason across entire codebases and document sets in one pass with no RAG workarounds. Read how SubQ 1.1 Small holds near-perfect retrieval out to 12M tokens.
Equals:
Stop vibe coding analytics — Equals AI turns questions about your business into auditable spreadsheet models and dashboards. Build once, iterate for years.
Stop vibe coding analytics — Equals AI turns questions about your business into auditable spreadsheet models and dashboards. Build once, iterate for years.
Zoho:
How Zoho Workplace eliminates knowledge silos and provides a workplace where information flows — Discover how Zoho Workplace tears down information silos. Bridge team gaps, centralize institutional knowledge …
How Zoho Workplace eliminates knowledge silos and provides a workplace where information flows — Discover how Zoho Workplace tears down information silos. Bridge team gaps, centralize institutional knowledge …
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
Training Data:
Factory's Matan Grinberg: The Coming 'Dark Factory' Where Software Builds Itself
Sequoia Capital partners host conversations with leading AI builders and researchers to develop a deeper understanding of the evolving technologies and their implications.
Subscribe to Training Data.
Invest Like the Best:
Matthew Smith — Natural Gas: The Next Bottleneck
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Lenny's Podcast:
Why Netflix is betting on systems thinkers—not specialists—in the AI era | Elizabeth Stone (CPTO)
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
Big Technology Podcast:
Kimi K3 & AI's Price War, What Happened To Google?, OpenAI's Partner Trouble
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.
Great Chat:
Never follow your heroes (on X)
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.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Connecting the Unconnected: Doreen Bogdan-Martin
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
About This Page
This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 8:00 PM ET, January 1, 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
Gene Maddaus / Variety:Michael M. Grynbaum / New York Times:
MJ Franklin / New York Times:
Upcoming Tech Events
More News
| Adi Robertson / The Verge: |
| George Hammond / Financial Times: |
Earlier Picks
| Biz Carson / Bloomberg: |
More: Thiel Capital, Washington Post, Business Insider, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Business Times, South Florida Business Journal, and New York Post
X: @govpressoffice, @chamath, @chamath, @bizcarson, @shaughnessy119, @cernovich, @julianklymochko, @jason, @jason, @teddyschleifer, and @teddyschleifer
Bluesky: @danny.page and @rmac
| Jeff Horwitz / Reuters: |
More: Sherwood News, SiliconANGLE, Digit, Communicate Online, MS NOW, Interesting Engineering, and ZeroHedge News
X: @achimmuellers, @raywilton4, and @zerohedge
Bluesky: @brunojnavarro, @sarwark.org, @andrewlevesque, @romanad, @caseynewton, @jbakcoleman, @migueldeicaza, @worklesshard, @campuscodi.risky.biz, @socialmedialab.ca, @jeffhorwitz, @jeffhorwitz, and @jeffhorwitz
Threads: @andymstone, @andymstone, @andymstone, and @andymstone
Forums: Hacker News, r/cybersecurity, r/neoliberal, and r/technology