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January 3, 2026, 12:15 PM
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memeorandum
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| Bloomberg: |
xAI's Grok says “lapses in safeguards” led it to create sexualized images of people, including minors, in response to X user prompts; X took some images down — Elon Musk's artificial intelligence chatbot Grok has created sexualized images of people including minors …
More: CNBC, Reuters, The Present Age, BBC, Spitfire News, Forbes, The Register, The Guardian, Politico, The Verge, Engadget, The American Bazaar, MediaNama, The A.V. Club, Tech in Asia, Ars Technica, Mediaite, Los Angeles Times, MediaPost, seangoedecke.com, Mashable, Straight Arrow News, New York Post, The Record, Axios, The Decoder, CNBC-TV18, CBS News, The Hill, Euractiv, Financial Times, Tom's Guide, The Economic Times, The Indian Express, Reuters, PetaPixel, Joe.My.God., The Hans India, KnowTechie, and Metro.co.uk
X: @grok, @elonmusk, @parsatajik, @grok, @samanthataghoy, @mehdirhasan, @snazzylabs, @8ap, @arictoler, @ednewtonrex, @miles_brundage, @ogdfarmer, @theo_wayt, @icyvert, @mrjeffu, @jj_denhollander, @altymcaltalt3, @miles_brundage, @electricfutures, @sarafortexlege, @adamlowisz, @robshrum, @baracenler, @clusterbitch_, @andrewcurran_, @itsbighonkin, @alexinexxx, @whatapityonyou, and @dril
LinkedIn: Kristine Schachinger, David Earl Williams III, Farhan Shaikh, and Melanie Ensign
Bluesky: @kimberleyjohnson, @eoghan, @sownow, @iamfreetobeme, @ianmoody, @itegoarcana, @teajunkie, @flipchartrick, @ketanjoshi.co, @raphae.li, @seniormcgeezer, @socialmedialab.ca, @thomashansen, @balkissoon, @robertscotthorton, @kattenbarge, @kattenbarge, @kattenbarge, @rincewind.run, @mattknight, @keithwilson.eu, @mharrisondupre, @sundersays, @charliekirchoff.com, @durumcrustulum.com, @heidykhlaaf, @hypervisible.blacksky.app, @justinhendrix, and @jael
| Maggie Harrison Dupré / Futurism: |
On top of nonconsensual porn images, X users seem to be using Grok to alter images to depict real women being sexually abused, humiliated, hurt, and even killed — Earlier this week, a troubling trend emerged on X-formerly-Twitter as people started asking Elon Musk's chatbot Grok to unclothe images of real people.
More: Ars Technica, The Atlantic, TMZ.com, Gizmodo, The New World, Telegraph, Inc42 Media, Türkiye Today, CBS News, and CNBC-TV18
Bluesky: @snig, @caseynewton, @stevepeers, @charlotte2153, @mharrisondupre, and @kincsobiro. Mastodon: @Khrys@mamot.fr
| Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch: |
| Michael Kan / PCMag: |
California launched a free tool on January 1 that lets residents request the deletion of their personal data from over 500 registered data brokers — Reclaiming your digital privacy is getting easier in California. The state has launched a free tool that simplifies the opt-out process …
More: California Privacy Protection Agency, State of California, Palm Springs Desert Sun, and Washington Post
Bluesky: @tomrichardson and @metacurity.com
Forums: r/technology, r/LosAngeles, and r/privacy
| CNBC: |
Ilya Lichtenstein, sentenced in Nov. 2024 to five years in prison for hacking Bitfinex, has been released early due to First Step Act, Trump's prison-reform law — The Russian-U.S. national who hacked crypto exchange Bitfinex and stole nearly 120,000 bitcoin said he has been freed …
More: The Verge, Benzinga, Coinpedia Fintech News, Bitcoin Insider, Cointelegraph, LAW.com, BeInCrypto, CoinDesk, The Register, Blockonomi, The Block, Cryptonews, DL News, Alternet.org, Coinspeaker, and The Crypto Times
X: @cipherstein and @heatherreyhan
Forums: r/politics and Beehaw
| Becky Peterson / Wall Street Journal: |
A look at Elon Musk's bet that Tesla's future is in its Optimus humanoid robots, which for now rely on human helpers and still face commercial challenges — The billionaire has bet Tesla's future on humanoids, which for now rely on human helpers — The future of Tesla is an army … | The Verge: |
What to expect at CES 2026: laptops with new chips from Intel, Qualcomm, and AMD, more AI integrations, smart home robotics, smart glasses, and more — Expect plenty of laptops, smart home tech, and TVs — and lots of robots. — The biggest tech show of the year kicks off next week … | Tim Bradshaw / Financial Times: |
London is set to become the first city where both US and Chinese robotaxis operate, as Waymo and Baidu prepare to launch their robotaxis in the city in 2026 — Waymo and Baidu prepare to launch autonomous ride-hailing vehicles in UK capital as soon as 2026
More: Yahoo Finance and The Last Driver License Holder
| Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: |
Pebble unveils the Pebble Round 2, a smartwatch with a rounded screen and basic health and activity tracking but no heart rate monitor, shipping in May for $199 — Shortly after bringing back the Pebble smart watch and launching a low-cost AI smart ring, Pebble is readying yet another new product: the Pebble Round 2.
More: Pebble, Tick Talk w/ Eric Migicovsky on YouTube, PCMag, MacRumors, Android Headlines, TechRadar, Lifehacker, TechEBlog, KnowTechie, Gizmodo, iPhone in Canada, XDA Developers, CNET, Droid Life, Techaeris, Digital Trends, 9to5Google, Android Police, How-To Geek, T3, Engadget, ZDNET, Android Authority, and The Verge
| Bill Allison / Bloomberg: |
Filing: OpenAI President Greg Brockman was the biggest donor to Trump's super PAC in H2 2025, donating $25M; Crypto.com operator Foris DAX donated $20M — President Donald Trump's super political action committee raised $102 million in the second half of 2025, fueled by eight-figure donations …
More: New York Times, HuffPost, The Daily Caller, NewsMax.com, Reuters, New York Post, Fox News, SFGATE, The Decoder, CNN, and Politico
X: @gdb, @daniel_271828, @mrgunn, @aisafetymemes, @daniel_271828, @gekaminsky, @alexbores, @nateforutah, and @accass. Mastodon: @remixtures@tldr.nettime.org
| Dan Gallagher / Wall Street Journal: |
The Groq deal shows the challenges Nvidia faces as options to deploy its cash flood narrow; its annual free cash flow has risen from $4.2B in 2020 to $80B+ now — Blowout AI spending fills chip maker's coffers, but Groq deal shows that company needs to think creatively
More: Investing.com
| Carl Franzen / VentureBeat: |
xAI launches Grok Business, priced at $30 per seat/month, for SMBs, and Grok Enterprise, whose price is not listed publicly, for larger organizations — xAI has launched Grok Business and Grok Enterprise, positioning its flagship AI assistant as a secure, team-ready platform for organizational use.
More: MediaNama and The Information
| Financial Times: |
Dating apps are pivoting to Asia as swipe-right fatigue hits the West; India, China, and Indonesia ranked among the top five markets by downloads in 2025 — Rising numbers of ‘goal-orientated’ women are using the apps as stigma over online dating fades — Online dating companies are pivoting …
More: Tech in Asia
| SemiAnalysis: |
A deep dive into co-packaged optics, long promised to transform data center connectivity, covering benefits, challenges, architecture, key companies, and more — Scale-out and Scale-up CPO, CPO TCO and Power Budgets, DSP Transceivers vs LPO vs NPO vs CPO, TSMC COUPE, MZM vs MRM vs EAM Modulator Deep Dive …
LinkedIn: Igor Elkanovich
| Alex Dooler / Bloomberg: |
Global SWF: sovereign wealth funds invested $66B in AI and digitalization in 2025, with Mubadala investing $12.9B and Kuwait Investment Authority investing $6B — Sovereign wealth funds globally amassed a record $15 trillion in assets under management in a year when many deepened …
More: Communicate Online
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