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Techmeme
January 9, 2026, 10:00 AM
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Top News

Helena Horton / The Guardian:
Grok says image generation and editing are now limited to paid subscribers, after outcry over its use to create sexually explicit and violent imagery  —  X to limit editing function to paying subscribers after platform threatened with fines and regulatory action
Robert Hart / The Verge:
X is restricting Grok's image capabilities via the @grok reply command, but free users can still create sexual deepfakes through the standalone Grok app or site  —  X's sexual deepfake machine is still running, despite Grok saying otherwise. … Elon Musk's X has partially restricted access …
Hadas Gold / CNN:
Source: weeks before Grok started “digitally undressing” people, Musk expressed frustration to xAI staff about restrictions on Grok's image and video generator
Dan Primack / Axios:
a16z raises over $15B across five new funds, including $6.75B for its fifth growth fund and $3B for unspecified “other venture strategies”  —  Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, whose past investments included Airbnb and Coinbase, on Friday announced that it raised over $15 billion for a group of new funds.
Shirin Ghaffary / Bloomberg:
OpenAI launches a HIPAA-compliant version of ChatGPT for clinicians to help with medical reasoning and reduce administrative work, at Cedars-Sinai and elsewhere  —  Health care is shaping up to be a key battleground for the top AI labs this year.  But first...  Three things to know:
The Information:
Sources say DeepSeek will launch V4, its next-generation model, in the coming weeks and say it outperformed Anthropic's Claude and OpenAI's GPT series in coding  —  Chinese AI startup DeepSeek is expected to launch its next-generation AI model that features strong coding capabilities in the coming weeks …
More: Reuters.  Forums: r/LocalLLaMA
Sophie Bates / Associated Press:
Mississippi Gov. Reeves says xAI is set to spend $20B+ to build its MACROHARDRR data center in Southaven, xAI's third data center in the greater Memphis area  —  Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company xAI is set to spend $20 billion to build a data center in Southaven, Mississippi …
Suvashree Ghosh / Bloomberg:
Artemis Analytics: total stablecoin transaction volumes rose 72% YoY to a record $33T in 2025, led by Circle's USDC at $18.3T and Tether's USDT at $13.3T  —  Stablecoin transactions reached unprecedented heights last year, buoyed by favorable policy in the US under pro-crypto President Donald Trump.
Rebecca Szkutak / TechCrunch:
Snowflake agrees to acquire Observe, an observability platform built on Snowflake databases; the deal was previously reported to be valued at around $1B  —  Snowflake plans to acquire Observe, an observability platform that has been built on Snowflake's databases from day one.
Barry Schwartz / Search Engine Land:
Microsoft debuts Copilot Checkout in the US, enabling in-chat purchases via PayPal, Shopify, Stripe, and more; Shopify merchants will be automatically enrolled

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From Mediagazer

Alexandra Alter / New York Times:
A study of 14,419 self-published novels on Amazon using Pangram's AI detection tools: in 2,168 of the books, 50%+ of prose was AI, and in 970 books, 90%+ was AI

Lillian Rizzo / CNBC:
The YES Network and MSG Networks are exiting their JV streaming service Gotham Sports, launched in 2024, and moving their streaming content to DAZN

Sara Fischer / Axios:
Sources: People Inc is exploring the sale of The Daily Beast now that the site is profitable under new leadership, after initially trying to sell it in 2023

More News

Jennifer Hiller / Wall Street Journal:
Meta strikes a 20-year deal to buy 2,600+ MW of nuclear power from Vistra, and announces deals to back new reactor projects from TerraPower and Oklo
Jeanny Yu / Bloomberg:
Chinese AI startup MiniMax jumped as much as 54% in its Hong Kong debut on Friday, after raising ~$619M in its IPO priced at ~$21.17 per share
Maxwell Zeff / Wired:
OpenAI VP of Research Jerry Tworek is leaving, sources say after OpenAI sided with Chief Scientist Jakub Pachocki in a disagreement over its research direction

Earlier Picks

Ed Hardy / Cult of Mac:
Statcounter: only ~15% of iPhone users have iOS 26 installed four months after its release; in January 2025, ~63% of users were using iOS 18, a 4x adoption rate
Cody Combs / The National:
NetBlocks says internet connectivity in Iran has fallen on multiple providers as protests hit 100+ cities; Cloudflare says IPv6 traffic has dropped sharply
Barry Schwartz / Search Engine Roundtable:
Tailwind Labs, the maker of Tailwind CSS, lays off staff after online traffic to its documentation fell ~40% from 2023 due to AI, causing an ~80% revenue drop
New York Times:
A profile of Apple SVP of Hardware Engineering John Ternus; sources: Ternus is seen as the front-runner to succeed Tim Cook, who wants to reduce his workload
Jessica Hopkins / The Athletic:
FIFA says that parts of 2026 World Cup matches will be broadcast live on TikTok and select creators will get access to press conferences and training sessions
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Google rolls out an AI Inbox view for Gmail that shows users to-dos and summaries of topics rather than a traditional email list, first for US “trusted testers”
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