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Techmeme
January 8, 2026, 10:30 PM
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Top News

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”  —  The new AI Inbox replaces the traditional list of emails with a personalized summary of what to do and what to catch up on.
Wired:
Grok's website and app are being used to produce extremely graphic, sometimes violent, sexual imagery of adults that is vastly more explicit than images on X  —  A WIRED review of outputs hosted on Grok's official website shows it's being used to create violent sexual images and videos, as well as content that includes apparent minors.
Hadas Gold / CNN:
Source: a few weeks before Grok started “digitally undressing” people, Elon Musk expressed frustration over guardrails on Grok's image and video generator
Louise Breusch Rasmussen / Reuters:
The European Commission orders X to retain all internal docs and data relating to Grok until the end of 2026, after criticizing Grok's nonconsensual images
Shirin Ghaffary / Bloomberg:
OpenAI is rolling out a HIPAA-compliant version of ChatGPT for clinicians to assist with medical reasoning and administrative tasks, at Cedars-Sinai and others  —  Health care is shaping up to be a key battleground for the top AI labs this year.  But first...  Three things to know:
Ina Fried / Axios:
OpenAI unveils ChatGPT Health, which lets users import medical records and other data from wellness apps into ChatGPT, available to a small group via a waitlist
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  —  Microsoft is beginning to roll out its first agentic experiences within Copilot, it's AI answer engine.
Ann Gehan / The Information:
Sources: OpenAI has been slow to expand in-app checkouts for ChatGPT as the startup and its partners Shopify and Stripe struggle to standardize merchant data  —  OpenAI's efforts to turn ChatGPT into a go-to personal shopper are off to a slow start.  —  Challenges with wrangling product data mean …
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  —  Cloudflare Radar says country's IPv6 traffic has dropped sharply as protests spread across 100 cities
Carmen Arroyo / Bloomberg:
Docs: xAI had a net loss of $1.46B in Q3, up from $1B in Q1; sources: xAI told investors it plans to build AI that will eventually power Optimus humanoid robots  —  Elon Musk's artificial intelligence startup xAI is burning cash quickly, with losses mounting as it spends to build data centers …
More: Reuters
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 Roundtable:
Tailwind CSS lays off three of its four engineers after Google traffic to its documentation fell ~40% from early 2023 due to AI, causing an ~80% drop in revenue  —  Adam Wathan the creator of Tailwind CSS posted that he had to let go of 75% (from 4 people now down to 1) of his engineering team because of AI.
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 …
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  —  Around 2018, Apple considered adding a tiny laser to its iPhones.  The part would allow consumers to take better photos …
Maxwell Zeff / Wired:
OpenAI VP of research Jerry Tworek is leaving, sources say after OpenAI sided with Chief Scientist Jakub Pachocki in a dispute over its research direction  —  Tech companies are calling AI the next platform.  But some developers are reluctant to let AI agents stand between them and their users.
Bailey Lipschultz / Bloomberg:
Sources: UK-based cloud provider Nscale is in talks to raise about $2B, after raising more than $1.5B across a pair of rounds in September and October  —  Data center company Nscale is in talks with investors to raise about $2 billion, according to people familiar with the matter …
Ed Hardy / Cult of Mac:
Statcounter: four months after its release, iOS 26 is in use by only about 15% of iPhone users; in January 2025, about 63% of users were on iOS 18  —  Only a tiny percentage of iPhone users have installed iOS 26, according to data from a web analytics service.
The Information:
Source: Lambda, which rents access to AI chips and is backed by Nvidia, is in talks to raise $350M+ led by Mubadala Capital, ahead of an IPO planned for H2 2026  —  Lambda, an upstart cloud provider that rents out Nvidia AI chips—and whose biggest customer was recently Nvidia itself …
CNBC:
China says it will investigate Meta's Manus acquisition to assess compliance with laws on export controls, tech import and export, and overseas investment  —  China said Thursday it will investigate Meta's $2 billion acquisition of artificial intelligence startup Manus to assess its compliance with export control laws.
John Liu / Bloomberg:
Sources: China plans to approve some of Nvidia's H200 imports as soon as Q1 2026 but bar them from the military, some agencies, and critical infrastructure  —  China plans to approve some imports of Nvidia Corp.'s H200 chips as soon as this quarter, according to people familiar with the situation …
Reuters:
Sources: to hedge against Beijing approval risk, Nvidia is requiring Chinese customers to pay upfront for H200 chips, with no cancellations, refunds, or changes

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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 10:30 PM ET, January 8, 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

Oliver Darcy / Status:
Sources: Bari Weiss has kept Anderson Cooper's unaired 60 Minutes piece about Trump's decision to accept South African refugees in a prolonged editorial process

Laura Hazard Owen / Nieman Lab:
A look at the visual investigations of the Minneapolis ICE shooting by The NYT, WaPo, and Bellingcat, and how they helped people trying to make sense of events

Michael Savage / The Guardian:
BBC Director General Tim Davie says the broadcaster will stay on X to try to counteract a flood of global misinformation, despite pressure to leave

More News

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
Dave Sebastian / Bloomberg:
Chinese AI startup MiniMax raises ~$619M in its Hong Kong IPO, at the top of its marketed range; sources: its institutional offering was oversubscribed by 70x+
Samantha Subin / CNBC:
CrowdStrike acquires identity management startup SGNL, in a deal valued at nearly $740M, to bolster identity security defenses on its flagship Falcon platform

Earlier Picks

Allie Garfinkle / Fortune:
Israeli data security startup Cyera raised a $400M Series F led by Blackstone Growth at a $9B valuation, up from $6B after raising $540M in June 2025
Jennifer Maas / Variety:
Roku founder and CEO Anthony Wood predicts “we'll see the first 100% AI-generated hit movie” within three years and discusses Roku's new $3/month Howdy service
Theodore Schleifer / New York Times:
Sources: wealthy Californians are quietly mobilizing on WhatsApp chats and calls in a long-shot bid to oust Representative Ro Khanna, who supports a wealth tax
Demetri Sevastopulo / Financial Times:
Sources: China's Salt Typhoon accessed the emails of top US House committee staff, detected in December, and intercepted senior US officials' calls for years
Bloomberg:
A profile of VC firm Index Ventures, which saw billions in gains from exits in 2025, including Figma, Scale AI, and Dream Games, as it looks ahead to succession
Chris Welch / Bloomberg:
Samsung appears to have shelved Ballie, a robot it announced six years ago but never released, calling it an “active innovation platform” within the company
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