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January 9, 2026, 10:45 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 command for free users, but they can still create sexual deepfakes via X's “Edit image” or Grok's app  —  X's sexual deepfake machine is still running, despite Grok saying otherwise.
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 $15B+ across five new funds, including $6.75B for its fifth growth fund, the largest sum, and $3B for unspecified “other venture strategies”  —  Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, whose past investments included Airbnb and Coinbase, on Friday announced …
Iain Martin / Forbes:
A16z captured 18%+ of all US venture capital allocated in 2025 and now manages $90B in assets, vs Sequoia Capital's $56B and General Catalyst's $43B  —  Andreessen Horowitz has raised $15 billion for five new growth and venture funds in one of the largest-ever raises for a venture capital fund.
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:
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.
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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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 10:45 AM ET, January 9, 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

Dade Hayes / Deadline:
The NAB's CEO says the FCC's “nearly unprecedented request” for Disney to reapply for TV licenses is contrary to established principles and creates uncertainty

Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Amazon executives, including MGM Studios head Mike Hopkins, have discussed rebooting The Apprentice for Prime Video, with Donald Trump Jr. as the host

Brian Steinberg / Variety:
The CW and ESPN agree to let ESPN stream ~800 hours of CW sports per year; the CW and Roku plan to stream CW entertainment to The Roku Channel in Fall 2026

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
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

Earlier Picks

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
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 spread to 100+ cities; Cloudflare says IPv6 traffic share dropped 85%
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
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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