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January 9, 2026, 8:20 PM
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| 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
More: BBC, The Verge, Wired, Reuters, Connected Places, CyberScoop, AppleInsider, 404 Media, Breitbart, Fortune, MediaPost, WinBuzzer, UPI, Mirror, CNN, Canary, Semafor, The American Bazaar, PetaPixel, Music Ally, eWeek, The Hollywood Reporter, and Silicon UK
X: @jess4lowestoft, @miles_brundage, @mikeisaac, @brianod_news, and @grok
LinkedIn: Rory Brooke and Jess Asato MP
Bluesky: @toilandtroublemedia.com, @mantzarlis.com, @carnage4life, @joenoonan, @samleecole, @climateadam, @joeuchill, @seachange12, @justinhendrix, @socialmedialab.ca, @gsoh31, @missingthept, @brexitpirates, @davidgerard.co.uk, @missingthept, @gadget44027447, @bastardsheep.com, @trufflehog, @seanjones.org, @peterwalker99, @andyscollick, @stormageddon, @docbaty, @ketanjoshi.co, @pogue.omg.lol, @mattburgess1, @glynmoody, @margaretmorgan, @mrrobertbob, @petefrasermusic, @metacurity.com, @kyledchurch, and @mgraalum
Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.to and @xtaldave@social.vivaldi.net
Forums: Hacker News, r/technology, r/tech, and r/grok
| 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.
More: NBC News, 404 Media, Tech Brew, Associated Press, Ars Technica, The A.V. Club, Reuters, MobileSyrup, Deadline, Le Monde, Axios, MacRumors, Mashable, Silicon Republic, Kotaku, The Record, Gizmodo, Digit, Euractiv, Moneycontrol, Variety, and Irish Independent
X: @benjamingoggin. Bluesky: @sesmith.lol, @zombiewretch, @carolinehaskins, @danny.page, @prietschka, @drsmith, @newschambers, and @samadams
Forums: r/LabourUK, r/technology, r/EnoughMuskSpam, r/google, r/Futurology, r/Fauxmoi, r/technology, r/politics, r/oregon, r/technology, and r/apple
| The Guardian: |
More: Metro.co.uk, Quartz, Gizchina, Screen Rant, Business Today, and Mirror
Forums: r/LabourUK and r/unitedkingdom
| Jennifer Hiller / Wall Street Journal: |
Meta signs deals with nuclear power providers Vistra, TerraPower, and Oklo to buy power and support new reactor projects, securing up to 6.6GW of power by 2035 — Facebook parent will back nuclear projects with Oklo, Bill Gates-backed TerraPower and Vistra
More: Meta Newsroom, International Business Times, The Verge, TechCrunch, Financial Times, CNBC, Oklo, TerraPower, Latitude Media, Yahoo Finance, Times of India, PYMNTS.com, Wired, Wall Street Journal, Proactive, GeekWire, Plain Dealer, Entrepreneur, Quartz, Livemint, The Register, Power Engineering, DatacenterDynamics, Dow Jones Newswires, Forbes, Bloomberg, ESG Dive, WinBuzzer, The Columbus Dispatch, POWER Magazine, ZeroHedge News, Utility Dive, UPI, Investopedia, Sherwood News, The Hill, Barron's Online, Capacity, Vistra Corp, Reuters, Axios, and Inc.com
X: @mikealfred, @jimcramer, @edzitron, @jessejenkins, @jessejenkins, @jessejenkins, @jessejenkins, @jessejenkins, @jessejenkins, @jessejenkins, @jessejenkins, @jessejenkins, @jessejenkins, @shanumathew93, @briefing_block_, @joel_kaplan, @ns123abc, @oklo, @stocksavvyshay, @joel_kaplan, @shanumathew93, @terrapower, @aniruddh_mohan, @briangitt, @dr_keefer, @metanewsroom, and @dekmartrades
LinkedIn: Santosh Janardhan, John Hanson, Rachel Peterson, Mike Rencheck, Chris Rinkus, Susan Buehler, and Steffan Szumowski. Bluesky: @leahmcelrath. Threads: @andymstone
| 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 …
More: Andreessen Horowitz, a16z crypto, TechCrunch, Cryptonews, Newcomer, NFTgators, The Crypto Times, Crunchbase News, The Information, San Francisco Business Times, Decrypt, Yahoo Finance, Howie Town, CryptoNinjas, Reuters, CNBC, The Block, and Tracxn
X: @a16z, @danprimack, @jenniferhli, @bhorowitz, @gerstenzang, @tkexpress11, @jorgecondebio, @espricewright, @brian_armstrong, @austin_rief, @vcbrags, @jaltma, @sriramk, @davidu, @a16z, @davidu, and @packym
LinkedIn: Marc Andrusko, David George, and Mukund Mohan
| Iain Martin / Forbes: |
a16z captured 18%+ of all venture capital allocated in the US 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.| Bloomberg: |
OpenAI and SoftBank says they will each invest $500M in SB Energy to support the infrastructure company's growth as a data center developer and operator — OpenAI and SoftBank Group Corp. have jointly invested $1 billion in SB Energy, an infrastructure company that's working with the tech firms …
More: The Information, Dow Jones Newswires, Wall Street Journal, OpenAI, Reuters, Yahoo Finance, Financial Times, CNBC, WinBuzzer, Reuters, and Forbes
| Ann Gehan / The Information: |
Amazon files planning documents in Illinois to construct a 225,000 square foot big-box store, a return to a “Target-like” retail concept it previously shelved — Amazon has started laying the groundwork to open a big-box retail store in the Chicago suburbs, according to planning documents.
More: Bloomberg, PYMNTS.com, The Verge, CNBC, Orland Park, IL Patch, Engadget, Business Insider, and Retail Dive
| Carl Franzen / VentureBeat: |
Anthropic adds safeguards to prevent third-party apps, like OpenCode, from spoofing Claude Code to access Claude models for more favorable pricing and limits — Anthropic has confirmed the implementation of strict new technical safeguards preventing third-party applications from spoofing …
More: GitHub. X: @trq212, @dhh, @banteg, @chatgpt21, @edzitron, @simonw, @jessethanley, @mitsuhiko, @nickadobos, @badlogicgames, @theo, @thdxr, @sammcallister, @theahmadosman, @thsottiaux, @thsottiaux, @dhh, @astuyve, @maxedapps, @dimillian, @thdxr, @dillon_mulroy, @theprimeagen, @bcardarella, @krishnanrohit, @adamdotdev, @trq212, @trq212, @dhh, @yuchenj_uw, and @kyliebytes. Forums: Hacker News
| 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: Decrypt, The Verge, Reuters, WinBuzzer, Techstrong.ai, and NewsMax.com
X: @teortaxestex, @jukan05, @andrewcurran_, @zephyr_z9, @slow_developer, and @_simonsmith. Forums: r/LocalLLaMA
| Pragyan Kalita / Reuters: |
Rain, which helps businesses issue stablecoin-linked Visa cards, raised a $250M Series C led by ICONIQ at a $1.95B valuation, taking its total funding to $338M+ — Stablecoin firm Rain said on Friday it has raised $250 million in a funding round led by ICONIQ, valuing the company at $1.95 billion …
More: Rain, SiliconANGLE, FinSMEs, Bloomberg, crypto.news, Crunchbase News, PYMNTS.com, Ventureburn, Bitcoin Insider, The Block, NFTgators, and Cryptonews
X: @raincards, @hosseeb, @theoneandomsy, @alliance, @cnaut, @mottice, @lightspeedvp, @sytaylor, and @lmrankhan
| Andrew Dunn / Endpoints News: |
Boltz, which is developing open frontier AI models for biomolecular research, raised a $28M seed led by Zetta, Amplify, and a16z at a valuation of $125M — While the newest AlphaFold model took a leap forward in 2024 by predicting structures of nearly all biomolecules instead of just proteins, it also took a step back in openness.
More: Boltz. X: @a16z, @dhaliwas, @mackenziejem, @communityjameel, and @jayrughani. LinkedIn: Gabriele Corso
| Emily Mason / Bloomberg: |
Source: OnePay, the fintech firm behind Walmart's “super app”, recently bought back shares from employees at a price that values the startup at more than $4B — OnePay, the Walmart Inc.-backed fintech firm behind the “super app” that the world's largest retailer is incorporating for customers … | Sarah Wynn / The Block: |
The UK FCA grants Ripple approval for its Electronic Money Institution license and crypto asset registration, clearing the way for Ripple's UK expansion — Partner offers — Quick Take — The Financial Conduct Authority granted Ripple approval for its Electronic Money Institution license …
More: Ripple, PYMNTS.com, DL News, BeInCrypto, ZyCrypto, Ventureburn, Decrypt, The Coin Republic, Bitcoin Insider, The Crypto Basic, Cryptonews, The Crypto Times, CoinGape, Blockonomi, Coinpedia Fintech News, Crypto Briefing, Coinspeaker, and Cointelegraph
LinkedIn: Joe Hayden, Oonagh van den Berg, James Burnie, and George Morris
| Wojciech Kość / Politico: |
Poland's President Karol Nawrocki vetoes legislation meant to enforce the EU's DSA in Poland, arguing it would grant excessive powers to government officials — Nawrocki called EU social media law “Orwellian,” echoing Washington's main line of attack. — WARSAW — Poland's nationalist … | Saritha Rai / Bloomberg: |
Chinese humanoid robotics companies dominated CES 2026, but a wide gap remains between choreographed demonstrations and large-scale, real-world deployment — One of Elon Musk's worries was on full display at CES in Las Vegas this week. Chinese-made human-like robots were everywhere across …
More: Nikkei Asia, Internet of Things News, Implicator.ai, CNBC, RTÉ, and Nikkei Asia
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