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January 14, 2026, 5:00 AM
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Top News

Jay Peters / The Verge:
As part of its Reality Labs cuts, Meta is closing three VR gaming studios and will stop developing new content and features for its VR fitness app Supernatural  —  Developers from Twisted Pixel Games and Sanzaru Games have posted about their studios being closed down.
Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg:
Meta confirms it is laying off Reality Labs staff and will “reinvest the savings” in wearables; CTO Andrew Bosworth says 1,000+ staff will be notified Tuesday
Maya Perez / WebProNews:
Bandcamp bans music and audio that is “generated wholly or in substantial part by AI”, hoping to build trust with fans that the music they find was human-made  —  Bandcamp has banned music substantially generated by AI to uphold human artistry and authenticity, amid rising concerns over AI flooding platforms like Spotify.
Reuters:
Sources: Chinese officials told customs agents that Nvidia H200 chips are barred from China and instructed local tech companies not to buy them unless necessary  —  Chinese customs authorities told customs agents this week that Nvidia's (NVDA.O) H200 artificial intelligence chips are not permitted …
Bloomberg:
Under new US licensing requirements, the Commerce Department says exports of Nvidia's H200 chips and AMD's MI325X chips will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis
Bloomberg:
The US Senate passes the Defiance Act that would allow victims to sue over nonconsensual, sexually explicit AI-generated images, amid furor over Grok images  —  The US Senate unanimously passed legislation Tuesday that would allow victims to sue over nonconsensual, sexually explicit AI-generated images …
Loni Prinsloo / Bloomberg:
Holistic Resilience, a US group that helps Iranians secure internet access, says SpaceX has waived Starlink subscription fees amid a days-long internet blackout  —  Elon Musk's SpaceX is now offering free Starlink satellite service in Iran amid deadly protests and a days-long internet blackout.
Hayden Field / The Verge:
Anthropic shakes up its C-suite: CPO Mike Krieger will become the co-lead of its Labs incubator, and head of product Ami Vora will take over Krieger's duties  —  Chief product officer Mike Krieger will change roles and join the “Labs” team. … Mike Krieger, the Instagram co-founder …
The Information:
A source details how Apple's Gemini deal works: new Siri features will launch in spring and at WWDC, Apple can finetune Gemini, no Google branding, and more  —  In another AI win for Google lately, Apple announced on Monday that it will use Google's Gemini models to power …
Google Research:
Google announces MedGemma 1.5 with improved medical imaging support, and MedASR for medical dictation, both available on Hugging Face and Vertex AI  —  Daniel Golden, Engineering Manager, and Fereshteh Mahvar, Software Engineer, Google Research  —  We are updating our open MedGemma model with improved medical imaging support.
Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
A look at Confer, an open-source AI assistant project from Signal creator Moxie Marlinspike that is designed to provide end-to-end encryption for AI chats  —  Moxie Marlinspike—the pseudonym of an engineer who set a new standard for private messaging with the creation of the Signal Messenger …
BBC:
The UK government drops plans for mandatory digital IDs to work in the country, marking a reversal from when the UK first announced the policy in September 2025  —  The government has dropped plans requiring workers to sign up to its digital ID scheme in order to prove their right to work in the UK.
Josh Noble / Financial Times:
An interview with IMG President Adam Kelly on streaming platforms' increasing share of sports media rights, live sports as an antidote to AI content, and more  —  As Netflix and Apple expand their sports ambitions, the head of IMG says media rights are entering a new phase driven by scarcity, retention and measurable returns
Jiyoung Sohn / Wall Street Journal:
In South Korea's competition to develop an indigenous AI model, three of the five finalists used foreign open-source code, which they argue is practical  —  Korea's efforts show how hard it is to develop homegrown AI models and break a reliance on U.S. or Chinese tech giants
The Economic Times:
India lacks specific policies or zoning regulations for overseeing quick commerce dark stores, which are projected to hit 5,000 to 5,500 by FY2026 end, per HSBC  —  The army of on-the-clock delivery boys, imperilling themselves and pedestrians, has become a familiar sight across urban India.
Bloomberg:
Saudi Arabia's PIF transfers ~$12B worth of gaming company shares, including Nintendo, to Savvy Games; PIF transferred 11M Take-Two shares in December 2025  —  Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund is transferring roughly $12 billion worth of gaming company shares, including firms …

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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 5:00 AM ET, January 14, 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

Nellie Andreeva / Deadline:
Sources: Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters held a town hall to explain Netflix's decision to withdraw from the WBD bid; the town hall excluded a Q&A session

CNN:
CNN employees and viewers have serious concerns about whether Ellison will uphold CNN's editorial independence amid severe political pressure

Henry Dyer / The Guardian:
UK minister Josh Simons resigns over allegations that a think tank he led has probed some journalists and falsely linked them to a “pro-Kremlin” network

More News

Ben Weiss / Fortune:
Polygon buys crypto startups Coinme and Sequence for a total of $250M+, as it seeks to bolster its stablecoin and fintech infrastructure and compete with Stripe

Earlier Picks

Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:
The US FCC waives a rule that forced Verizon to unlock phones 60 days after they are activated, which could make it harder for people to switch from Verizon
Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:
Google makes improvements to Veo 3.1's Ingredients to Video feature to make videos “more expressive”, and adds native vertical video generation and 4K upscaling
Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
Microsoft changes its data center approach, pledging to pay its own power costs, reject tax breaks, and replenish more water than it uses, amid local opposition
Sabrina Ortiz / ZDNET:
Salesforce makes Slack's new AI-powered Slackbot generally available, helping users answer workflow questions, draft documents, schedule meetings, and more
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