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January 14, 2026, 7:15 PM
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WeSmirchTop News
| Karissa Bell / Engadget: |
X updates Grok to prevent the “editing of images of real people in revealing clothing such as bikinis” and geoblocks it for all users “where it's illegal” — The company is also blocking image generation entirely from non-subscribers.| Politico: |
California AG Rob Bonta opens an investigation into xAI over the proliferation of nonconsensual, sexualized images generated by Grok, and urges xAI to act — California Attorney General Rob Bonta is investigating Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company xAI over the proliferation of nonconsensual … | Raphael Satter / Reuters: |
Elon Musk claims he's “not aware of any naked underage images generated by Grok” and that Grok's operating principle is to “obey the laws of any given country” — California's governor and attorney general said on Wednesday that they were demanding answers …
More: The Atlantic, BBC, TechCrunch, The Hill, Gizmodo, CNN, Politico, Politico, Engadget, Reuters, Implicator.ai, CBS News, The Record, Euractiv, Futurism, Tom's Guide, The Times, and Reuters
Forums: r/news, r/europe, and r/ukpolitics
| Sabrina Ortiz / ZDNET: |
Google launches Personal Intelligence, a Gemini feature that links to Gmail, Google Photos, Search, and YouTube history to tailor answers, for paid subscribers — ZDNET's key takeaways — Personal Intelligence scans your apps to improve Gemini answers. — The feature is off by default and won't train on sensitive data.
More: The Keyword, The Verge, eWeek, SiliconANGLE, AppleInsider, The Register, CNET, Engadget, TechCrunch, PYMNTS.com, MobileSyrup, Financial Times, PCWorld, Pocket-lint, PPC Land, Gizmodo, Daring Fireball, WebProNews, Neowin, Android Central, Bloomberg, Ars Technica, T3, Business Insider, 9to5Google, Lifehacker, CNBC, Forbes, 9to5Google on YouTube, YouTube, Tech Advisor, SammyGuru, Android Police, TechRadar, Fortune, Android Headlines, Droid Life, Yahoo Tech, Digital Trends, Tom's Guide, Thurrott, Search Engine Land, Moneycontrol, The Information, and Phandroid
X: @google, @demishassabis, @dflieb, @google, @glenngabe, @ai_for_success, @varunkinsights, @royalhansen, @matthewberman, @ai_for_success, @rihardjarc, @sundarpichai, @dudewhoinvests, @geminiapp, @joshwoodward, @omooretweets, @thisiskp_, and @teksedge
Forums: r/accelerate, r/singularity, and r/Bard
| Wall Street Journal: |
OpenAI strikes a multibillion-dollar agreement to buy 750 MW of computing capacity from Cerebras over three years; sources: the deal is worth more than $10B — The ChatGPT-maker is racing to secure more computing power, especially for responding to user queries
More: Reuters, New York Times, The Information, TechCrunch, CNBC, Financial Times, OpenAI, Bloomberg, DatacenterDynamics, InsideHPC, Cerebras, and Pulse 2.0
| Jacob Krol / TechRadar: |
Verizon says it is “aware of an issue impacting wireless voice and data services for some customers”, as thousands of users report no cellular reception — Seemingly ‘SOS’ is replacing network bars — While Verizon had a good few months, with the last major outage occurring in October 2024 …
More: NBC News, AppleInsider, PCMag, WRAL-TV, Engadget, MarketWatch, WJXX-TV, Tom's Guide, Associated Press, XDA Developers, CNET, Reuters, New York Times, Forbes, DatacenterDynamics, ZDNET, CNN, New York Post, 9to5Google, New York Post, MacRumors, The Mendocino Voice, UPI, Technical.ly, USA Today, Mashable, Screen Rant, PCMag, Benzinga, WebProNews, The Verge, Mediaite, Android Authority, Business Insider, Android Central, The Hill, BleepingComputer, Bloomberg, PhoneArena, The Gateway Pundit, Hollywood Life, Newser, 9to5Mac, Droid Life, KARE-TV, and The Mac Observer
X: @verizonnews, @verizonnews, @alexrkonrad, @morningbrew, @0xgaut, @pcmag, and @joannastern
Forums: r/PrepperIntel, r/conspiracy, r/hudsonvalley, r/technology, and r/news
| Reuters: |
Sources: Chinese officials told customs agents this week that Nvidia H200s are barred from China and told 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 …
More: CNBC, Nextgov/FCW, WebProNews, Benzinga, The Information, Taipei Times, Investing.com, Tech in Asia, HotHardware, Barron's Online, WinBuzzer, Blockonomi, Washington Examiner, DatacenterDynamics, The American Bazaar, Yahoo Finance, Bloomberg, and The Information
Forums: r/news, r/wallstreetbets, and r/worldnews
| Josh Wingrove / Bloomberg: |
| Stevie Bonifield / The Verge: |
YouTube now lets parents set time limits on their kids' YouTube Shorts feed, ranging from 15 minutes to two hours, with an option for zero minutes coming soon — Parents will also be able to manually create and adjust child and teen accounts on YouTube.
More: YouTube Official Blog, TechCrunch, Thurrott, CNN, MediaPost, Livemint, Mashable, Engadget, Moneycontrol, PCMag, and Android Authority
| Nikhilesh De / CoinDesk: |
Coinbase pulls support from the US Senate's crypto market structure bill ahead of a key vote; CEO Brian Armstrong says there are “too many issues” with the bill — CEO Brian Armstrong said there were “too many issues” with the bill. — Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said the exchange … | Natalie Lung / Bloomberg: |
Airbnb hires Meta executive Ahmad Al-Dahle, who led the generative AI and Llama team after working at Apple, as its CTO, as it aims to add more AI to its app — Airbnb Inc. has hired a former Meta Platforms Inc. executive as its new chief technology officer, as the short-term rental company …
More: Airbnb Newsroom, Skift, WebProNews, Skift, The Verge, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, The Information, Analytics India Magazine, PYMNTS.com, Bloomberg, Business Post, and CNBC
X: @ahmad_al_dahle, @rsalakhu, @garrytan, @alfred_lin, @markchen90, @amasad, @ylecun, and @sama. LinkedIn: Brian Chesky
Threads: @jjackyliang and @david_j_doherty
| Danny Lee / Bloomberg: |
Elon Musk says that Tesla will stop selling FSD after February 14 and will offer it only as a monthly subscription; FSD costs $8,000 upfront or $99 per month — Tesla Inc. will stop selling the advanced driver-assistance system it calls Full Self-Driving, and instead switch to an entirely monthly subscription service.
More: Business Insider, Carscoops, The Hill, WebProNews, CNET, Gizchina, Digital Trends, CleanTechnica, iPhone in Canada, Sherwood News, TESLARATI, and Wall Street Journal
X: @elonmusk, @noblebrown, @mikebutcher, @alex_avoigt, @0xethan, @autismcapital, @williamlaurent3, @ryantanaka, @techau, @martingeddes, @fredlambert, and @not_qz
Forums: r/SelfDrivingCars, r/teslainvestorsclub, and r/TeslaLounge
| Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: |
Digg, rebooted under original founder Kevin Rose and Alexis Ohanian, launches its open beta; the site had been open to 67,000 users on an invite-only basis — The reboot of the early-internet online community Digg, a one-time rival to Reddit, is moving forward.
More: The Verge, 9to5Mac, Digg on YouTube, and WebProNews
| New York Times: |
2026 may be the year of the mega IPO, as sources say Anthropic, OpenAI, and SpaceX took early steps to go public, setting up a watershed moment for the AI boom — Call it the year of the mega initial public offering. Or the year of the I.P.O. supercycle. Or the monster listing mania, perhaps.
X: @rohindhar
| The Information: |
Source: Microsoft has become one of Anthropic's top clients and was recently on pace to spend nearly $500M/year for Anthropic's AI to power Microsoft products — OpenAI is Microsoft's most important AI provider and its biggest cloud server customer. — But as OpenAI does more business … | 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.
More: The Guardian, The Times, Financial Times, Breitbart, PublicTechnology, Mirror, Courthouse News Service, and Cryptonews
X: @nigel_farage, @rupertlowe10, @thatalexwoman, @archrose90, @maxkendix, @rupertlowe10, @bryanglick, and @jamesmelville. LinkedIn: Matty Shafran. Bluesky: @openrightsgroup.org
Forums: Hacker News, r/uknews, r/technology, r/BreakingUKNews, and Slashdot
| Chris Metinko / Axios: |
Novee, which utilizes proprietary AI models to perform automated penetration testing, emerges from stealth with a $43M Series A and an $8.5M seed — Novee, a penetration-testing cybersecurity startup, launched out of stealth with $51.5 million in funding, co-founder and CEO Ido Geffen tells Axios Pro.
More: Business Wire, Pulse 2.0, Forbes, FinSMEs, SiliconANGLE, Novee, Globes, and CTech
| Reuters: |
Sources: Chinese authorities told domestic companies to stop using cybersecurity software made by ~12 US and Israeli companies due to national security concerns — Chinese authorities have told domestic companies to stop using cybersecurity software made by roughly a dozen firms from the U.S …
More: NewsMax.com, Barchart.com, Bloomberg, Natto Thoughts, Modern Diplomacy, CTech, Metacurity, MarketWatch, and Yahoo Finance
Bluesky: @sensehofstede.nl. Forums: r/WallStreetbetsELITE, r/cybersecurity, r/news, and r/UnderReportedNews
| Reuters: |
Bitchat, a P2P messaging app launched by Jack Dorsey, has emerged as a key lifeline for people in Uganda and Iran facing government-imposed internet shutdowns — A little-known offline messaging app launched by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey has emerged as a key lifeline for Ugandans cut off … | Luz Ding / Bloomberg: |
Z.ai releases GLM-Image, an open-source AI model that it says is China's first state-of-the-art multimodal model to finish training using Huawei's Ascend chips — Chinese AI startup Knowledge Atlas Technology JSC Ltd. released a new multimodal model that it says is the country's …
More: Z.ai, Z.ai on Hugging Face, Decrypt, Z.ai on GitHub, South China Morning Post, Digit, Computerworld, and The Information
X: @zai_org, @zackabrams, @ivanfioravanti, @garyfung, @business, @teortaxestex, @xianbao_qian, @meowbooksj, @mark_k, and @jietang
Forums: r/comfyui, r/LocalLLaMA, and r/LocalLLaMA
| Maya Perez / WebProNews: |
Bandcamp bans music and audio “generated wholly or in substantial part by AI”, hoping to build trust with fans that the music they find “was created by humans” — Bandcamp has banned music substantially generated by AI to uphold human artistry and authenticity …
More: Bandcamp Updates, CNET, Engadget, Ars Technica, Aftermath, MobileSyrup, The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard, TechCrunch, Music Ally, Screen Rant, Stereogum, and BrooklynVegan
X: @danielraffel and @future_of_music
Bluesky: @negativeagent, @mwl.io, @davidgerard.co.uk, @ripridermusic, @nowplaying.cool, @lesterlee, @colinhemphill.com, @2mello.net, @lauramarie, @logicalnuisance, @rrrrroseazerty …, @mmmmmmuhh, and @bandcamp.com
Mastodon: @GossiTheDog@cyberplace.social, @dallin@writing.exchange, @headfirstonly@mastodon.social, and @n8dly@mastodon.social
Forums: Hacker News, r/BandCamp, and r/synthesizers
| Financial Times: |
Sources: McKinsey pilots an overhaul in how it recruits its next generation, asking candidates to use its AI tool Lilli to analyze a case study during a test — Candidates in pilot assessed on how they prompted consulting firm's AI assistant and ability to adapt responses| Tasmin Lockwood / CNBC: |
US Big Tech companies have been on an energy-related hiring spree; Workforce.ai says Microsoft has hired 570+ people with energy-related expertise since 2022 — Big Tech has been on an energy hiring spree. — Technology companies investing heavily in artificial intelligence are bolstering … | Lucas Ropek / TechCrunch: |
Depthfirst, which provides AI tools for codebase scanning, credential exposure protection, and threat monitoring, raised a $40M Series A led by Accel Partners — Cybercriminals are increasingly using AI in their attacks. At the same time, cyber defenders are also turning to the technology to fight back.
More: FinSMEs, Business Wire, SiliconANGLE, Bloomberg, and FinSMEs
| Naureen S Malik / Bloomberg: |
PJM trims summer 2027 peak demand forecast to ~160 GW from ~164 GW because some projects, including data centers, lack firm service or construction commitments — The biggest US grid operator dialed back its forecast for power demand growth, offering a reality check to the frenzy around the artificial intelligence boom.
More: Bloomberg Law and PJM Inside Lines
| Samantha Kelly / Bloomberg: |
Pittsburgh-based Skild AI, which makes robotics foundation models, raised a $1.4B Series C at a $14B+ valuation, up from ~$4.5B in June 2025 — Skild AI Inc., a fast-rising startup that makes software to help robots learn to complete tasks, has secured about $1.4 billion in a new funding round …
More: SiliconANGLE, Axios, Crunchbase News, Crypto Briefing, FinSMEs, Pulse 2.0, Technical.ly, and TechCrunch. X: @heysamantha
| Denitsa Tsekova / Bloomberg: |
Polymarket is hosting a growing number of contracts tied to military conflicts, including China invading Taiwan; possible US strikes in Iran has $18M+ in trades — Even as prediction-market platforms have tested legal and regulatory norms like never before, most have drawn a line at one category: direct wagers on war.| Katie Drummond / Wired: |
Q&A with Reid Hoffman on wanting Silicon Valley to speak out against the Trump administration, AI regulation, the role of AI in art and creativity, and more — The LinkedIn cofounder and frequent Trump target has a simple message for his peers: “Just speak up about the things that you think are true.”
Forums: r/politics and r/siliconvalley
| Financial Times: |
How smuggled Starlink receivers and customized software let some Iranians evade a near-total internet blackout as the regime brutally cracked down on protesters — Tehran went from ‘halal internet’ to near-total blackout but activists have smuggled in Starlink devices to get information out| Adam Sella / New York Times: |
Sources: the Trump administration is weighing a substantial shift in its cyberstrategy, including by enlisting private companies to assist with cyberattacks — The proposal raises a host of questions about the legality and practicality of bolstering the involvement of the private sector in offensive cyberoperations.
More: WebProNews
| Supantha Mukherjee / Reuters: |
Belgium-based Aikido Security, which offers automated security guardrails for developers, raised a $60M Series B led by DST Global at a $1B valuation — Belgium's Aikido Security has raised $60 million from investors led by tech-focused private equity firm DST Global at a valuation of $1 billion … Sponsor Posts
Subquadratic:
Subquadratic: the LLM built for 12M-token reasoning — SubQ can reason across entire codebases and document sets in one pass with no RAG workarounds. Read how SubQ 1.1 Small holds near-perfect retrieval out to 12M tokens.
Subquadratic: the LLM built for 12M-token reasoning — SubQ can reason across entire codebases and document sets in one pass with no RAG workarounds. Read how SubQ 1.1 Small holds near-perfect retrieval out to 12M tokens.
Cloudflare:
Cloudflare Connect 2026: The Agentic Conference — Stop preparing for agents. Start running them. 100+ sessions, workshops, and speakers from OpenAI, Arm, and Cloudflare across AI, security, and performance.
Cloudflare Connect 2026: The Agentic Conference — Stop preparing for agents. Start running them. 100+ sessions, workshops, and speakers from OpenAI, Arm, and Cloudflare across AI, security, and performance.
Zoho:
Stop re-entering Shopify order details in Zoho CRM — This is a guest blog from Xapplets (Zeeyes AI Inc).Here's a scene that plays out in many growing Shopify stores every day: a customer places an order …
Stop re-entering Shopify order details in Zoho CRM — This is a guest blog from Xapplets (Zeeyes AI Inc).Here's a scene that plays out in many growing Shopify stores every day: a customer places an order …
IDrive:
IDrive Autonomy: low-cost L2+ driver assistance with AI — L2+ driver assistance with a scalable AI stack built for automotive companies and laying the foundation for the autonomous future.
IDrive Autonomy: low-cost L2+ driver assistance with AI — L2+ driver assistance with a scalable AI stack built for automotive companies and laying the foundation for the autonomous future.Featured Podcasts
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Sources:
Sam Altman on OpenAI's next model and the AI backlash
Candid conversations with the leaders shaping what's next in AI and the broader tech industry. Hosted by Alex Heath, who has covered Silicon Valley for more than a decade.
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| Tom Warren / The Verge: |
More: Ars Technica, BBC, PC Gamer, The Guardian, Business Insider, Gizmodo, and The Athletic
X: @stevesi, @gabriel_pogrund, @steven_swinford, @robharris, and @robharris. Bluesky: @tomwarren.co.uk
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| Ben Fritz / Wall Street Journal: |
More: Engadget, Variety, Shelly Palmer, Newser, NextDraft, Tom's Guide, Music Ally, Telegraph, and WebProNews. Bluesky: @frydawolff