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January 16, 2026, 9:45 AM
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memeorandum
WeSmirchTop News
| Wired: |
Source: at least two more Thinking Machines employees are set to join OpenAI soon; some AI researchers say they are exhausted by the industry's constant drama — OpenAI is planning to bring over more researchers from Thinking Machines Lab after nabbing two cofounders, a source familiar with the situation says.
More: The Information, David Shapiro's Substack, eWeek, TechCrunch, The Rundown AI, Benzinga, Neowin, Spyglass, The Decoder, Sherwood News, Wired, Digit, and Bloomberg
X: @jonchu, @scobleizer, @ns123abc, @alexrkonrad, @kimmonismus, @signulll, and @fidjissimo
| Alex Heath / Sources: |
Sources: Thinking Machines lacks a clear product or business strategy and has been struggling over the past couple of months to raise a new round of financing — More Thinking Machines employees are in talks to join OpenAI. Also: Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe on ACCESS and the Sources Live @ Davos lineup.
More: Implicator.ai, The Information, and Analytics India Magazine
Bluesky: @prietschka, @edzitron.com, and @michaeli
| Sean Hollister / The Verge: |
Meta will discontinue Workrooms, its VR space for workers, on February 16; Quest headsets and Horizon services will not be sold to businesses as of February 20 — Meta continues to trickle out the bad news for VR. … Today, the company announced it's shutting that space down …
More: Engadget, Meta, Road to VR, PCMag, Android Headlines, Tech in Asia, and GeekWire
X: @yoda, @kojirovr, and @playtest_vr. Bluesky: @flglchicago. Mastodon: @rysiek@mstdn.social. Forums: r/OculusQuest
| Kif Leswing / CNBC: |
The US says Taiwanese companies will invest $250B+ in chip production in the US as part of a trade deal, with Taiwanese government guaranteeing $250B in credit — The U.S. and Taiwan have reached a trade agreement to build chips and chip factories on American soil, the Department of Commerce announced on Thursday.
More: U.S. Department of Commerce, eWeek, Tom's Hardware, DatacenterDynamics, Bloomberg, Fortune, Android Headlines, DigiTimes, Forbes Middle East, Inc.com, Crypto Briefing, Le Monde, Silicon Republic, The Indian Express, Reuters, Dow Jones Newswires, Benzinga, New York Times, NewsMax.com, Supply Chain Dive, Twin Cities, iClarified, Engadget, Financial Times, Proactive, The Verge, TechCrunch, Barron's Online, Wall Street Journal, CBS News, The National Pulse, Reuters, Reuters, Washington Examiner, and Fox Business
LinkedIn: W. Patrick Wilson, William Hao-Wei Yang, Josh Wingrove, Deborah Elms, and Chris Cottorone. Bluesky: @marypcbuk
Forums: r/worldnews, r/taiwan, r/NvidiaStock, r/Economics, and r/Economics
| Darren Loucaides / Financial Times: |
A profile of Wikipedia as it faces challenges, including attacks from Elon Musk and the far right, reduced traffic due to AI, and legal challenges in India — As the website turns 25, it faces myriad challenges from regulators, AI, the far right and Elon Musk
More: ZDNET, PCMag, Chicago Tribune, Futurism, The Indian Express, Salon, San Francisco Chronicle, and ABC. Bluesky: @sjvn
| Emma Roth / The Verge: |
More: The Register, Anil Dash, Wikimedia Foundation, Wikimedia Foundation, Shelly Palmer, Wikipedia, Forbes, Diff, The Independent, Observer, Wired, 9to5Mac, Freedom of the Press …, and Wikipedia
Bluesky: @chrisoregan, @celebrityhottub, @depthsofwikipedia, @newsguy, @wikimediafoundation.org, and @wikimediafoundation.org. Mastodon: @joebeone@techpolicy.social
| Emma Roth / The Verge: |
More: Ars Technica, Associated Press, TechCrunch, Wikimedia Enterprise, MediaNama, Reuters, CNBC, Social Media Today, The A.V. Club, Sherwood News, The Decoder, Engadget, Constellation Research, and Blockonomi
LinkedIn: Arul George Scaria and Lane Becker
Bluesky: @tjheffernan, @emilymbender, @adzebill, @craiggrannell, and @levikornelsen. Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.to
Forums: r/BetterOffline, r/news, r/technology, r/wikipedia, and Slashdot
| Sam Gutelle / Tubefilter: |
YouTube revises policy to allow full monetization of nongraphic videos on sensitive issues including abortion, self-harm, suicide, and domestic and sexual abuse — YouTube's guidelines for ad-friendly content are changing, and creators who cover controversial topics are in line for increased revenue.| Davis Giangiulio / CNBC: |
Cloudflare acquires AI data marketplace Human Native for an undisclosed sum, aiming to create a new system where AI developers pay creators for training content — Cloudflare is acquiring artificial intelligence data marketplace Human Native, the company said Thursday … | Reuters: |
Italy's competition regulator opens two investigations into Microsoft's Activision Blizzard over sales practices it claims were “misleading and aggressive” — Italy's competition watchdog on Friday announced investigations into Microsoft's (MSFT.O) Activision Blizzard unit over allegedly …
More: Engadget, Italian Competition Authority, and Wall Street Journal
| Supantha Mukherjee / Reuters: |
TikTok plans to roll out a new age detection system, which analyzes profile information to predict whether a user is under 13, across Europe in the coming weeks — TikTok will start rolling out new age-detection technology across Europe in the coming weeks, it told Reuters on Friday … | Marco Chiappetta / Forbes: |
SiFive will integrate Nvidia's NVLink Fusion infrastructure with its RISC-V processor IP platforms, allowing SiFive silicon to communicate with Nvidia GPUs — SiFive To Integrate Nvidia NVLink Fusion — In a move that could have major implications for future AI datacenters, SiFive …
More: SiFive, The Register, More Than Moore, Futurum, and ServeTheHome
| Peter Senzamici / New York Post: |
Ashley St. Clair, mother of one of Elon Musk's children, sues xAI, alleging Grok refused to stop making sexualized deepfakes of her, amid custody disputes — Elon Musk baby mama Ashley St. Clair is suing his AI platform, Grok, for refusing to stop making sexually explicit deepfake images of her … | Karissa Bell / Engadget: |
More: Ars Technica, 9to5Mac, RTÉ, The Verge, BBC, Washington Post, Digiday, Cyber Daily, New York Times, X, The American Bazaar, MobileSyrup, The Shortcut, campaignlive.com, The Hill, The Record, The Mac Observer, Tech Times, Phandroid, Reuters, The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, Mashable, France 24, and Decrypt
X: @safety, @yacinemtb, @theobertram, @adrianweckler, @helios_movement, @lyeuhm, @digiphile, @loudmouthjulia, @mweinbach, and @jdpoc. LinkedIn: Mark James
Bluesky: @druce.ai, @ashleybelanger, @davidho, @campuscodi.risky.biz, @parismarx.com, and @tatumhunter. Mastodon: @GossiTheDog@cyberplace.social. Forums: r/musked
| Bloomberg: |
Sources: Trump and several state governors agree to direct grid operator PJM to hold an auction for tech companies to fund new power plants due to AI demand — President Donald Trump and the governors of several US Northeastern states agreed to push for an emergency wholesale electricity auction …
More: DatacenterDynamics, Axios, New York Times, CNN, Wall Street Journal, Heatmap News, ZeroHedge News, Benzinga, BeInCrypto, Financial Times, PYMNTS.com, Reuters, and The Boston Globe
LinkedIn: Almas Kaptagayev and Naureen S. Malik. Bluesky: @manuelsalgado. Mastodon: @waltbaldwin@mastodon.energy. Forums: r/Economics
| CNBC: |
Replit launches Mobile Apps on Replit, which enables vibe-coding of iOS apps with integrated Stripe monetization — AI coding startup Replit is now letting users create and publish mobile apps for Apple devices using only natural language prompts, the latest evolution in so-called vibe-coding.
More: Android Police, Moneycontrol, eWeek, TechCentral.ie, Digital Trends, and Implicator.ai
| Wall Street Journal: |
Sources: Chinese AI companies seek to rent compute in Southeast Asia and the Middle East for Nvidia Rubin access, as Zhipu and Alibaba warn of a widening US gap — Companies in China scrap for access to Nvidia's latest Rubin lineup while better-funded U.S. competitors are first in line
More: Asia Times
| Reuters: |
Source: Italian police searched the offices of the country's data protection agency, one of EU's most proactive regulators, as part of a corruption probe — Italian finance police searched the headquarters of the country's data protection agency on Thursday as part of an investigation …
Forums: Hacker News and Slashdot
| Dina Bass / Bloomberg: |
ClickHouse, a Snowflake challenger that offers an OLAP database management system, raised $400M led by Dragoneer at a $15B valuation, up from $6.35B in May 2025 — Dragoneer is leading a $400 million funding round for the startup. — Database technology startup ClickHouse Inc …
More: Towards Data Science
| Hayden Field / The Verge: |
Andrea Vallone, who left OpenAI in November as the head of its safety research team, joins Anthropic's alignment team — Andrea Vallone has joined Anthropic's alignment team. … One of the most controversial issues in the AI industry over the past year was what to do when a user displays signs …
More: The Decoder, Business Insider, and TechCrunch
| Suzanne Smalley / The Record: |
Google agrees to pay $8.25M to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging its AdMob SDK illegally collected data from children under age 13 — Google has agreed to pay $8.25 million to settle a class-action lawsuit centered on claims that it habitually and illegally collected data from devices belonging to children under age 13.| Matthew Keys / TheDesk.net: |
California regulators unanimously voted in favor of Verizon's $10B Frontier acquisition; deliberations included Verizon committing to CA's DEI requirements — Utility regulators in California have approved Verizon's propose nearly $10 billion acquisition of peer broadband provider Frontier Communications …
More: Broadband Breakfast, Light Reading, Wall Street Journal, Fierce Network, Bloomberg Law, and Reuters. X: @californiapuc
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