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January 15, 2026, 2:10 AM
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| Kylie Robison / @kyliebytes: |
Thinking Machines parts ways with CTO Barret Zoph, with Soumith Chintala taking over the role; sources say the termination is due to “unethical conduct” — BREAKING: Thinking Machines has terminated its CTO, Barret Zoph, due to unethical conduct according to two sources familiar with the matter. CEO Mira Murati announced the news at an all-hands with employees today. Soumith Chintala will be taking over as CTO.
More: TechCrunch, The Economic Times, Digit, Implicator.ai, and The Information
X: @miramurati, @kyliebytes, @_arohan_, @tszzl, @miles_brundage, @benjamindekr, @alexeheath, @daniel_mac8, @suchenzang, and @paularambles. Bluesky: @carnage4life
| Fidji Simo / @fidjissimo: |
Fidji Simo says Barret Zoph, Luke Metz, and Sam Schoenholz are returning to OpenAI from Thinking Machines and the move “has been in the works for several weeks” — Excited to welcome Barret Zoph, Luke Metz, and Sam Schoenholz back to OpenAI! This has been in the works for several weeks, and we're thrilled to have them join the team. Barret will report to me; Luke and Sam will report into Barret. More to come on what they'll focus on soon!
More: Bloomberg. X: @shaneguml, @yuchenj_uw, @ns123abc, @barret_zoph, @signulll, @miyahedge, @petergostev, @joannejang, @luke_metro, @gavinpurcell, @elenarunsnyc, and @polynoamial
| Maxwell Zeff / Wired: |
A source close to Thinking Machines alleged that ex-CTO Barret Zoph, who is returning to OpenAI, had shared confidential company information with competitors — The departures are a blow for Thinking Machines Lab. Two narratives are already emerging about why they happened.
More: Benzinga and Analytics India Magazine
| 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.
More: The Verge, 9to5Mac, BBC, Decrypt, Mashable, Ars Technica, SFist, Bloomberg, and The Independent
X: @safety, @jdpoc, @mweinbach, @loudmouthjulia, and @digiphile. Bluesky: @tatumhunter. Mastodon: @GossiTheDog@cyberplace.social
| 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 … | Financial Times: |
UK PM Keir Starmer says X indicated to government officials it was acting to comply with UK laws by restricting the generation of non-consensual sexual images — UK prime minister says xAI will restrict the image generator as billionaire pledges to follow laws in all markets
More: The Irish Times, The Verge, France 24, Telegraph, ABC, The Independent, and Reuters
| 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, Le Monde, Implicator.ai, Politico, Business Insider, Android Headlines, TechCrunch, CBS News, Gizmodo, The Hill, The Times, Tom's Guide, Mediaite, The Record, Euractiv, Futurism, Engadget, and Reuters
X: @elonmusk, @elonmusk, @elonmusk, and @cb_doge. Bluesky: @sundersays. Mastodon: @harrymccracken@mastodon …
Forums: r/technology, r/news, r/europe, and r/ukpolitics
| 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: OpenAI, CNBC, TechCrunch, Reuters, Cerebras, PYMNTS.com, SiliconANGLE, WebProNews, Bloomberg, The Information, InsideHPC, Financial Times, New York Times, Pulse 2.0, and DatacenterDynamics
X: @cerebras, @ericvishria, @benbajarin, @kakashiii111, @ericvishria, @draecomino, @scaling01, @mweinbach, @theo, @yuchenj_uw, and @matthewberman. LinkedIn: Dhiraj Mallick
Forums: r/CerebrasSystems, r/hardware, and Slashdot
| 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, Business Standard, Livemint, AppleInsider, The Economic Times, Ars Technica, CNET, Engadget, TechCrunch, Analytics India Magazine, Financial Times, Digit, GSMArena.com, MobileSyrup, BleepingComputer, SammyGuru, Android Headlines, The Register, eWeek, Pocket-lint, PPC Land, SiliconANGLE, WebProNews, PYMNTS.com, Implicator.ai, Phandroid, PCWorld, YouTube, 9to5Google on YouTube, Neowin, Android Central, Gizmodo, ANI News, Crypto Briefing, CNBC, The Hindu BusinessLine, Thurrott, The Information, Daring Fireball, Moneycontrol, Forbes, Lifehacker, Search Engine Land, Tom's Guide, TechRadar, Yahoo Tech, Fortune, Tech Advisor, Droid Life, Digital Trends, T3, 9to5Google, Business Insider, and Android Police
X: @google, @dflieb, @google, @glenngabe, @ai_for_success, @varunkinsights, @royalhansen, @matthewberman, @ai_for_success, @rihardjarc, @demishassabis, @sundarpichai, @dudewhoinvests, @geminiapp, @joshwoodward, @omooretweets, @thisiskp_, and @teksedge
LinkedIn: Chris Struhar, Srinivasan Venkatachary, Oliver Bethell, Alex Joseph, and Aybuke. Bluesky: @scottstein
Forums: r/accelerate, r/singularity, and r/Bard
| Adamya Sharma / Android Authority: |
OpenAI quietly rolls out ChatGPT Translate, a standalone website that currently supports plain text translations across 50+ languages — OpenAI's new standalone translation tool supports over 50 languages and features AI-powered prompt customization. — • — TL;DR
More: ChatGPT Translate, Moneycontrol, BleepingComputer, Digit, BleepingComputer, and Digital Trends
| 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 … | 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, BMI, Mashable, CNN, Thurrott, PCMag, Android Authority, Moneycontrol, and Livemint
| Josh Wingrove / Bloomberg: |
Trump signs an order to impose a 25% tariff on chips “transshipped through the United States to other foreign countries”, as part of the Nvidia H200 deal — The US imposed a 25% tariff on imports of certain semiconductors, a key step in an agreement blessed by President Donald …
More: Mercury News, Reuters, The Korea Herald, Business Insider, Computerworld, Benzinga, Macau Business, Watcher Guru, Dow Jones Newswires, Sharecafe, CNBC, New York Times, Financial Times, The National, Barron's Online, Nextgov/FCW, Axios, PCWorld, South China Morning Post, Capital Brief, WinBuzzer, NewsMax.com, and BBC
| Jacob Krol / TechRadar: |
Verizon says that it resolved “an issue impacting wireless voice and data services” that caused 100,000+ customers to lose reception for 10+ hours on Wednesday — The carrier says the outage is now resolved — While Verizon had a good few months, with the last major outage occurring …
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X: @verizonnews, @verizonnews, @verizonnews, @att, @morningbrew, @0xgaut, @alexrkonrad, @pcmag, and @joannastern
Forums: r/verizon, r/PrepperIntel, r/conspiracy, r/hudsonvalley, r/technology, and r/news
| 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: Mashable, Digg on YouTube, WebProNews, The Verge, and 9to5Mac
X: @digg, @alexisohanian, @kevinrose, and @kevinrose
Forums: r/digg, r/technology, r/redditstock, and Slashdot
| Nitin Dahad / EE Times: |
GlobalFoundries agrees to acquire Synopsys' ARC processor IP business, which includes ARC-V (RISC-V) and ARC CPU IP, and integrate it into its MIPS business — Today sees a bold move to bring two key processor architectures, MIPS and ARC, under one umbrella, as GlobalFoundries announced …
| Denise Wee / Bloomberg: |
Hong Kong-based WeLab, which operates two digital banks in Hong Kong and Indonesia, raised $220M in equity and debt from HSBC, Prudential Hong Kong, and others — Hong Kong-based fintech firm WeLab Ltd. has secured $220 million from investors including HSBC Holdings Plc and Prudential Hong Kong Ltd. in its largest round of funding.| Kyle Baird / The Block: |
Blockchain-based lender Figure unveils the On-Chain Public Equity Network to issue, trade, and lend stocks natively on a blockchain, not as tokenized replicas — Partner offers — Quick Take — Figure's OPEN platform is designed to handle issuance, settlement, and stock lending onchain … | 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, and CTech
| Reuters: |
TSMC reports Q4 net profit up 35% YoY to a record ~$16B, handily beating estimates, as it benefited from surging demand for AI chips — TSMC, the world's largest contract chipmaker, posted a 35% jump in fourth-quarter net profit on Thursday, beating market forecasts and hitting a record … | Financial Times: |
Source: Apple's Google Gemini deal will be a cloud contract where Apple pays Google; another source says OpenAI declined to be Apple's custom model provider — Multibillion-dollar deal to secure Gemini models reflects cautious approach to infrastructure spending
More: Above Avalon, Fierce Network, Techstrong.ai, and Jamaica Gleaner
| 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
| Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch: |
Bengaluru-based edtech startup Emversity raised a $30M Series A led by Premji Invest, sources say at a $120M post-money valuation, up from $60M in April 2025 — As AI automates parts of the workforce, Emversity, an Indian workforce-training startup, is building talent pipelines for roles …
More: Entrackr, Moneycontrol, The Economic Times, Inc42 Media, and Tech in Asia
| Sidhartha Shukla / Bloomberg: |
CoinDesk Data: Binance's market share of spot crypto trading fell to 25% in December, its lowest since 2021, and it is also losing ground in derivatives trading — Binance's grip on global crypto trading is weakening as rivals pick up market share and traders shift to new ways of buying and selling digital assets.
More: Cointelegraph and Benzinga
| Yogita Khatri / The Block: |
Project Eleven, which builds tools to prepare blockchains for post-quantum threats, raised a $20M Series A led by Castle Island at a $120M post-money valuation — Partner offers — Quick Take — Project Eleven has raised a $20 million Series A funding at a $120 million valuation in a round led by Castle Island Ventures.
More: Project 11, The Quantum Insider, VC News Daily, Project Eleven, NFTgators, Pulse 2.0, and Axios
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