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January 15, 2026, 5:05 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, Spyglass, The Economic Times, Digit, The Information, and Implicator.ai
X: @miramurati, @harrystebbings, @suchenzang, @kyliebytes, @_arohan_, @tszzl, @miles_brundage, @benjamindekr, @alexeheath, @daniel_mac8, and @paularambles. Bluesky: @carnage4life. Forums: r/technology
| 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.| 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, @petergostev, @joannejang, @luke_metro, @yuchenj_uw, @ns123abc, @gavinpurcell, @elenarunsnyc, @barret_zoph, @polynoamial, @signulll, and @miyahedge
| 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, WebProNews, Reuters, MediaNama, Sky News, Deadline, The Independent, Decrypt, SFist, Ars Technica, The Guardian, and Bloomberg
| 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 …
More: State of California, Reuters, New York Times, Türkiye Today, The Guardian, CalMatters, Mashable, Android Headlines, Wall Street Journal, Business Insider, Social Media Today, Engadget, CNBC, Implicator.ai, CyberScoop, Washington Examiner, Adweek, Business Insider, The National Pulse, CNBC, Los Angeles Times, and Bloomberg
| 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 nonconsensual sexual images — UK prime minister says xAI will restrict the image generator as billionaire pledges to follow laws in all markets
More: The Verge, BBC, The Irish Times, The Indian Express, ABC, Telegraph, France 24, The Independent, HuffPost, and Reuters
| Raphael Satter / Reuters: |
More: The Atlantic, The Guardian, Associated Press, The Indian Express, Politico, Implicator.ai, Hindustan Times, Le Monde, RTÉ, TechCrunch, Gizmodo, The Hill, CBS News, San Francisco Business Times, New York Post, Reuters, Digit, The Times, The Record, Tom's Guide, Euractiv, and Reuters
X: @elonmusk, @elonmusk, @cb_doge, and @elonmusk. Bluesky: @sundersays. Mastodon: @harrymccracken@mastodon …
Forums: r/technology, r/news, r/EnoughMuskSpam, r/technology, 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 say 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, Silicon Republic, TechCrunch, Reuters, Cerebras, New York Times, WebProNews, PYMNTS.com, SiliconANGLE, The Information, InsideHPC, Financial Times, Pulse 2.0, Bloomberg, and DatacenterDynamics
X: @cerebras, @draecomino, @scaling01, @ericvishria, @mweinbach, @theo, @benbajarin, @yuchenj_uw, @kakashiii111, @matthewberman, and @ericvishria. LinkedIn: Dhiraj Mallick
Forums: r/hardware, r/CerebrasSystems, and Slashdot
| Reuters: |
TSMC reports Q4 net profit up 35% YoY to a record ~$16B, above $15.17B est., as it benefited from surging demand for AI chips and hit $100B in 2025 revenue — TSMC, the world's largest contract chipmaker, posted a 35% jump in fourth-quarter net profit on Thursday, beating market forecasts … | 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.
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X: @google, @sundarpichai, @dudewhoinvests, @dflieb, @geminiapp, @google, @glenngabe, @ai_for_success, @joshwoodward, @varunkinsights, @omooretweets, @royalhansen, @matthewberman, @thisiskp_, @ai_for_success, @rihardjarc, @demishassabis, 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, and BleepingComputer
| Financial Times: |
Source: Apple's Gemini deal is a cloud contract where it pays Google several billion dollars; a 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: The Verge, Marketing Week, Fierce Network, and Techstrong.ai
| 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 …
More: CoinDesk, Benzinga, The Block, Crypto Briefing, Watcher Guru, Forbes, Reuters, BeInCrypto, The Daily Hodl, Blockchain.News, Crypto in America, Yahoo Finance, DL News, Cryptonews, The Defiant, Decrypt, Yahoo Finance, Cointelegraph, Bitcoin Magazine, The Block, Bloomberg, Coinpedia Fintech News, and CryptoPotato
| Jacob Krol / TechRadar: |
Verizon resolves “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 in October 2024 …
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X: @verizonnews, @verizonnews, @verizonnews, @att, @0xgaut, @alexrkonrad, @morningbrew, @pcmag, and @joannastern
Forums: r/verizon, r/conspiracy, r/PrepperIntel, r/hudsonvalley, r/technology, and r/news
| Josh Wingrove / Bloomberg: |
President Trump signs an order to impose a 25% tariff on chips “transshipped through the US to other foreign countries”, as part of the Nvidia H200 export deal — The US imposed a 25% tariff on imports of certain semiconductors, a key step in an agreement blessed …
More: CNN, Reuters, The Korea Times, Korea Joongang Daily, Reuters, Anadolu Ajansı …, The Korea Herald, Business Insider, Responsible Statecraft, Macau Business, Watcher Guru, Computerworld, Dow Jones Newswires, The National, Sharecafe, Nextgov/FCW, Benzinga, New York Times, Axios, Financial Times, Agence France-Presse, CNBC, PCWorld, South China Morning Post, Capital Brief, NewsMax.com, Washington Examiner, and BBC
| 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, Business Standard, TechCrunch, BMI, Mashable, CNN, Thurrott, PCMag, Android Authority, MediaPost, and Moneycontrol
| 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, CNET, The Verge, 9to5Mac, Digg on YouTube, and WebProNews
X: @alexisohanian, @kevinrose, @digg, and @kevinrose. Bluesky: @carnage4life. Mastodon: @parkerortolani@mastodon …
Forums: r/redditstock, r/digg, r/technology, 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 … | Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: |
Appfigures: global consumer mobile app spending on Apple's App Store and Google Play rose 21.6% YoY to $155.8B in 2025, but app downloads dropped 2.7% to 106.9B — The subscription economy helped boost mobile app revenues in 2025, even as app downloads declined for the fifth consecutive year … | Arjun Kharpal / CNBC: |
AWS launches European Sovereign Cloud, creating a new parent company for its sovereign cloud that will be locally controlled in the EU and run by EU citizens — Amazon launched its “sovereign cloud” offering in Europe on Thursday in a move designed to keep it among the leading players …
More: The Register, Reuters, and Financial Post
| Cade Metz / New York Times: |
Scientists say that AI has become a powerful and rapidly improving research tool, and that whether it is generating ideas on its own is, for now, a moot point — For decades, elite mathematicians have struggled to solve a collection of thorny problems posed by a 20th-century academic named Paul Erdos.| 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, Tech in Asia, Inc42 Media, The Economic Times, and Moneycontrol
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