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January 16, 2026, 8:00 AM
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Wired:
Source: at least two more Thinking Machines staffers are expected to join OpenAI soon; some 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.
Alex Heath / Sources:
Sources: Thinking Machines lacks a clear product or business strategy and has been struggling over the last 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.
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.
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:
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”
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: PCMag, Meta, Tech in Asia, and GeekWire
X: @yoda, @kojirovr, and @playtest_vr.  Bluesky: @flglchicago.  Mastodon: @rysiek@mstdn.social.  Forums: r/OculusQuest
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.
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.
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 …
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
Emma Roth / The Verge:
The Wikimedia Foundation says Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, Perplexity, and Mistral joined Wikimedia Enterprise to get “tuned” API access; Google is already a member  —  The companies have joined Google as the latest members of the Wikimedia Enterprise program.
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Wikimedia celebrates Wikipedia's 25th anniversary, marking its growth from 100 pages to 65M+ articles with nearly 15B monthly views, and releases a docuseries

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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 8:00 AM ET, January 16, 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

The Hollywood Reporter:
Nexstar says it has closed its Tegna acquisition after the DOJ and FCC approved it; CEO Perry Sook says Nexstar is grateful to Trump and the FCC's Brendan Carr

Alexandra Alter / New York Times:
Hachette cancels the US release of the novel Shy Girl and is discontinuing its UK edition after readers claimed the author relied heavily on AI to write it

Alyssa Ray / The Wrap:
The ProPublica Guild, representing ~150 employees, voted 92% in favor of a strike authorization after negotiating for over two years for its first contract

More News

New York Times:
Australia's eSafety Commissioner reports social media platforms “removed access” to ~4.7M accounts under its ban for under-16s, which took effect in December
Boone Ashworth / Wired:
As Meta shifts resources away from its Supernatural VR fitness service, users mourn the loss of a community built around the platform and its coaches
Ciara O'Brien / The Irish Times:
Equal1, which was spun out from University College Dublin, raised $60M to deploy its new quantum server for data centers, bringing its total funding to $85M

Earlier Picks

The Keyword:
Google releases TranslateGemma, a suite of Gemma 3-based open translation models available in 4B-, 12B-, and 27B-parameter sizes, with support for 55 languages
André Beganski / Decrypt:
X revises its developer API policies to “no longer allow apps that reward users for posting on X (aka 'infofi')”, amid a backlash about increasing AI slop on X
Tim Culpan / Culpium:
Sources: Apple now needs to fight for TSMC production capacity amid the AI boom; Nvidia was likely TSMC's top customer in at least one or two quarters in 2025
CNBC:
Amazon files an objection to Saks Global's bankruptcy financing plan, and says its $475M investment in the department store is now effectively “worthless”
Ike Swetlitz / Bloomberg:
Brain-computer interface startup Merge Labs, which Sam Altman co-founded, raised a $252M seed from OpenAI, Bain Capital, Gabe Newell, and others
Financial Times:
Anthropic researchers say rich countries' higher AI adoption risks deepening economic disparities and widening living standard gaps, assuming productivity gains
Adamya Sharma / Android Authority:
OpenAI quietly rolls out ChatGPT Translate, a standalone website that supports plain text translations across 50+ languages and features prompt customization
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