Techmeme
January 20, 2026, 5:25 AM

Top News

Anthropic:
Anthropic details the “Assistant Axis”, a pattern of neural activity in language models that governs their default identity and helpful behavior  —  Read the full paper  —  When you talk to a large language model, you can think of yourself as talking to a character.
Simon Willison / Simon Willison's Weblog:
Cursor's recent experiment involved running hundreds of AI agents for nearly a week to build a web browser, writing 1M+ lines of code across 1,000 files  —  Scaling long-running autonomous coding.  Wilson Lin at Cursor has been doing some experiments to see how far you can push a large fleet of “autonomous” coding agents:
Yoolim Lee / Bloomberg:
A look at South Korea's Independent AI Foundation Model competition, which aims to find the best homegrown AI models, in a bid to compete with the US and China  —  The state-backed survival contest aims to find the best indigenous AI models.  —  Late last year, more than a thousand people converged …
Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg:
xAI faces a growing outcry from global regulators over Grok's generation of nonconsensual explicit photos, but has faced little regulatory action in the US  —  Despite global uproar over the generation of non-consensual explicit photos, Elon Musk has continued to downplay the issue.
Kiran Stacey / The Guardian:
The UK launches a consultation on whether to ban under-16s from using social media, alongside restrictions on addictive app features like infinite scrolling  —  Move comes as peers prepare to vote on an amendment to a bill that would enact a ban within a year of the bill passing
Eleanor Olcott / Financial Times:
Sources: ByteDance boosts its cloud via more sales hires and lower prices; IDC: ByteDance had 13% of China's AI cloud market in H1 2025, behind Alibaba's 23%  —  Deep discounts, vast data and bespoke AI agents fuel new challenge in China's multibillion-dollar enterprise market
More: Benzinga
Ryan Vlastelica / Bloomberg:
Anthropic's Claude Cowork launch revives investor fears about disruption that weighed on SaaS stocks in 2025; Morgan Stanley's SaaS index is down 15% YTD  —  The new year was supposed to bring opportunities for beaten-down software stocks.  Instead, the group is off to its worst start in years.
Katherine Doherty / Bloomberg:
The NYSE plans to use its tech that matches buyers and sellers, plus blockchain networks, to facilitate the real-time trading of tokenized securities in 2026  —  The New York Stock Exchange is building a venue using blockchain technology to allow for trading tokenized stocks and exchange-traded funds around the clock.
Axios:
OpenAI executive Chris Lehane says the startup is “on track” to unveil its first device in H2 2026; reports suggest it won't have a screen and may be a wearable  —  OpenAI is “on track” to unveil its first device in the second half of 2026, the company's policy chief, Chris Lehane, said Monday at Axios House Davos.

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Featured Podcasts

The Nick, Dick and Paul Show:
All about Interest Rates
Nick Bilton, Dick Costolo, and Paul Kedrosky pull back the curtain on AI, startups, and the future rushing toward us, all with healthy dose of irreverence.
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Training Data:
Google DeepMind's Logan Kilpatrick: Why the Model Eats the Harness
Sequoia Capital partners host conversations with leading AI builders and researchers to develop a deeper understanding of the evolving technologies and their implications.
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Big Technology Podcast:
What Should An AI Device Look Like? — With Alex Himel
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
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Founders dish on VC bad behavior (and bring receipts)
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
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Uncapped with Jack Altman:
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Conversations with people I admire about things I'm genuinely interested in.
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Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
AI's Mythos Moment: Rishi Sunak on preparing governments for AI
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
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More News

James Peckham / PCMag:
Erin Woo / The Information:
Jez Corden / Windows Central:

Earlier Picks

Jack Dunn / Variety:
The Information:
Counterpoint Research: