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January 21, 2026, 10:25 AM
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Alex Heath / Sources:
Demis Hassabis says Google doesn't have “any plans” for ads in Gemini and, regarding OpenAI testing ads, says “maybe they feel they need to make more revenue”  —  During our convo in Davos, Demis Hassabis and I chatted about ads in AI, Google's new deal with Apple, humanoids, and Gemini 4.
The Information:
Sources: OpenAI has begun offering its chatbot ads to dozens of advertisers, initially charging based on ad view, not ad click, asking for <$1M in commitments  —  OpenAI has started offering its new chatbot ads to dozens of advertisers, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Juby Babu / Reuters:
OpenAI rolls out age prediction on ChatGPT consumer plans globally to identify under-18 users and apply content protections, as it prepares to add adult content  —  OpenAI on Tuesday said it is rolling out age prediction on ChatGPT globally, to determine whether an account is likely owned by a minor …
Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
Netflix reports Q4 revenue up 18% YoY to $12.05B, vs. $11.97B est., 325M subscribers, 2025 revenue up 16% to $45.2B, and will spend 10% more on content in 2026  —  Netflix Inc. delivered fourth-quarter results that largely beat Wall Street estimates but issued a cautious forecast for the months ahead …
Caitlin Huston / The Hollywood Reporter:
Greg Peters says Netflix plans to include new types of content, like video podcasts, in its vertical video feed, and will roll out a new mobile UI later in 2026
Bloomberg:
OpenAI says it will cover the costs of developing energy-related infrastructure at its Stargate data centers to ensure they don't raise consumers' utility bills  —  OpenAI said it will pay for the costs of developing energy-related infrastructure required by its Stargate data centers …
Bloomberg:
Chinese AI startup Zhipu says it is limiting GLM Coding Plan access after strong demand, taking only 20% of its current daily new subscriptions from January 23  —  China's Zhipu is limiting access to its coding assistant after strong demand for a new AI model siphoned off computing resources.
Theo Wayt / The Information:
Elon Musk and Sam Altman clashed on X after Musk shared a post about a man who committed a murder-suicide following delusional conversations with ChatGPT  —  Elon Musk and Sam Altman traded barbs on X this week over media reports of deaths linked to OpenAI's ChatGPT and other AI-related safety issues.
Lucas Ropek / TechCrunch:
X says it has open sourced its “core recommendation system” on GitHub and that the system “ranks everything using a Grok-based transformer model”  —  In 2023, the website then known as Twitter partially open sourced its algorithm for the first time.
Nikou Asgari / Financial Times:
Galaxy Digital plans to launch a hedge fund in Q1 2026 investing up to 30% in crypto tokens and the rest in financial stocks; sources say it has raised $100M  —  Billionaire's firm plans portfolio to profit from rising and falling prices, following sharp sell-off in digital assets sector
Mauro Orru / Wall Street Journal:
At Davos, Jensen Huang says AI is already bringing economic benefits and needs more investment, and an “AI bubble comes about because the investments are large”  —  Jensen Huang called for higher investments to further spread the technology across developed and emerging economies
Simon P. Couch:
A programmer estimates his typical day of coding with Claude Code is equivalent to running the dishwasher an extra time, much more energy than a “median query”  —  Most of the discourse about the environmental impact of LLM use focuses on a ‘median query.’ What about a Claude Code session?
Yi-Ling Liu / Wired:
China's Cyberspace Administration requires firms to file their AI tools in a public algorithm registry, creating a detailed map of the country's AI ecosystem  —  How the Cyberspace Administration of China inadvertently made a guide to the country's homegrown AI revolution.
More: WebProNews
April Rubin / Axios:
The US DOJ says at least two DOGE employees accessed Social Security data that was off-limits under a court ruling and shared agency data on third-party servers  —  - At least two DOGE employees, the filing reveals, were in touch with a political advocacy group that asked them to analyze data …
Wen-Yee Lee / Reuters:
GlobalWafers Chair Doris Hsu says the Taiwanese silicon wafer maker is preparing for phase two of its Texas plant, after unveiling plans to invest an extra $4B  —  Taiwanese silicon wafer manufacturer GlobalWafers (6488.TWO) is preparing for the phase two expansion of its plant in the U.S. state of Texas …
More: Focus Taiwan

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This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 10:25 AM ET, January 21, 2026.

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From Mediagazer

New York Times:
Sources: an Iranian-aligned militia in Iraq is seeking the release of several detained militia members in exchange for freeing journalist Shelly Kittleson

Neel Dhanesha / Nieman Lab:
Three independent journalists experiment with a 30-day bundle of their newsletters for $8.50, half the normal price, using a service called Trustfnd

Rick Porter / The Hollywood Reporter:
Netflix averaged 3M viewers for its Opening Night MLB game March 25, a bit short of NBC and Peacock's MLB broadcast the next night, with 3.2M viewers

More News

Earlier Picks

Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Apple outages affecting multiple services, including Apple TV, the App Store, and iCloud, are now fixed following a nearly four-hour disruption on January 20
Jody Godoy / Reuters:
The US FTC files a notice to appeal a November 2025 ruling that found Meta did not hold an illegal monopoly by acquiring Instagram and WhatsApp
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