Open Links In New Tab
Mobile Archives Advertise Site News
Techmeme
January 21, 2026, 6:15 AM
Mediagazer memeorandum WeSmirch
Home River Leaderboards About Events Newsletter

Top News

Juby Babu / Reuters:
OpenAI rolls out age prediction on ChatGPT globally to identify under-18 users and to apply automatic 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 …
Alex Heath / Sources:
Demis Hassabis says there aren't “any plans” to put ads in Gemini and, in response to 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.
Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
Netflix reports Q4 revenue up 18% YoY to $12B, vs. $11.97B est., 325M paid subscribers, 2025 revenue up 16% to $45.2B, plans to up content spend by 10% in 2026  —  Netflix Inc. delivered fourth-quarter results that largely beat Wall Street estimates but issued a cautious forecast for the months ahead …
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.
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 …
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  —  The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is seeking to revive its case accusing Facebook parent company Meta Platforms (META.O) of bolstering …
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
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?
Cheng Ting-Fang / Nikkei Asia:
As Taiwanese chipmakers push localization to secure supply chains, suppliers to the steel, plastics, and display industries are moving into Taiwan's chip sector  —  TAINAN, Taiwan — A surprising cast of companies, including suppliers to the steel, plastics and display industries and even a maker …
More: KED Global
Bloomberg:
Demis Hassabis says Chinese AI companies are about six months behind leading western labs and the response to DeepSeek's R1 in 2025 was a “massive overreaction”  —  Google DeepMind Chief Executive Officer Demis Hassabis said Chinese artificial intelligence companies haven't been able …
Shona Ghosh / Bloomberg:
World Economic Forum panel: Palantir CEO Alex Karp says AI-driven job displacement will “make it hard to imagine why we should have large-scale immigration”  —  Artificial intelligence will displace so many jobs that it will eliminate the need for mass immigration …

Sponsor Posts

ElevenLabs:
ElevenAgents by ElevenLabs  —  You know us for voice.  Now meet ElevenAgents — featuring Expressive Mode, our most human-sounding AI voice technology in 70+ languages with ultra-low latency.  Hear it for yourself.
Intel:
5G's most deployed platform  —  Powering live networks with built-in Inference across Core and RAN.  That's the power of Intel Inside®
Zoho:
5 common AI pitfalls in staffing and how to fix them  —  Staffing teams are turning to AI to keep up with growing hiring demands.  It helps recruiters move faster, handle more applications, and stay on top of their pipelines.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.
Sponsor Techmeme

Featured Podcasts

Access:
 Live @ Nvidia's nerd Super Bowl, poker takes over tech, and the future of AI banking
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
Big Technology Podcast:
 OpenAI's Superapp Ambitions, Jensen on Jobs, Bezos's $100 Billion Automation Fund
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Hard Fork:
 'A.I.-Washing' Layoffs? + Why L.L.M.s Can't Write Well + Tokenmaxxing
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
The Social Radars:
 Paul Graham, Founder, Y Combinator
Come be a fly on the wall as Y Combinator's Jessica Livingston and Carolynn Levy talk to some of the most successful founders in Silicon Valley about how they did it.
Subscribe to The Social Radars.
The Upstarts Podcast:
 Star Catcher's Andrew Rush: Harnessing The Sun To Build The First Energy Grid In Space
Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad sits down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more.
Subscribe to The Upstarts Podcast.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
 Everybody Goes Home: How technology is helping prevent wildfires from spreading
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.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
Add your podcast here
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 6:15 AM ET, January 21, 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

Wall Street Journal:
Sources: ABC could lose ~$50M in licensing costs to WBD and an estimated $35M in advertising revenue after abruptly pulling the new season of The Bachelorette

Erik Wemple / New York Times:
A district court judge rules in favor of the NYT in its suit challenging rules that limited press access to the Pentagon, citing the First Amendment

Chris Geidner / Law Dork:
A federal judge slows Voice of America return-to-work order and eliminates the March 23 deadline, now ordering 70 people due back each week

More News

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

Earlier Picks

Nate Raymond / Reuters:
A Massachusetts judge grants a preliminary injunction blocking Kalshi from letting state residents bet on sports through its online platform
Carmen Arroyo / Bloomberg:
xAI co-founder Greg Yang says he is stepping back from the startup into an informal advisory role to focus on his health after being diagnosed with Lyme disease
Belle Lin / Wall Street Journal:
OpenAI and ServiceNow sign a three-year deal to integrate OpenAI's models into ServiceNow's business software, including using OpenAI's AI agents for IT tasks
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Netflix adds a real-time voting feature with the premiere of its Star Search reboot, available on mobile, smart TVs, and streaming devices, but not in a browser
Tim Hardwick / MacRumors:
Setapp Mobile, one of the first alt iOS app stores launched in 2024 after the EU's DMA, plans to shut down, blaming “still-evolving and complex business terms”
More: TechCrunch, Daring Fireball, and The Verge
X: @mysk_co.  Bluesky: @kirb.me.  Mastodon: @stroughtonsmith ….  Forums: Slashdot
Mediagazer memeorandum WeSmirch
Home River Leaderboards About Events Newsletter