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January 21, 2026, 6:25 AM
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Top News

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.
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 …
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
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 …
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 …
Peter S. Goodman / New York Times:
The World Economic Forum in Davos is now dominated by tech giants, whose interests shunt aside topics like climate change, as Trump and AI take center stage

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This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 6:25 AM ET, January 21, 2026.

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From Mediagazer

Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
NYT launches Crossplay, its first two-player competitive word game, as a standalone iOS and Android app, as it seeks a bigger share of the mobile gaming market

Michael M. Grynbaum / New York Times:
Mediaite launches One Sheet, a daily media newsletter curated by reporter Colby Hall that aggregates media news from other media newsletters, for $8 a month

Ellise Shafer / Variety:
Prince Harry testified at London's High Court in his privacy case against Associated Newspapers, saying many articles made him “paranoid beyond belief”

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
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