Open Links In New Tab
Mobile Archives Advertise Site News
Techmeme
January 21, 2026, 1:05 PM
Mediagazer memeorandum WeSmirch
Home River Leaderboards About Events Newsletter

Top News

Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
YouTube CEO Neal Mohan publishes his annual letter, saying YouTube aims to reduce “AI slop” and has strengthened parental controls, and teases Shorts updates  —  The executive published his annual letter to the YouTube community Wednesday, outlining his priorities for the video platform.
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.
Benoit Berthelot / Bloomberg:
Ubisoft cancels six games and delays others amid a restructuring into five genre-specific “creative houses”; it expects net bookings of ~€1.5B for FY 2025-2026  —  Ubisoft Entertainment SA is canceling game projects, shutting down studios and cutting its guidance …
Beatrice Nolan / Fortune:
Anthropic overhauled Claude's “Constitution” to enable the AI to generalize and apply broad principles rather than mechanically follow specific rules  —  Anthropic is overhauling a foundational document that shapes how its popular Claude AI model behaves.
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.
Bloomberg:
OpenAI says it will pay for the costs of developing energy-related infrastructure used by its Stargate data centers so 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 …
Financial Times:
How Ukraine and Russia rely on the same Chinese drone suppliers, whose tech is vital to the war; China has banned sensitive drone tech exports to both countries  —  As both sides scramble to source vital parts, some experts are convinced Russian buyers are being favoured by Beijing
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?
Wall Street Journal:
Barret Zoph says Thinking Machines Lab fired him only after learning he was leaving, and at no time did the company cite his performance or unethical conduct  —  After a relationship with a colleague, a Thinking Machines co-founder had his role changed.  Months later, he was fired after a contentious meeting.
Chris Welch / Bloomberg:
Sony launches the $230 LinkBuds Clip, open-style earbuds that sit outside the ear canal, with IPX4 water resistance and a 9-hour battery life, available now  —  Sony Group Corp. introduced its latest pair of consumer earbuds, with a clip-on design that resembles recent efforts from Bose Corp. …
Mauro Orru / Wall Street Journal:
Jensen Huang says that AI is already bringing economic benefits and needs more investment, and “the 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
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
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 …
Wen-Yee Lee / Reuters:
GlobalWafers Chair Doris Hsu says the Taiwanese silicon wafer maker is preparing for phase two of its Texas plant, after saying in May it will invest $4B more  —  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: Taipei Times
Financial Times:
The Gates Foundation and OpenAI plan to invest $50M to use AI to ease the impact of chronic staff shortages in 1,000 primary health clinics in Africa by 2028  —  Gates Foundation partners with tech group to ease impact of chronic staff shortages in Rwanda and other countries
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.
Yi-Ling Liu / Wired:
The Cyberspace Administration of China requires companies to file their AI tools in a public algorithm registry, creating a 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

Sponsor Posts

Okara:
Meet Okara, the AI platform that doesn't train on your data  —  Chat with 30+ open-source models (Llama, Kimi, Qwen, DeepSeek) through encrypted infrastructure.  Used by teams handling proprietary code and strategy.
Soxton:
AI-powered law for startups  —  Soxton automates startup legal so founders can move faster and sleep better.  We handle incorporation, advisor, employment and commercial contracts.  Join the waitlist for early access!
Zoho:
Zoho Office Integrator 2025: An overview of the features we added throughout the year  —  Wishing you all a very happy and prosperous new year!  When we stepped into 2025, our goal was to empower you to edit one of the most popular document formats: PDFs.
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

Uncapped with Jack Altman:
 Vinod Khosla and Keith Rabois from Khosla Ventures
Conversations with people I admire about things I'm genuinely interested in.
Subscribe to Uncapped with Jack Altman.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
 Chuck Klosterman on Why Football Owns TV (and Why It Won't Forever)
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
Big Technology Podcast:
 Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon: Future Of AI Devices, AI Fashion, Blending Reality and Computing
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.
The Social Radars:
 Christina Cacioppo, Founder & CEO, Vanta
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.
Invest Like the Best:
 Patrick O'Shaughnessy - Creating on Principle
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
 Special Edition: Key findings from the Microsoft AI Diffusion Report
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 1:05 PM 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

Perry Stein / Washington Post:
WaPo files a court motion, demanding the return of two phones, two laptops, a Garmin watch, and other devices seized from reporter Hannah Natanson's home

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

Foo Yun Chee / Reuters:
Sources: the EU is expected to approve UMG's $775M acquisition of Downtown Music, after UMG offered to divest Downtown's royalty services platform Curve

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
Lucas Ropek / TechCrunch:
X open sources its “core recommendation system”, which powers For You, on GitHub, and says the system “ranks everything using a Grok-based transformer model”
Mediagazer memeorandum WeSmirch
Home River Leaderboards About Events Newsletter