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January 21, 2026, 4:00 AM
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Juby Babu / Reuters:
OpenAI rolls out age prediction on ChatGPT globally to identify users under 18 and apply automatic content protections as it prepares to introduce 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 $12B vs. $11.97B est., 325M paid subs, 2025 revenue up 16% to $45.2B, plans to increase 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 …
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 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 …
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:
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?
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  —  The AI model maker and business-software provider signed a three-year pact that underscores how AI agents are increasingly being embedded in corporate software
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 …
Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
Filings from Elon Musk's OpenAI lawsuit detail Microsoft's decade-long OpenAI relationship, like establishing a new subsidiary for Sam Altman while he was fired  —  The launch of the AI lab that would redefine Microsoft caught the tech giant by surprise.  —  “Did we get called to participate?”
More: Ars Technica, Engadget, and Breitbart
X: @sama and @elonmusk.  LinkedIn: Dr. Augustine Fou
Forums: r/technology, r/musked, and Beehaw
Nami Matsuura / Nikkei Asia:
Payments using facial recognition are growing in South Korea as the tech improves; South Korean fintech app Toss has scaled its “Facepay” service to 1M+ users  —  SEOUL — Payments using facial recognition are becoming more widespread in cashless South Korea, as artificial intelligence and 3D photography increase accuracy.
The Information:
Sources: Applied Compute, which lets companies customize models with their own data, is in talks to raise funding at a $1.3B valuation, up from $500M in October  —  Applied Compute, a startup founded by three former OpenAI researchers that helps companies customize models with their own data …
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Outages affecting multiple Apple services, including Apple TV, the App Store, and iCloud, have been resolved after a nearly four-hour disruption on January 20  —  Apple's App Store, iTunes Store, and Apple TV service are experiencing an outage at the current time, according to Apple's System Status page.
Christina Kyriasoglou / Bloomberg:
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei says selling AI chips to China is like “selling nuclear weapons to North Korea” and has “incredible national security implications”

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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 4:00 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

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
WAN-IFRA: news publications globally had an estimated combined revenue of $125.7B in 2025, down 0.01% YoY; print still accounted for 65% of total revenue

Bloomberg:
Sources: banks including Wells Fargo, BNP Paribas, and HSBC began selling an extra $8.2B of short-term loans to help Netflix fund its WBD purchase

@erikwemple:
The US House Armed Services Committee formally asks the Defense Department how it plans to safeguard Stars and Stripes' congressionally required independence

More News

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

Earlier Picks

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”
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
Naga Avan-Nomayo / The Block:
Portugal orders Polymarket to cease operations and blocks it in the country after heavy activity tied to its recent presidential election, with €110M+ in volume
Cade Metz / New York Times:
Humans&, founded by ex-Anthropic, xAI, and Google staff to build collaborative AI, raised a $480M seed from Nvidia, Jeff Bezos, and others at a $4.48B valuation
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