Techmeme
January 27, 2026, 1:23 PM

Top News

Kimi:
Bloomberg:
Chinese startup Moonshot releases Kimi K2.5, saying the model can process text, images, and videos simultaneously and beats its open-source peers in some tests  —  Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.-backed Moonshot AI released an upgrade of its flagship model, heating up a domestic arms race ahead …
New York Times:
Internal Slack message: Sam Altman tells OpenAI staff that “What's happening with ICE is going too far” and he hopes President Trump “will rise to this moment”  —  Business leaders continue to feel pressure to speak out about the immigration crackdown and the fatal shooting of two U.S. citizens.
Julie Bort / TechCrunch:
Khosla Ventures' Vinod Khosla and Ethan Choi disavow Keith Rabois' comments on ICE agents killing Alex Pretti; Rabois said Pretti was committing a “felony”  —  To understand the stance of an unwavering Trump loyalist after United States Custom and Enforcement shocked the nation …
M.G. Siegler / Spyglass:
Washington Post:
US court filings detail Anthropic's Project Panama, an effort to “destructively scan” up to 2M books with a hydraulic “cutting machine” led by an ex-Google exec  —  In early 2024, executives at artificial intelligence start-up Anthropic ramped up an ambitious project they sought to keep quiet.
Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
Amazon plans to close all 57 Fresh and 15 Go locations in the US, as it pivots its physical retail strategy to focus exclusively on Whole Foods  —  Amazon's homegrown grocery stores are getting shelved.  —  The company said Tuesday morning that it's closing all of its Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh locations …
Robert Hart / The Verge:
Google adds Gemini 3 to AI Overviews as the default model globally and now lets users ask follow-up questions “seamlessly” via AI Mode  —  Gemini 3 is coming to AI Overviews and you can ask follow-ups for a ‘seamless Search experience.’  —  Google is making Search less about links and more about AI.
Tyler Katzenberger / Politico:
California Governor Gavin Newsom says he will launch a review into whether TikTok is violating state laws by censoring content critical of President Trump  —  In a separate X post Monday, the governor's press account said Newsom was launching the review after his office “received reports …
Bobby Allyn / NPR:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Google expands Android's anti-theft suite, including a dedicated toggle for its Failed Authentication Lock feature on devices running Android 16 or later  —  Google on Tuesday announced an expanded set of Android theft protection features, designed to make its mobile devices less of a target for criminals.
Henry Chandonnet / Business Insider:
Clawdbot creator Peter Steinberger says he is changing the name of the viral AI agent to Moltbot after he “was forced to rename the account by Anthropic”  —  - Clawdbot, the viral AI agent that's leading techies to buy up Mac Minis, is now named Moltbot.
Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:
Meta says it will test new paid subscriptions that give people access to exclusive features on its apps and plans to scale Manus as part of those offerings  —  Meta plans to test new subscriptions that give people access to exclusive features on it apps, the company told TechCrunch on Monday.
Samantha Cole / 404 Media:
Pornhub parent Aylo says it will restrict UK users from February 2, after six months of complying with the UK's OSA; users who verified their ages can login  —  Starting February 2, many people connecting from the UK will not be able to access the porn site and many others.
Wired:
Documents: a whistleblower details the Boshang scam compound in Laos that defrauded victims of ~$2.2M over 11 weeks and utilized a system of worker debt bondage  —  A whistleblower trapped inside a “pig butchering” scam compound gave WIRED a vast trove of its internal materials …
Samuel Stolton / Bloomberg:
The EU gives Google a six-month deadline to lift technical barriers to rival AI search assistants on Android and give key data to other search engine providers  —  Google was handed a six-month European Union deadline to lift technical barriers to rival AI search assistants on Android …
Cecilia Kang / New York Times:
TikTok settles a California lawsuit ahead of a landmark social media addiction trial; Snap recently settled the suit, while Meta and YouTube remain defendants  —  The settlement means TikTok will avoid a trial where plaintiffs had planned to argue that social media platforms are inherently defective …

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Earlier Picks

Annie Palmer / CNBC:
Katie Tarasov / CNBC:
Reuters:
Murad Hemmadi / The Logic:
Geoffrey A. Fowler / Washington Post:
Robert Hart / The Verge: