|
February 2, 2026, 9:10 AM
|
Mediagazer
memeorandum
WeSmirchTop News
| Bloomberg: |
Sources: SpaceX is in advanced talks to combine with xAI and they have informed some of their investors, as Elon Musk moves quickly to consolidate his empire — Elon Musk is in advanced talks to combine SpaceX with xAI, according to people familiar with the matter, as the billionaire moves quickly to consolidate his empire.| Wall Street Journal: |
AI companies are outbidding Apple, long dominant in the electronics supply chain, for chips, memory, glass fiber, and more, as suppliers gain leverage on prices — Parts for iPhones to cost more owing to surging demand from AI companies — Apple has dominated the electronics supply chain for years.
More: 9to5Mac, AppleInsider, Tom's Guide, The Mac Observer, SupplyChainBrain, MacRumors, Digital Trends, and Philip Elmer‑DeWitt. Forums: MacRumors Forums
| Mark Gurman / Bloomberg: |
Sources: Apple's executives question if it has the right ingredients to win the AI era, new MacBook Pros are coming, and Apple mulls a clamshell foldable iPhone — Apple's blockbuster holiday quarter was impressive — but it shouldn't give cover to avoid an AI reckoning.
More: Macworld, AppleInsider, T3, PCMag, Tom's Guide, iPhone in Canada, Moneycontrol, 9to5Mac, 9to5Mac, GameRevolution, The Mac Observer, Digital Trends, Phandroid, 9to5Mac, Trusted Reviews, iLounge, Sam Lover, Cult of Mac, The Indian Express, Appleosophy, Hypebeast, Business Standard, SamMobile, The Hans India, Digit, Android Authority, Mashable, SammyGuru, GSMArena.com, Livemint, iClarified, iClarified, Wccftech, WiFi Planet, Digital Trends, Engadget, Gizmodo, iPhone in Canada, MacRumors, The Mac Observer, iClarified, Philip Elmer‑DeWitt, Spyglass, Forbes, AppleInsider, and MacRumors
X: @lanceulanoff, @samsheffer, @samsheffer, @markgurman, @markgurman, and @markgurman. LinkedIn: Neal Riley
Forums: r/apple and MacRumors Forums
| Washington Post: |
Inside Elon Musk's bet to hook X users that turned Grok into a porn generator; sources say xAI's AI safety team was just two or three people for most of 2025 — Under pressure to boost its popularity, Elon Musk's xAI loosened its guardrails and relaxed controls on sexual content, setting off internal concern.
Bluesky: @metacurity.com, @mistyksnow, and @justinhendrix
| Jin Yu Young / New York Times: |
More: Engadget, TechCrunch, Associated Press, Business Today, Social Media Today, Livemint, Nairametrics, Reuters, and Bloomberg
| Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter: |
TikTok US says it has resolved technical issues caused by an Oracle data center outage; features like posting and view counts were impacted over the past week — The outage happened just days after U.S. companies, including Oracle, assumed control of the domestic operations of the video platform.
More: TikTok USDS JV, DatacenterDynamics, The Register, Engadget, PCMag, TechRadar, PetaPixel, Forbes, and Tech in Asia. X: @tiktokusdsjv
| Luke James / Tom's Hardware: |
OpenSourceMalware: 230+ malicious OpenClaw extensions, posing as crypto trading automation tools to steal user info, were uploaded to ClawHub since January 27 — Or is that Moltbot, or Clawdbot? I can't keep up. … Security researchers are warning that the growing ecosystem around 'OpenClaw … | Gerrit De Vynck / Washington Post: |
SEC complaint: a whistleblower alleges Google broke its ethics rules in 2024 to help an Israeli military contractor use AI to analyze drone surveillance video — A whistleblower complaint filed with the SEC claims that Google breached its own ethics rules to help an Israeli contractor apply AI to drone surveillance video.
More: Wall Street Journal and Jerusalem Post
| Kyle Orland / Ars Technica: |
Anthropic researchers detail “disempowerment patterns” in AI assistant interactions where AI potentially distorts a user's reality, beliefs, or actions — At this point, we've all heard plenty of stories about AI chatbots leading users to harmful actions, harmful beliefs, or simply incorrect information.
More: arXiv.org, Digit, The Indian Express, Futurism, and Anthropic
X: @mrinanksharma, @chaos2cured, @anthropicai, @roanoke_gal, @ryan_t_lowe, @fu_joehudson, @maxsloef, @alexhillman, @gailcweiner, @saffronhuang, @thedataroom, @russellbrandom, @justenmichel, @missmi1973, @genai_is_real, @cryptopunk7213, @ellgood, @jankulveit, @moleh1ll, @infinitereign88, @danshipper, @1a3orn, @jonnym1ller, @kahntweets, @kindkristin, @macbrennan_cc, @barthazian, @dave_bernardi, @ai_for_success, @mattbeane, and @m47429m. Forums: Ars OpenForum
| Reuters: |
Alibaba plans to spend ~$431M in a Lunar New Year campaign starting February 6 to attract users to its Qwen AI app, above Tencent's ~$143.7M and Baidu's ~$71.8M — Alibaba (9988.HK) said on Monday it will spend 3 billion yuan ($431 million) to attract users to its Qwen AI app during the Lunar … | @xai: |
xAI rolls out Grok Imagine 1.0, which it says can generate 720p 10-second videos with better audio, and says Imagine generated 1.245B videos in the past 30 days — Introducing Grok Imagine 1.0, our biggest leap yet. 1.0 unlocks 10-second videos, 720p resolution, and dramatically better audio. Imagine has generated 1.245 billion videos in the last 30 days alone. Try it now: https://grok.com/imagine [video]
More: Livemint and TestingCatalog
X: @x, @rafsoh, @ninzo121, @xai, @andrewcurran_, @premiumbusiness, @xai, and @elonmusk
| New York Times: |
China's desire to lead in cutting-edge AI is bumping against its aim to control it; Zhipu warned IPO investors about the burden of complying with 6+ AI rules — Beijing wants to lead the world in developing cutting-edge artificial intelligence, but it also wants companies to adhere to an increasingly complex set of rules.| Choi Jeong-yoon / The Korea Herald: |
Seoul plans to integrate AI chatbot Maeumi into its suicide prevention hotline, offering immediate emotional support before a human counselor connects — AI chatbot, community-based counselors to bolster access to mental health support — Seoul is confronting persistent suicide pressures … | Melissa Heikkilä / Financial Times: |
AI conferences have rushed to restrict the use of LLMs for writing and reviewing research papers in recent months after being flooded with AI-generated slop — Conferences restrict use of LLMs after surge of low-quality AI-generated papers and reviews — Artificial intelligence researchers … | Priya Krishna / New York Times: |
How food delivery is reshaping US mealtimes, as some users spend thousands; NRA data shows nearly 75% of 2024 restaurant orders were not eaten in a restaurant — Almost three of every four restaurant orders in the U.S. weren't eaten in a restaurant, according to recent data.
X: @ernietedeschi, @trumwill, @cowboy_postbop, @adam_tooze, @joepostingg, @mjpost, @imnotowned, @wmatagm, @rcobooth, @chris_arnade, @scholars_stage, @robertfreundlaw, @bigmeaninternet, @eric_erins, @birdyword, @lpolgreen, @estherzelda0514, @trumav, @mattyglesias, @jaybsauceda, @scottlincicome, @armanddoma, @lindsayballant, @wilson__valdez, @armanddoma, @daniela__127, and @ryanaclarke. LinkedIn: Yash Babar
Bluesky: @niedermeyer.online, @rebeccasolnit, and @kathbarbadoro
| Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch: |
India proposes zero taxes for foreign cloud providers through 2047 on services sold outside the country as long as they run workloads from Indian data centers — As the global race to build AI infrastructure accelerates, India has offered foreign cloud providers zero taxes through 2047 …
More: Digit, PYMNTS.com, Business Today, Moneycontrol, Inc42, Fortune India, Livemint, The Indian Express, NDTV, The Economic Times, and Bloomberg
Sponsor Posts
Soxton:
Fast, affordable 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!
Fast, affordable 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!
Equals:
Stop vibe coding analytics — Equals AI turns questions about your business into auditable spreadsheet models and dashboards. Build once, iterate for years.
Stop vibe coding analytics — Equals AI turns questions about your business into auditable spreadsheet models and dashboards. Build once, iterate for years.
Zoho:
How to Build Your Agentic Data Foundation with Zoho Analytics and Zoho DataPrep — Parts 1 and 2 covered why agents need a data foundation and what the right architecture looks like.
How to Build Your Agentic Data Foundation with Zoho Analytics and Zoho DataPrep — Parts 1 and 2 covered why agents need a data foundation and what the right architecture looks like.
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.
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.Featured Podcasts
Big Technology Podcast:
Anthropic's Labs Lead On Fable's Capabilities + Building AI-Native Products — With Mike Krieger
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.
Great Chat:
How much data do we actually want about our bodies?
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Training Data:
Memory and Continual Learning: Engram's Dan Biderman and Jessy Lin
Sequoia Capital partners host conversations with leading AI builders and researchers to develop a deeper understanding of the evolving technologies and their implications.
Subscribe to Training Data.
Access:
This AI tells you what your friends won't
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
The Ad Industry's Weirdest Tradition
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.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
AI's Mythos Moment: Rishi Sunak on preparing governments for AI
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.
About This Page
This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 9:10 AM ET, February 2, 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
Barbara Moens / Financial Times:Ethan Millman / The Hollywood Reporter:
Thomas Buckley / Bloomberg:
Upcoming Tech Events
Earlier Picks
| Sybille de La Hamaide / Reuters: |
| Vincent Lee / Bloomberg: |
More: DatacenterDynamics, Investor's Business Daily, Reuters, CNBC, Tech Monitor, Dow Jones Newswires, The Information, Benzinga, Blockonomi, The Economic Times, Constellation Research, Oracle, Wall Street Journal, Barron's Online, The Register, Pulse 2.0, Business Standard, Tech in Asia, ZeroHedge News, Business Today, The Indian Express, Capacity, Nairametrics, Radio Free Mobile, and SiliconANGLE