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February 2, 2026, 8:20 AM
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| 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: |
Apple, long dominant in the electronics supply chain, is starting to be outbid by AI companies for components like memory, as suppliers gain leverage over Apple — 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 executives question if it has the ingredients to win the AI era, new MacBook Pros are set to launch, 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: T3, Macworld, PCMag, Moneycontrol, Tom's Guide, 9to5Mac, 9to5Mac, GameRevolution, The Mac Observer, Digital Trends, Phandroid, Trusted Reviews, 9to5Mac, Sam Lover, Mashable, GSMArena.com, Android Authority, The Hans India, Cult of Mac, The Indian Express, Appleosophy, Hypebeast, Business Standard, SamMobile, Digit, SammyGuru, 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
| Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter: |
TikTok US says it has resolved technical issues caused by an Oracle data center outage; core features such as video 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, Forbes, TechCrunch, and Tech in Asia. X: @tiktokusdsjv
| Luke James / Tom's Hardware: |
OpenSourceMalware: 230 malicious OpenClaw extensions, disguised 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 …
More: OpenSourceMalware.com, CNBC, Koi, and CyberInsider
| 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, Business Today, Associated Press, Social Media Today, Livemint, Nairametrics, Reuters, and Bloomberg
| 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: The Indian Express, arXiv.org, Digit, 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 … | 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.| @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
| 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
| a16z: |
A survey of 100 companies in the Global 2000 on AI use: 78% of CIOs use OpenAI models in production, above Anthropic's 44%, but Anthropic's gains are impressive — Results from our third annual CIO Survey — The enterprise AI battleground is heating up, and we've got some fresh data on the state of play and who's winning.| Ben Foldy / Wall Street Journal: |
How Kontigo, a crypto startup from YC S24 that raised $20M+, helped move money in and out of Venezuela and now faces cutoffs from banks and payment networks — Cryptocurrency fintech Kontigo, which recently raised $20 million from Coinbase and others, is under fire for its role in helping Venezuelans avoid sanctions
X: @glcarlstrom
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Hard Fork:
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