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February 16, 2026, 12:15 PM
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| Sam Altman / @sama: |
Sam Altman says Peter Steinberger, creator of OpenClaw, is joining OpenAI “to drive the next generation of personal agents”; OpenClaw will remain open source — Peter Steinberger is joining OpenAI to drive the next generation of personal agents. He is a genius with a lot of amazing ideas about the future of very smart agents interacting with each other to do very useful things for people. We expect this will quickly become core to our
More: Peter Steinberger, The Register, TechCrunch, Forbes, The Next Web, Financial Times, The Verge, Reuters, Business Insider, WinBuzzer, Bloomberg, Cautious Optimism, ServeTheHome, Computerworld, Help Net Security, Unite.AI, Tom's Guide, Times of India, The Hans India, Silicon Republic, Implicator.ai, TechRadar, Decrypt, Benzinga, Engadget, Tech.eu, CNBC, The Deep View, SiliconANGLE, Crypto Briefing, and The Information
X: @steipete, @ibab, @levie, @om, @gdb, @yuchenj_uw, @altryne, @bucknsf, @austen, @davemorin, @steipete, @dabit3, @filipe_almeida, @thsottiaux, @emollick, @scottjduffy, @rayfernando1337, @alxfazio, @toddsaunders, @anothercohen, @romainhuet, @dahongfei, @steipete, @cofoundersnik, @christyhwchoi, @theprimeagen, @dvassallo, @zackkorman, @edzitron, @themotelman, @aakashgupta, @mirkogarozzo, @krausefx, @fidjissimo, @hsvsphere, @jquinonero, @iannuttall, @bilawalsidhu, @joannastern, @raphaelschaad, @gregisenberg, @bullyesq, @sytaylor, @dylanabruscato, @badlogicgames, @alexfinn, @benjamindekr, @chrismaconi, @timhaldorsson, @jessicalessin, @kareldoostrlnck, @apoorva_mehta, @romainhuet, @swyx, @steipete, and @meta_alchemist
LinkedIn: Choon Leng Chia, Romain Huet, Wei Manfredi, and Iago Maciel
Mastodon: @drahardja@sfba.social and @carnage4life@mas.to
Forums: Hacker News, r/BetterOffline, r/OpenAI, r/clawdbot, and r/openclaw
| Marcus Schuler / Implicator.ai: |
In a podcast, OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger describes his phone calls with Mark Zuckerberg and Sam Altman, and says he had been contacted by “every big VC” — Mark Zuckerberg needed ten minutes. He was finishing code. — Peter Steinberger had called him on WhatsApp without scheduling anything.| Tripti Lahiri / Wall Street Journal: |
As India prepares to host its AI Impact Summit in New Delhi this week, the country is set to promote a frugal AI strategy focused on solving local issues — The world's most populous country is looking at how it can become an artificial-intelligence power without breaking the bank
More: Tech Policy Press, Nikkei Asia, Reuters, The Indian Express, The Economic Times, Moneycontrol, TechCrunch, Daily Sabah, and Bloomberg
X: @goi_meity, @aiatmeta, @ashwinivaishnaw, @narendramodi, @imdhananjay, @artijourno, @akm1410, @ukinindia, @maitreya_wagh, @kmr_dilip, @mohfw_india, @kritikaaaa_10, @zoho, and @mopr_goi. Bluesky: @justinhendrix
| Anthropic: |
Anthropic opens a Bengaluru office, its second in Asia, says its India run rate revenue doubled since October, and curates training data for 10 Indic languages — India is the second-largest market for Claude.ai, home to a developer community doing some of the most technically intense AI work we see anywhere.
More: The National, The Decoder, Times of India, The Hans India, Claude, Reuters, Digit, Nikkei Asia, Business Standard, Bloomberg, Inc42, Capacity, BMI, and MediaBrief
| Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch: |
More: Livemint, CNBC, Digit, The Indian Express, Unite.AI, Fincrypt, The Hans India, Times of India, Moneycontrol, The Economic Times, Fortune India, Tech in Asia, and DigiTimes. Bluesky: @atroposinsights.com
| Bloomberg: |
Sources: Sony is considering pushing back the debut of its next PlayStation console to 2028 or even 2029, as the AI boom fuels huge memory chip demand — A growing procession of tech industry leaders including Elon Musk and Tim Cook are warning about a global crisis in the making …
More: GamesIndustry.biz, Forbes, Game Developer, The Verge, Nintendo Life, Polygon.com, GamingBolt, Pure Xbox, KitGuru, Livemint, PC Gamer, Video Games Chronicle, GamesRadar, TheGamer, Push Square, DigiTimes, Blockonomi, iPhone in Canada, Tech4Gamers, Motley Fool, Notebookcheck, and PlayStation LifeStyle
X: @kylebrussell, @sonusvarghese, and @citrini7
| Mari Novik / Financial Times: |
Keir Starmer says no platform “should get a free pass”, as the UK moves to tighten online safety laws covering AI chatbots and social media, to protect children — Keir Starmer to warn tech companies that ‘no platform gets a free pass’ after deepfake scandal involving Grok
More: Politico, GOV.UK, The Guardian, The Register, Keir Starmer, The Guardian, CNBC, Sky News, The Economic Times, Forbes, CNN, crypto.news, Benzinga, City A.M., PiunikaWeb, The Independent, UKTN, Tech in Asia, PC Gamer, BBC, HuffPost, Daily Sabah, Bloomberg, The i Paper, and Help Net Security
X: @keir_starmer, @anglopjdst, @guidofawkes, @kathrynporter26, @douglascarswell, @alecmuffett, @beccajiggens, @drhingram, @deandobbs, @yougov, @togetherdec, @anglofuturist, @tomdavenport, @archrose90, @awakenedoutlaw, @james7holland, @scitechgovuk, @karlemilnikka, @joshhousden, @prestonjbyrne, @drbenspencer, @scitechgovuk, @lukejcr, @alistrathern, @clashreport, @leicesterliz, @silkiecarlo, and @prestonjbyrne. Forums: r/ukpolitics
| Eduardo Baptista / Reuters: |
Alibaba debuts Qwen 3.5, a 397B-parameter open-weight multimodal AI model that it says is 60% cheaper to use and 8x better at large workloads than Qwen3 — Alibaba on Monday unveiled a new artificial intelligence model Qwen 3.5 designed to execute complex tasks independently … | Osmond Chia / BBC: |
ByteDance says it “respects IP rights and we have heard the concerns regarding Seedance” and it plans to “strengthen” safeguards, after Disney's legal threats — Chinese technology giant ByteDance has pledged to curb a controversial artificial intelligence (AI) … | Todd Spangler / Variety: |
More: CNBC, Notebookcheck, Decrypt, The Information, Deadline, Breitbart, and The Wrap
Forums: r/technology, r/MediaMergers, and r/movies
| Hartley Charlton / MacRumors: |
Apple sends invites for a “special Apple Experience” event on March 4 in New York City; rumors suggest an M5 MacBook Pro, entry-level iPad Air, and iPhone 17e — Apple today announced a “special Apple Experience” in New York, London, and Shanghai, taking place on March 4, 2026 at 9:00am ET.
More: Bloomberg, 9to5Mac, AppleInsider, Times of India, Forbes, XDA Developers, Moneycontrol, Daily Mail, CNET, Engadget, The Verge, AppleInsider, PCMag, 9to5Mac, Android Authority, Digit, GSMArena.com, PhoneArena, Cult of Mac, The Mac Observer, Phandroid, Mashable, MacTech.com, Cord Cutters News, Tom's Guide, Digital Trends, Android Headlines, iClarified, MacDailyNews, The Apple Post, and MacStories
X: @markgurman, @markgurman, @joannastern, @mweinbach, @markgurman, @vadimyuryev, @vadimyuryev, @markgurman, and @markgurman
Forums: r/apple and MacRumors Forums
| Axios: |
A senior Pentagon official says Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is “close” to cutting business ties with Anthropic and designating it as a “supply chain risk” — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is “close” to cutting business ties with Anthropic and designating the AI company a …
More: The Economic Times, International Business Times, Straight Arrow News, Mock Paper Scissors, ZeroHedge News, NewsMax.com, Dow Jones Newswires, and Semafor
X: @kimmonismus, @f4micom, @hamzamsyed, and @j_g_allen
Bluesky: @somewhattolerable.com, @penllawen.favrd.social, and @floatallboats
Forums: r/BetterOffline and Slashdot
| Shirin Ghaffary / Bloomberg: |
OpenAI retired GPT-4o on February 13, angering loyal users, 20K+ of whom signed a petition; 4o showed the unique attachment that people can form with chatbots — GPT-4o showed the unique attachment that people can form with chatbots — OpenAI is forcing thousands of people to break up with its most controversial AI model.
More: Tom's Guide, PiunikaWeb, and Trusted Reviews
| Dominic Preston / The Verge: |
Samsung releases an ad for the Galaxy S26 series that briefly shows a “Zero-peeking privacy” toggle to black out on-screen content for onlookers at an angle — Leaker Ice Universe has shared a video of the tech in action. … Samsung has released a new advertisement …
More: YouTube, Android Police, 9to5Mac, The Shortcut, Digital Trends, SammyGuru, MacRumors, Android Headlines, The Mac Observer, and SamMobile
X: @universeice and @universeice
| Erik Brynjolfsson / Financial Times: |
Analysis: US productivity rose by ~2.7% in 2025, nearly doubling the 1.4% annual average over a decade, as AI-exposed sectors cooled their entry-level hiring — New economic data suggests the US is transitioning to a phase of measurable gains from the technology
More: Fortune. X: @danobrien20, @fabioghironi, @producercities, @matthewstoller, @ft, @happyhappyhenri, @alexolegimas, @wholemars, @ai, @darioperkins, @firstadopter, @erikbryn, @briancalbrecht, @micro2macr0, and @greenplusane
LinkedIn: Anthony Battle Mrics Msc and Eric Hazan
| Zack Abrams / The Block: |
Vitalik Buterin, who backed Polymarket, says he's “starting to worry” that prediction markets “seem to be over-converging to an unhealthy product market fit” — Quick Take — Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin warned that prediction markets are “over-converging” …
More: crypto.news, CryptoNinjas, and BeInCrypto
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