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January 2, 2026, 6:20 PM
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memeorandum
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| Bloomberg: |
xAI's Grok says “lapses in safeguards” led it to create sexualized images of people, including minors, in response to X user prompts; X took some images down — Elon Musk's artificial intelligence chatbot Grok has created sexualized images of people including minors …
More: CNBC, Reuters, BBC, The Atlantic, The Present Age, Ars Technica, Spitfire News, Engadget, The Guardian, Politico, Forbes, seangoedecke.com, Straight Arrow News, The Verge, Gizmodo, The Record, Los Angeles Times, Axios, MediaPost, New York Post, CNBC-TV18, PetaPixel, The Decoder, MediaNama, The Economic Times, Tom's Guide, Financial Times, The Hill, Euractiv, Mashable, CBS News, The Hans India, Metro.co.uk, Joe.My.God., and KnowTechie
X: @grok, @grok, @elonmusk, @samanthataghoy, @parsatajik, @robshrum, @miles_brundage, @miles_brundage, @ogdfarmer, @icyvert, @baracenler, @clusterbitch_, @8ap, @altymcaltalt3, @adamlowisz, @jj_denhollander, @electricfutures, @sarafortexlege, @mrjeffu, @theo_wayt, @arictoler, @snazzylabs, @alexinexxx, @dril, @whatapityonyou, and @itsbighonkin. LinkedIn: Melanie Ensign
| Maggie Harrison Dupré / Futurism: |
On top of nonconsensual porn images, X users seem to be using Grok to alter images to depict real women being sexually abused, humiliated, hurt, and even killed — Earlier this week, a troubling trend emerged on X-formerly-Twitter as people started asking Elon Musk's chatbot Grok to unclothe images of real people.
More: Copyleaks, TMZ.com, Inc42 Media, Türkiye Today, Telegraph, The New World, CBS News, and NDTV Profit
Bluesky: @caseynewton, @stevepeers, @charlotte2153, @mharrisondupre, @kincsobiro, and @mharrisondupre
| Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch: |
| Melissa Heikkilä / Financial Times: |
Yann LeCun admits that Llama 4's “results were fudged a little bit”, and that the team used different models for different benchmarks to give better results — The AI pioneer on stepping down from Meta, the limits of large language models — and the launch of his new start-up
More: Business Insider and Implicator.ai
| Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: |
Pebble unveils the Pebble Round 2, a smartwatch with a rounded screen and basic health and activity tracking but no heart rate monitor, shipping in May for $199 — Shortly after bringing back the Pebble smart watch and launching a low-cost AI smart ring, Pebble is readying yet another new product: the Pebble Round 2.
More: Pebble, Parker Ortolani, PCMag, Tick Talk w/ Eric Migicovsky on YouTube, Gizmodo, Android Headlines, TechRadar, Lifehacker, KnowTechie, Techaeris, XDA Developers, 9to5Google, ZDNET, The Verge, T3, iPhone in Canada, Digital Trends, CNET, Android Authority, Android Police, Engadget, How-To Geek, Droid Life, and TechEBlog
| Carl Franzen / VentureBeat: |
xAI launches Grok Business, priced at $30 per seat/month, for SMBs, and Grok Enterprise, whose price is not listed publicly, for larger organizations — xAI has launched Grok Business and Grok Enterprise, positioning its flagship AI assistant as a secure, team-ready platform for organizational use.
More: The Information and The Indian Express
| Dan Wang: |
Tech analyst Dan Wang reflects on the Chinese Communist Party vs. Silicon Valley, AI and manufacturing, how China and the US are building the future, and more — One way that Silicon Valley and the Communist Party resemble each other is that both are serious, self-serious, and indeed, completely humorless.
More: Marginal Revolution, Blockchain.News, and CNBC
X: @hassankhan, @zdch, @zhengdongwang, @kevinakwok, @hassankhan, @nabeelqu, @buccocapital, @chr1sa, @greg_ip, @stevehou, @s8mb, @mattzeitlin, @bgurley, @richardhanania, @joshdcaplan, @mylesudland, @renesellmann, @rtylercrown, @conorsen, @jchengwsj, @discoplomacy, @eric_is_weird, @ctbeiser, @mattzeitlin, @sbanjo, @mikeelgan, @danwwang, @birdyword, @phequals7, @rmcentush, and @richardhanania
LinkedIn: James Lloyd and Mark Pesce
Bluesky: @gnat, @frankpasquale, and @conorsen. Mastodon: @yiningkarlli@mastodon …. Forums: Hacker News
| Bill Allison / Bloomberg: |
Filing: OpenAI President and co-founder Greg Brockman donated $25M to Trump's super PAC, MAGA Inc., in H2 2025; Crypto.com operator Foris DAX donated $20M — President Donald Trump's super political action committee raised $102 million in the second half of 2025, fueled by eight-figure donations … | Rolfe Winkler / Wall Street Journal: |
Comparing ChatGPT's mini-apps with native iOS apps: some like Uber, OpenTable, and TripAdvisor fell short with frequent error messages, but Instacart did well — ChatGPT apps are a key piece of OpenAI's long-shot bid to replace Apple. Many aren't yet useful. — Sam Altman wants OpenAI to have an app store to rival Apple's.
More: Tech Brew
| The Circuit on YouTube: |
An interview with analyst Benedict Evans on the role of productization in AI adoption, an AI bubble, OpenAI, comparing Nvidia and Sun Microsystems, and more — In this conversation, Ben Bajarin and Jay Goldberg engage with Benedict Evans to explore the current state of AI development, its historical context, and future predictions.
X: @howardlindzon, @buccocapital, @benbajarin, and @hobie_tweets
| Simon Goodley / The Guardian: |
Uber rewrote its UK driver contracts to act as an agent, rather than a supplier, of taxi services outside London, to avoid the UK's new 20% “taxi tax” on fares — Hailing app will now act as agent rather than supplier outside London, avoiding VAT requirement| Michael Kan / PCMag: |
California launched a free tool on January 1 that lets residents request the deletion of their personal data from over 500 registered data brokers — Reclaiming your digital privacy is getting easier in California. The state has launched a free tool that simplifies the opt-out process …
More: State of California, Washington Post, Palm Springs Desert Sun, and NBC Bay Area
Forums: r/LosAngeles and r/privacy
| Bloomberg: |
Chinese AI chip startup Biren's stock jumped almost 76% in its trading debut in Hong Kong, after the company raised ~$717M in its IPO priced at ~$2.52 per share — Shares of Shanghai Biren Technology Co. jumped almost 76% in their trading debut on Friday, marking the best … | Rachel Clun / BBC: |
As of January 1, UK crypto buyers are required to share their account details with tax officials or face penalties, as the UK seeks to collect unpaid taxes — People buying cryptocurrency in the UK now need to share their account details or face penalties, in changes that came into effect on 1 January.| The Economic Times: |
Mumbai-based Knight Fintech, which builds core infrastructure that connects banks, lenders, platforms, and borrowers, raised $23.6M led by Accel — Knight Fintech has raised $23.6 million in a funding round led by early-stage venture firm Accel, with participation from IIFL and Rocket Capital.
More: Moneycontrol, DealStreetAsia, and Entrackr
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X: @michaelnicollsx, @blaze_r935, @seattle_rt, @wagamemnonglenn, @marcushouse, @philipjohnston, @bassonbrain, @iniallanderson, @justin_je_mabie, @teslatino, and @yrouel86. Bluesky: @fack
Mastodon: @jknodlseder@mastodon.social, @knud@mastodon.social, and @hannorein@mastodon.social. Forums: r/space
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X: @briancalbrecht, @saikatc, @harryh, @jankulveit, @daniel_271828, @krishnanrohit, @besttrousers, @jsevillamol, @mortenstostad, @robinhanson, @t_holden, @erikbryn, @daveg, @dwarkesh_sp, @stevehou, @deepdishenjoyer, @alltheyud, @elocinationn, @garrytan, @garrytan, @briancalbrecht, @pawtrammell, @pawtrammell, @yonashav, @briancalbrecht, @tszzl, @jackwiseman_, @alltheyud, @digeconlab, @mylesudland, @ks_kulk, @garrytan, @drydenwtbrown, @dwarkesh_sp, @dwarkesh_sp, and @dwarkesh_sp
LinkedIn: Octavian Adrian Tanase and Viktor Shvets
| Vincent Chow / South China Morning Post: |
More: ZDNET, arXiv.org, Business Insider, Constellation Research, WinBuzzer, Bloomberg, Computerworld, Implicator.ai, Bloomberg, Pandaily, SiliconANGLE, and Blockonomi