Techmeme
January 12, 2026, 7:45 AM

Top News

Financial Times:
Ofcom opens an investigation under the OSA into Grok over the sexualized deepfakes of women and kids being generated on X and threatens it with a ban or a fine  —  Media regulator threatens chatbot with ban or multimillion-pound fine  —  Ofcom, Britain's media regulator …
Bloomberg:
Rachael Levy / Reuters:
President Trump says “we may speak to Elon” about using Starlink to restore the internet in Iran, after the country imposed an internet blackout amid protests  —  U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday he plans to speak with billionaire Elon Musk about restoring internet in Iran …
Eugene Kim / Business Insider:
Anthropic announces Claude for Healthcare to offer HIPAA-ready tools for providers, insurers, and consumers, and expands its life sciences offerings  —  - Anthropic launched Claude for Healthcare to expand AI use in regulated medical industries.  — Claude for Healthcare offers HIPAA-ready tools …
Nasteho Said / Bloomberg:
Meta says it shut down nearly 550K accounts in Australia to comply with its under-16 social media ban, including 330K Instagram and 173K Facebook accounts  —  Meta Platforms Inc. said it has shut down almost 550,000 accounts in Australia to comply with the country's landmark social media ban for children.
New York Times:
Sources and filings: Peter Thiel donated $3M to a group to beat California's wealth tax, the first of several expected major donations by tech leaders in 2026  —  More large donations from wealthy Silicon Valley figures are expected as they try to marshal opposition to a proposed ballot measure …
Andrew Gregory / The Guardian:
Investigation: Google removed AI Overviews for two liver health queries after experts warned about inaccuracy, but slight tweaks still trigger AI responses  —  Exclusive: Guardian investigation finds AI Overviews provided inaccurate and false information when queried over blood tests
Terrence O'Brien / The Verge:
Instagram says there was no breach and it fixed an issue that let an external party send password reset emails, after reports that 17.5M users' data was exposed  —  If you're one of the many, many people who received a password reset email from Instagram the other day, the company says it fixed the issue.
Bloomberg:
Chinese AI executives say China is unlikely to eclipse the US in the AI race anytime soon, citing limited resources and US chip export curbs as key constraints  —  Some of China's most prominent figures in generative artificial intelligence warned that the Asian nation is unlikely to eclipse the US in the global AI race anytime soon.
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Google unveils the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), a new open standard that lets AI agents work across different parts of the customer's buying process  —  Google today announced a new open standard, called the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) for AI agent-based shopping, at the National Retail Federation (NRF) conference.
Jaewon Kang / Bloomberg:
Cristina Criddle / Financial Times:
Chris Velazco / Washington Post:
CES 2026: how some companies are trying to make their AI products cute and relatable, from Lenovo's chatty motorized laptop to Sharp's ChatGPT-powered Poketomo  —  Robots for seniors, AI “pals” for women, and laptops are embracing the power of cute — for better or worse.

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