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January 14, 2026, 2:50 PM
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Sabrina Ortiz / ZDNET:
Google launches Personal Intelligence, a Gemini feature that links to Gmail, Google Photos, Search, and YouTube history to tailor answers, for paid subscribers  —  ZDNET's key takeaways  — Personal Intelligence scans your apps to improve Gemini answers.  — The feature is off by default and won't train on sensitive data.
Politico:
California AG Rob Bonta opens an investigation into xAI over the proliferation of nonconsensual, sexualized images generated by Grok, and urges xAI to act  —  California Attorney General Rob Bonta is investigating Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company xAI over the proliferation of nonconsensual …
Akash Sriram / Reuters:
Elon Musk claims he's “not aware of any naked underage images generated by Grok” and that Grok's operating principle is to “obey the laws of any given country”  —  Elon Musk said on Wednesday he was not aware of any “naked underage images” generated by xAI's Grok chatbot …
Danny Lee / Bloomberg:
Elon Musk says that Tesla will stop selling FSD after February 14 and will offer it only as a monthly subscription; FSD costs $8,000 upfront or $99 per month  —  Tesla Inc. will stop selling the advanced driver-assistance system it calls Full Self-Driving, and instead switch to an entirely monthly subscription service.
Jacob Krol / TechRadar:
Verizon says it is “aware of an issue impacting wireless voice and data services for some customers”, as thousands of users report no cellular reception  —  Seemingly ‘SOS’ is replacing network bars  —  While Verizon had a good few months, with the last major outage occurring in October 2024 …
Reuters:
Sources: Chinese officials told customs agents this week that Nvidia H200s are barred from China and told local tech companies not to buy them unless necessary  —  Chinese customs authorities told customs agents this week that Nvidia's (NVDA.O) H200 artificial intelligence chips are not permitted …
Reuters:
Sources: Chinese authorities told domestic companies to stop using cybersecurity software made by ~12 US and Israeli companies due to national security concerns  —  Chinese authorities have told domestic companies to stop using cybersecurity software made by roughly a dozen firms from the U.S …
BBC:
The UK government drops plans for mandatory digital IDs to work in the country, marking a reversal from when the UK first announced the policy in September 2025  —  The government has dropped plans requiring workers to sign up to its digital ID scheme in order to prove their right to work in the UK.
Luz Ding / Bloomberg:
Z.ai releases GLM-Image, an open-source AI model that it says is China's first state-of-the-art multimodal model to finish training using Huawei's Ascend chips  —  Chinese AI startup Knowledge Atlas Technology JSC Ltd. released a new multimodal model that it says is the country's …
Maya Perez / WebProNews:
Bandcamp bans music and audio “generated wholly or in substantial part by AI”, hoping to build trust with fans that the music they find “was created by humans”  —  Bandcamp has banned music substantially generated by AI to uphold human artistry and authenticity …
Ben Fritz / Wall Street Journal:
Matthew McConaughey has secured eight USPTO trademarks of himself over the past several months to protect his likeness and voice from unauthorized AI use  —  Actor plans to use trademarks of himself saying ‘Alright, alright, alright’ and staring at a camera to combat AI fakes in court
New York Times:
2026 may be the year of the mega IPO, as sources say Anthropic, OpenAI, and SpaceX took early steps to go public, setting up a watershed moment for the AI boom  —  Call it the year of the mega initial public offering.  Or the year of the I.P.O. supercycle.  Or the monster listing mania, perhaps.
Nikkei Asia:
Sources: Apple and Qualcomm are scrambling to secure glass cloth fiber, used in chip substrates and PCBs, amid a surge in demand from AI giants like Nvidia  —  TAIPEI/TOKYO — It looks something like heavy-duty plastic wrap and is buried so deep in the guts of an iPhone that most users don't even know it exists.
Financial Times:
How smuggled Starlink receivers and customized software let some Iranians evade a near-total internet blackout as the regime brutally cracked down on protesters  —  Tehran went from ‘halal internet’ to near-total blackout but activists have smuggled in Starlink devices to get information out
Natalie Lung / Bloomberg:
Airbnb hires Meta executive Ahmad Al-Dahle, who led the generative AI and Llama team after working at Apple, as its CTO, as it aims to add more AI to its app  —  Airbnb Inc. has hired a former Meta Platforms Inc. executive as its new chief technology officer, as the short-term rental company …
Samantha Kelly / Bloomberg:
Pittsburgh-based Skild AI, which makes robotics foundation models, raised a $1.4B Series C at a $14B+ valuation, up from ~$4.5B in June 2025  —  Skild AI Inc., a fast-rising startup that makes software to help robots learn to complete tasks, has secured about $1.4 billion in a new funding round …
Delphine Strauss / Financial Times:
The IMF urges governments to help workers displaced by AI and says policymakers should redesign education so young people use AI “rather than compete with it”  —  Analysis finds evidence of the technology hitting wages and employment in certain areas
More: IMF
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Digg, rebooted under original founder Kevin Rose and Alexis Ohanian, launches its open beta; the site had been open to 67,000 users on an invite-only basis  —  The reboot of the early-internet online community Digg, a one-time rival to Reddit, is moving forward.
Adam Sella / New York Times:
Sources: the Trump administration is weighing a substantial shift in its cyberstrategy, including by enlisting private companies to assist with cyberattacks  —  The proposal raises a host of questions about the legality and practicality of bolstering the involvement of the private sector in offensive cyberoperations.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
UK police say they banned Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from a soccer match in 2025 after Copilot hallucinated a fake West Ham-Maccabi match in an intelligence report  —  Copilot invented a nonexistent football match that was included in an intelligence report.
The Information:
A source details how Apple's Gemini deal works: new Siri features will launch in the spring and at WWDC, Apple can finetune Gemini, no Google branding, and more  —  In another AI win for Google lately, Apple announced on Monday that it will use Google's Gemini models to power …
Jonathan Greig / The Record:
The US urged UN members to take a tougher stance against North Korea IT worker scams and crypto thefts; an October 2025 report found 40+ countries were affected  —  The U.S. on Monday urged United Nation member states to take a tougher stance against North Korean efforts to skirt sanctions through …
More: UN Web TV

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This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 2:50 PM ET, January 14, 2026.

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From Mediagazer

New York Times:
The FBI searched WaPo reporter Hannah Natanson's home on Wednesday, as part of what officials called a probe into the possible sharing of government secrets

Liam Scott / Washington Post:
The Office of Personnel Management is asking applicants for US military newspaper Stars and Stripes if they back Trump's policies; its EIC says he was unaware

Selome Hailu / Variety:
Nielsen: CBS's Golden Globes coverage reached 8.7M viewers, down 6% from 9.3M viewers in 2025, which was down 2% on 2024; the ceremony clashed with NFL coverage

More News

Earlier Picks

Jay Peters / The Verge:
As part of its Reality Labs cuts, Meta is closing three VR gaming studios and will stop developing new content and features for its VR fitness app Supernatural
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