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January 14, 2026, 4:30 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.
More: The Keyword, AppleInsider, The Verge, PYMNTS.com, CNET, Engadget, PCWorld, TechCrunch, Gizmodo, Ars Technica, Mercury News, CNBC, Thurrott, The Information, WebProNews, Moneycontrol, Search Engine Land, Phandroid, Android Headlines, Neowin, SammyGuru, Android Central, YouTube, 9to5Google on YouTube, Crypto Briefing, Tech Advisor, T3, 9to5Google, Android Police, Forbes, Tom's Guide, TechRadar, Fortune, Business Insider, Financial Times, Lifehacker, Droid Life, Yahoo Tech, Digital Trends, Phone Scoop, and Android Authority
X: @demishassabis, @matthewberman, @ai_for_success, @google, @dudewhoinvests, @dflieb, @google, @glenngabe, @ai_for_success, @varunkinsights, @royalhansen, @rihardjarc, @sundarpichai, @geminiapp, @joshwoodward, @omooretweets, @thisiskp_, and @teksedge
Forums: r/accelerate, r/singularity, and r/Bard
| Wall Street Journal: |
OpenAI strikes a multibillion-dollar agreement to buy 750 MW of computing capacity from Cerebras over three years; sources: the deal is worth more than $10B — The ChatGPT-maker is racing to secure more computing power, especially for responding to user queries
More: CNBC, Reuters, Bloomberg, DatacenterDynamics, OpenAI, Pulse 2.0, Cerebras, and The Information
| 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 …
More: State of California, New York Times, Reuters, Washington Examiner, The Guardian, Engadget, CNBC, Bloomberg, Implicator.ai, Adweek, Business Insider, The National Pulse, Los Angeles Times, PetaPixel, and The Nation
X: @micsolana, @govpressoffice, @agrobbonta, @cagovernor, and @maxwelltani
Bluesky: @esqueer.net and @keithchu
| Raphael Satter / 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” — California's governor and attorney general said on Wednesday that they were demanding answers …
More: The Atlantic, BBC, CNN, The Record, Reuters, The Times, Politico, CBS News, CalMatters, Tom's Guide, Euractiv, Telegraph, and Reuters
| 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 …
More: AppleInsider, Engadget, NBC News, Reuters, Forbes, CNET, DatacenterDynamics, ZDNET, CNN, Tom's Guide, New York Times, 9to5Google, WJXX-TV, MacRumors, PCMag, The Verge, BleepingComputer, Bloomberg, 9to5Mac, Benzinga, New York Post, WebProNews, Screen Rant, The Mac Observer, New York Post, Android Authority, The Gateway Pundit, Business Insider, Fox Business, Pocket-lint, SammyGuru, Hollywood Life, Associated Press, Newser, Android Central, CBS News, USA Today, Mashable, The Hill, Droid Life, Fierce Network, PhoneArena, Daring Fireball, KARE-TV, Twin Cities, al.com, and WPXI-TV
X: @verizonnews, @verizonnews, @joannastern, @0xgaut, @morningbrew, and @pcmag
Forums: r/conspiracy, r/PrepperIntel, and r/news
| 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.
More: Business Insider, The Hill, WebProNews, iPhone in Canada, Sherwood News, CNET, TESLARATI, Mashable, Gizchina, Digital Trends, CleanTechnica, Wall Street Journal, EV, Euro Weekly News, Engadget, The Drive, and Bloomberg Law
X: @elonmusk, @noblebrown, @mikebutcher, @alex_avoigt, @0xethan, @autismcapital, @williamlaurent3, @ryantanaka, @techau, @martingeddes, @fredlambert, and @not_qz
Forums: r/SelfDrivingCars, r/teslainvestorsclub, and r/TeslaLounge
| 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 …
More: Benzinga, Tech in Asia, The American Bazaar, The Information, Washington Examiner, Yahoo Finance, Taipei Times, Investing.com, HotHardware, eeNews Europe, Barron's Online, TechWire Asia, WinBuzzer, Blockonomi, Tom's Hardware, Türkiye Today, DatacenterDynamics, Euronews, Silicon Republic, Modern Diplomacy, Channel NewsAsia, Proactive, Reuters, Bloomberg, and The Information
Forums: r/wallstreetbets and r/worldnews
| Josh Wingrove / Bloomberg: |
| 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 … | 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.
More: The Guardian, The Verge, The Times, Financial Times, Courthouse News Service, CoinJournal, Breitbart, PublicTechnology, ComputerWeekly.com, Mirror, Engadget, The Register, Cryptonews, Sky News, and Euro Weekly News
X: @nigel_farage, @rupertlowe10, @thatalexwoman, @archrose90, @maxkendix, @rupertlowe10, @bryanglick, and @jamesmelville. LinkedIn: Matty Shafran. Bluesky: @openrightsgroup.org
Forums: Hacker News, r/technology, r/uknews, and r/BreakingUKNews
| The Information: |
Source: Microsoft has become one of Anthropic's top clients and was recently on pace to spend nearly $500M/year for Anthropic's AI to power Microsoft products — OpenAI is Microsoft's most important AI provider and its biggest cloud server customer. — But as OpenAI does more business …
More: PYMNTS.com, Benzinga, Computerworld, The Decoder, and Sherwood News
| 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 …
More: Bloomberg, Natto Thoughts, Modern Diplomacy, CTech, Metacurity, MarketWatch, Yahoo Finance, and Blockonomi
| 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 …
More: Decrypt, Z.ai, Z.ai on Hugging Face, Z.ai on GitHub, Digit, South China Morning Post, Investing.com, Computerworld, The Information, and Tech in Asia
X: @zai_org, @zackabrams, @ivanfioravanti, @garyfung, @business, @teortaxestex, @xianbao_qian, @meowbooksj, @mark_k, and @jietang
Forums: r/comfyui and r/LocalLLaMA
| 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.
X: @rohindhar
| 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 …
More: Bandcamp Updates, Ars Technica, The Hollywood Reporter, MobileSyrup, TechCrunch, Engadget, Screen Rant, Digital Music News, Billboard, The Verge, Music Ally, The A.V. Club, Stereogum, NME, and BrooklynVegan
X: @danielraffel and @future_of_music
Bluesky: @negativeagent, @mwl.io, @davidgerard.co.uk, @ripridermusic, @nowplaying.cool, @lesterlee, @colinhemphill.com, @2mello.net, @lauramarie, @logicalnuisance, @rrrrroseazerty …, @mmmmmmuhh, and @bandcamp.com
Mastodon: @GossiTheDog@cyberplace.social, @dallin@writing.exchange, @headfirstonly@mastodon.social, and @n8dly@mastodon.social
Forums: Hacker News, r/BandCamp, and r/synthesizers
| Financial Times: |
Sources: McKinsey pilots an overhaul in how it recruits its next generation, asking candidates to use its AI tool Lilli to analyze a case study during a test — Candidates in pilot assessed on how they prompted consulting firm's AI assistant and ability to adapt responses| Reuters: |
Bitchat, a P2P messaging app launched by Jack Dorsey, has emerged as a key lifeline for people in Uganda and Iran facing government-imposed internet shutdowns — A little-known offline messaging app launched by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey has emerged as a key lifeline for Ugandans cut off …
More: Cryptonews, crypto.news, Bitcoin Insider, and Rest of World
| 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.| 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
More: Engadget, NextDraft, Variety, The Decoder, Tom's Guide, Shelly Palmer, Newser, Music Ally, Telegraph, and WebProNews. Bluesky: @frydawolff
| Tasmin Lockwood / CNBC: |
US Big Tech companies have been on an energy-related hiring spree; Workforce.ai says Microsoft has hired 570+ people with energy-related expertise since 2022 — Big Tech has been on an energy hiring spree. — Technology companies investing heavily in artificial intelligence are bolstering … | Naureen S Malik / Bloomberg: |
PJM trims summer 2027 peak demand forecast to ~160 GW from ~164 GW because some projects, including data centers, lack firm service or construction commitments — The biggest US grid operator dialed back its forecast for power demand growth, offering a reality check to the frenzy around the artificial intelligence boom.
More: Bloomberg Law and PJM Inside Lines
| Chris Metinko / Axios: |
Novee, which utilizes proprietary AI models to perform automated penetration testing, emerges from stealth with a $43M Series A and an $8.5M seed — Novee, a penetration-testing cybersecurity startup, launched out of stealth with $51.5 million in funding, co-founder and CEO Ido Geffen tells Axios Pro.
More: Business Wire, Forbes, FinSMEs, SiliconANGLE, Novee, Globes, and CTech
| 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 … | 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| 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.
More: MacRumors, Macworld, The Verge, 9to5Mac, PhoneArena, BGR, Appleosophy, iPhone in Canada, iDrop News, WebProNews, The Mac Observer, and iClarified
| Denitsa Tsekova / Bloomberg: |
Polymarket is hosting a growing number of contracts tied to military conflicts, including China invading Taiwan; possible US strikes in Iran has $18M+ in trades — Even as prediction-market platforms have tested legal and regulatory norms like never before, most have drawn a line at one category: direct wagers on war.
Bluesky: @carnage4life
| Katie Drummond / Wired: |
Q&A with Reid Hoffman on wanting Silicon Valley to speak out against the Trump administration, AI regulation, the role of AI in art and creativity, and more — The LinkedIn cofounder and frequent Trump target has a simple message for his peers: “Just speak up about the things that you think are true.”
Forums: r/politics and r/siliconvalley
| Lucas Ropek / TechCrunch: |
Depthfirst, which provides AI tools for codebase scanning, credential exposure protection, and threat monitoring, raised a $40M Series A led by Accel Partners — Cybercriminals are increasingly using AI in their attacks. At the same time, cyber defenders are also turning to the technology to fight back.
More: FinSMEs, Bloomberg, FinSMEs, and Business Wire
| Bloomberg: |
How Ireland, an early data center winner, has missed out on much of the AI boom due to creaking infrastructure and a strained electricity grid stopping projects — The government has a new energy plan to get investment flowing again — Every few weeks, electricians … | Supantha Mukherjee / Reuters: |
Belgium-based Aikido Security, which offers automated security guardrails for developers, raised a $60M Series B led by DST Global at a $1B valuation — Belgium's Aikido Security has raised $60 million from investors led by tech-focused private equity firm DST Global at a valuation of $1 billion … Sponsor Posts
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