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January 15, 2026, 5:15 PM
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Maxwell Zeff / Wired:
A source close to Thinking Machines Lab alleges ex-CTO Barret Zoph, who is returning to OpenAI, had shared confidential company information with competitors  —  The departures are a blow for Thinking Machines Lab.  Two narratives are already emerging about why they happened.
Kylie Robison / @kyliebytes:
Thinking Machines Lab parts ways with CTO Barret Zoph, with Soumith Chintala taking over the role; sources say the termination is due to “unethical conduct”
Fidji Simo / @fidjissimo:
Fidji Simo says Barret Zoph, Luke Metz, and Sam Schoenholz have returned to OpenAI from Thinking Machines Lab and “this has been in the works for several weeks”
Emma Roth / The Verge:
The Wikimedia Foundation says Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, Perplexity, and Mistral joined Wikimedia Enterprise to get “tuned” API access; Google is already a member  —  The companies have joined Google as the latest members of the Wikimedia Enterprise program.
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Wikimedia celebrates Wikipedia's 25th anniversary, marking its growth from 100 pages to 65M+ articles with nearly 15B monthly views, and releases a docuseries  —  The online encyclopedia is releasing a mini docuseries that puts faces to the editors behind an array of Wikipedia articles.
Tim Culpan / Culpium:
Sources: Apple now needs to fight for TSMC production capacity amid the AI boom; Nvidia was likely TSMC's top customer in at least one or two quarters in 2025  —  [Exclusive] A 15-year relationship helped TSMC grow and Apple leap ahead of rivals.  But now the iPhone maker is struggling …
Reuters:
TSMC reports Q4 net profit up 35% YoY to a record ~$16B, above $15.17B est., as it benefited from surging demand for AI chips and hit $100B in 2025 revenue
Bloomberg:
TSMC projects $52B to $56B in 2026 capital spending, up 25%+ from 2025, and forecasts close to 30% YoY revenue growth in 2026, both above analyst estimates
Kif Leswing / CNBC:
The US says Taiwanese companies will invest $250B+ in chip production in the US as part of a trade deal, with Taiwanese government guaranteeing $250B in credit  —  The U.S. and Taiwan have reached a trade agreement to build chips and chip factories on American soil, the Department of Commerce announced on Thursday.
Financial Times:
Source: Apple's Gemini deal is a cloud contract where it pays Google several billion dollars; a source says OpenAI declined to be Apple's custom model provider  —  Multibillion-dollar deal to secure Gemini models reflects cautious approach to infrastructure spending
Adamya Sharma / Android Authority:
OpenAI quietly rolls out ChatGPT Translate, a standalone website that supports plain text translations across 50+ languages and features prompt customization  —  OpenAI's new standalone translation tool supports over 50 languages and features AI-powered prompt customization.  —  •  —  TL;DR
CNBC:
Replit launches Mobile Apps on Replit, which enables vibe-coding of iOS apps with integrated Stripe monetization  —  AI coding startup Replit is now letting users create and publish mobile apps for Apple devices using only natural language prompts, the latest evolution in so-called vibe-coding.
More: DEVCLASS
Bloomberg:
Sources: Replit is in advanced discussions to raise about $400M in a new round of funding that would roughly triple its valuation to $9B  —  Replit Inc., an artificial intelligence coding startup, is nearing a deal for a new round of funding that would roughly triple its valuation to $9 billion …
André Beganski / Decrypt:
X revises its developer API policies to “no longer allow apps that reward users for posting on X (aka “infofi")", amid a backlash about increasing AI slop on X  —  X is making major changes to its API to prevent access by “InfoFi” crypto projects that seek to incentivize “reply spam,” an exec said.
CNBC:
Amazon files an objection to Saks Global's bankruptcy financing plan, and says its $475M investment in the department store is now effectively “worthless”  —  Amazon wants a federal judge to reject Saks Global's bankruptcy financing plan, writing in court papers the beleaguered department store …
Cade Metz / New York Times:
Scientists say that AI has become a powerful and rapidly improving research tool, and that whether it is generating ideas on its own is, for now, a moot point  —  For decades, elite mathematicians have struggled to solve a collection of thorny problems posed by a 20th-century academic named Paul Erdos.
Ben Sherry / Inc:
Symbolic.ai, founded by ex-eBay CEO Devin Wenig and Ars Technica cofounder Jon Stokes, partners with News Corp to offer AI tools to WSJ, Barron's, and others  —  Exclusive: An AI-based journalism platform aims to do it all.  Can it deliver the accuracy and productivity it promises?
See also Mediagazer
Ionut Arghire / SecurityWeek:
WitnessAI, whose service helps organizations govern and protect their AI operations, raised $58M led by Sound Ventures, taking its total funding to $85M+
Financial Times:
Anthropic researchers say rich countries' higher AI adoption risks deepening economic disparities and widening living standard gaps, assuming productivity gains  —  Research by AI start-up suggests productivity gains from the technology unevenly spread around world
More: Anthropic, Anthropic, WebProNews, The Decoder, Axios, and Coverager
X: @azeem.  LinkedIn: Andrea Trocino and Ako Sabir.  Forums: Slashdot
Karissa Bell / Engadget:
X updates Grok to prevent the “editing of images of real people in revealing clothing such as bikinis” and geoblocks it for all users “where it's illegal”  —  The company is also blocking image generation entirely from non-subscribers.
The Keyword:
Google releases TranslateGemma, a suite of Gemma 3-based open translation models available in 4B-, 12B-, and 27B-parameter sizes, with support for 55 languages  —  Today, we're introducing TranslateGemma, a new collection of open translation models built on Gemma 3, helping people communicate …
New York Times:
Sources: the US cyberattack that plunged Caracas into darkness during the Maduro mission shows its offensive capabilities; Senators plan to question officials  —  Senators are expected to ask Lt. Gen. Joshua M. Rudd, President Trump's nominee to lead the U.S. Cyber Command, about the mission in Caracas.
Wired:
Researchers detail WhisperPair, vulnerabilities in Google's Fast Pair protocol affecting 17 audio device models from 10 brands; Google rolled out updates  —  Flaws in how 17 models of headphones and speakers use Google's one-tap Fast Pair Bluetooth protocol have left devices open to eavesdroppers and stalkers.

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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 5:15 PM ET, January 15, 2026.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

From Mediagazer

Andrew Hutchinson / Social Media Today:
YouTube is testing an option that would enable creators to cash out their Partner Program earnings at $20, rather than the longstanding $100 minimum

Savannah Walsh / Vanity Fair:
A profile of Wren Woodson and Mabel Kabani, ex-60 Minutes staffers whose Gen Z news startup Newsgirls has ~500K followers across Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok

Julia Moskin / New York Times:
A profile of Tini Younger, 24, TikTok's top woman chef with 12.5M followers, who is publishing a cookbook for Gen Z, the age group least likely to cook at home

More News

Francisco Rodrigues / CoinDesk:
Bitmine, the largest corporate holder of ether, invests $200M in MrBeast's Beast Industries, set to close on January 19; Bitmine holds 4M+ ETH valued at ~$13.6B
Molly Schuetz / Bloomberg:
Spotify plans to raise its Premium subscription by $1 to $12.99/month in the US, its first US price hike since July 2024, and increase it in Estonia and Latvia

Earlier Picks

Arjun Kharpal / CNBC:
AWS launches European Sovereign Cloud, creating a new parent company for its sovereign cloud that will be locally controlled in the EU and run by EU citizens
Nitin Dahad / EE Times:
GlobalFoundries agrees to acquire Synopsys' ARC processor IP business, which includes ARC-V (RISC-V) and ARC CPU IP, and integrate it into its MIPS business
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