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January 15, 2026, 8:35 AM
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Kylie Robison / @kyliebytes:
Thinking Machines parts ways with CTO Barret Zoph, with Soumith Chintala taking over the role; sources say the termination is due to “unethical conduct”  —  BREAKING: Thinking Machines has terminated its CTO, Barret Zoph, due to unethical conduct according to two sources familiar with the matter. CEO Mira Murati announced the news at an all-hands with employees today. Soumith Chintala will be taking over as CTO.
Maxwell Zeff / Wired:
A source close to Thinking Machines alleged that 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.
Fidji Simo / @fidjissimo:
Fidji Simo says Barret Zoph, Luke Metz, and Sam Schoenholz are returning to OpenAI from Thinking Machines and the move “has been in the works for several weeks”  —  Excited to welcome Barret Zoph, Luke Metz, and Sam Schoenholz back to OpenAI! This has been in the works for several weeks, and we're thrilled to have them join the team. Barret will report to me; Luke and Sam will report into Barret. More to come on what they'll focus on soon!
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.
Financial Times:
UK PM Keir Starmer says X indicated to government officials it was acting to comply with UK laws by restricting the generation of nonconsensual sexual images  —  UK prime minister says xAI will restrict the image generator as billionaire pledges to follow laws in all markets
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
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”
Wall Street Journal:
OpenAI strikes a multibillion-dollar agreement to buy 750 MW of computing capacity from Cerebras over three years; sources say the deal is worth more than $10B  —  The ChatGPT-maker is racing to secure more computing power, especially for responding to user queries
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  —  TSMC, the world's largest contract chipmaker, posted a 35% jump in fourth-quarter net profit on Thursday, beating market forecasts …
Adamya Sharma / Android Authority:
OpenAI quietly rolls out ChatGPT Translate, a standalone website that currently supports plain text translations across 50+ languages  —  OpenAI's new standalone translation tool supports over 50 languages and features AI-powered prompt customization.  —  •  —  TL;DR
Josh Wingrove / Bloomberg:
President Trump signs an order to impose a 25% tariff on chips “transshipped through the US to other foreign countries”, as part of the Nvidia H200 export deal  —  The US imposed a 25% tariff on imports of certain semiconductors, a key step in an agreement blessed …
Nikkei Asia:
Sources: China is drafting rules for Nvidia H200 purchases, limiting how many chips local companies can buy and requiring them to justify the need  —  TAIPEI/HONG KONG/PALO ALTO — China is working to set rules on how many advanced AI chips companies can buy from foreign makers like Nvidia …
More: WebProNews
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.
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
Nikhilesh De / CoinDesk:
Coinbase pulls support from the US Senate's crypto market structure bill ahead of a key vote; CEO Brian Armstrong says there are “too many issues” with the bill  —  CEO Brian Armstrong said there were “too many issues” with the bill.  —  Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said the exchange …
Jacob Krol / TechRadar:
Verizon resolves “an issue impacting wireless voice and data services” that caused 100,000+ customers to lose reception for 10+ hours on Wednesday  —  The carrier says the outage is now resolved  —  While Verizon had a good few months, with the last major outage occurring in October 2024 …
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.
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.
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.
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  —  Today sees a bold move to bring two key processor architectures, MIPS and ARC, under one umbrella, as GlobalFoundries announced …
Silla Brush / Bloomberg:
BlackRock raises $12.5B as part of its Microsoft partnership to bankroll data centers and energy infrastructure, bringing it closer to its $30B goal from 2024  —  BlackRock Inc. has raised $12.5 billion as part of a partnership with Microsoft Corp. to bankroll data centers and energy infrastructure …

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From Mediagazer

Jessica Toonkel / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Paramount has discussed creating an oversight committee to protect news independence at CNN; News Corp created a similar group when it bought Dow Jones

Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:
Sources: Forbes fired Chief Content Officer Randall Lane last month after finding he received ~$6M from R.J. Shook, founder of Forbes partner Shook Research

Dan Mangan / CNBC:
President Trump announces that White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt will leave her post by the end of August to spend more time with her family

More News

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

Earlier Picks

Luz Ding / Bloomberg:
Alibaba links Qwen to its online shopping and travel services, including Taobao, Alipay, Fliggy, and Amap, aiming to build a one-stop AI app for its 100M users
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