|
January 20, 2026, 4:00 AM
|
Mediagazer
memeorandum
WeSmirchTop News
| Anthropic: |
Anthropic details the “Assistant Axis”, a pattern of neural activity in language models that governs their default identity and helpful behavior — Read the full paper — When you talk to a large language model, you can think of yourself as talking to a character.
More: eWeek, Digit, Implicator.ai, Matt Mullenweg, and arXiv.org
X: @tessera_antra, @enscion25, @anthropicai, @anthropicai, @gallabytes, @jack_w_lindsey, @anthropicai, @anthropicai, @anthropicai, @anthropicai, @peterwildeford, @anthropicai, and @thebasepoint
Bluesky: @emollick and @tachikoma.elsewhereunbound …
Forums: Hacker News, r/claudexplorers, and r/singularity
| Simon Willison / Simon Willison's Weblog: |
Cursor's recent experiment involved running hundreds of AI agents for nearly a week to build a web browser, writing 1M+ lines of code across 1,000 files — Scaling long-running autonomous coding. Wilson Lin at Cursor has been doing some experiments to see how far you can push a large fleet of “autonomous” coding agents:
More: Cursor and Digit
| Yoolim Lee / Bloomberg: |
A look at South Korea's Independent AI Foundation Model competition, which aims to find the best homegrown AI models, in a bid to compete with the US and China — The state-backed survival contest aims to find the best indigenous AI models. — Late last year, more than a thousand people converged … | Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg: |
xAI faces a growing outcry from global regulators over Grok's generation of nonconsensual explicit photos, but has faced little regulatory action in the US — Despite global uproar over the generation of non-consensual explicit photos, Elon Musk has continued to downplay the issue.| Kiran Stacey / The Guardian: |
The UK launches a consultation on whether to ban under-16s from using social media, alongside restrictions on addictive app features like infinite scrolling — Move comes as peers prepare to vote on an amendment to a bill that would enact a ban within a year of the bill passing
More: The Guardian, Financial Times, Telegraph, Reuters, Sky News, GB News, BBC, GOV.UK, Global Banking …, The Times, Al Jazeera, and Reclaim The Net
X: @douglascarswell, @charleshymas, @kemibadenoch, @defossardf, @samanthataghoy, @bambosmp, @jackguyanderton, @lauratrottmp, @richardwellings, @davidghfrost, @mavenpolitic, @kemibadenoch, @prestonjbyrne, @landeur, @sophielouisecc, @rupertlowe10, @mollyroseorg, @alanvibe, @russellquirk, @astor_charlie, @togetherdec, @ellymelly, @anglofuturist, @fredthomasuk, @tomhfh, @richardwellings, @lukeaaronmoore, and @lukeaaronmoore. LinkedIn: Andy Burrows
Bluesky: @k2mey, @goodlawproject.org, @katebevan.com, @goodlawproject.org, @dorianlynskey, and @sophiasgaler
Forums: r/LabourUK and r/technology
| Anjali Jain / Inc42 Media: |
Pune-based supply chain robotics startup Unbox Robotics raised a $28M Series B in a mix of primary and secondary capital, after raising $15M in earlier rounds — SUMMARY — The round was a mix of primary and secondary capital, with employees getting liquidity through the ESOP programme
More: Entrackr, DealStreetAsia, VCCircle, and The Economic Times
| Eleanor Olcott / Financial Times: |
Sources: ByteDance boosts its cloud via more sales hires and lower prices; IDC: ByteDance had 13% of China's AI cloud market in H1 2025, behind Alibaba's 23% — Deep discounts, vast data and bespoke AI agents fuel new challenge in China's multibillion-dollar enterprise market| Kalyeena Makortoff / The Guardian: |
The UK Treasury committee says the government and Bank of England's “wait-and-see approach” to AI risks in the financial sector poses “serious harm” to the UK — Government, Bank of England and FCA criticised for taking ‘wait-and-see’ approach to AI use in financial sector
More: Reuters, The Standard, Bloomberg, Financial Times, and The UK Treasury Committee
| Ryan Vlastelica / Bloomberg: |
Anthropic's Claude Cowork launch revives investor fears about disruption that weighed on SaaS stocks in 2025; Morgan Stanley's SaaS index is down 15% YTD — The new year was supposed to bring opportunities for beaten-down software stocks. Instead, the group is off to its worst start in years.
More: Semafor. X: @buccocapital, @netcapgirl, @samsolid57, @scottastevenson, @conorsen, and @sergeycyw. Bluesky: @bottleofstars
| Nilay Patel / The Verge: |
Q&A with Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan on the use of AI in game development, the gaming community's pushback against AI, partnering with Grok, and more — We're back to start the year off with a very special live interview with Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan, which we taped in front of a terrific audience … | Katherine Doherty / Bloomberg: |
The NYSE plans to use its tech that matches buyers and sellers, plus blockchain networks, to facilitate the real-time trading of tokenized securities in 2026 — The New York Stock Exchange is building a venue using blockchain technology to allow for trading tokenized stocks and exchange-traded funds around the clock.
More: The New York Stock Exchange, The Block, Bitcoinist.com, Ventureburn, PYMNTS.com, SiliconANGLE, Associated Press, crypto.news, BeInCrypto, The Coin Republic, Benzinga, DL News, Wall Street Journal, CoinGape, Blockonomi, Bitcoin Insider, Barron's Online, Yahoo Finance, The Crypto Times, Proactive, Coinspeaker, CoinDesk, Reuters, Pulse 2.0, Cryptonews, Crypto Briefing, The Defiant, Dow Jones Newswires, Cointelegraph, and Coinpedia Fintech News
X: @cz_binance, @reece_merrick, @tszzl, @securitize, @carlosdomingo, @nyse, @ondofinance, @mollysoshea, @jdorman81, @gaborgurbacs, @jasonyanowitz, @nategeraci, and @hadickm. LinkedIn: Chris Houston
Forums: r/Superstonk and r/wallstreetbets
| Olivia Solon / Bloomberg: |
The UK Gambling Commission says Meta is letting illegal gambling sites advertise on Facebook and Instagram, calling its ad library a “window into criminality” — Meta Platforms Inc. is turning a blind eye to illegal gambling sites that advertise on Facebook and Instagram, according to the UK's Gambling Commission.| Axios: |
OpenAI executive Chris Lehane says the startup is “on track” to unveil its first device in H2 2026; reports suggest it won't have a screen and may be a wearable — OpenAI is “on track” to unveil its first device in the second half of 2026, the company's policy chief, Chris Lehane, said Monday at Axios House Davos.
More: Moneycontrol, 9to5Mac, Android Authority, Digit, The Information, Gizmodo, Sources, Android Central, The Verge, Hindustan Times, WebProNews, and Crypto Briefing
X: @inafried, @markgurman, @morqon, @signulll, and @inafried. Bluesky: @rikferguson.com. Forums: Slashdot
| Erin Woo / The Information: |
Sources: internal Google data shows Gemini API calls surged from ~35B in March 2025 to ~85B in August 2025; Google says Gemini Enterprise has hit 8M subscribers — Google's improvements to its Gemini AI models are boosting the company's top line. — Over the past year …
More: WebProNews, Rohan's Bytes, and The Decoder
Sponsor Posts
Subquadratic:
Subquadratic: the LLM built for 12M-token reasoning — SubQ can reason across entire codebases and document sets in one pass with no RAG workarounds. Read how SubQ 1.1 Small holds near-perfect retrieval out to 12M tokens.
Subquadratic: the LLM built for 12M-token reasoning — SubQ can reason across entire codebases and document sets in one pass with no RAG workarounds. Read how SubQ 1.1 Small holds near-perfect retrieval out to 12M tokens.
Cape:
Most carriers track everything. Cape doesn't. — Unlimited talk, text & data, 24-hr metadata deletion, network ID rotation, SIM-attack defense, and more. Switch today and get 29% off for life.
Most carriers track everything. Cape doesn't. — Unlimited talk, text & data, 24-hr metadata deletion, network ID rotation, SIM-attack defense, and more. Switch today and get 29% off for life.
Zoho:
Do you need a Zoho Partner? Here's why working with one can benefit you. — Zoho offers over 60 applications, each one built for a unique use case. From sales and marketing to finance, HR, and customer support …
Do you need a Zoho Partner? Here's why working with one can benefit you. — Zoho offers over 60 applications, each one built for a unique use case. From sales and marketing to finance, HR, and customer support …
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data — Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data — Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.Featured Podcasts
The Talk Show With John Gruber:
'What's in Louie's Wallet', With Louie Mantia
The director's commentary track for Daring Fireball. Long digressions on Apple, technology, design, movies, and more.
Subscribe to The Talk Show With John Gruber.
Big Technology Podcast:
Leopold Blows Up, OpenAI Drastically Cuts Prices, Microsoft's Best Day
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Hard Fork:
Open Model Wars + Claire Stapleton's Dishy Google Memoir + Substack's Slop Fight
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
Great Chat:
Tech's short-term era
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Access:
Meet the most AI-pilled CEO on Earth
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Connecting the Unconnected: Doreen Bogdan-Martin
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
About This Page
This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 4:00 AM ET, January 20, 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
Devlin Barrett / New York Times:Michael Calderone / New York Magazine:
Stephen Council / Business Insider:
Upcoming Tech Events
More News
| James Peckham / PCMag: |
More: Moneycontrol, Engadget, Ars Technica, Digit, Tech Times, WebProNews, iPhone in Canada, Gizmochina, Tech Advisor, 9to5Google, HotHardware, PhoneArena, Android Police, Tech in Asia, The Verge, Android Authority, Notebookcheck, and GSMArena.com
X: @nitesh805181, @sondesix, @evleaks, @pak_deus, and @savagearyan007
Forums: r/hardware and Slashdot
| Jez Corden / Windows Central: |
Earlier Picks
| Alex Isenstadt / Axios: |
More: New York Times, UPI, Fox News, New York Post, and RedState
X: @stanphylcap, @alexbruesewitz, @cortessteve, @jacobrubashkin, @chafkin, @zhoujaron, @ryangirdusky, @berniesanders, @jimvandehei, @varadmehta, @quinnemmett, @hadas_gold, and @axios
Bluesky: @melindameyer and @emptywheel
Forums: r/PoliticalOptimism and r/InterstellarKinetics
| Jack Dunn / Variety: |
More: No Film School, CinemaBlend, Spyglass, Gizmodo, Fox News, NME, Breitbart, al.com, Collider, International Business Times, WCSH, and National Enquirer
X: @bearlyai, @andymasley, @owl_posting, @clairlemon, @zymazza, @trungtphan, @pourfairelevide, @forrestpknight, @dead_baseball, @barondestructo, @thecinesthetic, @tom_lsoo, @freightalley, @lynaldencontact, @lookatmymeat1, @danielrpk, @khuze_elikhulu, @mattzeitlin, @ross__hendricks, @lthomasnews, @ctachio83984, @andthatsbb, @jackposobiec, @groditid, @jtfoz, @xqc, @robkhenderson, @blackmajikman90, @hdmoviesource, @grummz, @dead_baseball, @colin_gladman, and @dead_baseball. Threads: @carnage4life
Forums: r/nottheonion, r/NewsOfTheStupid, r/entertainment, r/movies, and r/television
| The Information: |
More: The Decoder, WinBuzzer, and The Information
X: @basedjensen, @erinkwoo, @calbucci, @derekjandersen, @attlka, @samswoora, @sheslostheplot, and @swyx. Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.to
| Counterpoint Research: |
More: Bloomberg, SammyGuru, Gizmochina, iPhone in Canada, PhoneArena, iClarified, Tech in Asia, MacTech.com, and DigiTimes
X: @universeice and @neiltwitz