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January 20, 2026, 7:05 AM
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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, Implicator.ai, Matt Mullenweg, and arXiv.org
X: @enscion25, @anthropicai, @anthropicai, @gallabytes, @jack_w_lindsey, @anthropicai, @anthropicai, @tessera_antra, @anthropicai, @anthropicai, @peterwildeford, @anthropicai, and @thebasepoint
Bluesky: @emollick and @tachikoma.elsewhereunbound …
Forums: Hacker News, r/claudexplorers, and r/singularity
| John Liu / Bloomberg: |
Sources: China broadens its probe into Temu owner PDD, dispatching 100+ investigators to its Shanghai HQ, after staff exchanged physical blows with regulators — China has broadened a probe into PDD Holdings Inc. after its employees exchanged blows with regulators, dispatching over 100 investigators …
More: Tech in Asia
| 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: BBC, Silicon Republic, GOV.UK, Financial Times, The Guardian, CoinGeek, BusinessCloud, SiliconANGLE, Al Jazeera, Reuters, Global Banking …, The Times, Sky News, Telegraph, and Reclaim The Net
X: @togetherdec, @bambosmp, @anglofuturist, @lukeaaronmoore, @lukeaaronmoore, @prestonjbyrne, @defossardf, @samanthataghoy, @astor_charlie, @jackguyanderton, @mavenpolitic, @russellquirk, @ellymelly, @tomhfh, @fredthomasuk, @mollyroseorg, @kemibadenoch, @sophielouisecc, @alanvibe, @charleshymas, @richardwellings, @landeur, @douglascarswell, @lauratrottmp, @davidghfrost, @kemibadenoch, @rupertlowe10, and @richardwellings. LinkedIn: Andy Burrows
Bluesky: @acerbialberto.com, @k2mey, @goodlawproject.org, @katebevan.com, @goodlawproject.org, @dorianlynskey, and @sophiasgaler
Forums: Hacker News, r/LabourUK, and r/technology
| 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.| Ben Bergman / Business Insider: |
Vibe coding startup Emergent raised a $70M Series B led by Khosla and SoftBank Vision Fund 2, after a $23M Series A in September 2025, and claims 5M+ users — - Emergent is an AI software creation platform that helps anyone build web and mobile applications.
More: The Economic Times, Entrackr, and Analytics India Magazine
| Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch: |
PE firm Everstone combines India's Wingify, which helps A/B test sites, and France's AB Tasty, which improves e-commerce UX; Everstone bought Wingify for $200M — Private equity firm Everstone Capital is bringing together India's Wingify — a company that helps businesses test different versions …
More: Entrackr, The Economic Times, Tech in Asia, Moneycontrol, and Livemint
| Jess Weatherbed / The Verge: |
Sony and TCL sign a non-binding agreement to spin off Sony's TV and home audio hardware business into a new joint venture, aiming to finalize the deal by March — The two companies are planning to form a new joint venture that will carry the ‘Sony’ and ‘Bravia’ branding.| Yazhou Sun / Bloomberg: |
French accounting software startup Pennylane raised $204M led by TCV, a source says at a ~$4.25B valuation, with participation from Blackstone, DST, and others — Pennylane, a French startup that sells accounting software, has raised €175 million ($204 million) in a funding round led by growth equity investor TCV.
More: Sifted, Tech.eu, Tech in Asia, and EU-Startups
| Newley Purnell / Bloomberg: |
Meta VP of Public Policy Simon Milner, the company's most senior Asia-Pacific policy executive, plans to leave after 14 years to retire from full-time work — Meta Platforms Inc. is losing its most senior public policy executive in the Asia-Pacific at a time when the company faces several … | Jiahui Huang / Wall Street Journal: |
Sources: Baidu's Ernie Assistant passes 200M MAUs, as competition intensifies among Chinese tech giants in AI; Ernie is linked to apps like JD.com and Meituan — Ernie Assistant is integrated into its flagship Baidu search-engine app and on personal computers| Alex Wickham / Bloomberg: |
Sources: UK and Chinese security officials set up a forum to discuss cyberattacks after hacking accusations, the first of its kind, to help prevent escalation — British and Chinese security officials established a forum to discuss cyberattacks following a spate of hacking accusations that soured relations between the two countries.
X: @alexwickham
| 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 … | 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
| 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 … Sponsor Posts
Okara:
Meet Okara, the AI platform that doesn't train on your data — Chat with 30+ open-source models (Llama, Kimi, Qwen, DeepSeek) through encrypted infrastructure. Used by teams handling proprietary code and strategy.
Meet Okara, the AI platform that doesn't train on your data — Chat with 30+ open-source models (Llama, Kimi, Qwen, DeepSeek) through encrypted infrastructure. Used by teams handling proprietary code and strategy.
Soxton:
AI-powered law for startups — Soxton automates startup legal so founders can move faster and sleep better. We handle incorporation, advisor, employment and commercial contracts. Join the waitlist for early access!
AI-powered law for startups — Soxton automates startup legal so founders can move faster and sleep better. We handle incorporation, advisor, employment and commercial contracts. Join the waitlist for early access!
Zoho:
Non-negotiable ATS capabilities for successful healthcare staffing — Healthcare staffing operates where speed, accuracy, and compliance are not optional. Every placement, whether it's a travel nurse, physician …
Non-negotiable ATS capabilities for successful healthcare staffing — Healthcare staffing operates where speed, accuracy, and compliance are not optional. Every placement, whether it's a travel nurse, physician …
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
Invest Like the Best:
Patrick O'Shaughnessy - Creating on Principle
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Lenny's Podcast:
The non-technical PM's guide to building with Cursor | Zevi Arnovitz (Meta)
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
Big Technology Podcast:
Is Google's Gemini Winning?, Thinking Machines Drama, Claude Cowork's Potential
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:
Jonathan Haidt Strikes Again + What You Vibecoded + An Update on the Forkiverse
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.
Access:
Building an autonomous car utopia with Rivian's RJ Scaringe
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:
Special Edition: Key findings from the Microsoft AI Diffusion Report
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.
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