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January 20, 2026, 4:00 PM
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Top News

Belle Lin / Wall Street Journal:
OpenAI and ServiceNow sign a three-year deal to integrate OpenAI's models into ServiceNow's business software, including using OpenAI's AI agents for IT tasks  —  The AI model maker and business-software provider signed a three-year pact that underscores how AI agents are increasingly being embedded in corporate software
Christina Kyriasoglou / Bloomberg:
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei says selling AI chips to China is like “selling nuclear weapons to North Korea” and has “incredible national security implications”  —  Anthropic Chief Executive Officer Dario Amodei said selling advanced artificial intelligence chips to China …
Brian Stelter / CNN:
Netflix and WBD say Netflix revised its WBD offer to an all-cash deal for $27.75/share, with the same $82.7B value; its original bid had $59B in debt financing  —  In an ongoing struggle over the future of Warner Bros. Discovery, Netflix says it is now prepared to pay all cash for Warner Bros. and HBO …
Cade Metz / New York Times:
Humans&, founded by ex-Anthropic, xAI, and Google staff to build collaborative AI, raised a $480M seed from Nvidia, Jeff Bezos, and others at a $4.48B valuation  —  As a research scientist at Anthropic, one of the world's leading A.I. companies, Andi Peng was part of a team that tried …
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.
Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
Filings from Elon Musk's OpenAI lawsuit detail Microsoft's decade-long OpenAI relationship, like establishing a new subsidiary for Sam Altman while he was fired  —  The launch of the AI lab that would redefine Microsoft caught the tech giant by surprise.  —  “Did we get called to participate?”
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Netflix adds a real-time voting feature for its Star Search reboot, available on mobile, smart TVs, and streaming devices, but not on a browser  —  Netflix today is launching a new feature that will allow users to interact with live content through voting.  The streaming company said the option …
Tim Hardwick / MacRumors:
Setapp Mobile, one of the first alt iOS app stores launched in 2024 after the EU's DMA, plans to shut down, blaming “still-evolving and complex business terms”  —  Ukraine-based developer MacPaw is set to close Setapp Mobile, its alternative app store for iOS devices in the European Union, next month.
Kate Clark / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: AI inference startup Baseten raised $300M led by IVP and CapitalG at a $5B valuation, more than doubling its valuation; Nvidia invested $150M  —  The move follows other investments from the chip giant to improve the delivery of artificial-intelligence services to customers
Michael Thomsen / New York Times:
How Zynga uses a secretive VIP program with personal account managers and exclusive sweepstake entries to keep top players spending on games like FarmVille  —  CSR 2 Realistic Drag Racing is a simple game, even by smartphone standards.  Players compete in short street races …
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.
Naga Avan-Nomayo / The Block:
Portugal orders Polymarket to stop operations and blocks it in the country after heavy activity tied to its recent presidential election, with €110M+ in volume  —  Partner offers  —  Quick Take  — Portugal's gambling regulator has ordered prediction market platform Polymarket …
Jody Godoy / Reuters:
The US FTC plans to appeal to revive its case accusing Meta of bolstering an illegal monopoly by acquiring Instagram and WhatsApp; Meta won the case in 2025  —  The U.S. Federal Trade Commission will file an appeal seeking to revive its case accusing Facebook parent company Meta Platforms …
Juby Babu / Reuters:
OpenAI rolls out age prediction on ChatGPT globally to identify users under 18 and apply automatic content protections as it prepares to introduce adult content  —  OpenAI on Tuesday said it is rolling out age prediction on ChatGPT globally, to determine whether an account is likely owned by a minor …
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

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This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 4:00 PM 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

Todd Spangler / Variety:
White House denied CNN, MS NOW, Politico staffers access on Saturday; CNN calls it an “illegal assault”; Politico says it will “vigorously defend” its 1A rights

Jessica Toonkel / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Paramount is in advanced settlement talks with California Attorney General Rob Bonta over the company's deal to acquire WBD

Katie Kilkenny / The Hollywood Reporter:
Gov. Gavin Newsom signs a postproduction tax incentive into law, rewarding productions that locate scoring, editing, or other post work in California

More News

Earlier Picks

Simon Willison / Simon Willison's Weblog:
Cursor recently experimented with using hundreds of AI agents to build a web browser; they ran for close to a week, writing 1M+ lines of code across 1,000 files
Kiran Stacey / The Guardian:
UK ministers launch a consultation on whether to ban under-16s from using social media, alongside restrictions on addictive app features like infinite scrolling
Nilay Patel / The Verge:
Q&A with Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan on using AI in game development, the gaming community's pushback against AI, concept products, partnering with Grok, and more
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”
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