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January 21, 2026, 12:25 PM
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Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
YouTube CEO Neal Mohan publishes his annual letter, saying YouTube aims to reduce “AI slop” and has strengthened parental controls, and teases Shorts updates  —  The executive published his annual letter to the YouTube community Wednesday, outlining his priorities for the video platform.
Alex Heath / Sources:
Demis Hassabis says Google doesn't have “any plans” for ads in Gemini and, regarding OpenAI testing ads, says “maybe they feel they need to make more revenue”  —  During our convo in Davos, Demis Hassabis and I chatted about ads in AI, Google's new deal with Apple, humanoids, and Gemini 4.
The Information:
Sources: OpenAI has begun offering its chatbot ads to dozens of advertisers, initially charging based on ad view, not ad click, asking for <$1M in commitments  —  OpenAI has started offering its new chatbot ads to dozens of advertisers, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Juby Babu / Reuters:
OpenAI rolls out age prediction on ChatGPT consumer plans globally to identify under-18 users and apply content protections, as it prepares to add 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 …
Bloomberg:
Chinese AI startup Zhipu says it is limiting GLM Coding Plan access after strong demand, taking only 20% of its current daily new subscriptions from January 23  —  China's Zhipu is limiting access to its coding assistant after strong demand for a new AI model siphoned off computing resources.
Financial Times:
How Ukraine and Russia rely on the same Chinese drone suppliers, whose tech is vital to the war; China has banned sensitive drone tech exports to both countries  —  As both sides scramble to source vital parts, some experts are convinced Russian buyers are being favoured by Beijing
Bloomberg:
OpenAI says it will pay for the costs of developing energy-related infrastructure used by its Stargate data centers so they don't raise consumers' utility bills  —  OpenAI said it will pay for the costs of developing energy-related infrastructure required by its Stargate data centers …
Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
Netflix reports Q4 revenue up 18% YoY to $12.05B, vs. $11.97B est., 325M subscribers, 2025 revenue up 16% to $45.2B, and will spend 10% more on content in 2026  —  Netflix Inc. delivered fourth-quarter results that largely beat Wall Street estimates but issued a cautious forecast for the months ahead …
Caitlin Huston / The Hollywood Reporter:
Greg Peters says Netflix plans to include new types of content, like video podcasts, in its vertical video feed, and will roll out a new mobile UI later in 2026
Nikou Asgari / Financial Times:
Galaxy Digital plans to launch a hedge fund in Q1 2026, investing up to 30% in crypto tokens and the rest in financial stocks; sources say it has raised $100M  —  Billionaire's firm plans portfolio to profit from rising and falling prices, following sharp sell-off in digital assets sector
Mauro Orru / Wall Street Journal:
Jensen Huang says that AI is already bringing economic benefits and needs more investment, and “the AI bubble comes about because the investments are large”  —  Jensen Huang called for higher investments to further spread the technology across developed and emerging economies
Theo Wayt / The Information:
Elon Musk and Sam Altman clashed on X after Musk shared a post about a man who committed a murder-suicide following delusional conversations with ChatGPT  —  Elon Musk and Sam Altman traded barbs on X this week over media reports of deaths linked to OpenAI's ChatGPT and other AI-related safety issues.
Wall Street Journal:
Barret Zoph says Thinking Machines Lab fired him only after learning he was leaving, and at no time did the company cite his performance or unethical conduct  —  After a relationship with a colleague, a Thinking Machines co-founder had his role changed.  Months later, he was fired after a contentious meeting.
Simon P. Couch:
A programmer estimates his typical day of coding with Claude Code is equivalent to running the dishwasher an extra time, much more energy than a “median query”  —  Most of the discourse about the environmental impact of LLM use focuses on a ‘median query.’ What about a Claude Code session?
Gené Teare / Crunchbase News:
European VC funding rose 9% YoY to hit $58B in 2025, vs. North America's 46% YoY jump; AI led with ~$17.5B, followed by biotech's ~$13.4B and hardware's ~$10.8B  —  Venture funding to Europe-based startups last year gained only slightly, around 9% year over year, reaching $58 billion …
Chris Welch / Bloomberg:
Sony launches the $230 LinkBuds Clip, open-style earbuds that sit outside the ear canal, with IPX4 water resistance and a 9-hour battery life, available now  —  Sony Group Corp. introduced its latest pair of consumer earbuds, with a clip-on design that resembles recent efforts from Bose Corp. …
Wen-Yee Lee / Reuters:
GlobalWafers Chair Doris Hsu says the Taiwanese silicon wafer maker is preparing for phase two of its Texas plant, after saying in May it will invest $4B more  —  Taiwanese silicon wafer manufacturer GlobalWafers (6488.TWO) is preparing for the phase two expansion of its plant in the U.S. state of Texas …
More: Taipei Times
Yi-Ling Liu / Wired:
The Cyberspace Administration of China requires companies to file their AI tools in a public algorithm registry, creating a map of the country's AI ecosystem  —  How the Cyberspace Administration of China inadvertently made a guide to the country's homegrown AI revolution.
More: WebProNews
Lucas Ropek / TechCrunch:
X open sources its “core recommendation system”, which powers For You, on GitHub, and says the system “ranks everything using a Grok-based transformer model”  —  In 2023, the website then known as Twitter partially open sourced its algorithm for the first time.

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This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 12:25 PM ET, January 21, 2026.

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From Mediagazer

CNN:
Don Lemon pleads not guilty to two federal charges stemming from his reporting at an anti-ICE protest in a Minnesota church

Isma'il Kushkush / Nieman Reports:
A look at the dearth of media coverage of Sudan's civil war, started in 2023; report: 32 journalists have been killed and 90% of outlets damaged or destroyed

Jessica Toonkel / Wall Street Journal:
Memo: LA Olympics Chair Casey Wasserman is putting his talent agency up for sale after his ties to Epstein surfaced and high-profile talent departed the firm

More News

Earlier Picks

Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Apple outages affecting multiple services, including Apple TV, the App Store, and iCloud, are now fixed following a nearly four-hour disruption on January 20
April Rubin / Axios:
The US DOJ says at least two DOGE employees accessed Social Security data that was off-limits under a court ruling and shared agency data on third-party servers
Jody Godoy / Reuters:
The US FTC files a notice to appeal a November 2025 ruling that found Meta did not hold an illegal monopoly by acquiring Instagram and WhatsApp
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