Techmeme
January 27, 2026, 3:25 PM

Top News

Kimi:
Bloomberg:
Chinese startup Moonshot releases Kimi K2.5, saying the model can process text, images, and videos simultaneously and beats its open-source peers in some tests  —  Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.-backed Moonshot AI released an upgrade of its flagship model, heating up a domestic arms race ahead …
Washington Post:
US court filings detail Anthropic's Project Panama, an effort to “destructively scan” up to 2M books with a hydraulic “cutting machine” led by an ex-Google exec  —  In early 2024, executives at artificial intelligence start-up Anthropic ramped up an ambitious project they sought to keep quiet.
Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
Amazon plans to close all 57 Fresh and 15 Go locations in the US, as it pivots its physical retail strategy to focus exclusively on Whole Foods  —  Amazon's homegrown grocery stores are getting shelved.  —  The company said Tuesday morning that it's closing all of its Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh locations …
New York Times:
Internal Slack message: Sam Altman tells OpenAI staff that “What's happening with ICE is going too far” and he hopes President Trump “will rise to this moment”  —  Business leaders continue to feel pressure to speak out about the immigration crackdown and the fatal shooting of two U.S. citizens.
Julie Bort / TechCrunch:
Henry Chandonnet / Business Insider:
Clawdbot creator Peter Steinberger says he is changing the name of the viral AI agent to Moltbot after he “was forced to rename the account by Anthropic”  —  - Clawdbot, the viral AI agent that's leading techies to buy up Mac Minis, is now named Moltbot.
Emily Nicolle / Bloomberg:
Tether launches USAT, a US-regulated stablecoin issued by Anchorage Digital Bank, marking the company's direct return to the US market that it left in 2018  —  Tether Holdings SA said it has launched a US-focused stablecoin, as the world's largest issuer of dollar-pegged tokens prepares to return to crypto's largest market.
Cecilia Kang / New York Times:
TikTok settles a California lawsuit ahead of a landmark social media addiction trial; Snap recently settled the suit, while Meta and YouTube remain defendants  —  The settlement means TikTok will avoid a trial where plaintiffs had planned to argue that social media platforms are inherently defective …
Raphael Satter / Reuters:
WhatsApp launches Strict Account Settings, a high-security mode to protect high-risk users like journalists and public figures from sophisticated cyberattacks  —  Meta's WhatsApp messaging service is offering users an advanced security mode, joining a growing number of U.S. tech firms …
Robert Hart / The Verge:
Google adds Gemini 3 to AI Overviews as the default model globally and now lets users ask follow-up questions “seamlessly” via AI Mode  —  Gemini 3 is coming to AI Overviews and you can ask follow-ups for a ‘seamless Search experience.’  —  Google is making Search less about links and more about AI.
David Gilbert / Wired:
Meta blocks users from sharing links to ICE List, which compiles names of DHS staffers; Meta cites a policy against “asking for personally identifiable” info  —  Users of Meta's social platforms can no longer share links to ICE List, a website listing what it claims are the names of thousands of DHS employees.
More: The Daily Beast.  X: @hshaban.  Bluesky: @makenakelly and @timmarchman
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Google expands Android's anti-theft suite, including a dedicated toggle for its Failed Authentication Lock feature on devices running Android 16 or later  —  Google on Tuesday announced an expanded set of Android theft protection features, designed to make its mobile devices less of a target for criminals.
Bobby Allyn / NPR:
TikTok US says it doesn't “have rules against sharing the name Epstein in direct messages” and is “investigating why some users are experiencing issues”  —  Officials at TikTok say they are looking into why many users have been unable to send the word “Epstein” …
Tyler Katzenberger / Politico:
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google expands its AI Plus subscription to 35 new countries and territories, including the US at $7.99/month, with “enhanced access” to Gemini 3 Pro and more  —  After introducing the plan internationally in September, Google is bringing its AI Plus subscription to 35 new countries, including the US.
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Apple releases iOS 12.5.8 for the iPhone 5s and iPhone 6, extending software support for these devices to 13 and 12 years after their respective launches  —  Alongside iOS 26.2.1, Apple today released an updated version of iOS 12 for devices that are still running that operating system update …
Pascale Davies / Euronews:
France plans to replace Microsoft Teams and Zoom with French-made and Outscale-hosted Visio by 2027, as part of a push to drop US software vendors in government  —  France announced that it will roll out the Visio platform across all government departments by 2027.

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More News

Laya Neelakandan / CNBC:
Samantha Cole / 404 Media:
Chris Welch / Bloomberg:

Earlier Picks

Annie Palmer / CNBC:
Katie Tarasov / CNBC:
Wired:
Samuel Stolton / Bloomberg:
Aisha Malik / TechCrunch: