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February 2, 2026, 10:40 AM
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| Bloomberg: |
Sources: SpaceX is in advanced talks to combine with xAI and they have informed some of their investors, as Elon Musk moves quickly to consolidate his empire — Elon Musk is in advanced talks to combine SpaceX with xAI, according to people familiar with the matter, as the billionaire moves quickly to consolidate his empire.
More: TESLARATI, Crypto Briefing, and DigiTimes
| Bill Toulas / BleepingComputer: |
Notepad++ and security researchers say Chinese state-sponsored threat actors were likely behind the hijacking of its update traffic from June to December 2025 — Chinese state-sponsored threat actors were likely behind the hijacking of Notepad++ update traffic last year that lasted for almost half a year … | Washington Post: |
Inside Elon Musk's bet to hook X users that turned Grok into a porn generator; sources say xAI's AI safety team was just two or three people for most of 2025 — Under pressure to boost its popularity, Elon Musk's xAI loosened its guardrails and relaxed controls on sexual content, setting off internal concern.
More: Business Today, Nairametrics, and Bloomberg
Bluesky: @drewharwell.com, @karlbode.com, @justinhendrix, @metacurity.com, and @mistyksnow
| Robert Hart / The Verge: |
After X updated Grok to ban sexual deepfakes of women, tests show Grok still undresses men on Grok's app, Grok's website, and X, rarely rejecting user requests — Elon Musk insists xAI's chatbot doesn't break the law, but it's still churning out nearly naked, sexualized images of men.
More: TechCrunch and Livemint
| Wall Street Journal: |
AI companies are outbidding Apple, long dominant in the electronics supply chain, for chips, memory, glass fiber, and more, as suppliers gain leverage on prices — Parts for iPhones to cost more owing to surging demand from AI companies — Apple has dominated the electronics supply chain for years.
More: 9to5Mac, AppleInsider, Tom's Guide, The Mac Observer, SupplyChainBrain, Digital Trends, MacRumors, and Philip Elmer‑DeWitt. Forums: MacRumors Forums
| Mark Gurman / Bloomberg: |
More: Macworld, AppleInsider, T3, PCMag, Android Headlines, iPhone in Canada, 9to5Mac, 9to5Mac, Tom's Guide, 9to5Mac, GameRevolution, Trusted Reviews, Sam Lover, Cult of Mac, The Indian Express, Hypebeast, Business Standard, iLounge, Digital Trends, The Mac Observer, Moneycontrol, The Hans India, Phandroid, Android Authority, Mashable, SammyGuru, SamMobile, Appleosophy, Digit, Livemint, MacDailyNews, iClarified, GSMArena.com, iClarified, Wccftech, WiFi Planet, Digital Trends, Engadget, Gizmodo, iPhone in Canada, MacRumors, The Mac Observer, iClarified, Philip Elmer‑DeWitt, Spyglass, Forbes, AppleInsider, and MacRumors
X: @lanceulanoff, @samsheffer, @samsheffer, @markgurman, @markgurman, and @markgurman. LinkedIn: Neal Riley
Forums: r/apple and MacRumors Forums
| Luke James / Tom's Hardware: |
OpenSourceMalware: 230+ malicious OpenClaw extensions, posing as crypto trading automation tools to steal user info, were uploaded to ClawHub since January 27 — Or is that Moltbot, or Clawdbot? I can't keep up. … Security researchers are warning that the growing ecosystem around 'OpenClaw …
More: OpenSourceMalware.com, CNBC, Koi, and CyberInsider
| Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter: |
TikTok US says it has resolved technical issues caused by an Oracle data center outage; features like posting and view counts were impacted over the past week — The outage happened just days after U.S. companies, including Oracle, assumed control of the domestic operations of the video platform.
More: TikTok USDS JV, Fox News, DatacenterDynamics, The Register, Engadget, PetaPixel, TechRadar, PCMag, Forbes, and Tech in Asia. X: @tiktokusdsjv
| Gerrit De Vynck / Washington Post: |
SEC complaint: a whistleblower alleges Google broke its ethics rules in 2024 to help an Israeli military contractor use AI to analyze drone surveillance video — A whistleblower complaint filed with the SEC claims that Google breached its own ethics rules to help an Israeli contractor apply AI to drone surveillance video.| Kyle Orland / Ars Technica: |
Anthropic and UofT researchers detail “disempowerment patterns in real-world LLM usage” where AI potentially distorts a user's reality, beliefs, or actions — At this point, we've all heard plenty of stories about AI chatbots leading users to harmful actions, harmful beliefs, or simply incorrect information.
More: Implicator.ai, arXiv.org, The Indian Express, Futurism, and Anthropic
X: @mrinanksharma, @chaos2cured, @ryan_t_lowe, @fu_joehudson, @maxsloef, @alexhillman, @gailcweiner, @saffronhuang, @thedataroom, @russellbrandom, @genai_is_real, @cryptopunk7213, @jankulveit, @moleh1ll, @danshipper, @1a3orn, @jonnym1ller, @macbrennan_cc, @ai_for_success, @mattbeane, @roanoke_gal, @infinitereign88, @missmi1973, @ellgood, @barthazian, @dave_bernardi, @m47429m, @justenmichel, @kahntweets, @kindkristin, and @anthropicai. Forums: Ars OpenForum
| Reuters: |
Alibaba says it will spend ~$431M in a Lunar New Year campaign from February 6 to attract users to its Qwen AI app, above Tencent's ~$143.7M and Baidu's ~$71.8M — Alibaba (9988.HK) said on Monday it will spend 3 billion yuan ($431 million) to attract users to its Qwen AI app during the Lunar … | Priya Krishna / New York Times: |
How food delivery is reshaping US mealtimes, as some users spend thousands; NRA data shows nearly 75% of 2024 restaurant orders were not eaten in a restaurant — Almost three of every four restaurant orders in the U.S. weren't eaten in a restaurant, according to recent data.
More: Marketing Dive. X: @ernietedeschi, @trumwill, @cowboy_postbop, @adam_tooze, @joepostingg, @mjpost, @imnotowned, @wmatagm, @rcobooth, @chris_arnade, @scholars_stage, @robertfreundlaw, @bigmeaninternet, @eric_erins, @birdyword, @lpolgreen, @estherzelda0514, @trumav, @mattyglesias, @jaybsauceda, @scottlincicome, @armanddoma, @lindsayballant, @wilson__valdez, @armanddoma, @daniela__127, and @ryanaclarke. LinkedIn: Yash Babar
Bluesky: @kathbarbadoro, @rebeccasolnit, and @niedermeyer.online
| @xai: |
xAI rolls out Grok Imagine 1.0, which it says can generate 720p 10-second videos with better audio, and says Imagine generated 1.245B videos in the past 30 days — Introducing Grok Imagine 1.0, our biggest leap yet. 1.0 unlocks 10-second videos, 720p resolution, and dramatically better audio. Imagine has generated 1.245 billion videos in the last 30 days alone. Try it now: https://grok.com/imagine [video]
More: Livemint and TestingCatalog
X: @x, @rafsoh, @ninzo121, @xai, @andrewcurran_, @premiumbusiness, @xai, and @elonmusk
| Ram Iyer / TechCrunch: |
Alabama-based Linq, which pivoted to programmatic messaging APIs in February 2025, raised a $20M Series A to build AI assistants that work within messaging apps — Sometimes, you might be sitting on a hot product and not know it until the market demands it.| New York Times: |
China's desire to lead in cutting-edge AI is rubbing against its aim to control it; Zhipu AI warned IPO investors about the burden of complying with 6+ AI rules — Beijing wants to lead the world in developing cutting-edge artificial intelligence, but it also wants companies to adhere to an increasingly complex set of rules.Sponsor Posts
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IDrive:
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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
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Matt Belloni on the Oscars, the Ellisons, and Hollywood's Next Chapter
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
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Cheeky Pint:
Bret Taylor of Sierra on AI agents, outcome-based pricing, and the OpenAI board
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How Sierra Is Pulling Ahead in the AI Race | Co-founder Bret Taylor
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