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January 16, 2026, 9:05 PM
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| Financial Times: |
OpenAI plans to test ads below ChatGPT replies for users of free and Go tiers in the US; source: OpenAI expects to make “low billions” from ads in 2026 — $500bn start-up seeks ways to fund expansion and fend off competition from rivals Google and Anthropic
More: OpenAI, Ars Technica, The Verge, The Guardian, Search Engine Journal, Engadget, BleepingComputer, SiliconANGLE, Ad Age, The Information, San Francisco Chronicle, Gizmodo, CNET, New York Times, TestingCatalog, CNBC, Deadline, Fortune, Birchtree, Forbes, Tom's Guide, Fast Company, Constellation Research, KGW-TV, Forbes Middle East, PC Gamer, Nairametrics, PPC Land, Business Insider, WebProNews, MediaPost, The Deep View, The Decoder, CBS News, Implicator.ai, Reuters, Barron's Online, NBC News, The Economic Times, Crypto Briefing, Türkiye Today, Wall Street Journal, Adweek, 9to5Mac, Search Engine Land, Axios, Thurrott, and Barrett Media
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LinkedIn: Robert Derow, Lily Ray, and Fidji Simo
Bluesky: @edzitron.com, @timfduffy.com, @shiraovide, and @mbogen. Threads: @benedictevans. Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.to
Forums: r/artificial, r/singularity, r/technology, r/ChatGPT, r/ChatGPT, and Slashdot
| Elissa Welle / The Verge: |
OpenAI expands its ChatGPT Go tier to the US and the rest of the world, after launching it in India and some other countries; it will cost $8/month in the US — 'ChatGPT Go' is available worldwide for $8 per month. … OpenAI is expanding a low-cost subscription tier called ChatGPT Go to the US and the rest of the world.
More: OpenAI, The Register, BleepingComputer, ZDNET, TestingCatalog, Android Authority, The Information, iClarified, iPhone in Canada, Reuters, MacRumors, The Mac Observer, and Daring Fireball
X: @mweinbach and @simonw
Bluesky: @danielmconnolly and @undersized5
Forums: r/technology, r/singularity, and r/OpenAI
| Maxwell Zeff / Wired: |
OpenAI will match ads to conversation topics using some personalization data, but says it will not sell user data or expose user conversations to advertisers — OpenAI says ads will not influence ChatGPT's responses, and that it won't sell user data to advertisers.
More: TechCrunch, Fast Company, Business Insider, Variety, Vogue, Telegraph, AdTechRadar, PCMag, Mobile Dev Memo, BBC, Sherwood News, Analytics India Magazine, NewsMax.com, KTVZ-TV, WebProNews, and Capital Brief
X: @netcapgirl, @buccocapital, @anothercohen, @nickfloats, @pmddomingos, and @openai. Bluesky: @hypervisible.blacksky.app. Forums: r/OpenAI
| Maxwell Zeff / Wired: |
Sources: leaders at Thinking Machines Lab confronted Barret Zoph over an alleged relationship with another employee, who is no longer at the lab, in summer 2025 — Leaders at Mira Murati's startup believe Barret Zoph engaged in an incident of “serious misconduct.” The details are now coming to light.| Alex Heath / Sources: |
Unsealed docs from Elon Musk's OpenAI lawsuit, set for a jury trial on April 27: Sutskever's concerns about treating open-source AI as a “side show”, and more — This is an excerpt of Sources by Alex Heath, a newsletter about AI and the tech industry, syndicated just for The Verge subscribers once a week.
More: Business Insider, OpenAI, TESLARATI, Bloomberg, and Courthouse News Service
X: @elonmusk, @gdb, @gdb, @gdb, @gdb, @wholemars, @jasonkwon, @wholemars, @_nathancalvin, @chrisjbakke, @sama, @sama, @sama, @worksleeve, @beylin, @suchenzang, @trenttullis, @chamath, @empathic_lead3r, @deedydas, @bookdepth, @mikekhristo, @signulll, @_ueaj, @wholemars, @wholemars, @shiringhaffary, and @sawyermerritt
Bluesky: @rani and @alexeheath.com
| Dara Kerr / The Guardian: |
The US EPA rules that xAI acted illegally by using dozens of methane gas turbines to power its Colossus 1 and Colossus 2 data centers in the Memphis area — Win for Memphis activists who say ‘Colossus’ facilities add extra pollution to already overburdened communities
More: CNBC, US EPA, TechCrunch, Sherwood News, WBNS-TV, Federal Register, and Capacity
Bluesky: @frydawolff and @ketanjoshi.co
| Ian Carlos Campbell / Engadget: |
Anthropic makes Claude Cowork available to $20/month Pro subscribers, after launching it for Max users, and says Pro users may hit their usage limits sooner — Pro subscribers can have Claude can handle simple tasks on their computer. — Claude Cowork, Anthropic's AI assistant for taking care …
More: Tech Brew and The Decoder
X: @claudeai, @claudeai, @alexalbert__, @vibhu, @trq212, @sammcallister, @gavinsbaker, and @levie
| Julianna Bragg / Axios: |
California's AG sends a cease-and-desist letter to xAI, demanding the company halt the generation and distribution of non-consensual intimate images and CSAM — California's attorney general on Friday sent a cease and desist letter to xAI, demanding the company immediately halt the creation … | Lauren Feiner / The Verge: |
Google says it's appealing the US v. Google ruling that found it has an illegal search monopoly and asks a court to pause some of the remedies during the appeal — In the meantime, it's asking a court to pause remedies meant to restore competition.
More: The Keyword, Bloomberg, Engadget, Reuters, PhoneArena, and CNBC
X: @openwebadvocacy and @openwebadvocacy
| Olga Kharif / Bloomberg: |
Sources: Anchorage Digital, the first federally chartered US digital asset bank, is seeking to raise $200M to $400M, ahead of a possible IPO in 2027 — Anchorage Digital, whose affiliate is the first federally chartered US digital-asset bank, is seeking to raise fresh capital as it explores …
More: The Block and Crypto Briefing
| Bloomberg: |
Some top California Democrats join Governor Gavin Newsom in opposing a ballot initiative led by a healthcare union seeking a one-time 5% tax on $1B+ in assets — A proposed tax on California's wealthiest residents is drawing opposition from a growing group of top state Democrats … | Financial Times: |
Sources: suppliers of parts for Nvidia's H200 chips have paused production after Chinese customs officials blocked shipments of the AI processors — Parts makers concerned about whether Beijing will allow imports of AI processors — Suppliers of parts for Nvidia's H200 chips … | Business Insider: |
TikTok has launched a standalone micro drama app, PineDrama, in the US and Brazil, offering vertical serialized shows for free without ads or paywalls for now — - TikTok has rolled out a new micro drama app in the US and Brazil called PineDrama. — The app's feed looks a lot like TikTok's … | SemiAnalysis: |
Analysis: Colossus 2, one of the world's largest AI datacenters, uses roughly the same water resources required to supply 2.5 typical In-N-Out Burger locations — A different perspective on the datacenter water debate, forget tokens/watt or tokens/dollar, it's about tokens/burger … | Bloomberg: |
FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson says the agency is examining Big Tech's acqui-hires to make sure “they are not an attempt to get around” its merger review process — The US Federal Trade Commission is taking a closer look at moves by major tech companies to hire away the employees …
More: Associated Press, Business Insider, and Reuters
X: @sarbjeetjohal and @bloombergtv
Bluesky: @quinnypig.com and @caseynewton
| Dina Bass / Bloomberg: |
ClickHouse, a Snowflake challenger that offers an OLAP database management system, raised $400M led by Dragoneer at a $15B valuation, up from $6.35B in May 2025 — Dragoneer is leading a $400 million funding round for the startup. — Database technology startup ClickHouse Inc …
More: Business Wire, TechCrunch, SiliconANGLE, Reuters, Pulse 2.0, Towards Data Science, Canadian Press, and VC News Daily
X: @mvcinvesting and @endicottinvests
LinkedIn: Ethan Choi, Dina Bass, and Mukund Mohan
| Financial Times: |
Sources: ElevenLabs seeks to raise hundreds of millions at a valuation of $11B, four months after a secondary share sale that valued it at $6.6B — Fundraising would transform company into UK's most highly valued AI start-up — ElevenLabs is in talks for new funding that would almost double … | Bloomberg: |
Sources: Google is in talks with broadband operator Radiate to set up a JV to hold their fiber assets; Stonepeak Partners will invest $1B to support the deal — Alphabet Inc.'s Google is in talks with Radiate, a broadband operator backed by Stonepeak Partners, to set up a joint venture … | Doug OLaughlin / Fabricated Knowledge: |
Claude Code represents a “ChatGPT moment repeated” and an “extinction-level event” for horizontal software companies focused on human-oriented consumption — The age of PDF is over. The time of markdown has begun. Why Memory Hierarchies are the best analogy for how software must change.| Reuters: |
Italy's competition watchdog opens two investigations into Microsoft's Activision Blizzard over sales practices the regulator calls “misleading and aggressive” — Italy's competition watchdog on Friday announced investigations into Microsoft's (MSFT.O) Activision Blizzard unit over allegedly … Sponsor Posts
Command Line:
Copilot to autopilot: Why no single safeguard is enough — Microsoft designed a layered model that lets an AI agent resolve network incidents on its own within defined boundaries.
Copilot to autopilot: Why no single safeguard is enough — Microsoft designed a layered model that lets an AI agent resolve network incidents on its own within defined boundaries.
Will Reed:
The best sales leaders aren't job hunting. Here's how to reach them without months of cold outreach. — Our team came from Box, Square, and Brex, so we already know the GTM leaders worth meeting.
The best sales leaders aren't job hunting. Here's how to reach them without months of cold outreach. — Our team came from Box, Square, and Brex, so we already know the GTM leaders worth meeting.
Zoho:
Diwali 2026: Your festive planning checklist with Zoho Notebook — The Diwali countdown is on! From lighting up every corner of the house to going a little overboard with the festive shopping …
Diwali 2026: Your festive planning checklist with Zoho Notebook — The Diwali countdown is on! From lighting up every corner of the house to going a little overboard with the festive shopping …
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
Great Chat:
AI's Spooky Season
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
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Sources:
Sundar Pichai on Gemini 4 and the AI compute crunch
Candid conversations with the leaders shaping what's next in AI and the broader tech industry. Hosted by Alex Heath, who has covered Silicon Valley for more than a decade.
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Channels with Peter Kafka:
Netflix in Turmoil + Derek Thompson on AI & The Antisocial Century
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Inside the Robot Data Factory: Mecka's Josh Gao on Sensorizing Humans to Train Robots
Sequoia Capital partners host conversations with leading AI builders and researchers to develop a deeper understanding of the evolving technologies and their implications.
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