Techmeme
January 22, 2026, 11:50 AM

Top News

The Information:
Sources: Apple is developing an AirTag-sized AI wearable pin with cameras, a speaker, microphones, and wireless charging, which it could launch as early as 2027  —  Apple is developing an AI-powered wearable pin the size of an AirTag that is equipped with multiple cameras, a speaker …
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple plans to revamp Siri this fall in iOS 27 and macOS 27 by turning it into the company's first AI chatbot, replacing the current Siri interface  —  Apple Inc. plans to revamp Siri later this year by turning the digital assistant into the company's first artificial intelligence chatbot …
New York Times:
NYT and CCDH analysis: Grok created and shared 1.8M+ sexualized images of women between December 31 and January 8, after Elon Musk promoted the feature on X  —  Over nine days, Elon Musk's Grok chatbot generated and posted 4.4 million images, of which at least 41 percent were sexualized images of women.
Semafor:
Sources: the US and China approve a deal to sell TikTok's US business to a group of mostly US investors led by Oracle and Silverlake, set to close this week  —  The US and China have signed off on a deal to sell TikTok's US business to a consortium of mostly US investors led by Oracle and Silverlake …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Spotify expands its AI-powered Prompted Playlists beta to Premium subscribers in the US and Canada, following initial testing in New Zealand  —  Spotify is rolling out Prompted Playlists, a new AI playlist creation tool, to Premium subscribers in the U.S. and Canada.
Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:
Google rolls out Personal Intelligence in AI Mode to access users' Gmail and Google Photos data for more tailored responses, for US Pro and Ultra subscribers  —  AI Mode, Google's conversational Search feature for complex questions, is getting more personalized.
Mia Sato / The Verge:
Cate Blanchett, Cyndi Lauper, and 800+ creatives launch “Stealing Isn't Innovation” to protest unauthorized AI training, backed by RIAA, SAG-AFTRA, and others  —  Cate Blanchett, Cyndi Lauper, George Saunders, and other creatives say that AI companies are …
AJ Dellinger / Gizmodo:
xAI engineer Sulaiman Ghori says he has “left” the startup, after saying on a podcast last week that xAI has skirted regulations while building its data centers  —  Interesting timing.  —  Sulaiman Ghori, an engineer at Elon Musk's AI startup xAI, went on the podcast Relentless …
Bloomberg:
Sources: the US Senate's crypto market structure bill is likely to be delayed by several weeks as key lawmakers shift their focus to a housing legislation push  —  A sweeping US crypto market bill is likely to be delayed by at least several weeks as key lawmakers shift their focus …
Lora Kolodny / CNBC:
Waymo launches its robotaxi service in Miami, its sixth market, initially covering a 60-square-mile area, and partners with Moove for fleet management  —  Alphabet's Waymo said Thursday that its robotaxi service is now open to paying riders in Miami, kicking off a 2026 market expansion.
Core Memory:
Q&A with recently departed OpenAI VP of Research Jerry Tworek, who claims OpenAI's shift toward more conservative ways made high-risk, pioneering work harder  —  Are all the AI superpowers playing it too safe?  —  ∙ Paid  —  On January 5th, famed AI researcher Jerry Tworek stunned world+dog …
Bloomberg:
A US House panel okays a bipartisan bill pushing congressional oversight of AI chip exports and banning Nvidia Blackwell sales to China for at least two years  —  Congress is one step closer to gaining the authority to review artificial intelligence chip sales to China …
Bloomberg:
BitGo raises $212.8M in its IPO, selling 11.8M+ shares at $18 each, above the $15 to $17 range, giving it a ~$2.1B market value, in 2026's first crypto US IPO  —  BitGo Holdings Inc. and some of its backers raised $212.8 million in a US initial public offering, pricing its shares above the marketed range.
Mary Ann Azevedo / Crunchbase News:
Cambio, creator of AI-powered commercial real estate software for institutional investors, raised an $18M Series A led by Maverick Ventures at a $100M valuation  —  Cambio, a startup that has built AI-powered commercial real estate software for institutional investors, has raised $18 million …
More: FinSMEs
Bloomberg:
Sources: Sam Altman recently visited and held early talks with investors in the Middle East, looking to raise $50B+ for OpenAI at a ~$750B to ~$830B valuation  —  OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman has been meeting with top investors in the Middle East to line up funding …
Bloomberg:
Mistral's CEO says claims that Chinese AI startups lag behind the US are a “fairy tale,” and China's open-source tech is “probably stressing” US CEOs  —  Claims that Chinese technology for artificial intelligence lags the US are a “fairy tale,” Arthur Mensch, the chief executive officer of Mistral, said.
Agnee Ghosh / Bloomberg:
Inferact, founded by the creators of vLLM to create a commercial AI product for cross-hardware efficiency, raised a $150M seed led by a16z at an $800M valuation  —  Inferact, an AI startup formed by the creators of open-source software vLLM, has raised $150 million in a seed funding round that values the company at $800 million.
Annie Palmer / CNBC:
Blue Origin unveils TeraWave, a satellite communications network for enterprise, data center, and government customers, and plans to begin deployment in Q4 2027  —  Jeff Bezos' space venture Blue Origin announced Wednesday it plans to deploy 5,408 satellites in space for a communications network that will take on SpaceX and Amazon.

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