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February 2, 2026, 1:45 PM
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WeSmirchTop News
| David Gewirtz / ZDNET: |
OpenAI launches a Codex app for macOS, designed to serve as a command center for managing AI agents, and says Codex usage has nearly doubled since mid-December — ZDNET's key takeaways — OpenAI launches a Mac-only Codex app as an agent command center.
More: OpenAI, Engadget, 9to5Mac, Fortune, TechCrunch, Ars Technica, VentureBeat, The Decoder, CNBC, Every, and The Deep View
X: @altryne, @aidan_mclau, @gdb, @openaidevs, @openai, @openai, @openai, @reach_vb, and @thsottiaux
Forums: Hacker News and r/codex
| 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 … | 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 Space Exploration Technologies Corp. with xAI, according to people familiar with the matter …
More: The Information, New York Post, Sherwood News, Yahoo Finance, Watcher Guru, TESLARATI, Crypto Briefing, and ZeroHedge News
X: @elonmusk, @danprimack, @highyieldharry, @aaronburnett, @stevehou, @compound248, and @junkbondanalyst. Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.to
| 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: The Verge, Business Today, Nairametrics, and Bloomberg
Bluesky: @drewharwell.com, @justinhendrix, @metacurity.com, @mistyksnow, and @karlbode.com
| 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, Engadget, Metro.co.uk, and Livemint
| Raphael Satter / Reuters: |
Wiz says Moltbook had a major flaw that exposed private messages, emails, and credentials; Wiz co-founder Ami Luttwak called the flaw a byproduct of vibe coding — A buzzy new social network where artificial intelligence-powered bots appear to swap code and gossip about their human owners …
More: CNBC, wiz.io, New York Times, Business Insider, Censys, The Guardian, Simon Willison's Weblog, Fortune, The Register, The Information, BBC, Implicator.ai, and Reason
X: @karpathy, @mattprd, @galnagli, @galnagli, @jsrailton, @jsrailton, @jsrailton, and @valhalla_dev. Bluesky: @doubleohkevin. Forums: Slashdot
| 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
| Sabrina Ortiz / The Deep View: |
Snowflake and OpenAI sign a multiyear, $200M deal to integrate OpenAI's models into Snowflake Cortex AI and the Snowflake Intelligence agent for enterprises — S — nowflake has established itself as a top data cloud provider. Now, it's partnering with OpenAI to bring AI-powered data insights to users.
More: PYMNTS.com, CRN, The Register, Reuters, Forbes, Benzinga, ITPro, Deccan Herald, SiliconANGLE, SD Times, Techstrong IT, Digit, Financial Post, Constellation Research, OpenAI, and MediaBrief
| 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.
More: Wall Street Journal and Jerusalem Post
| Natasha Mascarenhas / Bloomberg: |
Shield, which acquires IT businesses and uses AI to make them efficient, raised $100M from Thrive Holdings and says it crossed $100M in annual revenue in 2025 — It's Thrive Holdings' latest investment in bringing new tech to the services industry. — Thrive Holdings, an offshoot …
More: Shield
| 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, Android Headlines, The Independent, DatacenterDynamics, TechRadar, The Register, PCMag, PetaPixel, The Verge, Engadget, Forbes, and Tech in Asia. X: @tiktokusdsjv
| 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
| 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: The Decoder, arXiv.org, Implicator.ai, 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
| @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. X: @x, @rafsoh, @ninzo121, @xai, @andrewcurran_, @premiumbusiness, @xai, and @elonmusk
| Josh Taylor / The Guardian: |
Snap blocked 415K+ Australian accounts as of January to comply with the under-16 social media ban and warns its implementation has “real technical limitations” — Social media platform says there are still ‘real technical limitations to accurate and dependable age verification’
More: Snapchat, The Economic Times, AdNews News, Firstpost, and Viral - Geo News. Forums: r/AustralianPolitics
| 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: Tom's Hardware, The Decoder, Tom's Guide, AppleInsider, 9to5Mac, The Mac Observer, Digital Trends, SupplyChainBrain, MacRumors, Philip Elmer‑DeWitt, and Bloomberg. Forums: MacRumors Forums
| Tamara Djurickovic / Tech.eu: |
Barcelona-based Biorce, which is developing an AI service to speed up clinical trials, raised a $52.5M Series A, bringing its total funding to $60M+ — The investment will support Biorce's growing demand, international expansion, team growth, and continued development of its AI platform for clinical trials.| Alex Konrad / Upstarts Media: |
Day AI, which is developing an AI-powered CRM service that can automate data entry, meeting prep, note-taking, and more, raised a $20M Series A led by Sequoia — Day AI enters general availability to take on CEO Christopher O'Donnell's former employer, HubSpot — and even Salesforce.
More: Day.ai. X: @saranormous, @alexrkonrad, @gradypb, @hodges, @gradypb, and @markitecht. LinkedIn: Mike Gamson
| Alex Riehl / BetaKit: |
OpenText is selling its analytics business Vertica to Rocket Software for $150M to reduce its outstanding debt, its second business unit sale within five months — OpenText has inked its second business unit sale within five months, this time selling off its analytics business Vertica …
More: Open Text Corporation and Canadian Press
| Christine Mui / Politico: |
Meta gives $65M to two super PACs to elect California state candidates, regardless of party, whom it views as supportive of the AI and tech industry — Federal lobbying budgets for Big Tech hit record highs this year. But with federal AI regulation stalled in Washington … Sponsor Posts
Subquadratic:
SubQ Snap 1.1: the first long-context decision model for real enterprise work — Tied for #1 on the AA Decision Index, Snap is a multimodal model with a 384k-token context window for fast reasoning and agentic decisions.
SubQ Snap 1.1: the first long-context decision model for real enterprise work — Tied for #1 on the AA Decision Index, Snap is a multimodal model with a 384k-token context window for fast reasoning and agentic decisions.
Zoho:
Zoho Writer's latest automation updates: smarter formulas, dynamic content, and less manual work — Create personalized documents with smarter formulas, dynamic content, and payment links, and update templates without rebuilding …
Zoho Writer's latest automation updates: smarter formulas, dynamic content, and less manual work — Create personalized documents with smarter formulas, dynamic content, and payment links, and update templates without rebuilding …
IDrive:
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.
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.
WebBrain:
WebBrain: an open-source AI agent for your browser — Read pages, fill forms and automate tasks in Chrome or Firefox. Use local models or your preferred AI provider. Get started free.
WebBrain: an open-source AI agent for your browser — Read pages, fill forms and automate tasks in Chrome or Firefox. Use local models or your preferred AI provider. Get started free.Featured Podcasts
Machine Gods:
Crypto's Biggest Heist Ever + The Spy Who Loved Nvidia + Hacktober's Mysteries
The official podcast of the singularity, from Casey Newton and Kevin Roose. Twice-weekly news, analysis, and interviews with the people who are building the future.
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Channels with Peter Kafka:
Barry Diller on Big Bets, AI, and Knowing When to Walk Away
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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Sources:
A quiet investor's $10 billion bet on AI, chips, and defense
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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Cheeky Pint:
The company building America's uranium supply from scratch
Stripe cofounder John Collison interviews founders, builders, and leaders over a pint.
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