Reading List

The most recent articles from a list of feeds I subscribe to.

Source: SpaceX and xAI are in talks to merge ahead of a planned IPO this year; under the proposed deal, shares of xAI would be exchanged for shares in SpaceX (Reuters)

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Appfigures: Sora's app downloads dropped 32% month-over-month in December and 45% in January to 1.2M; consumer spending on the app fell 32% MoM as of January (Sarah Perez/TechCrunch)

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Social media app UpScrolled hits #1 on Apple's US app store following allegations that TikTok suppresses anti-ICE videos; its founder says it crossed 1M users (Conor Murray/Forbes)

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OpenAI has hired 7+ employees from AI coding startup Cline, including Nik Pash, who left Cline after posting "imagine the smell" on X regarding an xAI hackathon (Kevin McLaughlin/The Information)

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Apple acquires Q.ai, whose tech can analyze facial expressions and could enable non-verbal discussions with AI assistants; sources: the deal values Q.ai at ~$2B (Financial Times)

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Google launches Project Genie, which lets users create interactive worlds using Genie 3, Nano Banana Pro, and Gemini, for Google AI Ultra subscribers in the US (Jay Peters/The Verge)

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A coalition of music publishers, including UMG, filed a second lawsuit against Anthropic, seeking $3B over allegations of copyright infringement of 20k+ songs (Murray Stassen/Music Business Worldwide)

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Deezer makes its AI music detection tool available for businesses to buy and says daily deliveries of AI tracks averaged 60K in January, ~39% of total uploads (Emma Roth/The Verge)

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Talos, which develops digital asset trading infrastructure, raised a $45M extension from Robinhood and others to its $105M Series B, at a $1.5B valuation (Will Canny/CoinDesk)

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Russia says a crypto regulatory framework will come into force July 1, 2027; it will ban privacy coins like monero and cap retail investor purchases at ~$4K (Olivier Acuna/CoinDesk)

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Google expands Gemini's hands-free conversational capabilities to walking and cycling modes in Google Maps, available on iOS and rolling out on Android (Aisha Malik/TechCrunch)

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Nvidia launches a native GeForce NOW app for Linux, starting with Debian-based Ubuntu, after releasing a Steam Deck app in 2025; in a hands-on, it works well (Ben Wilson/Windows Central)

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Waymo says a robotaxi struck a child at 6 mph near an elementary school in Santa Monica on January 23, resulting in minor injuries; the NHTSA opens a probe (Sean O'Kane/TechCrunch)

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Waymo says it hopes to launch its London robotaxi service as soon as September, after an April pilot; the UK government plans to change regulations in H2 2026 (Zoe Kleinman/BBC)

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Dow plans to cut 4,500 staff to save costs and will rely on AI to boost productivity, resulting in $1.1B to $1.5B in charges; it currently employs ~34,000 staff (Rob Curran/Wall Street Journal)

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Apple's iPhone 16 was the world's best-selling smartphone in 2025, followed by the 16 Pro Max and 16 Pro; Apple took 7 of the top 10 spots and Samsung took 3 (Counterpoint Research)

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Crypto exchange Bybit plans to offer banking services via "MyBank" accounts that can hold USD and other currencies, set to launch in February pending approvals (Ryan Weeks/Bloomberg)

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Sources: ByteDance and Alibaba both plan to release flagship AI models around China's mid-February Lunar New Year holiday, including ByteDance's Doubao 2.0 (The Information)

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Nothing CEO Carl Pei says the company's flagship Phone 4 won't launch in 2026: "We're not just going to churn out a new flagship every year for the sake of it" (Dominic Preston/The Verge)

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Munich-based RobCo, which makes robotic arms and factory automation software, raised $100M led by Lingotto and Lightspeed, a source says at a $500M+ valuation (Mark Bergen/Bloomberg)

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