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Tech

AI Summary

  • Sequoia Capital's investment in Anthropic marks a significant shift in venture capital strategy, breaking the traditional taboo of funding rival companies in the booming AI sector.
  • Meta's Threads has surpassed X in daily mobile users, demonstrating the effectiveness of its rapid feature rollouts and cross-promotion tactics amid controversies surrounding X.
  • The healthcare industry is rapidly embracing AI, with startups like Anthropic and OpenAI focusing on developing AI tools specifically for medical applications, raising concerns about the potential for hallucinations and misinformation.
  • OpenAI's introduction of targeted ads in ChatGPT is a notable development, as the company claims these ads will not influence the answers generated by its AI, signaling a new phase for monetization of AI services.
  • Legislative shifts and policy discussions continue to shape the tech landscape, with states like California and New York considering wealth taxes that impact tech industry founders, raising debates about the future of tech investments and movement within the industry.

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TechCrunch

  • Sequoia to invest in Anthropic, breaking VC taboo on backing rivals: FT 8 hours ago by Connie Loizos
    Venture, Anthropic, Elon Musk, OpenAI, sam altman, Sequoia Capital

    Sequoia Capital is reportedly joining a blockbuster funding round for Anthropic, the AI startup behind Claude, according to the Financial Times. It’s a move sure to turn heads in Silicon Valley. Why? Because venture capital firms have historically avoided backing competing companies in the same sector, preferring to place their bets on a single winner. […]

  • TechCrunch Mobility: ‘Physical AI’ enters the hype machine 13 hours ago by Kirsten Korosec
    Transportation, boston dynamics, robotaxis, techcrunch mobility, physical ai, ces 2026

    Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility, your hub for all things “future of transportation.”

  • Threads edges out X in daily mobile users, new data shows 13 hours ago by Sarah Perez
    Apps, Social, social media, Meta, X, Threads

    Threads’ daily mobile usage has quietly surpassed X as Meta leans on cross-promotion, creator tools and fast feature rollouts — even as X faces fresh controversies

  • How YC-backed Bucket Robotics survived its first CES 14 hours ago by Sean O'Kane
    Startups, Transportation, Robotics, robotics, ces 2026, bucket robotics

    Now, the startup is turning its attention to building the business, fundraising and striking commercial deals.

  • Moxie Marlinspike has a privacy-conscious alternative to ChatGPT 15 hours ago by Russell Brandom
    AI, moxie marlinspike, llm

    Confer is designed to look and feel like ChatGPT or Claude, but your conversations can't be used for training or advertising.


Hacker News


Engadget

  • ExpressVPN two-year plans are up to 78 percent off 9 hours ago by Andre Revilla
    Technology & Electronics, site|engadget, provider_name|Engadget, region|US, language|en-US, author_name|Andre Revilla

    ExpressVPN is back on sale again, and its two-year plans are up to 78 percent off right now. You can get the Advanced tier for $101 for 28 months. This is marked down from the $392 that this time frame normally costs. On a per-month basis, it works out to roughly $3.59 for the promo period. We’ve consistently liked ExpressVPN because it’s fast, easy to use and widely available across a large global server network. In fact, it's our current pick for best premium VPN. One of the biggest drawbacks has always been its high cost, and this deal temporarily solves

  • Microsoft issues emergency fix after a security update left some Windows 11 devices unable to shut down 11 hours ago by Jackson Chen
    Software, Computing, Technology & Electronics, site|engadget, provider_name|Engadget, region|US, language|en-US, author_name|Jackson Chen

    If you weren't able to shut down your Windows 11 device recently, Microsoft has rolled out an emergency fix addressing a couple of critical bugs that popped up with its latest January 2026 Windows security update. The latest "out-of-band" update repairs an issue for some Windows 11 devices that would only restart when users tried to shut down or hibernate. The same update restores the ability for Windows 10 and Windows 11 users to log into their devices via remote connection apps. Microsoft said the inability to shut down or hibernate affected Windows 11 devices using Secure Launch, a security feature

  • Three months of Audible is on sale for $3 right now 12 hours ago by Lawrence Bonk
    Arts & Entertainment, site|engadget, provider_name|Engadget, region|US, language|en-US, author_name|Lawrence Bonk

    Have a hankering for some audiobooks? Audible is holding one heck of a sale right now, giving users three months of access for $3. That's a dollar per month. This is something of a winter tradition for the Amazon-owned platform and the promotion ends on January 21. An Audible subscription grants one audiobook per month to keep. This can be selected from a massive catalog of new releases and bestsellers. The collection here has just about everything. However, it's easy to plow through a single book in a month. Users also get streaming access to thousands of curated titles. Think of it

  • This UGreen 3-in-1 wireless charger is 32 percent off right now 12 hours ago by Anna Washenko
    Technology & Electronics, site|engadget, provider_name|Engadget, region|US, language|en-US, author_name|Anna Washenko

    You can easily spruce up your nightstand or desk by decluttering a bit, replacing some of those annoying charging cables with a good wireless charging setup. One of our favorites that can handle three devices at once is the UGREEN MagFlow Qi2 3-in-1 Charger Station 25W. Normally $140, it's on sale right now for $95; that's 32 percent off and only about $5 more than its record-low price. This is our top pick for a 3-in-1 charging pad thanks to its versatility. The UGREEN can work equally well as a permanent fixture in your home or act as a portable charging

  • Washington is the latest state pursuing an age verification law for porn sites 12 hours ago by Jackson Chen
    Politics & Government, Government, site|engadget, provider_name|Engadget, region|US, language|en-US, author_name|Jackson Chen

    Washington state residents may soon be forced to produce IDs before getting onto websites with pornographic content. Within the state's House of Representatives, Rep. Mari Leavitt introduced House Bill 2112, which is informally known as the Keep Our Children Safe Act. Similar to the initiatives seen in other states, the bill proposes to restrict access to "online sexual material harmful" to anyone under 18. In practical terms, those living in Washington state could see websites asking for digital identification or demanding the user go through an age verification system that requests a government-issued ID. If a website that has more than


The Verge

  • You need to listen to the cosmic horror-comedy podcast Welcome to Night Vale 10 hours ago by Terrence O’Brien
    Column, Entertainment

    It's relatively rare for a podcast to last 14 years, especially a fiction one. In fact, as far as I can tell, Welcome to Night Vale is the longest continually running fiction podcast out there. (Some will argue it's actually We're Alive, but that has taken a few significant breaks between seasons.) The story of Night Vale, the titular desert town, now spans 12 seasons, over 280 episodes, three books, and at least 10 live standalone shows. While dedicating several hundred hours of your life to listening to every episode might seem like a big ask, I believe you'll be

  • Microsoft’s first Windows 11 update of 2026 stopped some computers from shutting down 13 hours ago by Terrence O’Brien
    Microsoft, News, Tech

    Microsoft released its first security update of 2026 for Windows 11 on January 13th. Just four days later, it was forced to release an emergency out-of-band update to fix some pretty serious bugs, the first one introduced. The security patch was stopping some systems from shutting down or hibernating properly, and also preventing some users from logging in via remote desktop. The impact of the shutdown bug was limited to machines still running Windows 11 23H2, and only those running either the Enterprise of IoT editions. Still, this is just the latest buggy update that has forced Microsoft to issue an

  • Here are the 10 deals worth grabbing from Best Buy’s winter sales event 16 hours ago by Sheena Vasani
    Deals, Gadgets, Tech, Verge Shopping

    Sony’s terrific Bravia 8 II is $900 off for a limited time. Good deals are often hard to come by at the beginning of the year — which is precisely what makes Best Buy’s Winter Sale worth checking out. The ongoing sales event features discounts on everything from big-ticket OLED TVs to smaller electronics, including fitness trackers that can help you achieve your New Year’s resolutions. There are also solid deals to be had on laptops, Bose headphones, and other Verge-approved pieces of tech, many of which are matching their best prices to date. The sale ends on January 19th, meaning you

  • Kaoss Pad V is the first major upgrade to Korg’s touch-based effects in 13 years 17 hours ago by Terrence O’Brien
    Entertainment, Gadgets, Music, News, Tech

    The Kaoss Pad has seen many different iterations, but the mainline effect unit and sampler hasn't received an update since the launch of the KP3+ in 2013. Korg has finally given it the attention it deserves with the release of the Kaoss Pad V. Rather than a dramatic reimagining of what a Kaoss Pad is, the V takes the core idea - an effect unit with an X / Y pad for controlling parameters in a natural, performance-focused way. The big innovation on the Kaoss Pad V is that it can recognize two fingers simultaneously to control two distinct sets of

  • Why Coinbase derailed the crypto industry’s political future 17 hours ago by Tina Nguyen
    Crypto, Policy, Politics, Tech

    Brian Armstrong, chief executive officer of Coinbase Global Inc., speaks to members of the media on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, US, on Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. | Aaron Schwartz/Bloomberg via Getty Images. January was going to be a landmark month for the crypto industry. The Senate would start negotiating the finer details of the CLARITY Act, a major law that would finally enshrine the fundamental structure of how the crypto market could legally operate in the United States: what digital assets counted as a security versus a commodity, what regulatory responsibilities companies had to abide by, what legal protections consumers


Wired


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