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Tech

AI Summary

  • Governments worldwide are responding to a surge of non-consensual AI-generated nude images proliferating on the social media platform X, raising significant concerns about privacy and security.
  • Startups in the tech industry are facing challenges with product distribution, as many are prioritizing product development over effective go-to-market strategies, leading to high rates of failure despite substantial funding.
  • OpenAI is continuing its acquisition spree, recently agreeing to acquire the team behind the executive coaching AI tool Convogo to further enhance its capabilities in the AI sector.
  • At CES 2026, innovative technologies are being showcased, including LG's CLOid home robot designed to assist with household chores and EverNitro's affordable nitro coffee brewing system, exemplifying a trend towards convenient consumer solutions.
  • The Apple Card is transitioning to JPMorgan Chase, signaling a significant shift in its financial management as the transition period will last about two years, during which customers can continue using their cards as usual.

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TechCrunch

  • Governments grapple with the flood of non-consensual nudity on X an hour ago by Russell Brandom
    AI, Elon Musk, Grok, xAI

    For the past two weeks, X has been flooded with AI-manipulated nude images, created by the Grok AI chatbot — and governments around the world are promising to take action.

  • GTMfund has rewritten the distribution playbook for the AI era 4 hours ago by Maggie Nye, Isabelle Johannessen
    Startups, Build Mode, GTMfund

    Building software products has never been easier, so why are so many well-funded startups failing to take off no matter how good their product is? In this season finale episode of Build Mode, our guest has an answer: Startups have focused too much on product development and not enough on distribution excellence. Paul Irving is partner and […]

  • Critics pan spyware maker NSO’s transparency claims amid its push to enter US market 4 hours ago by Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai
    Security, government spyware, Israel, NSO, NSO Group, privacy, Spyware, surveillance

    The infamous spyware maker released a new transparency report claiming to be a responsible spyware maker, without providing insight into how the company dealt with problematic customers in the past.

  • EverNitro is simplifying the process of crafting silky nitro coffee at CES 2026 4 hours ago by Lauren Forristal
    Gadgets, Hardware, Startups, CES, ces 2026, coffee machine

    EverNitro is positioning itself against competitors such as NitroBrew as a long-term more affordable all-in-one solution. “We offer the quality of a commercial tap with the footprint of a coffee maker. While others sell you gas, we give you technology to harvest it for free,” founder and CEO Terry Tan said.

  • I watched LG’s new home robot CLOid do laundry but I have questions 4 hours ago by Lucas Ropek
    Robotics, CES, LG, home robots, ces 2026

    CES is always chock-full of robots, and this year electronics giant LG announced a new bot, dubbed CLOid, that it claims will revolutionize household chores (as in, you won't have to do them anymore).


Hacker News


Engadget

  • Handwriting is my new favorite way to text with the Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses 2 hours ago by Karissa Bell
    Technology & Electronics, site|engadget, provider_name|Engadget, region|US, language|en-US, author_name|Karissa Bell

    When Meta first announced its display-enabled smart glasses last year, it teased a handwriting feature that allows users to send messages by tracing letters with their hands. Now, the company is starting to roll it out, with people enrolled in its early access program getting it first, I got a chance to try the feature at CES and it made me want to start wearing my Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses more often. When I reviewed the glasses last year, I wrote about how one of  my favorite tings about the neural band is that it reduced my reliance on voice commands.

  • IXI’s autofocusing lenses are almost ready to replace multifocal glasses 2 hours ago by Mat Smith
    Science, site|engadget, provider_name|Engadget, region|US, language|en-US, author_name|Mat Smith

    While wave upon wave of smartglasses and face-based wearables crash on the shores of CES, traditional glasses really haven’t changed much over the hundreds of years we’ve been using them. The last innovation, arguably, was progressive multifocals that blended near and farsighted lenses — and that was back in the 1950s. It makes sense that autofocusing glasses maker IXI thinks it’s time to modernize glasses. After recently announcing a 22-gram (0.7-ounce) prototype frame, the startup is here in Las Vegas to show off working prototypes of its lenses, a key component of its autofocus glasses, which could be a game-changer.  IXI’s glasses

  • Boston Dynamics unveils production-ready version of Atlas robot at CES 2026 2 hours ago by Ian Carlos Campbell
    Robots, Technology & Electronics, site|engadget, provider_name|Engadget, region|US, language|en-US, author_name|Ian Carlos Campbell

    After years of testing its humanoid robot (and forcing it to dance), Boston Dynamics' Atlas is entering production. The robotics company said at CES 2026 that the final product version of the robot is being built now, and the first companies that will receive deployments are Hyundai, Boston Dynamics' majority shareholder, and Google DeepMind, the firm's newly minted AI partner. This final enterprise version of Atlas "can perform a wide array of industrial tasks," according to Boston Dynamics, and is specifically designed with consistency and reliability in mind. Atlas can work autonomously, via a teleoperator or with "a tablet steering interface,"

  • Razer put a waifu in a bottle at CES 2026 3 hours ago by Sam Rutherford
    Technology & Electronics, site|engadget, provider_name|Engadget, region|US, language|en-US, author_name|Sam Rutherford

    Last year Razer showed off Project Ava as a digital assistant that lived inside your computer to help adjust settings or provide gaming tips. But now at CES 2026, the company’s AI companion platform has gotten a major glow-up while moving into some new digs.  Now, in lieu of being constrained entirely to your PC’s screen, Razer has given Project Ava a real home in the form of a small tube that can display a 5.5-inch animated hologram of the AI’s avatar. You’ll still need to connect it to your computer via USB-C to provide Ava with the power and data

  • YouTube will let you exclude Shorts from search results 3 hours ago by Anna Washenko
    Social & Online Media, site|engadget, provider_name|Engadget, region|US, language|en-US, author_name|Anna Washenko

    YouTube introduced some new filters to its advanced search tools today. Possibly the most exciting change is that Shorts are now listed as a content type, so the three-minute-or-less videos can be excluded as results in your searches. This is a welcome update for any of us who have been on the hunt for a long-form explainer only to wade through dozens of ten-second clips before finding anything close to our goal. Especially with the addition of even more AI slop last year thanks to the Google Veo 3 engine, an option to exclude Shorts may look even more appealing. The other


The Verge

  • The best earbuds we’ve tested for 2026 2 hours ago
    Buying Guides, Gadgets, Headphone Reviews, Headphones, Reviews, Tech, Verge Shopping

    It’s hard to buy a bad pair of wireless earbuds these days, and with constant discounts and deals wherever you look, now is as good a time as any to splurge on the pair you’ve been eyeing. The market has come a long way since the early era of true wireless earbuds, when we had to deal with mediocre sound quality and unreliable performance, all for the sake of ditching cables. Things are much different now. After several product generations, companies like Sony, Apple, Bose, and others are releasing their most impressive earbuds to date.  You can get phenomenal noise cancellation

  • The coolest laptops we saw at CES 2026 3 hours ago by Antonio G. Di Benedetto
    Asus, CES, Dell, Gadgets, HP, Laptops, Lenovo, Tech

    Gamers, roll up! CES is always jam-packed with new laptop announcements, acting as a barometer for the year's upcoming releases. The proofs of concept at the show display what could potentially come further in the future. 2026 will soon bring us new chip options from Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm. While I'm excited to see how the latest horse race shakes out, some of the new designs and form factors displayed at the show are easily more compelling. There was a myriad of new models shown from Asus, Lenovo, Dell, MSI, Acer, and HP. Here's my shortlist of all the ones I'm most

  • YouTube will now let you filter Shorts out of search results 4 hours ago by Jay Peters
    News, Streaming, Tech, YouTube

    As part of a few changes to its search filters, YouTube is going to allow you to search specifically for Shorts or longform videos. Right now, a filter-less search shows a mix of longform and short form videos, which can be annoying if you just want to see videos in one format or the other. But in the new search filters, among other options, you can pick to see "Videos," which in my testing has only showed a list of longform videos, or "Shorts," which just shows Shorts. YouTube is also removing the "Upload Date - Last Hour" and "Sort by

  • Is it even worth mentioning that Elon Musk blew past his own Full Self-Driving goals again? 4 hours ago by Andrew J. Hawkins
    Autonomous Cars, Electric Cars, News, Tesla, Transportation

    Last year, Tesla defied its critics by boldly launching a robotaxi service that, by the end of the year, required no human supervision and was available to over 50 percent of the US population. At least that's what Tesla CEO Elon Musk told us would happen by the end of 2025. The reality, of course, was much different. Tesla's "robotaxi" service, as it stands today in Austin and San Francisco, is still not available to anyone who wants to use it. It is still supervised by an employee who sits in either the driver or front passenger seat with access to a

  • Few pairs of budget earbuds deliver like Nothing’s Ear (a), which are down to $59 4 hours ago by Sheena Vasani
    Deals, Gadgets, Headphones, Tech, Verge Shopping

    Nothing’s Ear (a) come in a bright yellow color, though you can also buy them in black and white. The new year has brought a wave of deals on wireless earbuds and headphones, from the fitness-focused Beats Powerbeats Fit to the open-ear Shokz OpenRun Pro. Now, Nothing has joined in with a sale of its own, offering the Nothing Headphone (1), CMF Headphone Pro, and Nothing Ear (3) earbuds at their lowest prices to date. The most notable deal, though, is on the Nothing Ear (a), which are currently available from Amazon and Nothing for $59 ($40 off) for the first


Wired

  • Why a Chinese Robot Vacuum Company Spun Off Not One but 2 EV Brands 2 hours ago by Zeyi Yang
    Business, Made, in, China

    The pivot doesn’t look out of place at CES, where Chinese electronics companies are increasingly applying their manufacturing prowess to new industries.

  • Why Are Grok and X Still Available in App Stores? 3 hours ago by Caroline Haskins
    Business, Business / Social Media, Grotesque

    Elon Musk’s chatbot has been used to generate thousands of sexualized images of adults and apparent minors. Apple and Google have removed other “nudify” apps—but continue to host X and Grok.

  • MAGA Is Already Rewriting the ICE Shooting in Minneapolis 3 hours ago by David Gilbert
    Politics, Politics / Disinformation, Spin, cycle

    The federal government’s narrative of the Minneapolis shooting conflicts wildly with video footage of the incident shared online.

  • The 70 Best Movies on Disney+, WIRED’s Picks (January 2026) 4 hours ago by Jennifer M. Wood, WIRED Staff
    Culture, Culture / Movies, Guides

    Tron: Ares, Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour—The Final Show are just a few of the movies you should be watching on Disney+ this month.

  • Best Bird Feeders With Cameras, Tested and Reviewed (2026) 4 hours ago by Kat Merck
    Gear, Gear / Buying Guides, Gear / Products / Cameras, Gear / Products / Smart Home, Gear / Products / Outdoor, Bird, Song

    These bird feeders come with cameras and connected apps to let you see and learn about the birds in your neighborhood.


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