Cybersecurity / Privacy: Discord is facing backlash for its age verification rollout, which involved a UK test with vendor Persona. Critics are concerned about ID storage and transparency, especially after a previous breach exposed 70,000 users' government IDs. Discord claims most users will use video selfies, but privacy advocates remain wary. 👉yro.slashdot.org👉arstechnica.com👉yro.slashdot.org👉web.archive.org👉therage.co👉withpersona.com
Gaming / Technology: Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer is retiring after 38 years with the company, and Asha Sharma, former president of Microsoft's CoreAI product, will take over as the new head of Xbox. This leadership change comes as Microsoft Gaming faces increasing challenges and a focus on AI integration. 👉techcrunch.com👉cnbc.com👉blogs.microsoft.com$👉ign.com
Social Media / AI: Users are reporting that Pinterest is overwhelmed with AI-generated images and experiencing overly aggressive automated moderation. Artists are facing wrongful takedowns, with their hand-drawn work being mislabeled as AI-generated, leading to frustration and a perceived decline in the platform's creative ecosystem. 👉404media.co👉slashdot.org👉reddit.com
AI / Research: OpenAI faces significant strategic challenges, including a lack of unique technology, a fragile user base, and competition from incumbents like Google and Meta. Analyst Benedict Evans suggests the company's product roadmap is driven by research breakthroughs rather than a coherent strategy, comparing it to Netscape's rise and fall. 👉ben-evans.com
Cybersecurity / Finance: OpenAI is reportedly developing a range of AI-powered hardware devices, including a smart speaker with a camera, smart glasses, and a smart lamp, with the speaker expected to cost between $200-$300 and launch in 2027. This move into hardware signals OpenAI's ambition to expand beyond its core AI models. 👉theinformation.com👉engadget.com👉theverge.com👉reuters.com👉macrumors.com
AI / Industry: Microsoft is reportedly scaling back its compute spend expectations for OpenAI, targeting approximately $600 billion by 2030, a reduction from the previously touted $1.4 trillion in infrastructure commitments. This adjustment comes as OpenAI seeks significant funding, with projections for substantial revenue growth. 👉cnbc.com👉theinformation.com👉reuters.com
Cybersecurity / Finance: PayPal is notifying customers about a data breach stemming from a software error in its loan application that exposed personal information, including Social Security numbers, for nearly six months last year. The company has rolled back the code change responsible for the exposure. 👉bleepingcomputer.com
AI / Software Development: Anthropic has launched "Claude Code Security," a new feature for its Claude AI model designed to scan codebases for vulnerabilities and suggest patches. This development has caused cybersecurity stocks to tumble, with Crowdstrike, Cloudflare, and Zscaler experiencing significant declines. 👉bloomberg.com$👉anthropic.com
Economy / Markets: Goldman Sachs has introduced an "S&P ex-AI" index (SPXXAI) that excludes AI-related stocks from the S&P 500, offering investors a way to hedge against the AI market's volatility. AI companies currently represent about 45% of the S&P 500's value. 👉axios.com
Internet / Policy: Wikipedia's English-language edition is blacklisting Archive.today after the site was used to launch a DDoS attack against a blog and was found to have altered archived webpages. The archive site, which is used to bypass paywalls, is facing an FBI investigation into its founder's identity. 👉arstechnica.com👉en.wikipedia.org👉en.wikipedia.org👉en.wikipedia.org👉tech.slashdot.org
Technology / Business: Microsoft has removed a year-old blog post that encouraged developers to train AI models on copyrighted Harry Potter books downloaded from a Kaggle dataset, which was incorrectly marked as public domain. The data scientist who uploaded the dataset deleted it after being contacted by Ars Technica. 👉arstechnica.com
Technology / AI: Meta is shifting its Horizon Worlds strategy away from a VR-centric metaverse vision towards a mobile-first approach, effectively separating its Quest VR platform from the virtual world. This move aims to position Horizon Worlds competitively against platforms like Roblox and Fortnite. 👉techcrunch.com👉developers.meta.com
Finance / AI: The cybersecurity sector experienced a significant stock market downturn after Anthropic launched its "Claude Code Security" feature, which scans code for vulnerabilities. Major cybersecurity companies like Crowdstrike and Cloudflare saw substantial drops in their stock prices. 👉bloomberg.com$👉anthropic.com
Technology / Business: OpenAI is reportedly developing a range of AI-powered hardware devices, including a smart speaker with a camera, smart glasses, and a smart lamp. The smart speaker is expected to cost between $200-$300 and launch in 2027, indicating OpenAI's expansion beyond software into consumer hardware. 👉theinformation.com👉engadget.com👉theverge.com👉reuters.com👉macrumors.com
AI / Finance: OpenAI is projecting revenue to exceed $280 billion by 2030, a significant increase from its previous forecast of $13.1 billion in annualized revenue for 2025. This ambitious projection comes as the company seeks substantial funding for its AI development. 👉bloomberg.com$👉economictimes.indiatimes.com👉theinformation.com👉benzinga.com
AI / Industry: OpenAI is reportedly revising its compute spend targets downwards to around $600 billion by 2030, a decrease from the $1.4 trillion in infrastructure commitments previously discussed by CEO Sam Altman. This adjustment may reflect evolving investor expectations and capital requirements for AI development. 👉cnbc.com👉theinformation.com👉reuters.com
Cloud / Security: Amazon's cloud services (AWS) experienced at least two outages in December, with reports suggesting that an AI coding tool called Kiro was responsible. Amazon, however, attributes these incidents to "user error, not AI error," a statement that has drawn criticism for potentially downplaying the role of AI in the system's failures. 👉ft.com$👉theregister.com👉geekwire.com👉theverge.com👉aboutamazon.com
Government / Technology: The U.S. is launching the "Tech Corps" program, an initiative under the Peace Corps to send volunteers abroad to promote American AI technologies. This move aims to bolster U.S. competitiveness against China in the global AI race. 👉restofworld.org👉bloomberg.com$👉whitehouse.gov
Legal / Technology: A U.S. judge has rejected Tesla's bid to overturn a $243 million jury verdict related to a fatal 2019 Autopilot crash, a significant blow to the company as it faces numerous lawsuits concerning its driver-assistance technology. 👉electrek.co👉fastcompany.com👉jalopnik.com👉cnbc.com👉techcrunch.com
AI / Startups: India-based Sarvam, which focuses on developing AI models for local languages, has launched its Indus chat app in beta. The app is powered by Sarvam's Sarvam 105B model, marking a significant development in India's growing AI landscape. 👉techcrunch.com👉economictimes.indiatimes.com👉deccanherald.com
Cybersecurity: Google blocked over 1.75 million Android apps in 2025 due to policy violations, a decrease from the previous year, indicating improved effectiveness of its AI-driven security measures in identifying and removing malicious applications from the Play Store. 👉bleepingcomputer.com
Cybersecurity: Microsoft is patching a critical vulnerability in its Windows Admin Center (CVE-2026-26119) that allows for privilege escalation, a flaw that has been actively exploited by attackers since mid-2024. The company urges immediate patching for all supported Windows versions. 👉bleepingcomputer.com👉msrc.microsoft.com$
Cybercrime: A Ukrainian national has been sentenced to five years in prison in the U.S. for his role in a scheme that stole identities to help North Korean IT workers gain employment at U.S. companies, with the proceeds allegedly funding North Korea's weapons programs. 👉thehackernews.com👉threatpost.com
Cybersecurity: Japanese tech giant Advantest has disclosed a ransomware attack that may have compromised customer or employee data, prompting an ongoing investigation into the extent of the breach. 👉bleepingcomputer.com
Cybersecurity / Finance: PayPal is notifying customers of a data breach that exposed personal information, including Social Security numbers, for nearly six months due to a software error in its loan application. 👉bleepingcomputer.com
Cybersecurity: The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has issued a warning and mandated immediate patching for a critical vulnerability (CVE-2026-1731) in BeyondTrust Remote Support and Privileged Remote Access products, which is being actively exploited for various malicious activities including data theft and backdoor installations. 👉bleepingcomputer.com👉unit42.paloaltonetworks.com
AI / Cybersecurity: Google has reported that state-backed hackers are leveraging Gemini AI for reconnaissance and to support their attack campaigns, highlighting the growing use of AI tools by sophisticated threat actors. 👉thehackernews.com
Cybersecurity / Finance: The FBI has reported a surge in ATM "jackpotting" attacks, with over 1,900 incidents since 2020 and $20 million lost in 2025 alone, as criminals use malware to force ATMs to dispense cash. 👉thehackernews.com👉bleepingcomputer.com
Cybersecurity / Malware: A new Android malware called PromptSpy has been discovered that abuses Google's Gemini AI to automate persistence by analyzing screen data and providing instructions to keep the malicious app active. 👉thehackernews.com👉eset.com
Cybercrime / Law Enforcement: An INTERPOL-led operation targeting online scams across 16 African nations resulted in 651 arrests and the recovery of over $4.3 million, focusing on investment fraud, mobile money scams, and fraudulent loan applications. 👉thehackernews.com
AI / Software Development: Chris Lattner, creator of LLVM and Swift, reviewed Anthropic's AI-generated C compiler, noting its strengths in handling structured knowledge and passing tests, but also its limitations in generalization and potential for hardcoding solutions. 👉modular.com👉ma.tt
AI / Startups: Andrej Karpathy, a prominent AI researcher, is exploring "Claws," a new term describing OpenClaw-like agent systems that run on personal hardware, potentially representing a significant shift in personal AI interaction. 👉x.com👉simonwillison.net
Venture Capital / India: General Catalyst has announced a significant increase in its commitment to India, pledging $5 billion over the next five years, a tenfold rise from its previous announcement. This expansion follows its merger with local venture capital firm Visible.vc in 2024. 👉techcrunch.com👉economictimes.indiatimes.com
Transportation / Business: Lucid Motors is laying off 12% of its workforce as the electric vehicle manufacturer seeks to achieve profitability amid increased competition and production challenges. 👉techcrunch.com👉theverge.com
AI / Software: Google's Gemini 3.1 Pro model is now available to all users, offering enhanced reasoning capabilities for complex tasks such as visualizing concepts, synthesizing data, and creative projects. This update signifies a notable advancement in Google's AI offerings. 👉9to5google.com👉thehackernews.com
Cybersecurity: A Ukrainian national has been sentenced to five years in prison in the U.S. for his involvement in a scheme to steal identities and facilitate North Korean IT workers' employment at U.S. companies, with proceeds allegedly funding the regime's weapons programs. 👉bleepingcomputer.com
AI / Strategy: Meta is shifting its Horizon Worlds strategy from a VR-centric metaverse to a mobile-first approach, aiming to compete more directly with platforms like Roblox and Fortnite by leveraging its existing social network infrastructure. 👉techcrunch.com👉developers.meta.com
Cybersecurity: A flaw in Grandstream GXP1600 series VoIP phones (CVE-2026-1731) allows unauthenticated remote attackers to gain root privileges and eavesdrop on communications, prompting a critical warning from CISA for immediate patching. 👉bleepingcomputer.com
AI / Venture Capital: Anthropic-funded groups are reportedly backing political candidates targeted by rival AI super PACs, indicating the increasing role of AI in political campaigning and potential for AI-driven smear tactics. 👉techcrunch.com
Cybersecurity: Microsoft has patched a privilege escalation vulnerability (CVE-2026-26119) in Windows Admin Center, a flaw that has been actively exploited by attackers since mid-2024. The company is urging users to update immediately. 👉bleepingcomputer.com👉msrc.microsoft.com$
Cybersecurity: The FBI has issued a warning about a significant increase in ATM "jackpotting" attacks, where criminals use malware to force ATMs to dispense cash, resulting in over $20 million in losses in 2025 alone. 👉bleepingcomputer.com
AI / Gaming: xAI's Grok chatbot has reportedly improved significantly in its ability to answer questions about the game Baldur's Gate, suggesting advancements in its domain-specific knowledge and conversational capabilities. 👉techcrunch.com
Cybersecurity: A Ukrainian national has been sentenced to five years in prison in the U.S. for his role in a scheme that stole identities to help North Korean IT workers gain employment at U.S. companies, with proceeds allegedly funding the regime's weapons programs. 👉bleepingcomputer.com
Apps / Mobile: Apple's iOS 26.4 public beta includes new features such as AI-powered music playlists and video podcasts, indicating Apple's continued integration of AI into its mobile operating system. 👉techcrunch.com
Social Media: Meta is enhancing Threads' integration with Instagram by allowing users to share posts directly to their Instagram Stories without leaving the Threads app, simplifying cross-platform sharing. 👉techcrunch.com