Anthropic debuts Cowork for Claude, built on Claude Code, for automating complex tasks with minimal prompting, as a research preview for Claude Max subscribers
ZDNET's key takeaways — Anthropic is launching Cowork for Claude as a research preview. — It's built upon Claude Code and can automate complex tasks.
Apple unveils Apple Creator Studio, a “groundbreaking collection” of creative apps like Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, and Pixelmator Pro for $13/month or $129/year
Apple has announced Apple Creator Studio, which it describes as a “groundbreaking collection of powerful creative apps designed …
Apple signs a multiyear Google deal to use Gemini models to power a more personalized Siri in 2026, saying Google's tech “provides the most capable foundation”
Apple is joining forces with Google to power its artificial intelligence features for products such as Siri later this year.
Elon Musk says Apple and Google's Gemini deal “seems like an unreasonable concentration of power for Google, given that [they] also have Android and Chrome”
Elon Musk today expressed concern about Apple and Google partnering on a more personalized version of Siri powered by Google's generative AI platform Gemini.
Sources: Meta plans to lay off ~10% of its 15,000-employee Reality Labs division, disproportionately affecting those working on VR headsets and Horizon Worlds
The layoffs are set to be announced this week and would affect Meta's work on the metaverse, as the company spends heavily on building artificial intelligence.
Meta confirms it is laying off Reality Labs staff and will “reinvest the savings” in wearables; CTO Andrew Bosworth says 1,000+ staff will be notified Tuesday
Meta Platforms Inc. is beginning to cut more than 1,000 jobs from the company's Reality Labs division …
The UK plans to bring into force a law this week that will make it illegal to create non-consensual intimate images, as Ofcom investigates X
The UK will bring into force a law which will make it illegal to create non-consensual intimate images, following widespread concerns over Elon Musk's Grok AI chatbot.
Microsoft changes its data center approach, pledging to pay its own power costs, reject tax breaks, and replenish more water than it uses, amid local opposition
President Trump was right about Microsoft — but he only leaked part of the story. — Microsoft is changing its approach to building …
Apple and Google say Apple Foundation Models based on Gemini will help power not only a more personalized Siri, but also “future Apple Intelligence features”
Joe Rossignol /MacRumors:
Trump says that Microsoft will “ensure” Americans don't have higher power bills due to data centers and Big Tech must “pay their own way” for their data centers
- President Donald Trump asks tech companies to “pay their own way” for their data centers.
The US FCC waives a rule that forced Verizon to unlock phones 60 days after they are activated, which could make it harder for people to switch from Verizon
The Federal Communications Commission is letting Verizon lock phones to its network for longer periods, eliminating a requirement …
IDC: global PC shipments rose 9.6% YoY to 76.4M units in Q4 2025, helped by Microsoft ending Windows 10 support and OEMs pulling forward inventory amid tariffs
IDC expects the PC market to be volatile this year ahead of anticipated price increases. … The PC market is bracing …
Google makes improvements to Veo 3.1's Ingredients to Video feature to make videos “more expressive”, and adds native vertical video generation and 4K upscaling
Videos should now be more consistent with the images they're based on, including those in portrait orientations.
Governor Gavin Newsom says he has been negotiating for four months to neutralize California's wealth tax ballot proposal; a compromise does not appear imminent
A compromise does not appear imminent. A union official cast doubt on the possibility of a deal, saying the two sides …
The NYC token, launched by former New York City Mayor Eric Adams on January 12, saw its market cap drop from ~$600M to ~$110M, after USDC liquidity manipulation
A look at Confer, an open-source AI assistant project from Signal creator Moxie Marlinspike that is designed to provide end-to-end encryption for AI chats
Moxie Marlinspike—the pseudonym of an engineer who set a new standard for private messaging with the creation of the Signal Messenger …
OpenAI acquires Torch, a one-year-old AI health care app that analyzes medical records and advises on health; a source that OpenAI is paying ~$100M in equity
OpenAI has agreed to buy Torch, a one-year-old AI healthcare app, for about $100 million in equity, according to a person with direct knowledge of the acquisition.
Filing: the US greenlights Nvidia H200 exports to China; the chips will be tested by a 3rd-party lab to confirm their AI capabilities before they can be shipped
The Trump administration on Tuesday gave the greenlight to exports to China of Nvidia's (NVDA.O) second most powerful AI chips …
The US Senate passes the Defiance Act that would allow victims to sue over nonconsensual, sexually explicit AI-generated images, amid furor over Grok images
The US Senate unanimously passed legislation Tuesday that would allow victims to sue over nonconsensual, sexually explicit AI-generated images …
Warhammer maker Games Workshop says it banned its staff from using AI in its content or designs and “will be maintaining a strong commitment to protect” its IP
Group behind Warhammer taking ‘very cautious’ approach and says it will ‘respect our human creators’
Salesforce makes Slack's new AI-powered Slackbot generally available, helping users answer workflow questions, draft documents, schedule meetings, and more
ZDNET's key takeaways Salesforce made Slackbot generally available.Slackbot is an AI agent for work built in Slack.Business …
Anthropic shakes up its C-suite; chief product officer Mike Krieger will become the co-lead of its Labs incubator; head of product Ami Vora will become CPO
Chief product officer Mike Krieger will change roles and join the “Labs” team. … Mike Krieger, the Instagram co-founder …
Researchers at OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and elsewhere are studying LLMs as if they were living things, not just software, to uncover some of their secrets
By studying large language models as if they were living things instead of computer programs, scientists are discovering some of their secrets for the first time.
The US House passes a bipartisan bill that expands export controls to restrict Chinese companies' remote access to US AI chips from data centers outside China
The House of Representatives on Monday passed a bipartisan bill that expands U.S. export controls to restrict Chinese companies' ability …
Nvidia and Eli Lilly say they will invest $1B over five years in a new Silicon Valley-based AI drug lab, aiming to speed up the pharmaceutical industry's AI use
Nvidia Corp. plans to invest $1 billion over five years in a new laboratory with Eli Lilly & Co., aiming to speed up the use …
Sources: China has told some tech companies that it would only approve Nvidia H200 chip purchases under special circumstances, such as for university research
The Chinese government this week told some tech companies it would only approve their purchases of Nvidia's H200 AI chips under …
A look at WhatsApp's massive global reach and influence, and how the messaging app became a core technology relied on by governments and extended families alike
The platform has become a core technology around the world, relied on by governments and extended families alike. What are we all doing there?
Meta appoints Dina Powell McCormick, a prominent banking executive and former Republican official, as president and vice chair, reporting to Mark Zuckerberg
Dina Powell McCormick, a prominent banking executive and former Republican official, is joining Meta full-time as president and vice chairman …
Nvidia denies requiring Chinese customers to pay upfront for its H200 chips, saying it “would never require customers to pay for products they do not receive”
Nvidia does not require upfront payment for H200 chips, a spokesperson for the U.S. chipmaker said in a statement to Reuters on Tuesday.
Mercedes pauses the rollout of Drive Pilot, a Level 3 “eyes off” driving feature available in Europe and the US, citing low demand and high production costs
The automaker is instead forging ahead with its new point-to-point Level 2 system that rivals Tesla's Full Self-Driving.
SK Hynix will invest ~$12.9B to build an advanced chip packaging plant in South Korea to meet rising memory chip demand, targeting completion by the end of 2027
South Korea's SK Hynix (000660.KS) said on Tuesday it has decided to invest 19 trillion won ($12.90 billion) …
A profile of Eric Migicovsky's Core Devices, a five-person company that he says is “not a startup” and aims to be “sustainable”, as it builds new Pebble devices
Pebble's founder, Eric Migicovsky, is doing things differently with his reboot of the Pebble smartwatch brand and an AI ring.
Taiwan issues an arrest warrant for OnePlus CEO Pete Lau for allegedly illegally hiring 70+ Taiwanese engineers, as it tries to stop China from raiding workers
Prosecutors in Taiwan issued an arrest warrant for the chief executive officer of the Chinese smartphone company OnePlus …
Ofcom opens an investigation under the OSA into Grok over the sexualized deepfakes of women and kids being generated on X and threatens X with a ban or a fine
apnews.com/article/grok... Malaysia and Indonesia become the first countries to block Musk's Grok over sexualized AI imagesTruls Gulowsen /@trulsgulowsen:Indonesia, Malaysia, UK, France and others ha...
Polygon buys crypto startups Coinme and Sequence for a total of $250M+, as it seeks to bolster its stablecoin and fintech infrastructure and compete with Stripe
Polygon Labs CEO Marc Boiron (left) and Polygon Foundation founder Sandeep Nailwal.COURTESY OF POLYGON LABS
Sources: India asked quick commerce companies to drop their 10-minute delivery promise due to concerns about rider safety; Blinkit already removed the assurance
India is asking quick commerce companies to drop their 10-minute delivery promise amid mounting concerns that the ultra-tight deadlines …
Personal finance app Betterment says an individual accessed a third-party system to send a fake crypto scam message and believes they accessed customer info
Personal finance platform Betterment fell victim to an online attack that allowed an unauthorized individual to send some customers a …
A viral Chinese app called “Are You Dead?” that asks users living alone to “check in” with a button press becomes the top paid app in Apple's App Store in China
Claude Cowork hands-on: a general agent well positioned to bring Claude Code's powerful capabilities to a wider audience, but prompt injection risks remain
New from Anthropic today is Claude Cowork, a “research preview” that they describe as “Claude Code for the rest of your work”.
As part of its Reality Labs cuts, Meta is closing three VR gaming studios and will stop developing new content and features for its VR fitness app Supernatural
Developers from Twisted Pixel Games and Sanzaru Games have posted about their studios being closed down.
PJM, the nonprofit operator for a 13-state US power grid, expects power demand to grow 4.8% per year on average over the next decade, driven by the AI boom
Increasing demand from tech industry threatens to max out generation capacity in 13-state region; rate increases anger consumers
Roblox's AI-powered age verification system, which expanded globally last week using tech from a company called Persona, faces criticism for misidentifying ages
Kids are being identified as adults—and vice versa—on Roblox, while age-verified accounts are already being sold online.
Onebrief, which makes AI-powered military workflow software, raised a $200M Series D, nearly doubling its valuation from $1.1B to $2.1B in about half of a year
Eddy Cue says 2025 was a “record-breaking year” for Apple services: December was a monthly TV engagement record, the App Store has 850M+ weekly users, and more
The Apple services executive released a note saying that Apple TV set new monthly engagement records, while Apple Music has hit subscriber records.
Global smartphone shipments rose 2% YoY in 2025; Apple led with 20% market share and 10% YoY growth, followed by Samsung's 19% market share and 5% YoY growth
Sources: Amazon is seeking supplier discounts, from low single digits to 30%, as it moves to reverse concessions made to limit the shock of Trump's tariffs
Tech giant moves to reverse concessions made to limit the shock of US President Donald Trump's trade levies
Sources: the US nears a trade deal with Taiwan that would reduce tariffs on the island's exports and include a TSMC commitment to build 5+ more fabs in Arizona
Instagram denies a breach and says it fixed an issue that let an “external party” send password reset emails, after a report that 17.5M users' data was exposed
President Trump renominates Sean Plankey to be the next director of CISA, which has been running without a full-time chief since Trump's return to office
Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) scotched Plankey's confirmation in 2025, reportedly due to a Coast Guard ship-building contract.
Sources: OpenAI plans a 60-second Super Bowl ad during NBC's broadcast, the second straight year of doing so; ad buyers say some clients pay $8M+ for 30 seconds
AI companies are engaged in an expensive arms race to attract users and alleviate public anxiety about the technologySee also Mediagazer
Mark Zuckerberg says Meta is establishing Meta Compute, a top-level initiative to build “tens of gigawatts” of AI infrastructure this decade and hundreds later
initiative is said to consume hundreds of gigawatts over timeJaxon Gaines /Watcher Guru:Meta Stock Dips From $650 After “Meta Compute” RevealSiddharth Jindal /Analytics India Magazine:Zuckerberg Annou...
NYC-based Proxima, which uses AI to design drugs that control protein interactions, raised an $80M seed led by DCVC; Nvidia, Roivant, and Braidwell invested too
Proxima, a biotech startup using artificial intelligence to design drugs that control protein interactions, raised $80 million in seed funding …
A late-November 2025 amendment to California's wealth tax proposal treats founder control as ownership, which could end founder-controlled startups in the state
Sources: AI chip startup Etched raised $500M led by Stripes at a $5B valuation, bringing its total funding to almost $1B
AI chip startup Etched raised about $500 million in a new funding round, according to people familiar with the matter, part of an effort to compete with Nvidia Corp …
Anthropic debuts Claude for Healthcare, which offers HIPAA-ready tools for providers, insurers, and consumers, building on its Claude for Life Sciences offering
Flip, which offers an Alexa-like voice AI experience for businesses, raised a $20M Series A, bringing its total funding to $31M
Flip, a startup that claims to offer an Amazon Alexa-like voice AI experience for businesses, has raised $20 million in a Series A funding round, it tells Crunchbase News exclusively.
Meta says it shut down nearly 550K accounts in Australia to comply with its under-16 social media ban, including 330,639 Instagram and 173,497 Facebook accounts
Chinese chipmaker GigaDevice's stock rose 54% in its Hong Kong debut after raising ~$600M in its IPO, and reported H1 2025 profit of ~$84M, up 14% from H2 2024
GigaDevice Semiconductor Inc. shares rose in its Hong Kong debut, underscoring growing investor interest in Chinese stocks related to artificial intelligence.
Sources: CoinGecko, a prominent crypto market data and analytics company, is seeking a potential sale for ~$500M, after starting the sales process in late 2025
The crypto market data firm has hired investment bank Moelis, as dealmaking across the sector accelerates.
Crypto scams received $14B+ on-chain in 2025, up from 2024's $12B, and could exceed $17B as more illicit wallets are found; impersonation scams jumped 1,400%
In 2025, cryptocurrency scams received at least $14 billion on-chain, a significant increase from the $9.9 billion we first reported in 2024 …
Sources: Google will start developing and making high-end Pixel phones like the Pro and Fold from scratch in Vietnam in 2026; the Pixel A will remain in China
TAIPEI — Google will start developing and manufacturing high-end smartphones in Vietnam this year from scratch in a move similar …
CrowdStrike acquires Israel-based browser security startup Seraphic, a source says for ~$400M; Seraphic was founded in 2020, employs 50+, and had raised ~$37M
Founded in 2020, the Israeli company focuses on embedding security directly into the browser. — CrowdStrike is acquiring Israeli startup Seraphic Security.
Bakkt agrees to acquire Distributed Technologies Research, the stablecoin infrastructure startup founded by Bakkt CEO Akshay Naheta; BKKT closed up 18.69%
Netflix CTO Elizabeth Stone and other execs discuss the challenges Netflix faces in streaming live events; it has broadcasted 200+ live events since March 2023
After some very public glitches, Netflix thinks it has cracked the code on the tech needed to stream live events.
Michael Saylor's Strategy bought 13,627 bitcoin for ~$1.25B between January 5 and 11, taking its total holdings to 687,410, and boosts its USD reserve to $2.25B
Deepgram, which is building enterprise voice recognition AI tech, raised a $130M Series C led by AVP at a $1.3B valuation, taking its total funding to $215M+
Usage of voice AI in sales, marketing, customer support, and consumer applications has shot up in the last few years.
World Liberty Financial launches World Liberty Markets, letting users lend and borrow digital assets among one another, supporting its own token USD1 and others
Microsoft warns that Chinese companies, especially DeepSeek, are winning AI user adoption outside the West, gaining significant market share in the Global South
Sources: carmakers have found a workaround for chip shortages amid Nexperia's internal battle, buying wafers from its Dutch arm and then shipping them to China
Several auto groups are buying wafers from chipmaker's Dutch arm, and shipping them to its Chinese unit to avoid output stoppages
Sources: Meta and EssilorLuxottica are discussing potentially doubling Ray-Ban Meta production capacity to 20M+ units by the end of 2026 or even as high as 30M+
Bloomberg:NEW
Crypto custody startup BitGo aims to raise up to $201M in its IPO on the NYSE at an up to $1.96B valuation, selling 11.8M shares priced between $15 and $17 each
Alphabet hits a $4T market cap, becoming the fourth Big Tech company to reach the milestone, after its stock has risen 6%+ in the past month
‘Apple is building its own models based on Gemini that will power a more advanced version of Siri’ says analystReuters:Alphabet hits $4 trillion valuation as AI refocus lifts sentimentKatherine Blunt ...
Austin-based webAI, which is building AI models that run locally on devices, raised “high double-digit” millions in a Series A at a $2.5B pre-money valuation
WebAI, an Austin, Texas-based sovereign AI platform, raised “high double-digit” millions of dollars at a $2.5 billion pre-money valuation, it tells Axios.
Interviews with Spotify co-founder Daniel Ek, on his CEO exit, and new co-CEOs Gustav Söderström and Alex Norström, who face algorithm fatigue and angry artists
And they're hoping AI can help solve some of those problems. — Peaceful transfers of executive power tend to be plain affairs …See also Mediagazer
Boston- and Tel Aviv-based Converge Bio, which uses AI trained on molecular data to help pharma and biotech companies develop drugs, raised a $25M Series A
Artificial intelligence is moving quickly into drug discovery as pharmaceutical and biotech companies look for ways …
Sources: AI chipmaker Cerebras is in talks to raise ~$1B, valuing the startup at $22B before the new investment, up from an $8.1B valuation in September 2025
AI chip startup Cerebras Systems is in talks to raise about $1 billion, valuing the company at $22 billion before the new investment …
Italy's antitrust authority says it reduced the record fine imposed on Amazon in 2021, from €1.13B to €752M, after a recalculation
Latin American VC funding rose 14.3% YoY in 2025 to $4.1B, with early-stage investment up 31.9% YoY to nearly $2B and late-stage and growth deals hitting $1.63B
Sources: Balderton cashed out ~$2B of its Revolut stake in the past year, turning an early £1M bet into a historic European VC win; its fifth fund returned 25x+
Document: Meta said last week that it would exclude Italy from its ban on rival AI chatbots on WhatsApp, after an order from the country's antitrust authority
Researchers from Nvidia, Microsoft, and others develop AI models, trained on 1M+ species' data, to generate potential new gene editing and drug therapies
Financial Times:LinkedIn:Raffi KamberLinkedIn:Raffi Kamber:Building things and watching ideas turn into life-changing realities are the foundations of why we started Singular and why we partnered with...