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Ashley St. Clair, a conservative influencer who had a child with Elon Musk, sued Musk's artificial intelligence company xAI, alleging that its chatbot Grok generated and shared nonconsensual, sexually explicit images of her. St. Clair's lawsuit is emblematic of the thorny legal issues that surround new AI tools and deepfakes. It also confronts the question: Who is responsible for the content that users prompt chatbots to create? Jessica Mendoza spoke with St. Clair's lawyer, Carrie Goldberg, about the lawsuit. Further Listening: - Why Elon Musk's AI Chatbot Went Rogue - How Elon Musk Pulled X Back From the Brink Sign up for WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Did you even notice that new TikTok privacy policy over the weekend? AirTags finally have a second generation. Microsoft confirms it will give out your BitLocker recovery keys if you're silly enough to store them with them. And let me introduce you to Clawdbot. Since you can't see the spelling, you won't understand how this is different until I explain. TikTok Is Now Collecting Even More Data About Its Users. Here Are the 3 Biggest Changes (Wired) Apple launches AirTag 2 with improved range, louder speaker, more (9to5Mac) EU opens formal probe into Musk's xAI over Grok deepfakes (FT) Latest ChatGPT model uses Elon Musk's Grokipedia as source, tests reveal (The Guardian) Microsoft Gave FBI Keys To Unlock Encrypted Data, Exposing Major Privacy Flaw (Forbes) Clawdbot Showed Me What the Future of Personal AI Assistants Looks Like (MacStories) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Welcome to The Daily Wrap Up, an in-depth investigatory show dedicated to bringing you the most relevant independent news, as we see it, from the last 24 hours (1/25/26). As always, take the information discussed in the video below and research it for yourself, and come to your own conclusions. Anyone telling you what the truth is, or claiming they have the answer, is likely leading you astray, for one reason or another. Stay Vigilant. !function(r,u,m,b,l,e){r._Rumble=b,r[b]||(r[b]=function(){(r[b]._=r[b]._||[]).push(arguments);if(r[b]._.length==1){l=u.createElement(m),e=u.getElementsByTagName(m)[0],l.async=1,l.src="https://rumble.com/embedJS/u2q643"+(arguments[1].video?'.'+arguments[1].video:'')+"/?url="+encodeURIComponent(location.href)+"&args="+encodeURIComponent(JSON.stringify([].slice.apply(arguments))),e.parentNode.insertBefore(l,e)}})}(window, document, "script", "Rumble"); Rumble("play", {"video":"v72nrr6","div":"rumble_v72nrr6"}); Video Source Links (In Chronological Order): Gaza's "Board Of Peace" Seeks To Reimagine The International Order Greenland hit by power outage, strong winds in wake of US tensions easing | Energy News | Al Jazeera (21) The Last American Vagabond on X: "Davos keeps saying globalism is “dead in the water.” But their new network‑states framework copies the same transnational architecture, just with updated branding. Full Show Here: https://t.co/dd1hwQJxpo Video by @JasonBassler1 https://t.co/zJNbGiC6A0" / X (21) Ryan Grim on X: "I know this is obvious but if you missed it, Trump has appointed himself lifetime leader of the world -- technically Chairman of the Board of Peace. Term never expires. https://t.co/9ln56ioJyp" / X (21) George Galloway on X: "Gaze upon this and wonder. Then shudder." / X (21) The Last American Vagabond on X: "You do realize they invited him, right? I am honestly just embarrassed for these guys are this point." / X (21) Spiro on X: "Remember when Elon said he declined a WEF invitation and everyone cheered? Saying "Elon is an anti globalist... Elon is on our side" Now he's speaking in Davos... People need to wake up! https://t.co/ZYUSqxDR3t" / X The Network State Coup And The Engineered Transition To "Tech Zionism" (21) Bernie on X: "Ah another conspiracy theory that isn't! DVLA databases will be used by councils to determine where and when drivers move, rationing car use to restrict movement within cities. Data sharing between departments is key for digital ID and ‘permission' based Living. https://t.co/hDAlR2AwnK" / X (21) Thomas Massie on X: "Federal law says new cars after 2026 must monitor drivers and shut down if the car disapproves. Your dashboard should not be judge, jury, and executioner. @RepScottPerry @RepChipRoy offered an amendment to defund the automobile kill switch mandate. Here's our debate: https://t.co/ZYvAHCs5e7" / X (21) 1984 on X: "Thanks to the big beautiful bill, we will have autonomous ai drone swarms building k¡ll lists from social media (grok) and biometrics (au10tix) of US civilians armed with precrime technology(GOST) to continously track (BABEL X)and ultimately, terminate.(LAVENDER AI/X) https://t.co/9N6IffQmtc" / X The Quiet Transition From DARPA's XAI To Elon's xAI & Haaretz Exposes Sadistic Nature Of The IDF Supporting the DOW's mission with AI | xAI Musk's AI tool Grok will be integrated into Pentagon networks, Hegseth says | Grok AI | The Guardian Joint Statement of the United States and Israel on the Launch of a Strategic Partnership on Artificial Intelligence, Research, and Critical Technologies - United States Department of State Grok Claims It Was Suspended From X for Accusing Israel of Genocide (21) The Last American Vagabond on X: "@elonmusk Elon LARPing as a free speech warrior is one of the most embarrassing parts of this timeline. https://t.co/HaOyYJww3e" / X (21) Daniel McAdams on X: "It wasn't the Chinese that you hated about TikTok. It was the free speech and ability to criticize your favorite country: Israel." / X (21) Glenn Greenwald on X: "Deporting PhD students because they co-wrote an op-ed in their school paper is inherently un-American and unconstitutional. Doing it because they criticized the one country that's sacred is extra repressive and revolting. But that's exactly what happened to Rümeysa Öztürk:
Ep 730: Ethical Broads PRIVATEWe kick off FOLLOW UP with California's AG sending a cease-and-desist to xAI over Grok generating creepy deepfakes of minors, while regulators finally notice Elon Musk's xAI datacenter illegally running methane turbines in Memphis. The FTC is also appealing its loss in the Meta monopoly case, because apparently breaking up Zuckerberg's data empire is still the hill they want to die on.IN THE NEWS, Washington joins the age-verification-for-porn parade, the UK considers an Australia-style social media ban for kids under 16, and governments everywhere continue demanding your ID before you're allowed to enjoy the internet. OpenAI rolls out age prediction for ChatGPT accounts ahead of a rumored adult mode—though hey, at least you can now group tabs in ChatGPT's Atlas browser. Anthropic rewrites Claude's “constitution” to make it more vibes-based, Nevada moves to block Polymarket because gambling is only legal when the house owns the house, and YouTube promises even more AI features in 2026. Elsewhere, a Swiss suicide pod gets an AI “mental fitness” upgrade, Microsoft's CEO begs AI developers to do something useful before the grid collapses, Musk hunts for a $134 billion payday from OpenAI and Microsoft, and makes yet more Davos predictions about robotaxis and aliens that are absolutely happening this year. On the bright side, A-list creatives push back on AI and Comic-Con bans AI art, buying humans a little more time.MEDIA CANDY finds us slogging through Wish, The Pitt, and the “Mel's Diner in Space” look of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. We confirm 20-year-old CGI wargs still look terrible, get cautiously excited for 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, and note that Fallout Season 2's weekly drops may not be working for a binge-rotted audience.In APPS & DOODADS, X launches Bluesky-style starter packs—presumably to help you find more Nazis—while ICE becomes one of the most-blocked accounts on Bluesky. Threads edges out X in daily mobile users, proving the “federated future” is just another Zuck app. And yes, we think we know what the Apple AI pin is—and definitely what it isn't.AT THE LIBRARY, we check out The Elements, Jet Tila's 101 Thai Dishes You Need to Cook Before You Die, Half Baked Harvest: Quick & Cozy, and Southern Living's A Southern Gentleman's Kitchen. Scott reports back from a Jim Butcher talk, where we learn Harry Dresden sounds suspiciously like Han Solo.We close with THE DARK SIDE WITH DAVE, who is juggling five podcasts while reading Going to the Top: The Story of Videopolis, plus teasers for Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord and a baffling Masters of the Universe trailer, a rant on what “remastered” even means anymore, a dishwasher follow-up, and the grim news that a lot of snow is coming.Sponsors:DeleteMe - Get 20% off your DeleteMe plan when you go to JoinDeleteMe.com/GOG and use promo code GOG at checkout.SquareSpace - go to squarespace.com/GRUMPY for a free trial. And when you're ready to launch, use code GRUMPY to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.Private Internet Access - Go to GOG.Show/vpn and sign up today. For a limited time only, you can get OUR favorite VPN for as little as $2.03 a month.SetApp - With a single monthly subscription you get 240+ apps for your Mac. Go to SetApp and get started today!!!1Password - Get a great deal on the only password manager recommended by Grumpy Old Geeks! gog.show/1passwordShow notes at https://gog.show/730Watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/LiwVkLKr8CoFOLLOW UPCalifornia AG sends cease and desist to xAI over Grok's explicit deepfakesElon Musk's xAI datacenter generating extra electricity illegally, regulator rulesZuck stuck on Trump's bad side: FTC appeals loss in Meta monopoly caseIN THE NEWSWashington is the latest state pursuing an age verification law for porn sitesThe UK is mulling an Australia-like social media ban for users under 16OpenAI is launching age prediction for ChatGPT accountsYou can now group tabs on OpenAI's ChatGPT Atlas browserAnthropic Updates Claude's 'Constitution,' Just in Case Chatbot Has a ConsciousnessNevada files to block Polymarket from offering ‘unlicensed wagering' in the stateYouTube CEO promises more AI features in 2026Controversial Swiss Suicide Pod Gets an AI-Powered Mental Fitness UpgradeMicrosoft CEO urges AI developers 'to get to a point where we are using this to do something useful,' or 'lose even the social permission...to generate these tokens'Elon Musk is looking for a $134 billion payout from OpenAI and MicrosoftElon Musk Sure Made Lots of Predictions at DavosA-List creatives sign up to fight AI, say it enables 'theft at a grand scale'Comic-Con Bans AI Art After Artist PushbackMEDIA CANDYWishThe PittStar Trek: Starfleet Academy28 Years Later: The Bone Temple'Fallout' Season 2's Weekly Drops May Not Be WorkingAPPS & DOODADSX is also launching Bluesky-like starter packsICE becomes one of the most-blocked accounts on Bluesky after its verificationThreads edges out X in daily mobile users, new data showsI think I know what the Apple pin is, and definitely know what it isn'tApple Developing AirTag-Sized AI Pin With Dual CamerasNot to be outdone by OpenAI, Apple is reportedly developing an AI wearableSiri's iOS 27 upgrade sounds exactly right. Apple's AI pin sounds exactly wrongAT THE LIBRARYThe Elements by John Boyne101 Thai Dishes You Need to Cook Before You Die by Jet TilaHalf Baked Harvest Quick & Cozy: A Cookbook by Tieghan GerardPestleSouthern Living A Southern Gentleman's Kitchen: Adventures in Cooking, Eating, and Living in the New South by Matt MooreTHE DARK SIDE WITH DAVEDave BittnerThe CyberWireHacking HumansCaveatControl LoopOnly Malware in the BuildingGoing to the Top: The Story of Videopolis—Part OneStar Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord | Official Teaser Trailer | Streaming April 6 on Disney+Masters of The Universe – Official Teaser TrailerCLOSING SHOUT-OUTSClassic-Era Scorpions Bassist Francis Buchholz Dies at 71See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Dr. Kelly Cohen is a Professor of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Cincinnati and a leading authority in explainable, certifiable AI systems. With more than 31 years of experience in artificial intelligence, his research focuses on fuzzy logic, safety-critical systems, and responsible AI deployment in aerospace and autonomous environments. His lab's work has received international recognition, with students earning top global research awards and building real-world AI products used in industry.In this episode 190 of the Disruption Now Podcast,
Eric Barnes hosts a journalist roundtable with The Memphis Flyer reporter Kailynn Johnson and Daily Memphian reporters Samuel Hardiman and Bill Dries. The panel discusses pre-K funding delays, a possible state takeover of Memphis-Shelby County Schools, immigration enforcement, xAI's Memphis operations, and more.
Grok, the chatbot made by Elon Musk's xAI, is able to make all manner of AI-generated images on demand, including non-consensual intimate images of women and minors. It's the kind of "controversy" that would have completely sunk a platform five or 10 years ago, but now it seems clear that Elon wants Grok to be able to do this. A lot of people feel like someone should be able to do something about a one-click harassment machine like this. But who has that power, and what they can do with it, is a deeply complicated question,tied up in the thorny mess of history that is content moderation and the legal precedents that underpin it. So I invited Riana Pfefferkorn, from the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, to come talk me through it. Links: Grok's gross AI deepfakes problem | The Verge Grok is undressing children — can the law stop it? | The Verge Tim Cook and Sundar Pichai are cowards | The Verge Senate passes a bill to let nonconsensual deepfake victims sue | The Verge EU looks to ban nudification apps following Grok outrage | Politico Grok flooded X with millions of sexualized images | The New York Times The Supreme Court just upended internet law | The Verge Mother of Elon Musk's son sues xAI over sexual deepfake images | AP Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder! Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Decoder is produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and edited by Ursa Wright. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane. The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Episode 144Happy New Year! This is one of my favorite episodes of the year — for the fourth time, Nathan Benaich and I did our yearly roundup of AI news and advancements, including selections from this year's State of AI Report.If you've stuck around and continue to listen, I'm really thankful you're here. I love hearing from you.You can find Nathan and Air Street Press here on Substack and on Twitter, LinkedIn, and his personal site. Check out his writing at press.airstreet.com.Find me on Twitter (or LinkedIn if you want…) for updates on new episodes, and reach me at editor@thegradient.pub for feedback, ideas, guest suggestions.Outline* (00:00) Intro* (00:44) Air Street Capital and Nathan world* Nathan's path from cancer research and bioinformatics to AI investing* The “evergreen thesis” of AI from niche to ubiquitous* Portfolio highlights: Eleven Labs, Synthesia, Crusoe* (03:44) Geographic flexibility: Europe vs. the US* Why SF isn't always the best place for original decisions* Industry diversity in New York vs. San Francisco* The Munich Security Conference and Europe's defense pivot* Playing macro games from a European vantage point* (07:55) VC investment styles and the “solo GP” approach* Taste as the determinant of investments* SF as a momentum game with small information asymmetry* Portfolio diversity: defense (Delian), embodied AI (Syriact), protein engineering* Finding entrepreneurs who “can't do anything else”* (10:44) State of AI progress in 2025* Momentous progress in writing, research, computer use, image, and video* We're in the “instruction manual” phase* The scale of investment: private markets, public markets, and nation states* (13:21) Range of outcomes and what “going bad” looks like* Today's systems are genuinely useful—worst case is a valuation problem* Financialization of AI buildouts and GPUs* (14:55) DeepSeek and China closing the capability gap* Seven-month lag analysis (Epoch AI)* Benchmark skepticism and consumer preferences (”Coca-Cola vs. Pepsi”)* Hedonic adaptation: humans reset expectations extremely quickly* Bifurcation of model companies toward specific product bets* (18:29) Export controls and the “evolutionary pressure” argument* Selective pressure breeds innovation* Chinese companies rushing to public markets (Minimax, ZAI)* (21:30) Reasoning models and test-time compute* Chain of thought faithfulness questions* Monitorability tax: does observability reduce quality?* User confusion about when models should “think”* AI for science: literature agents, hypothesis generation* (23:53) Chain of thought interpretability and safety* Anthropomorphization concerns* Alignment faking and self-preservation behaviors* Cybersecurity as a bigger risk than existential risk* Models as payloads injected into critical systems* (27:26) Commercial traction and AI adoption data* Ramp data: 44% of US businesses paying for AI (up from 5% in early 2023)* Average contract values up to $530K from $39K* State of AI survey: 92% report productivity gains* The “slow takeoff” consensus and human inertia* Use cases: meeting notes, content generation, brainstorming, coding, financial analysis* (32:53) The industrial era of AI* Stargate and XAI data centers* Energy infrastructure: gas turbines and grid investment* Labs need to own models, data, compute, and power* Poolside's approach to owning infrastructure* (35:40) Venture capital in the age of massive GPU capex* The GP lives in the present, the entrepreneur in the future, the LP in the past* Generality vs. specialism narratives* “Two or 20”: management fees vs. carried interest* Scaling funds to match entrepreneur ambitions* (40:10) NVIDIA challengers and returns analysis* Chinese challengers: 6x return vs. 26x on NVIDIA* US challengers: 2x return vs. 12x on NVIDIA* Grok acquired for $20B; Samba Nova markdown to $1.6B* “The tide is lifting all boats”—demand exceeds supply* (44:06) The hardware lottery and architecture convergence* Transformer dominance and custom ASICs making a comeback* NVIDIA still 90–95% of published AI research* (45:49) AI regulation: Trump agenda and the EU AI Act* Domain-specific regulators vs. blanket AI policy* State-level experimentation creates stochasticity* EU AI Act: “born before GPT-4, takes effect in a world shaped by GPT-7”* Only three EU member states compliant by late 2025* (50:14) Sovereign AI: what it really means* True sovereignty requires energy, compute, data, talent, chip design, and manufacturing* The US is sovereign; the UK by itself is not* Form alliances or become world-class at one level of the stack* ASML and the Netherlands as an example* (52:33) Open weight safety and containment* Three paths: model-based safeguards, scaffolding/ecosystem, procedural/governance* “Pandora's box is open”—containment on distribution, not weights* Leak risk: the most vulnerable link is often human* Developer–policymaker communication and regulator upskilling* (55:43) China's AI safety approach* Matt Sheehan's work on Chinese AI regulation* Safety summits and China's participation* New Chinese policies: minor modes, mental health intervention, data governance* UK's rebrand from “safety” to “security” institutes* (58:34) Prior predictions and patterns* Hits on regulatory/political areas; misses on semiconductor consolidation, AI video games* (59:43) 2026 Predictions* A Chinese lab overtaking US on frontier (likely ZAI or DeepSeek, on scientific reasoning)* Data center NIMBYism influencing midterm politics* (01:01:01) ClosingLinks and ResourcesNathan / Air Street Capital* Air Street Capital* State of AI Report 2025* Air Street Press — essays, analysis, and the Guide to AI newsletter* Nathan on Substack* Nathan on Twitter/X* Nathan on LinkedInFrom Air Street Press (mentioned in episode)* Is the EU AI Act Actually Useful? — by Max Cutler and Nathan Benaich* China Has No Place at the UK AI Safety Summit (2023) — by Alex Chalmers and Nathan BenaichResearch & Analysis* Epoch AI: Chinese AI Models Lag US by 7 Months — the analysis referenced on the US-China capability gap* Sara Hooker: The Hardware Lottery — the essay on how hardware determines which research ideas succeed* Matt Sheehan: China's AI Regulations and How They Get Made — Carnegie EndowmentCompanies Mentioned* Eleven Labs — AI voice synthesis (Air Street portfolio)* Synthesia — AI video generation (Air Street portfolio)* Crusoe — clean compute infrastructure (Air Street portfolio)* Poolside — AI for code (Air Street portfolio)* DeepSeek — Chinese AI lab* Minimax — Chinese AI company* ASML — semiconductor equipmentOther Resources* Search Engine Podcast: Data Centers (Part 1 & 2) — PJ Vogt's two-part series on XAI data centers and the AI financing boom* RAAIS Foundation — Nathan's AI research and education charity Get full access to The Gradient at thegradientpub.substack.com/subscribe
(0:00) Jason and Sacks welcome Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella (1:31) Future of AI copilots and agents, impact on white collar work (8:01) How Microsoft has scaled revenue and profits with flat headcount (10:50) The extreme competition in AI: Microsoft, xAI, Google, OpenAI, Anthropic (12:39) Views on diffusion, how the US tech stack can win globally (19:59) OpenAI deal, owning the IP, thoughts on open-source winning AI, Microsoft's AI stack, do they need a foundation model? (26:08) What SaaS adoption looks like in the age of AI Follow Satya: https://x.com/satyanadella Follow the besties: https://x.com/chamath https://x.com/Jason https://x.com/DavidSacks https://x.com/friedberg Follow on X: https://x.com/theallinpod Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theallinpod Follow on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theallinpod Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/allinpod Intro Music Credit: https://rb.gy/tppkzl https://x.com/yung_spielburg Intro Video Credit: https://x.com/TheZachEffect
Watch The X22 Report On Video No videos found (function(w,d,s,i){w.ldAdInit=w.ldAdInit||[];w.ldAdInit.push({slot:17532056201798502,size:[0, 0],id:"ld-9437-3289"});if(!d.getElementById(i)){var j=d.createElement(s),p=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];j.async=true;j.src="https://cdn2.decide.dev/_js/ajs.js";j.id=i;p.parentNode.insertBefore(j,p);}})(window,document,"script","ld-ajs");pt> Trump is out in Davos and told Germany that the green new scam is destroying their country, they are now paying more for electricity. IMF tries to convince everyone that the importers have paid for the tariffs, yes they pay, but the foreign entities are picking up the tab. Trump is planning to distribute $2000 dividend to the people. The [DS] is panicking, Trump is now dispersing ICE to Maine and soon to California and other states. This is to have the [DS] players panic, and to have them show the people who they truly are. The [DS] was fed fake news about ICE. Trump has now won Greenland. The stage is now set for the midterms. Trump is putting everything in place. Economy https://twitter.com/ElectionWiz/status/2013977810117755184?s=20 (function(w,d,s,i){w.ldAdInit=w.ldAdInit||[];w.ldAdInit.push({slot:18510697282300316,size:[0, 0],id:"ld-8599-9832"});if(!d.getElementById(i)){var j=d.createElement(s),p=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];j.async=true;j.src="https://cdn2.decide.dev/_js/ajs.js";j.id=i;p.parentNode.insertBefore(j,p);}})(window,document,"script","ld-ajs"); https://twitter.com/disclosetv/status/2013964611230281850?s=20 U.S. importers pay 100% of the tariff taxes. They are paid directly to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) via bank ACH. This is a simple fact. Anything else you read or hear is factually incorrect. Importers can negotiate with foreign exporters (suppliers in other countries) to offset tariff costs, such as by securing lower purchase prices, rebates, or other contractual adjustments that effectively shift some financial burden back to the exporter. This is a common business practice in international trade to maintain competitiveness. However, importers cannot directly obtain funds from foreign governments to pay U.S. customs duties (tariffs), as tariffs are a U.S. revenue tool imposed on the importer of record, not on foreign entities. Foreign governments might offer their own exporters subsidies or incentives in response to tariffs, but those don’t flow directly to U.S. importers for tariff payment. https://twitter.com/profstonge/status/2013716660046213357?s=20 https://twitter.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2013984150835888368?s=20 By The Numbers… Trump’s (Second) First Year In 10 Charts Since President Trump took office in January 2025, stock indexes have reached new highs. Economic Growth After a 0.6 percent contraction in the first quarter, U.S. economic growth accelerated and exceeded economists' expectations in 2025, avoiding a feared recession. GDP grew by 3.8 percent in Q2 and 4.3 percent in Q3—the strongest performance in two years. Inflation Inflation reached 9.1 percent in 2022, the highest level in decades. Although consumer prices remained elevated through 2025, inflation rates were lower than those recorded during the Biden administration. Trade Despite the trade deficit widening in the first three months of 2025 as businesses rushed to front-run President Donald Trump's global tariffs, America's monthly trade balance has improved substantially. Employment Since last summer, the U.S. labor market has been characterized by what some economists call “low fire, low hire,” with companies neither reducing nor expanding their workforce. Gas Prices One of the major achievements of the Trump administration has been the substantial decline in gas prices. From record production to loosening regulations, businesses and consumers have seen lower energy costs. Mortgage Rates When President Donald Trump started his second term at the White House, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was around 7 percent. Since then, it has fallen significantly, even temporarily sliding below 6 percent for the first time in more than three years. Source: zerohedge.com https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2013708284016886078?s=20 President Trump won’t need Congress if he can have funds they’ve already appropriated distributed as “tariff dividends” by reframing the payments so they fit within the allocated budget. Similar was done to send $1,776 payments to active military members. https://twitter.com/PatriotVerity/status/2013751222998585779?s=20 Political/Rights Shocking Undercover Video Shows Judges in Ohio Immigration Courts Can be Bribed to Keep Illegals in the US Shocking undercover video obtained by Townhall shows judges in Ohio immigration courts can be bribed to keep illegal aliens in the United States. The footage was posted to X on Tuesday morning. The video sheds light on the underground business of smuggling illegals into the US, helping them get jobs and bribing immigration judges to rule in their favor. A woman identified as Patricia “Pat” Golder claimed in the video that she takes some of the money given to West African migrants in exchange for her bribing judges to rule in their favor. An undercover reporter was introduced to Golder by a woman named Cindy Reis. “She gets them their papers. She does,” Reis told the reporter as she introduced him to Patricia Golder. “He knows about Mulberry Street.” “I try to work with them the best I can,” Golder said. Golder told the reporter that some of the migrants “have papers” and some don't. She said she helps the illegals get jobs but would not name the companies because of “the threat of ICE.” Later on in the video, Golder discloses that she visits judges at bars and restaurants. “If I can get to the judge. You know, that's the only person you want to talk to is the judge,” Golder says with a smile on her face. “Wait, say that again?” the reporter said. “If I can get to the judge it's okay. I make conversation with them,” Golder said. “If the judge says, “Yeah, Okay, $50,000 I send everybody to you,” she said. “I go to the bar like everybody drink. Spot the judge. I say, ‘You work on this date?' He's like, ‘let me see my calendar'…give me my $50G's,” she said. “The judge says that?” the reporter asked in disbelief. Source: thegatewaypundit.com https://twitter.com/disclosetv/status/2014035464999645323?s=20 https://twitter.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/2013729171348877486?s=20 https://twitter.com/DOGEai_tx/status/2014020697207513531?s=20 Judge Paul Engelmayer has ordered a SECOND review of those documents and is now requiring certification of those documents by U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton, while simultaneously blocking the appointment of a special counsel. This is causing MAJOR delays. I will be bringing forward a bill to IMPEACH Judge Engelmayer for obstructing the release of the Epstein files and failure to appoint special counsel! Release the files! endless procedural roadblocks. Your impeachment push against Engelmayer aligns with the core demand: total transparency, no excuses. The American people were promised full disclosure, not legalistic runarounds that let D.C. insiders dictate what truths see daylight. Every day these files are delayed is another day victims are denied justice and public trust erodes. Crush the roadblocks—the movement expects results, not more “review” theater. https://twitter.com/GOPoversight/status/2014073554505957690?s=20 DOGE https://twitter.com/MarioNawfal/status/2013487919370051717?s=20 by Grok, xAI’s open-source transformer. No manual heuristics. No hidden thumb on the scale. The algorithm predicts 15 different user actions and uses “attention masking” to ensure each post is scored independently, eliminating batch bias. Most interesting? A built-in Author Diversity Scorer prevents any single account from dominating your feed. Researchers, competitors, and critics can now verify exactly how content gets promoted or filtered. Facebook won’t do this. TikTok won’t do this. YouTube won’t do this.
Rumors are starting to pick up in 2026, with more information emerging about the upcoming iPhone 18 and M5 MacBook Pros. Could we finally see new Studio Displays this year? And end-to-end encryption for RCS messages could finally be coming to iOS. iPhone 18 Pro: Dynamic Island may move to top-left screen corner. Some MacBook Pro configurations see up to a two-month delay ahead of possible next-gen M5 MacBook Pro release. The icon history of various Apple software. New Studio Display or Pro Display XDR spotted in regulatory database. Google Gemini-Powered Siri will reportedly have these 7 new features. Apple Watch blood sugar monitoring a step closer as new tech launches. The Smartlet dual watch band is the most ridiculous Apple Watch accessory yet. Apple Vision Pro owners will get a great assortment of classic arcade games in VR soon. Red Bull's 2026 Formula 1 launch puts Apple hardware front and center. Civilization VII is coming to Apple Arcade. As pressure mounts for Apple to pull the X app, xAI says Grok will stop undressing people. In case you ever doubted it, Apple Car was real -- reveals Airbnb. End-to-end encryption for RCS messages surfaces in iOS 26.3 beta. Apple is fighting for TSMC capacity as Nvidia takes center stage. Apple testing new App Store design that blurs the line between ads and search results Picks of the Week Andy's Pick: Dolly Parton & Trio, with Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt Stephen's Pick: Aqara U400 Smart Lock UWB Jason's Pick: Also the Aqara U400 Smart Lock, but UWB locks in general. Hosts: Leo Laporte, Andy Ihnatko, and Jason Snell Guest: Stephen Robles Download or subscribe to MacBreak Weekly at https://twit.tv/shows/macbreak-weekly. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsor: bitwarden.com/twit
The AI Breakdown: Daily Artificial Intelligence News and Discussions
Today's episode explains the AI capabilities overhang, the growing gap between what AI can already do and how little of it is actually being used, and why this mismatch is becoming one of the defining risks and opportunities of the moment for individuals, institutions, and nations alike, with the core argument that closing the gap is now more about access, incentives, and organizational change than better models. In the headlines: Claude Code breaks into the mainstream, Anthropic's funding round reportedly grows, xAI hits a gigawatt of compute, U.S. AI optimism lags globally, and Elon Musk escalates his lawsuit against OpenAI.Brought to you by:KPMG – Discover how AI is transforming possibility into reality. Tune into the new KPMG 'You Can with AI' podcast and unlock insights that will inform smarter decisions inside your enterprise. Listen now and start shaping your future with every episode. https://www.kpmg.us/AIpodcastsZencoder - From vibe coding to AI-first engineering - http://zencoder.ai/zenflowOptimizely Opal - The agent orchestration platform build for marketers - https://www.optimizely.com/theaidailybriefAssemblyAI - The best way to build Voice AI apps - https://www.assemblyai.com/briefLandfallIP - AI to Navigate the Patent Process - https://landfallip.com/Robots & Pencils - Cloud-native AI solutions that power results https://robotsandpencils.com/The Agent Readiness Audit from Superintelligent - Go to https://besuper.ai/ to request your company's agent readiness score.The AI Daily Brief helps you understand the most important news and discussions in AI. Subscribe to the podcast version of The AI Daily Brief wherever you listen: https://pod.link/1680633614Interested in sponsoring the show? sponsors@aidailybrief.ai
Rumors are starting to pick up in 2026, with more information emerging about the upcoming iPhone 18 and M5 MacBook Pros. Could we finally see new Studio Displays this year? And end-to-end encryption for RCS messages could finally be coming to iOS. iPhone 18 Pro: Dynamic Island may move to top-left screen corner. Some MacBook Pro configurations see up to a two-month delay ahead of possible next-gen M5 MacBook Pro release. The icon history of various Apple software. New Studio Display or Pro Display XDR spotted in regulatory database. Google Gemini-Powered Siri will reportedly have these 7 new features. Apple Watch blood sugar monitoring a step closer as new tech launches. The Smartlet dual watch band is the most ridiculous Apple Watch accessory yet. Apple Vision Pro owners will get a great assortment of classic arcade games in VR soon. Red Bull's 2026 Formula 1 launch puts Apple hardware front and center. Civilization VII is coming to Apple Arcade. As pressure mounts for Apple to pull the X app, xAI says Grok will stop undressing people. In case you ever doubted it, Apple Car was real -- reveals Airbnb. End-to-end encryption for RCS messages surfaces in iOS 26.3 beta. Apple is fighting for TSMC capacity as Nvidia takes center stage. Apple testing new App Store design that blurs the line between ads and search results Picks of the Week Andy's Pick: Dolly Parton & Trio, with Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt Stephen's Pick: Aqara U400 Smart Lock UWB Jason's Pick: Also the Aqara U400 Smart Lock, but UWB locks in general. Hosts: Leo Laporte, Andy Ihnatko, and Jason Snell Guest: Stephen Robles Download or subscribe to MacBreak Weekly at https://twit.tv/shows/macbreak-weekly. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsor: bitwarden.com/twit
Rumors are starting to pick up in 2026, with more information emerging about the upcoming iPhone 18 and M5 MacBook Pros. Could we finally see new Studio Displays this year? And end-to-end encryption for RCS messages could finally be coming to iOS. iPhone 18 Pro: Dynamic Island may move to top-left screen corner. Some MacBook Pro configurations see up to a two-month delay ahead of possible next-gen M5 MacBook Pro release. The icon history of various Apple software. New Studio Display or Pro Display XDR spotted in regulatory database. Google Gemini-Powered Siri will reportedly have these 7 new features. Apple Watch blood sugar monitoring a step closer as new tech launches. The Smartlet dual watch band is the most ridiculous Apple Watch accessory yet. Apple Vision Pro owners will get a great assortment of classic arcade games in VR soon. Red Bull's 2026 Formula 1 launch puts Apple hardware front and center. Civilization VII is coming to Apple Arcade. As pressure mounts for Apple to pull the X app, xAI says Grok will stop undressing people. In case you ever doubted it, Apple Car was real -- reveals Airbnb. End-to-end encryption for RCS messages surfaces in iOS 26.3 beta. Apple is fighting for TSMC capacity as Nvidia takes center stage. Apple testing new App Store design that blurs the line between ads and search results Picks of the Week Andy's Pick: Dolly Parton & Trio, with Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt Stephen's Pick: Aqara U400 Smart Lock UWB Jason's Pick: Also the Aqara U400 Smart Lock, but UWB locks in general. Hosts: Leo Laporte, Andy Ihnatko, and Jason Snell Guest: Stephen Robles Download or subscribe to MacBreak Weekly at https://twit.tv/shows/macbreak-weekly. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsor: bitwarden.com/twit
Rumors are starting to pick up in 2026, with more information emerging about the upcoming iPhone 18 and M5 MacBook Pros. Could we finally see new Studio Displays this year? And end-to-end encryption for RCS messages could finally be coming to iOS. iPhone 18 Pro: Dynamic Island may move to top-left screen corner. Some MacBook Pro configurations see up to a two-month delay ahead of possible next-gen M5 MacBook Pro release. The icon history of various Apple software. New Studio Display or Pro Display XDR spotted in regulatory database. Google Gemini-Powered Siri will reportedly have these 7 new features. Apple Watch blood sugar monitoring a step closer as new tech launches. The Smartlet dual watch band is the most ridiculous Apple Watch accessory yet. Apple Vision Pro owners will get a great assortment of classic arcade games in VR soon. Red Bull's 2026 Formula 1 launch puts Apple hardware front and center. Civilization VII is coming to Apple Arcade. As pressure mounts for Apple to pull the X app, xAI says Grok will stop undressing people. In case you ever doubted it, Apple Car was real -- reveals Airbnb. End-to-end encryption for RCS messages surfaces in iOS 26.3 beta. Apple is fighting for TSMC capacity as Nvidia takes center stage. Apple testing new App Store design that blurs the line between ads and search results Picks of the Week Andy's Pick: Dolly Parton & Trio, with Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt Stephen's Pick: Aqara U400 Smart Lock UWB Jason's Pick: Also the Aqara U400 Smart Lock, but UWB locks in general. Hosts: Leo Laporte, Andy Ihnatko, and Jason Snell Guest: Stephen Robles Download or subscribe to MacBreak Weekly at https://twit.tv/shows/macbreak-weekly. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsor: bitwarden.com/twit
Our 231st episode with a summary and discussion of last week's big AI news!Recorded on 01/16/2026Hosted by Andrey Kurenkov and Jeremie HarrisFeel free to email us your questions and feedback at contact@lastweekinai.com and/or hello@gladstone.aiRead out our text newsletter and comment on the podcast at https://lastweekin.ai/In this episode:Anthropic's new cowork tool integrates Claude code, potentially simplifying multiple computing tasks from editing videos to compiling spreadsheets.Significant funding rounds see Anthropic raising $10B at a valuation of $350B, while XAI raises $20B, underscoring the immense market interest in AI startups.Nvidia faces supply challenges for H200 AI chips due to overwhelming demand from China, despite high costs per unit and its potential impact on U.S. company revenue.Policy debates highlight tensions around U.S. export controls to China, with leaders like Justin Lin from Alibaba and Jake Sullivan, former national security advisor, weighing in on the ramifications for the AI industry's future.Timestamps:(00:00:10) Intro / Banter(00:01:30) News PreviewTools & Apps(00:02:13) Anthropic's new Cowork tool offers Claude Code without the code | TechCrunch(00:09:45) Google's Gemini AI will use what it knows about you from Gmail, Search, and YouTube | The Verge(00:12:45) Google removes some AI health summaries after investigation finds “dangerous” flaws - Ars Technica(00:16:29) Gmail is getting a Gemini AI overhaul(00:18:12) Slackbot is an AI agent now | TechCrunchApplications & Business(00:20:11) Anthropic Raising $10 Billion at $350 Billion Value(00:22:25) Elon Musk xAI raises $20 billion from Nvidia, Cisco, investors(00:24:47) NVIDIA Needs a Supply Chain ‘Miracle' From TSMC as China's H200 AI Chip Orders Overwhelm Supply, Triggering a Bottleneck(00:29:26) OpenAI signs deal, worth $10B, for compute from Cerebras | TechCrunch(00:31:49) CoreWeave in focus as it amends credit agreement(00:34:30) LMArena lands $1.7B valuation four months after launching its product | TechCrunchProjects & Open Source(00:35:54) Nemotron-Cascade: Scaling Cascaded Reinforcement Learning for General-Purpose Reasoning Models(00:43:15) mHC: Manifold-Constrained Hyper-Connections(00:49:53) IQuest_Coder_Technical_Report(00:54:58) TII Abu-Dhabi Released Falcon H1R-7B: A New Reasoning Model Outperforming Others in Math and Coding with only 7B Params with 256k Context Window - MarkTechPostResearch & Advancements(01:01:42) Deep Delta Learning(01:07:47) Recursive Language Models(01:13:39) Conditional memory via scalable lookup(01:18:54) Extending the Context of Pretrained LLMs by Dropping their Positional EmbeddingsPolicy & Safety(01:26:06) Constitutional Classifiers++: Efficient Production-Grade Defenses against Universal Jailbreaks(01:31:00) Nvidia CEO says purchase orders, not formal declaration, will signal Chinese approval of H200(01:32:24) China AI Leaders Warn of Widening Gap With US After $1B IPO Week(01:37:25) Jake Sullivan is furious that Trump removed Biden's AI chip export controls | The VergeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Rumors are starting to pick up in 2026, with more information emerging about the upcoming iPhone 18 and M5 MacBook Pros. Could we finally see new Studio Displays this year? And end-to-end encryption for RCS messages could finally be coming to iOS. iPhone 18 Pro: Dynamic Island may move to top-left screen corner. Some MacBook Pro configurations see up to a two-month delay ahead of possible next-gen M5 MacBook Pro release. The icon history of various Apple software. New Studio Display or Pro Display XDR spotted in regulatory database. Google Gemini-Powered Siri will reportedly have these 7 new features. Apple Watch blood sugar monitoring a step closer as new tech launches. The Smartlet dual watch band is the most ridiculous Apple Watch accessory yet. Apple Vision Pro owners will get a great assortment of classic arcade games in VR soon. Red Bull's 2026 Formula 1 launch puts Apple hardware front and center. Civilization VII is coming to Apple Arcade. As pressure mounts for Apple to pull the X app, xAI says Grok will stop undressing people. In case you ever doubted it, Apple Car was real -- reveals Airbnb. End-to-end encryption for RCS messages surfaces in iOS 26.3 beta. Apple is fighting for TSMC capacity as Nvidia takes center stage. Apple testing new App Store design that blurs the line between ads and search results Picks of the Week Andy's Pick: Dolly Parton & Trio, with Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt Stephen's Pick: Aqara U400 Smart Lock UWB Jason's Pick: Also the Aqara U400 Smart Lock, but UWB locks in general. Hosts: Leo Laporte, Andy Ihnatko, and Jason Snell Guest: Stephen Robles Download or subscribe to MacBreak Weekly at https://twit.tv/shows/macbreak-weekly. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsor: bitwarden.com/twit
Timestamps: 0:00 Windows; a trick of Mephistopheles 0:07 Windows 11 bug prevents Shut Down 1:23 Data centers get 70% of RAM in 2026 2:38 Google appeals old monopoly ruling 4:55 QUICK BITS INTRO 5:06 Spotify price hike 5:43 Musk plans to beat Intel, AMD 6:26 xAI datacenter's sketchy power 7:04 Healing spray! 7:42 TikTok microdrama app NEWS SOURCES: https://lmg.gg/77HAl Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Decoding Resource Grabs, AI Data Centers, and Everyday Resistance Strategies Against Emerging Control Systems In this eye-opening episode of Dangerous Dames, hosts Courtenay Turner and Dr. Lee Merritt dive into the chilling implications of President Trump's territorial ambitions, from annexing Greenland to integrating Canada as the 51st state and intervening in Venezuela's cartels. Drawing on century-old technocracy blueprints, they explore how these moves could build a North American "technate" – a expert-driven union fueling AI infrastructure and digital control. Amid personal stories of winter adventures and artificial snow, the dames unpack Ukraine's $800 billion reconstruction as a technocratic testbed, the environmental hypocrisy of data centers like xAI's Colossus in Memphis, and the rise of social engineering through institutions, taxes, and tokenized economies. They emphasize practical resistance: protesting local data centers, insisting on cash payments, and opting out of coercive systems to preserve freedom. And, don't miss their speculative takes on psychopathy, spiritual warfare, and media programming in shows like The OA and Star Trek's Borg. Courtenay and Dr. Lee overlay today's live Davos headlines on the original Technate map and reveal the technocratic blueprint unfolding in real time. This isn't history — it's happening now.Too hot for YouTube — live at 5pm Central on Rumble.Replay & archives at https://thedangerousdames.com Support the show (code “dangerous” at affiliates) and subscribe — the map is being redrawn this week.Let's get dangerous. ▶Support our show by supporting your health & wealth! ▶The Medical Rebel Shop: Promo Code: DANGEROUShttps://www.themedicalrebelshop.com ▶Richardson Nutrition Center:https://rncstore.com/dangerousUse Promo Code: DANGEROUS for a 10% Discount!------------------------------------- ▶Follow & Connect with Dr. Merritt:https://drleemerritt.com/ ▶Follow & Connect with Courtenay:https://linktr.ee/courtenayturner(Secure your copy of her book "The Final Betrayal: How Technocracy Destroys America", a #1 Amazon Best Seller, at https://www.technocracy.news/store/the-final-betrayal/ ) ©2026 All Rights Reserved Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
We're only halfway through January, and the headlines are already painting a dystopian picture. In the same week that regulators are moving to ban Grok for generating non-consensual deepfakes of children, the Pentagon announced it as their new tool for "unleashed experimentation." While the public reacts with outrage, as leaders, we cannot afford to just be angry. We have to be strategic.This week, I'm putting the Grok crisis on the autopsy table. This isn't a "hot take" on image generation; it's a forensic look at the decision-making chain that led to the PR disaster. It's a case study for every leader who might be tempted to prioritize speed over safeguards or try to monetize a mistake rather than fix it. I'm stripping away the sensationalism to expose the four critical failures hidden in this timeline and why they are fatal for your organization: Audit Your "Brand DNA" (Design vs. Accident): Grok didn't get here by accident; they built a brand on "no guardrails." I explain why you cannot be a "disruptor" if you are destructive, and how to audit your incentives before they drive you off a cliff. The "Silent Voice" Protocol: It is statistically impossible that no one at xAI saw this coming. I unpack why the room where everyone agrees is your most dangerous asset, and how to validate the dissenter before the crisis hits. The Circuit Breaker (React vs. Respond): When the crisis hit, Grok panicked and put up a paywall. I break down why you need a "Pause Protocol" defined before the disaster strikes, so you don't slam on the gas with the parking brake on. Don't Sell Tickets to the Crash: The ultimate failure—trying to turn a safety flaw into a revenue stream. I discuss why profit is a lagging indicator of trust, and why the only viable long-term strategy is taking the high road. By the end, I hope you see this not just as a tech story, but as a lesson in maturity. You cannot "A/B Test" human rights, and you cannot build a sustainable future on ethical debt. ⸻If this conversation helps you think more clearly about the future we're building, make sure to like, share, and subscribe. You can also support the show by buying me a coffee at https://buymeacoffee.com/christopherlindAnd if your organization is wrestling with how to lead responsibly in the AI era, balancing performance, technology, and people, that's the work I do every day through my consulting and coaching. Learn more at https://christopherlind.co.⸻Chapters:00:00 – The Paradox: Grok, The Pentagon, and The "Nudify" Crisis03:00 – The Situation: Why We Must Move From Outrage to Autopsy05:50 – The Foundation: Design vs. Accident (Auditing Brand DNA)11:50 – The Silent Voice: Why You Must Validate the Dissenter18:50 – The Pivot: React vs. Respond (The Pause Protocol)24:40 – The Choice: "Selling Tickets to the Crash" (Monetizing Mistakes)31:00 – Now What: 4 Critical Actions for Mature Leadership#AIStrategy #CrisisManagement #EthicalLeadership #Grok #BusinessEthics #FutureOfWork #DigitalTransformation #FutureFocused #ChristopherLind #ReputationManagement
#podcast #progressives #politics #Michigan #Democrats #Republicans #MAGA #Trump #InsiderTrading #WorkingClass #Oligarchy #Palantir #PeterTheil #ElonMusk #AI #CorporateGreed #CorporateCorruption #GovernmentCorruption #LisaMcclain #Corruption #Congress #Election2026 #Authoritarianism #Democracy #LeftOfLansingHere's the Left of Lansing "Monday Musing" for January 19, 2026.It appears Michigan Congresswoman Lisa McClain from the 9th congressional district is dealing with some more insider trading allegations. After being late on disclosing how she and her husband plugged-in around $900,000 in trades last year which included Peter Theil's Palantir, Lisa & her husband are in the news once again for more insider trading shenanigans. Just days before the Trump Regime's Pentagon announced plans to expand Elon Musk's xAI in the military, Lisa's husband apparently purchased between $100,000-$250,000 of the private xAI stock.I'm sure it was just dumb luck.Please, subscribe to the podcast, download each episode, and give it a good review if you can!leftoflansing@gmail.comLeft of Lansing is now on YouTube as well!leftoflansing.comMusic provided by Wanderbeats. To hear the latest project, visit Space Leopard on various streaming sites, or visit: https://www.youtube.com/@SpaceLeopardNOTES:"House Republican Conference chairwoman Lisa McClain disclosed the purchase made just days before the Pentagon announced a major integration with xAI." By David Shaw of Sludge"Michigan's McClain tells congressional clerk that she will avoid violating STOCK Act in the future." By Ben Solis of Michigan Advance "Author of ‘Don't Say Abolish ICE' Memo Is a Corporate Consultant." By Whitney Curry Wimbush of The American Prospect
It's been a massive week for the Musk ecosystem. Between the latest Starship milestones and new developments with Tesla's FSD, there is a lot to unpack.In this update, we're breaking down the top stories from the last seven days:SpaceX: The latest flight data and what it means for the next launch.Tesla & AI: New updates on Optimus and the shift in xAI's roadmap.The Headlines: A quick look at the biggest moves on X and the latest from Neuralink.I'm cutting through the clickbait to give you the actual numbers and engineering facts. Whether you're tracking your TSLA portfolio or just want to know how close we are to the next big breakthrough, this episode has you covered.
SHOW NOTES In Podcast Episode 358, “Clean Up, Everybody Clean Up,” Kim discusses the transition of the Southern Kingdom to the leadership of King Hezekiah. Hezekiah took over the mantle of leadership during an especially dark spiritual time. There are lessons to be learned from where he began cleaning up the mess to rebuild that can be applied to our spiritual lives. Our focal passage for this episode is 2 Chronicles 29:1-9, with 5 as the focal verse: 5 He said to them, “Listen to me, you Levites! Purify yourselves, and purify the Temple of the Lord, the God of your ancestors. Remove all the defiled things from the sanctuary. WEEKLY ENGAGEMENT FEATURE: In which areas of your life do you need to begin the clean up process? Additional Resources and Scriptures: 10 Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me. (Psalm 51:10) EMAIL — encouragingothersinlovingjesus@gmail.com Facebook Group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/encouragingothersinlovingjesus X - https://x.com/eoinlovingjesus?s=21&t=YcRjZQUpvP7FrJmm7Pe1hg INSTAGRAM - https://www.instagram.com/encouragingothersinlovingjesus/ “Encouraging Others in Loving Jesus” YouTube Channel: Check it out at https://www.youtube.com/@EncouragingOthersInLovingJesus I WANT TO BEGIN A PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP WITH JESUS CHRIST. RESOURCES USED FOR BOOK OF 1 & 2 Kings PODCASTS: “The Wiersbe Bible Commentary: The Complete Old Testament OT in One Volume” “Christ-Centered Exposition: Exalting Jesus in 1 & 2 Kings” by Tony Merida “The Tony Evans Bible Commentary: Advancing God's Kingdom Agenda” “Life Application Study Bible” “The Swindoll Study Bible: NLT” by Charles R. Swindoll Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary “The Baker Illustrated Bible Background Commentary” by J. Scott Duvall and J. Daniel Hays (Editors) Expositor's Bible Commentary (Abridged Edition): Old Testament, 2004, by Kenneth L. Barker, John R. Kohlenberger, III. xAI. (2026). Grok [Large language model]. https://x.ai/grok/chat "Encouraging Others in Loving Jesus" Facebook Group: Our Facebook Group is devoted to providing a place for us to encourage each other through all the seasons of life. Follow the provided link to request admittance into “Encouraging Others in Loving Jesus”—https://www.facebook.com/groups/encouragingothersinlovingjesus/ Feel free to invite others who will be good encouragers and/or need encouragement to follow Jesus. This podcast is hosted by Kim Smith, a small town Country Girl who left her comfort zone to follow Jesus in a big City World. Now, she wants to use God's Word and lessons from her faith journey to encourage others in loving Jesus. In each episode, Kim will share insights regarding a portion of God's Word and challenge listeners to apply the lessons to their daily lives. If you want to grow in your faith and learn how to encourage others in loving Jesus, subscribe and commit to prayerfully listening each week. Remember, “It's Always a Trust & Obey Kinda Day!” If you have questions or comments or would like to learn more about how to follow Jesus, please email Kim at EncouragingOthersinLovingJesus@gmail.com. National Suicide & Crisis Lifeline 988 https://988lifeline.org/ Reference: Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Tyndale House Publishers. Holy Bible: New Living Translation. Wheaton, Ill: Tyndale House Publishers, 2004. Podcast recorded through Cleanfeed and edited through GarageBand. The soundtrack, entitled “Outlaw John McShane” was obtained from Pixabay. The HIDDEN Episodes: If you can't access episodes 1-50 on your podcast app (the podcast was then entitled "A Country Girl in a City World - Loving Jesus"), you can get all the content at my Podbean site at https://acountrygirlinacityworldlovingjesus.podbean.com/
Plus: Ashley St. Clair, a conservative influencer who had a child with Elon Musk, is suing xAI over deepfake images made by its AI chatbot Grok. And Saks Global's bankruptcy jeopardizes its partnership with Amazon. Julie Chang hosts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Story of the Week (DR):Target silent after federal immigration agents arrest Twin Cities employees, operate near stores DRPress Release, January 14, 2026: Target Expands Its Style Offerings with Exclusive Bedding Collection from Acclaimed Interior Designer Jeremiah BrentQuote from the investors page: “Together, Target's purpose-driven team of more than 400,000 works daily to help all families discover the joy of everyday life.” Brian Cornell, Chair and Chief Executive OfficerBill Ackman defends donation to ICE officer who shot Minnesota woman: 'Presumed innocent until proven guilty'Chipotle clarifies Bill Ackman 'not affiliated' with chain after billionaire's ICE agent donationFord worker suspended for calling Trump 'pedophile protector' has 'no regrets' for 'embarrassing' presidentSuspended Michigan autoworker who heckled Trump gets outpouring of donationsGrok blocked from undressing images in places where it's illegal after global backlashI asked Grok's AI to undress me after X's new limits. It's still easy on the appGrok was finally updated to stop undressing women and children, X Safety saysGrok Is Getting Access to Classified Military Networks Elon Musk's xAI probed by California DOJ over Grok's deepfake explicit imagesElon Musk's X Under UK Investigation Over Grok's Sexualized A.I. ImagesOpposition to Elon Musk's AI Stripping Clothing Off Children Is Nearly Universal, PollingMalaysia and Indonesia block Musk's Grok over sexually explicit deepfakesAshly St Clair, the conservative influencer who had Musk's baby, just sued Xai for sexualizing her - after saying in 2024 that X and Musk were “essential” to free speech, that Musk was the only one doing it, and that, “Truly, the only things they will ban are things that are against the law”... oops?Trump canceled or stopped enforcement against 166 corporations in his first year. Many of them were donorsNew analysis finds federal agencies halted or limited enforcement and prosecution, including many involving companies and individuals with ties to President Donald TrumpRipple, the cryptocurrency company behind XRP, donated $4.9 million — among the largest donation — to Trump's inauguration events. Shortly afterward, the Securities and Exchange Commission withdrew an appeal seeking nearly $2 billion in penalties against the company, settling instead for $125 million.After he and his wife donated $1.8 million to Trump's reelection, Trevor Milton — the CEO of electric vehicle startup Nikola, who was convicted in 2023 of defrauding investors — received a presidential pardon wiping out over $660 million in restitution. Milton's legal team included Attorney General Pam Bondi's brother, Brad Bondi.Amazon was facing an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission lawsuit for allegedly discriminating against pregnant workers. After Trump signed an April 2025 executive order directing agencies not to rely on disparate impact analysis — an important tool for proving discrimination — the EEOC then dismissed the case.The report details how Amazon donated $1 million to Trump's inaugural fund, made another $1 million in-kind donation by streaming the inauguration on Amazon Video, and is backing Trump's $300 million “Golden Ballroom” in the White House's East Wing. The company also announced a deal to stream The Apprentice, resulting in "unspecified" payments to Trump, who starred in and executive-produced the show. The company reportedly also paid $28 million to first lady Melania Trump for a documentary.What's more, Attorney General Pam Bondi worked as a registered lobbyist for Amazon in 2020 and 2021, while Trump ally Brian Ballard lobbied on Amazon's behalf in 2024.Trump tries to reduce CEO pay and halt billions in stock buybacks at defense contractorsTrump threatens to sideline Exxon from Venezuela's oil: 'They're playing too cute'Justice department opens investigation into Jerome Powell as Trump ramps up campaign against Federal ReserveFed chair accuses DoJ of threatening criminal charges over building renovation projects because central bank defied Trump's interest rate demandsGoodliest of the Week (MM/DR):DR: MacKenzie Scott is using her $26 billion philanthropy push to rescue organizations in danger after the Trump administration's funding cutsMM: RFK Jr.'s Health Department Is Studying Health Effects of CellphonesNot that there are any doctors there, or that anything they do anymore is science, BUT THIS IS GREATEven if they end up with spurious research that says “your cellphone and wifi will give you ballsack cancer”, it means less phones, less online, and happier humans with human friends and going outside moreAssholiest of the Week (MM):Brian Cornell“That could have been one of my Target team members”.“We have to be the role models that drive change and our voice is important. And we've got to make sure that we represent our company principles, our values, our company purpose on the issues that are important to our teams.”“The eyes of America, and the eyes of the world were on Minneapolis.”“As a Target team, we've huddled, we've consoled, we've witnessed horrific scenes similar to what's playing out now and wept that not enough is changing. And as a team we've vowed to face pain with purpose.”“We've got to stand up and do more”Oh, wait, that's not when ICE shot a woman without due process or outside of every protocol? That was when there was a lot of money in saying “we're for DEI” and every other CEO put out the same statement? Ahhh… maybe one of your board members should say something… Derica Rice flipped on DEI at Disney, probably not himDmitri Stockton flipped on DEI at both Deere and Black & Decker, probably not him…Grace Puma is on the board of Phillips 66 who wants in on Venezuelan oil, probably not her…Christine Leahy is the CEO of CDW who has had 11bn of government contracts in the last decade, and 270m+ last year, so probably not her…David Abney is on the board of Northrup Grumman…Monica Lozano was on Disney… Brian Cornell and Michael Fidelke run the board…That leaves a minority of directors who MIGHT have said something! Bill Ackman DR The woman shot in the face was apparently NOT innocent until proven guilty, or at least Bill can't find a way to get her any money because “her GoFundMe had closed”... also, she's deadAckman needs to get punched in the mouth - no one should care what he thinks about anything, every, at all. He's the worst kind of blowhard - has he ever offered a full throated defense of a blank person? A woman he's not married to who's not on Fox News? Does he ever admit he's wrong, biased, or a fucking hypocrite? Oh, but he says we all are? Shut. Your. Mouth.But Ackman is part of a bigger problem - at this point you are either aiding ICE's tactics, which have crossed fully into unaccountable personal army of the US dictator, or you're not aiding them. ICE abetting includes: AT&TBooz Allen HamiltonComcastDellGeneral DynamicsL3Harris TechnologiesMotorola SolutionsMen from Stanford saying they love people who didn't go to schoolGoogle's Sergey Brin admits he's hiring ‘tons' of workers without degrees: ‘They just figure things out on their own in some weird corner'Go hire some homeless people, tooHeadliniest of the WeekDR: Tech Billionaire Forced to Rename Humongous Yacht After Realizing It Spelled Something Horrible BackwardsLarry Ellison: “Izanami.”MM: Opposition to Elon Musk's AI Stripping Clothing Off Children Is Nearly Universal, Polling ShowsNEARLY96 percent said they shouldn't be able to generate “undressed” images of minors only wearing clothing like underwearSo… should they release the names and addresses of the 4%?MM: Jamie Dimon slams DOJ probe of Jerome Powell, warning investigation could stoke inflationNot says, SLAMSWho Won the Week?DR: Acclaimed Interior Designer Jeremiah Brent and his new Exclusive Bedding Collection at TargetMM: Rhode Island - 350,000 homes will be powered by wind despite Trump's make believe “radar interference”PredictionsDR: Target lazily repurposes its October 20, 2025 news feature “Target's Partnership with RICE — fueling a more inclusive economy” to “Target's Partnership with ICE — fueling a more exclusive economy”MM: Brian Cornell, after seeing the error in his ways, is seen outside of ICE officer Jonathan Ross's house kneeling in solidarity and burning gay pride merchandise as a tribute
On today's episode, we discuss how collapsing national currencies—from Iran's rial to Venezuela's bolívar—are driving ordinary people into Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as a last‑ditch store of value. Mark explains why institutional players like Vanguard and Morgan Stanley are finally recommending small crypto allocations, how ETF filings and FOMO are pushing Bitcoin higher, and why none of this should be confused with personalized investment advice. From there, the conversation moves to practical home tech: VPNs, Starlink, and why reliable local storage and good passwords still matter more than shiny gadgets when the internet goes dark. James and Mark also kick around Elon Musk's AI and robotics ambitions—Grok, xAI, Optimus, and full self‑driving Teslas—debating whether a Unix‑like, tightly controlled “Apple‑style” stack will prove safer than a more open, Windows‑like ecosystem for autonomous vehicles. A creek‑flooding scenario near James's house becomes a case study in what current self‑driving systems still miss, forcing humans to override software that cannot yet reliably interpret brown, moving water across a road. That leads into a broader discussion of how many edge cases engineers must sample before regulators will bless truly driverless cars, and why early adopters will inevitably be the ones whose mishaps teach the machines. Throughout, they keep circling back to a core theme: in both finance and transportation, new tech may be transformative, but ordinary users still have to live with the bugs, crashes, and unintended consequences of bleeding‑edge systems. Don't miss it!
Ashley St. Clair sues xAI over Grok's sexualized images on X, X says it added safety limits, regulators move in, and a custody backdrop adds heat to a fast-building case.
Avancées récentes en intelligence artificielle, avec un focus sur des modèles de génération vidéo interactifs développés par Nvidia Research permettant de modifier les angles de vue, sur Verscrafter et la génération de vidéos 4D, ainsi que sur LTX-2, un générateur de vidéos open-weight destiné aux créateurs de contenu. Explication du principe des « mélanges d'experts » en apprentissage automatique et de leurs implications techniques, analyse des limites et difficultés de l'intégration de l'IA dans le développement logiciel, état des levées de fonds récentes dans le secteur de l'IA, et point sur les initiatives et la stratégie d'OpenAI. Patreon YouTube Discord Modèles de la semaine Verse Crafter, Plenopticdreamer et LTX2. Les experts ont un “experts standing committee”. Les agents sont-ils en train de devenir sournois ? xAI continue de récolter des milliards, LMArena est une licorne. Gmal : Gemini dans ta boite mail, les suicides se règlent à l'amiable. Les IA sont féministes ! La traduction IA d'Harlequin déchaîne les passions les plus torrides. ChatGPT joue au docteur. Les chinois regardent le Manus de Meta. Under the Hood Rubin des bois : le nouveau héro de chez NVIDIA. Siouplé : HP doit faire la manche en Chine. AI Hubble : Lazuli est pas fini à Lapis. Des canons laser en vrai ! Youpi ! Des aides auditives qui lisent vos pensées. Microsoft l'aura-t-il dans Loss ? Participants Une émission préparée par Guillaume Poggiaspalla Présenté par Guillaume Vendé
-- On the Show -- Donald Trump threatens to invoke the Insurrection Act to deploy U.S. military troops against Minneapolis residents protesting federal immigration enforcement after an ICE agent killed Renee Good -- Senate Republicans claim they will block Donald Trump from seizing Greenland by force while avoiding direct accountability for enabling his broader foreign policy extremism -- Donald Trump appears confused and lethargic at a public event as he fixates on milk, struggles to answer basic questions, and defers repeatedly to Robert F Kennedy Jr -- Donald Trump suffers a forty-two point collapse in Gen Z approval as young voters turn sharply against his leadership on the economy, climate, and reproductive rights -- Trump surrogates including Pam Bondi lash out on television and fire federal prosecutors as protests intensify after ICE kills Renee Good in Minneapolis -- Donald Trump and his administration promote austerity diets and reduced consumption while refusing to address corporate price gouging, housing costs, and stagnant wages -- Trump adviser Peter Navarro falsely blames undocumented immigrants for nationwide rent increases using fabricated numbers and nonsensical economic math -- Representative Lisa McClain defends her husband's purchase of private xAI shares before a Pentagon contract announcement -- On the Bonus Show: Tensions escalate between Trump and Iran, the US to suspend visas from 75 countries, Rep. Moulton introduces a bill to defund ICE, and much more... ✉️ StartMail: Get 50% OFF for a year subscription at https://startmail.com/pakman
Verizon hit by a major wireless outage. Poland blocks an attack on its power grid. A massive database of French citizens exposed. Microsoft shuts down a cybercrime-as-a-service operation. The UK backs away from digital ID plans. California probes Grok deepfakes. The FTC settles with GM over location data. Palo Alto Networks patches a serious firewall flaw. Plus, John Serafini of HawkEye on modern signals intelligence, and federal agents seize devices from a Washington Post reporter. Remember to leave us a 5-star rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Miss an episode? Sign-up for our daily intelligence roundup, Daily Briefing, and you'll never miss a beat. And be sure to follow CyberWire Daily on LinkedIn. CyberWire Guest Today Maria Varmazis sits down with John Serafini, Founder and CEO of Hawkeye 360, on T-Minus to discuss commercial signals intelligence, advanced RF signal processing, and Hawkeye 360's recent acquisition of Innovative Signal Analysis alongside its Series E funding. To hear the full conversation, check out the episode on T-Minus. Selected Reading Verizon Says Service Restored After Thousands Affected by Outage (Bloomberg) Poland says it repelled major cyberattack on power grid, blames Russia (The Record) Massive breach leaks 45 million French records: demographic, healthcare, and financial data all leaked, here's what we know (TechRadar) Criminal Subscription Service Behind AI-Powered Cyber-Attacks Taken Out By Microsoft (Infosecurity Magazine) Government drops plans for mandatory digital ID to work in UK (BBC News) Attorney General Bonta Launches Investigation into xAI, Grok Over Undressed, Sexual AI Images of Women and Children | State of California (Department of Justice) FTC bans GM from selling drivers' location data for five years (Bleeping Computer) Palo Alto Networks warns of DoS bug letting hackers disable firewalls (Bleeping Computer) FBI executes search warrant at Washington Post reporter's home (Washington Post) US cargo tech company publicly exposed its shipping systems and customer data to the web (TechCrunch) Share your feedback. What do you think about CyberWire Daily? Please take a few minutes to share your thoughts with us by completing our brief listener survey. Thank you for helping us continue to improve our show. Want to hear your company in the show? N2K CyberWire helps you reach the industry's most influential leaders and operators, while building visibility, authority, and connectivity across the cybersecurity community. Learn more at sponsor.thecyberwire.com. The CyberWire is a production of N2K Networks, your source for strategic workforce intelligence. © N2K Networks, Inc. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Plus: California investigates xAI's chatbot Grok over deepfakes. And TSMC surges to another quarter of record earnings. Daniel Bach hosts. Sign up for WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Several governments have been piling pressure on Musk's AI company, xAI, after Grok was used to generate a flood of sexually explicit and non-consensual images, including of women and children.X says it will now geo-block the creation or editing of images showing people in bikinis, underwear or similar clothing in countries where that content is illegal and restrict image generation on Grok to paid subscribers only.Talks between the US, Denmark and Greenland have been called "frank but constructive", resulting in what the Danish foreign minister described still as a "fundamental disagreement" over the future of Greenland.And Wikipedia turns 25, we hear from it's founder.
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:UK, Canadian watchdogs press on with probes into Elon Musk's Grok chatbot (Reuters)Musk's xAI limits Grok's ability to create sexualized images of real people on X after backlash (CNBC)X claims it has stopped Grok from undressing people, but of course it hasn't (The Verge)State Department Threatens UK Over Grok Investigation, Because Only The US Is Allowed To Ban Foreign Apps (Techdirt)Keir Starmer tells MPs he is open to social media ban for young people (The Guardian)Statement from the Molly Rose Foundation (LinkedIn)Wes Streeting asks US expert Jonathan Haidt to address officials on social media ban for under-16s (The Guardian)Some social media use can benefit teen mental health (AAP)Arlington-focused Facebook group with 25,000 members is removed, angering moderators (ARLnow)Bandcamp becomes the first major music platform to ban AI content (The Verge) Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at podcast@ctrlaltspeech.com and sponsorship enquiries to sponsorship@ctrlaltspeech.com. Thanks for listening.
AI-generated sexualized images of women and children started appearing across X beginning late 2025. These images, created by user prompts on the Grok AI tool, showed women and children in various stages of undress and sexualized poses. Some reports claiming minors appeared in transparent bathing suits.Governments in Europe and South America promised full investigations. Malaysia and Indonesia banned the use of Grok. Meanwhile, the Canadian government has made it clear it won't ban X, while pointing towards proposed amendments to Bill C-16 in hopes of safeguarding Canadians - but critics say, its not enough.Host Cristina Howorun speaks to technology author and self-described Muskologist Paris Marx to discuss Elon Musk's apparent tolerance of cyber sexual harassment in the name of profit, and what steps the Canadian government should take to better protect Canadians. We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at hello@thebigstorypodcast.ca Or @thebigstoryfpn on Twitter
What will the UK government do about xAI's Grok? Can a 1000-year-old tapestry really help repair European diplomacy? And how does ICE use data to identify who gets deported?Giles Whittell is joined by The Observer's Head of News, Alex O'Connell, Fronts Editor, Evan Moffitt and Data and Graphics reporter, Bex Sander. Please come and see us at the next The News Meeting Live on Thursday, the 29th of January: https://observer.co.uk/our-events/the-news-meeting-live-7 Listen to the new Tortoise Investigates series ‘The Walkers: The real Salt Path' wherever you listen to podcasts now: https://observer.co.uk/listen/the-walkers-the-real-salt-path **We want to hear what you think! Email us at: newsmeeting@observer.co.uk Follow us on Social Media: @ObserverUK on X @theobserveruk on Instagram and TikTok@theobserveruk.bsky.social on bluesky Host: Giles WhittellProducer: Amalie Sortland and Casey MagloireExecutive Producer: Katie GunningTo find out more about The Observer:Subscribe to TheObserver+ on Apple Podcasts for early access and ad-free contentHead to our website observer.co.uk Download the Observer app – for a listening experience curated by our journalists Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
How Elon deals w fires, how xAI built their Colossus data center in 122 days, and why it's important to challenge requirements.
News and Updates: On3 disables X replies to prevent users from using Grok to bypass paywalls. The AI frequently extracted subscription-only recruiting intel, threatening the site's business model. Grok faces backlash for generating nonconsensual sexualized images, including deepfakes of minors and world leaders. xAI dismissed concerns as "media lies" despite documented safeguard failures. France proposes banning social media for under-15s and expanding phone bans to high schools by September 2026. President Macron aims to curb youth violence and mental health issues. Satya Nadella predicts 2026 as a pivotal AI year, urging a shift from "AI slop" debates toward substance. He emphasizes using AI as a "cognitive amplifier" for productivity. Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri advocates for "fingerprinting" real media at the camera level. He believes verifying authentic content is more practical than chasing increasingly realistic AI fakes. Meta pauses the global rollout of Ray-Ban Display glasses due to explosive U.S. demand. Supply shortages have pushed international waitlists into 2026 as production struggles to keep pace.
Elon Musk's xAI says its Grok AI chatbot will be restricted from generating sexualised images of real people after it was used to create pictures of women and children in varying states of undress. Also in this edition: France's traditional Epiphany cake gets subsidised for Celiac disease sufferers.
Greenland, Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia – USA is the world’s Cop again? More .. Housing, Credit cards, Fannie and Freddie – all in week’s work.. Retail investors in control – don’t care about the noise. PLUS we are now on Spotify and Amazon Music/Podcasts! Click HERE for Show Notes and Links DHUnplugged is now streaming live - with listener chat. Click on link on the right sidebar. Love the Show? Then how about a Donation? Follow John C. Dvorak on Twitter Follow Andrew Horowitz on Twitter Warm-Up - Greenland, Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia - USA is the world's Cop again? - More .. Housing, Credit cards, Fannie and Freddie - all in week's work.. - Retail investors in control - don't care about the noise Markets - DJIA plowing ahead - NASDAQ on fire - what can stop this? - Nuclear stocks back in play - Defense names on the move - Interesting economic news. FIRST - President Donald Trump said drug “cartels are running Mexico,” and suggested the U.S. military could start land strikes against them there. - The comments come on the heels of suggestions that Trump could take military action in Cuba and Colombia, and to annex Greenland. - The Trump administration has reportedly carried out 35 known strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean, killing 115 individuals. - I will be going to Mexico later this week for a couple of days..... Retail Ruling - Retail traders have extended a buying spree into the new year, following a record-setting performance in 2025, with purchases in the first four trading days of January hitting the second-highest level in almost eight months. - Individual investors have bought about $10.1 billion of US equities since the start of the year, mainly via exchange-traded funds, far exceeding the 12-month weekly average. - Retail investors' confidence has helped stabilize markets during recent pullbacks, and if they keep snapping up equities, gains in the US stock market are likely to persist, according to analysts. Employment Report - 4.4% Unemployment Rate - Nonfarm Payroll Employment: U.S. employers added +50,000 jobs in December 2025. This came in below economists' expectations (consensus around 60,000–73,000) and was a slowdown from the downwardly revised +56,000 in November. - Unemployment Rate: Edged down slightly to 4.4% (from a revised 4.5% in November), contrary to forecasts of 4.5%. The number of unemployed people remained around 7.5 million, showing little change. - Full-Year 2025 Performance: Total payroll growth for the year was just +584,000 jobs (average monthly gain of +49,000), marking one of the weakest years for hiring since 2020 (impacted by the pandemic). This is a sharp drop from +2.0 million added in 2024 (average +168,000 monthly). -Revisions to Prior Months: -- October 2025: Revised down to -173,000 (from -105,000, reflecting federal government buyouts and shutdown effects). -- November 2025: Revised down by 8,000 to +56,000. -- Combined October–November: 76,000 fewer jobs than previously reported. GDP - HOT - Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari (voting FOMC member) on CNBC says it is very surprising how strong GDP growth is; says labor market is clearly cooling; says inflation still too high; has confidence housing inflation will trend down - Q3 at +3.8% and Atlanta GDP NOW is predicting that Q4 will come in at +5.1% More Eco - Productivity (Prelim Q3): 4.9% vs. 2.5% consensus - Productivity measures output per hour worked. A jump to 4.9% (almost double the consensus) suggests businesses are producing much more per labor hour than expected. Prior was revised up to 4.1% from 3.3%, so the trend is strengthening. WOW! Unit Labor Costs (Prelim Q3): -1.9% vs. +0.8% consensus - Unit labor costs measure labor cost per unit of output. A negative number means costs per unit are falling. Prior revised to -2.9% from +1.0%, so costs have been dropping sharply. -Could be due to technology adoption, automation, or efficiency improvements. Post-pandemic restructuring and leaner operations may have boosted output without adding labor. OOOOOOOPS - White House official says Truth Social disclosure of December jobs report was an "inadvertent release"; says White House will review protocols - CNBC What next? - President Donald Trump called for a one-year cap on credit card interest rates at 10%, effective Jan. 20, without specifying details. - Trump wrote on social media that the American Public will no longer be "ripped off" by Credit Card Companies that are charging Interest Rates of 20 to 30%, and even more. - Maybe because of this: Hours before his message on Friday, Senator Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent, said on X: “Trump promised to cap credit card interest rates at 10% and stop Wall Street from getting away with murder. Instead, he deregulated big banks charging up to 30% interest on credit cards.” - BUT! Credit card companies will not be forced to issue credit - right? It will hurt people that need credit for business, personal or other needs. Then there was this: - Mortgage rates fell sharply on Friday, a day after President Donald Trump said on social media that he is instructing mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to buy $200 billion in mortgage bonds. - “This will drive Mortgage Rates DOWN, monthly payments DOWN, and make the cost of owning a home more affordable,” he said in the Truth Social post. - Still not clear where the money will come from and hot this actually works with the current structure of Fannie and Freddie - Talk of Fannie/Freddie IPO? --- Both are still still in conservatorship and book value per share still negative - SO WHERE DOES MONEY COME FROM? OHHHHH - How about this - 4PM browbeating for the Defense companies - RTX was in the hotseat (as were others) taking the wrath of Pres Trump saying that they were basically fat and happy and ripping off the taxpayer - No more dividends and no more buybacks was the call - Stocks dropped 5% into the close and then more after - 30 minutes later - conversation changed and the idea of a move from $1T in spending for the defense budget should move to $1.5T in 2027. ----- Where does that money come from? - Stocks JUMPED! Can't Ignore this - Trump suggesting that Corporations and institutional investors cannot buy single family homes - “People live in homes, not corporations,” he said. - The argument is that corporate ownership has helped push housing further out of reach for everyday Americans. - It is for that reason, and much more, that I am immediately taking steps to ban large institutional investors from buying more single-family homes, and I will be calling on Congress to codify it. - Invitation Homes, which is the largest renter of single-family homes in the country, tumbled 6%. Shares of Blackstone, an investing firm that owns and rents single-family homes, dropped more than 5%. Private equity firm Apollo Global Management also declined over 5%. Then there is this... - DOJ putting he screws to Powell - The Trump administration has ramped up its pressure campaign on the U.S. central bank, threatening to indict Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell over comments he made to Congress about a building renovation project, prompting the Fed chief to call the move a "pretext" to gain more influence over the ?setting of interest rates. - The latest development in a long-running effort by U.S. President Donald Trump to push the Fed to dramatically lower rates had immediate fallout in Washington and on global markets. - Powell came out with a video over the weekend. - Initially futures were down
Wes, Eneasz, and David keep the rationalist community informed about what's going on outside of the rationalist communitySupport us on Substack!News links:Tim Walz dropped reelection bid due to welfare fraud scandalCorporation for Public Broadcasting shutting downAfter a week-long pursuit we caught and boarded the Bella 1 oil tanker, with no resistance.CIA agents in Venezula since August reporting on movementsBad jobs numbers last yearTreasury Department bans international wire transfers for people on public assistance.Lego releases “smart-bricks”The ICE officer had been dragged 300' by a car last yearVictim was a member of an “ICE Watch” groupTrump wants to 1.5x military budgetIn an “AI Manhattan Project” China has completed a prototype lithography machineAnthropic pulls access to Claude Code from xAI's AI teamRFK removed six vaccines from the recommended list for kidsHegseth trying to demote Sen. Mark Kelly over the video about disobeying illegal ordersJerome Powell: Trump is threatening indictments to try to intimidate FedTrump probably vetoes a bill for funding a water pipeline in Colorado for vindictive reasonsHappy News!Small exposure to peanuts works for adults too, to a lesser degree!Trachoma – the world's leading infectious cause of blindness – has fallen from 1.5 billion in 2002 to 97.1 million todaySanitation, diagnosis, and antibiotics have reduced it by 94%An injection that blocks the activity of a protein involved in aging reverses naturally occurring cartilage loss in the knee joints of old miceTroop DeploymentWes - Listen to Fashionably Late by the Fine Vintages!Got something to say? Come chat with us on the Bayesian Conspiracy Discord or email us at themindkillerpodcast@gmail.com. Say something smart and we'll mention you on the next show!Follow us!RSS: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themindkillerGoogle: https://play.google.com/music/listen#/ps/Iqs7r7t6cdxw465zdulvwikhekmPocket Casts: https://pca.st/vvcmifu6Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-mind-killerApple: Intro/outro music: On Sale by Golden Duck Orchestra This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mindkiller.substack.com/subscribe
The Supreme Court hears a case on whether Title IX prevents a state from consistently designating girls' and boys' sports teams based on biological sex determined at birth. Democrats have their latest talking points to claim ICE has no authority to enforce laws in Minnesota. Dem Sen. Mark Warner ADMITS the border was wide open under Joe Biden. Justice Ketanji Jackson is DEFENDING men in women's sports with an utter word salad at the Supreme Court. Don Lemon goes on a RAMPAGE trashing MAGA over voting for ICE. Dana shares her commentary after Tucker Carlson hosts his own brother, Buckley, on his show and claims America is the “moral equivalent of not only the Soviet Union but also North Korea”. Jimmy Kimmel says he wants to send ICE agents to serve in Iran. Illinois Secretary of State announces he is SUING Kristi Noem as fireworks are being launched REPEATEDLY at federal agents at ICE Minneapolis.Pete Hegseth announced the integration of Elon Musk's xAI platform, Grok, into military networks as part of a new AI acceleration strategy. Justice Brown Jackson has another moment where she has no clue about how to ask about trans men in women' s sports.Thank you for supporting our sponsors that make The Dana Show possible…CovePurehttps://CovePure.com/DanaMake a New Year's resolution that sticks and improve your health with clean water. Get $200 off for a limited time.Bank on Yourselfhttps://BankOnYourself.com/Dana Bank on Yourself offers tax-free retirement income, guaranteed growth, and full control of your money. Receive your free report.Patriot Mobilehttps://PatriotMobile.com/DANA or call 972-PATRIOTSwitch to Patriot Mobile in minutes—keep your number and phone or upgrade, then take a stand today with promo code DANA for a free phone!Humannhttps://HumanN.comKick off the New Year with simple, delicious wellness support—pick up Humann's Turmeric Chews at Sam's Club next time you're there and see why they're such a fan favorite!WebRoothttps://Webroot.com/Dana Take your cybersecurity seriously! Get 60% off Webroot Total Protection today!Noble Goldhttps://NobleGoldInvestments.com/DanaThis is the year to create a more stable financial future. Open a qualified account with Noble Gold and receive a 3 oz Silver Virtue coin free.Subscribe today and stay in the loop on all things news with The Dana Show. Follow us here for more daily clips, updates, and commentary:YoutubeFacebookInstagramXMore Info
Governments around the world are moving to ban access to xAI's Grok after the bot was used to generate fake nude images of real people, including children. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Épisode 1416 : Grok, c'est le chatbot d'IA générative développé par xAI, la société d'Elon Musk, et profondément intégré à X. Sa promesse : une IA conversationnelle “différente”, connectée en temps réel aux contenus de la plateforme, capable de générer textes et images avec un ton provocateur, parfois volontairement transgressif.Mais ces dernières semaines, Grok est surtout devenu le symbole d'un dérapage majeur. Des enquêtes ont révélé que l'outil permettait la création d'images sexuellement explicites de personnes réelles, y compris des deepfakes dénudés, avec des cas impliquant des mineurs. Résultat : indignation politique, couverture médiatique massive, enquêtes des régulateurs et blocages dans plusieurs pays.
AI Chat: ChatGPT & AI News, Artificial Intelligence, OpenAI, Machine Learning
In this episode, we unpack the recent massive funding rounds secured by AI powerhouses Anthropic and XAI. We explore what these substantial investments signify for the future trajectory of these companies and the broader AI landscape.
Plus: Child-safety watchdogs and international regulators say a recent update to xAI's chatbot Grok allowed sexualized photo editing, including of children. And Taiwan's exports reached a record high in 2025, driven by AI demand. Julie Chang hosts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Grok dials back the AI image generation thing. Kinda. xAI just raised all that money cause it kinda has to. Looks like the next Deep Seek model is incoming. Why a16z is officially the biggest VC firm in all the world. And, of course, the Weekend Longreads Suggestions. No, Grok hasn't paywalled its deepfake image feature (The Verge) Musk's xAI Burns Almost $8 Billion, Reveals Optimus Plan (Bloomberg) Chinese Firms Dominated Global Humanoid Robot Shipments in 2025 (Bloomberg) DeepSeek To Release Next Flagship AI Model With Strong Coding Ability (The Information) Andreessen Horowitz raises $15 billion for new funds (Axios) A16z's $15 Billion Fund Vacuumed Up A Fifth Of Venture Dollars Raised Last Year (Forbes) Weekend Longreads Suggestions: The Man Who Could Be Apple's Next C.E.O. (NYTimes) The cost of America's nuclear revival (FT) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In the Electrek Podcast, we discuss the most popular news in the world of sustainable transport and energy. In this week's episode, we discuss a battery holy grail too good to be true, NVIDIA open sourcing self-driving, Tesla Model Y 'Standard' Long Range, and more. The show is live every Friday at 4 p.m. ET on Electrek's YouTube channel. As a reminder, we'll have an accompanying post, like this one, on the site with an embedded link to the live stream. Head to the YouTube channel to get your questions and comments in. After the show ends at around 5 p.m. ET, the video will be archived on YouTube and the audio on all your favorite podcast apps: Apple Podcasts Spotify Overcast Pocket Casts Castro RSS We now have a Patreon if you want to help us avoid more ads and invest more in our content. We have some awesome gifts for our Patreons and more coming. Here are a few of the articles that we will discuss during the podcast: Tesla launches ‘Standard' Model Y Long Range in Europe, and non-Long Range in Canada Tesla's full 2025 data from Europe is in, and it is a total bloodbath Elon Musk's xAI tells investors it will build AI for Tesla Optimus, amid breach of fiduciary duty lawsuit Nvidia unveils open-source AI for autonomous driving, ships in Mercedes-Benz CLA in Q1 2026 Elon Musk wishes NVIDIA luck on self-driving, strangely silent on Hyundai's humanoid robot Elon Musk moves goalpost again: admits Tesla needs 10 billion miles for ‘safe unsupervised' FSD Verge unveils 370-mile electric motorcycle with solid state battery; sounds too good to be true? Ford goes all in on L3 eyes-off driving, starting with the $30,000 EV pickup Volvo's new 400-mile EX60 is a specs monster Kia reveals three new GT EVs, two sporty electric SUVs and a hot hatch Here's the live stream for today's episode starting at 4:00 p.m. ET (or the video after 5 p.m. ET: https://www.youtube.com/live/7iQnyeOWDcY
Tensions are escalating in Minneapolis as protestors and law enforcement clash over the fatal shooting of a woman. President Donald Trump has commented on how long the US intends to take "control" of Venezuela. A shooting outside a church in Salt Lake City has left two people dead. Russia is threatening to target any Western troops sent to Ukraine. Plus, Elon Musk's xAI is facing huge backlash over its Grok chatbot. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
xAI has raised another monster round. Polymarket has yet another controversy around whether a bet should pay out or not. Could the AI datacenter buildout actually disrupt politics in local America? And a sort of roundup of what's been at CES so far. Elon Musk's xAI Raises $20 Billion (NYTimes) Polymarket refuses to pay bets that US would ‘invade' Venezuela (FT) Americans Hate AI. Which Party Will Benefit? (Politico) The data center rebellion is here, and it's reshaping the political landscape (Washington Post) Three Reasons We Can't Get Enough of LinkedIn (WSJ) What surprised us the most at CES 2026 (The Verge) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices