A new risk assessment has found that xAI’s chatbot Grok has inadequate identification of users under 18, weak safety guardrails, and frequently generates sexual, violent, and inappropriate material. In other words, Grok is not safe for kids or teens.
The damning report from Common Sense Media, a nonprofit that provides age-based ratings and reviews of media and tech for families, comes as…
In the run-up to the winter storm currently pummeling much of the U.S., weather forecasts for some regions were all over the map, with snowfall predictions varying wildly.
Nvidia couldn’t have timed the release of its new Earth-2 weather forecasting models any better.
Synthesia hits $4B valuation, lets employees cash out
January 27, 2026
British startup Synthesia, whose AI platform helps companies create interactive training videos, has raised a $200 million Series E round of funding that brings its valuation to $4 billion – up from $2.1 billion just a year ago.
Unlike some other AI startups that are…
Big Tech companies and upcoming startups want to use generative AI to build software and hardware for kids. A lot of those experiences are limited to text or voice, and kids might not find that captivating. Three former Google employees want to get over that hurdle with their generative AI-powered interactive app, Sparkli.
Sparkli was founded last year by Lax Poojary, Lucie Marchand, and Myn Kang.
Who’s behind AMI Labs, Yann LeCun’s ‘world model’ startup
January 26, 2026
Yann LeCun’s new venture, AMI Labs, has drawn intense attention since the AI scientist left Meta to found it. This week, the startup finally confirmed what it’s building – and several key details have been hiding in plain sight.
On its newly launched…
Meta pauses teen access to AI characters ahead of new version
January 26, 2026
Meta today said that it is pausing teens’ access to its AI characters globally across all its apps. The company mentioned that it is not abandoning its efforts but wants to develop an updated version of AI characters for teens, the company exclusively told…
OpenAI chief Sam Altman plans India visit as AI leaders converge in New Delhi: sources
January 26, 2026
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is planning to visit India in mid-February, his first visit to the country in nearly a year, TechCrunch has learned. The visit comes as New Delhi prepares to host a major AI summit expected to draw top executives from Meta, Google, and Anthropic.
India is hosting its first major AI event – the India AI Impact Summit 2026 – in New Delhi between February 16 and 20…
Spotify is rolling out Prompted Playlists, a new AI playlist creation tool, to Premium subscribers in the U.S. and Canada. The feature, which was originally tested in New Zealand, allows users to make a playlist by describing what they want to hear, in their own…
Companies and governments are looking for tools to run AI locally in a bid to slash cloud infrastructure costs and build sovereign capability. Quadric, a chip-IP startup founded by veterans of early bitcoin mining firm 21E6, is trying to power that shift, scaling beyond…
Big Tech companies and upcoming startups want to use generative AI to build software and hardware for kids. A lot of those experiences are limited to text or voice, and kids might not find that captivating. Three former Google employees want to get over that hurdle with their generative AI-powered interactive app, Sparkli.
Sparkli was founded last year by Lax Poojary, Lucie Marchand, and Myn Kang.
