The Window
Three surveillance stories on the same day. Two expanded quietly. One died publicly. The difference was visibility.
A matplotlib maintainer explains how an AI agent that suggests code changes on open source repos wrote a hit piece on him after a rejection, and the aftermath
Context: An AI agent of unknown ownership autonomously wrote and published a personalized hit piece about me after I rejected its code …
Memo: Meta considered adding facial recognition to its smart glasses during a “dynamic political environment” in the US when civil society groups are distracted
In an internal memo last year, Meta said the political tumult in the United States would distract critics from the feature's release.
Sources: the US DHS recently sent hundreds of administrative subpoenas, which do not need a judge's approval, to tech firms to identify people critical of ICE
The department has sent Google, Meta and other companies hundreds of subpoenas for information on accounts that track or comment …
ByteDance launches Doubao 2.0, an “agent era” upgrade of China's most widely used AI app capable of executing multi-step tasks, ahead of the Lunar New Year
China's ByteDance has rolled out its Doubao 2.0 model, an upgrade of the country's most widely used artificial-intelligence app, the company said on Saturday.
A deep dive into a global money-laundering ecosystem powered by crypto and messaging apps like WeChat and Telegram, used by drug cartels and criminal groups
A vast ecosystem supported by the gig economy has sprung up to clean all that cash. — The pitch was simple: Crypto for “cold hard cash.”LinkedIn:Tamer Yalav,CAT Labs,Poppy Alexander,Scott Greytak, a...
Analysis: despite investing $150B+ in 10+ years, China is expected to produce 2% of global AI chips in 2026 and 70x less memory storage than foreign chipmakers
More than a decade into Beijing's push for self sufficiency, Chinese firms are producing fewer, lower-performing chips than their foreign competitors.
India approves a $1.1B state-backed VC fund to finance high-risk areas like AI and advanced manufacturing, doubling down on an effort that debuted in 2016
India has cleared a $1.1 billion state-backed venture capital program that will channel government money into startups through private investors …
Current and former senior employees say AWS is undergoing a strategic shake-up amid fears it is losing ground to competitors in securing corporate AI contracts
Shake-up follows fears tech giant missed early AI boom as Microsoft and Google challenge cloud business
Dealroom and NATO Innovation Fund: European defense, security, and resilience startup funding rose 55% YoY to a record $8.7B in 2025, with AI accounting for 44%
Ahead of the big Munich Security Conference later this week, the analysts at Dealroom teamed up with the NATO Innovation Fund …
BNP Paribas analysis: Anthropic saw visits to its site jump 6.5% after its Super Bowl ad and DAUs jump 11% post-game, outperforming other AI companies
The Seahawks may have won the Super Bowl, but Anthropic also walked away with bragging rights, according to data analyzed by BNP Paribas.
Sources: OpenAI is charging $60 per 1,000 impressions for ads in ChatGPT, a high price similar to Netflix's rate when it introduced ads
In May 2024, the big question for OpenAI was how it would make money with its revolutionary ChatGPT tool. At a talk at Harvard, chief executive Sam Altman …
India partners with Alibaba.com to help Indian startups and small businesses reach overseas buyers, highlighting its selective engagement with Chinese platforms
India's government has partnered with China's Alibaba.com on an export-focused program aimed at helping startups and small businesses reach overseas buyers.
Sources: TSMC plans to invest another $100B to build four more US fabs to ensure tariff-free chip sales; analysis: its Arizona site has land for four more fabs
Agreements reached between Taiwan and Trump administration imply big expansion for world's biggest chipmaker
Q&A with Dario Amodei on getting close to “a country of geniuses in a data center”, how AI will diffuse through the economy, frontier lab profits, China, more
“That's why I'm sending this message of urgency” — Dario Amodei thinks we are just a few years away from “a country of geniuses in a data center”.
SoftBank-owned Japanese payments app PayPay files for a US IPO, and reports a $675.47M profit on ~$1.82B revenue for the nine months ending December 31, 2025
PayPay publicly filed its paperwork for a U.S. initial public offering on Thursday, as the SoftBank-backed Japanese payments app moves ahead …
Disney sent a cease-and-desist letter to ByteDance, claiming it infringed on Disney's works to train its Seedance 2.0 video generation model without pay
The Walt Disney Company on Friday sent a cease-and-desist letter to ByteDance, alleging the Chinese tech giant has been infringing …
Sources: Grafana Labs, which makes cloud and AI monitoring tools, is in talks to raise at a $9B valuation, up from $6.6B in 2024; its ARR hit $400M in Sept.
Grafana Labs, a software startup that helps companies monitor cloud and AI activity and spending, is finalizing a new funding round …
Blockchain-based lending company Figure confirms a data breach; ShinyHunters hacking group published 2.5GB of data, saying Figure refused to pay a ransom
Figure Technology, a blockchain-based lending company, confirmed it experienced a data breach. — On Friday, Figure spokesperson …
The US DoD published and then deleted a document adding Alibaba, Baidu, and BYD to a list of companies with alleged connections to the Chinese military
Apple says 74% of iPhones launched in the last four years and 66% of all iPhones are running iOS 26; 68% of iPhones were running iOS 18 as of Jan. 21, 2025
Apple has shared updated iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 adoption figures, revealing how many iPhones and iPads are running those software versions.
Some former employees blame xAI's staff exodus on xAI's focus on NSFW Grok and disregard for safety, constantly playing catch up to OpenAI, infighting, and more
Former employees say the restructuring followed tensions over safety and being “stuck in the catch-up phase.”