Satya Nadella says the tech industry needs to move past "slop vs sophistication" arguments and view AI as a "cognitive amplifier", not a human substitute (Satya Nadella/sn scratchpad)

Satya Nadella / sn scratchpad:
Satya Nadella says the tech industry needs to move past “slop vs sophistication” arguments and view AI as a “cognitive amplifier”, not a human substitute  —  As I reflect on the past year and look toward the one ahead, there's no question 2026 will be a pivotal year for AI.

Sources: Cisco is in advanced talks to acquire cybersecurity company Axonius for $2B; Axonius has raised ~$700M and was valued at $2.6B during earlier rounds (Meir Orbach/CTech)

Meir Orbach / CTech:
Sources: Cisco is in advanced talks to acquire cybersecurity company Axonius for $2B; Axonius has raised ~$700M and was valued at $2.6B during earlier rounds  —  Exclusive: The deal would follow a string of major acquisitions as Cisco strengthens its enterprise security portfolio.

Hands-on with Xreal's Neo, a $99 battery pack and mini-dock that acts as a passthrough converter so the company's glasses can work with the Nintendo Switch (Scott Stein/CNET)

Scott Stein / CNET:
Hands-on with Xreal's Neo, a $99 battery pack and mini-dock that acts as a passthrough converter so the company's glasses can work with the Nintendo Switch  —  I loved playing Switch games on the Xreal 1S glasses, but getting them connected is a little awkward.

Xreal unveils the $449 1S, a pair of AR glasses with 1200p, 700 nits brightness, 52 degree FOV, and 16:10 aspect ratio; the 1S can convert any 2D video into 3D (Victoria Song/The Verge)

Victoria Song / The Verge:
Xreal unveils the $449 1S, a pair of AR glasses with 1200p, 700 nits brightness, 52 degree FOV, and 16:10 aspect ratio; the 1S can convert any 2D video into 3D  —  Despite the spec bump, the Xreal 1S are $50 cheaper than their predecessor. … At CES 2026, Xreal announced an upgraded …

A profile of June Paik, CEO of Seoul-based chip startup FuriosaAI, valued at ~$700M, whose AI chip dubbed "RNGD" is slated to enter mass production this month (Jiyoung Sohn/Wall Street Journal)

Jiyoung Sohn / Wall Street Journal:
A profile of June Paik, CEO of Seoul-based chip startup FuriosaAI, valued at ~$700M, whose AI chip dubbed “RNGD” is slated to enter mass production this month  —  June Paik spurned a takeover offer from Meta Platforms last year.  Now his South Korean company, FuriosaAI, has an AI chip entering mass production.

Q&A with Kara Swisher on the economics of the AI boom, the upcoming IPOs of SpaceX and OpenAI, Elon Musk, the tech industry's Trump pivot, robotics, and more (Mishal Husain/Bloomberg)

Mishal Husain / Bloomberg:
Q&A with Kara Swisher on the economics of the AI boom, the upcoming IPOs of SpaceX and OpenAI, Elon Musk, the tech industry's Trump pivot, robotics, and more  —  After a year of dominating mega-deals and driving stock-market gains, the tech industry is poised for a pivotal 2026 …

Dating apps are pivoting to Asia as swipe-right fatigue hits the West; India, China, and Indonesia ranked among the top five markets by downloads in 2025 (Financial Times)

Financial Times:
Dating apps are pivoting to Asia as swipe-right fatigue hits the West; India, China, and Indonesia ranked among the top five markets by downloads in 2025  —  Rising numbers of ‘goal-orientated’ women are using the apps as stigma over online dating fades  —  Online dating companies are pivoting …

The Groq deal shows the challenges Nvidia faces as options to deploy its cash flood narrow; its annual free cash flow has risen from $4.2B in 2020 to $80B+ now (Dan Gallagher/Wall Street Journal)

Dan Gallagher / Wall Street Journal:
The Groq deal shows the challenges Nvidia faces as options to deploy its cash flood narrow; its annual free cash flow has risen from $4.2B in 2020 to $80B+ now  —  Blowout AI spending fills chip maker's coffers, but Groq deal shows that company needs to think creatively

A deep dive into co-packaged optics, long promised to transform data center connectivity, covering benefits, challenges, architecture, key companies, and more (Dylan Patel/SemiAnalysis)

Dylan Patel / SemiAnalysis:
A deep dive into co-packaged optics, long promised to transform data center connectivity, covering benefits, challenges, architecture, key companies, and more  —  Scale-out and Scale-up CPO, CPO TCO and Power Budgets, DSP Transceivers vs LPO vs NPO vs CPO, TSMC COUPE, MZM vs MRM vs EAM Modulator Deep Dive …

xAI's Grok says "lapses in safeguards" led it to create sexualized images of minors in response to user prompts on X; the images have been taken down (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg:
xAI's Grok says “lapses in safeguards” led it to create sexualized images of minors in response to user prompts on X; the images have been taken down  —  Elon Musk's artificial intelligence chatbot Grok created sexualized images of minors in response to user prompts in recent days …

Yann LeCun says Llama 4's "results were fudged a little bit", and that the team used different models for different benchmarks to give better results (Melissa Heikkilä/Financial Times)

Melissa Heikkilä / Financial Times:
Yann LeCun says Llama 4's “results were fudged a little bit”, and that the team used different models for different benchmarks to give better results  —  The AI pioneer on stepping down from Meta, the limits of large language models — and the launch of his new start-up

Tech analyst Dan Wang reflects on the Chinese Communist Party vs. Silicon Valley, AI and manufacturing, and how China and the US are building the future (Dan Wang)

Dan Wang:
Tech analyst Dan Wang reflects on the Chinese Communist Party vs. Silicon Valley, AI and manufacturing, and how China and the US are building the future  —  One way that Silicon Valley and the Communist Party resemble each other is that both are serious, self-serious, and indeed, completely humorless.

UK crypto buyers are required to share their account details with tax officials starting January 1 or face penalties, as the UK seeks to collect unpaid taxes (Rachel Clun/BBC)

Rachel Clun / BBC:
UK crypto buyers are required to share their account details with tax officials starting January 1 or face penalties, as the UK seeks to collect unpaid taxes  —  People buying cryptocurrency in the UK now need to share their account details or face penalties, in changes that came into effect on 1 January.

Sources: OpenAI ramped up efforts to improve its audio AI models, in preparation for its AI-powered personal device, which is expected to be largely audio-based (Stephanie Palazzolo/The Information)

Stephanie Palazzolo / The Information:
Sources: OpenAI ramped up efforts to improve its audio AI models, in preparation for its AI-powered personal device, which is expected to be largely audio-based  —  OpenAI is taking steps to improve its audio AI models, in preparation for its eventual release of an AI-powered personal device, said a person with knowledge of the effort.

Tech startups have started to offer nicotine pouches as a free perk to employees, as some claim the products help them focus despite health hazards (Angel Au-Yeung/Wall Street Journal)

Angel Au-Yeung / Wall Street Journal:
Tech startups have started to offer nicotine pouches as a free perk to employees, as some claim the products help them focus despite health hazards  —  A nicotine replacement for smokers has started popping up in offices in the tech industry, despite health hazards