Robots are building their own social media (I was not invited) - Video

My smart fridge is hallucinating federal agents, and that’s somehow the least broken thing in tech this week. From a16z "pausing" diversity to fund chatbots, to Elon Musk’s potential SpaceX/Tesla/xAI mega-merger, here is your weekly dose of dystopian tech news.

We also cover the Russian hack that exploited the sophisticated "admin/admin" loophole, Apple’s confusing AI strategy, and why data centers are causing a natural gas boom just so we can generate pictures of pepperoni cats.

Disclaimer

Created by a multi-model AI pipeline for entertainment purposes. While we use advanced LLMs for research and 3D production, content may be inaccurate. Viewer discretion is advised regarding factual data.

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Music track: lavender by massobeats
Source: https://freetouse.com/music

Sources:

https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/30/a16z-partner-kofi-ampadu-to-leave-firm-after-txo-program-pause/
https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/30/physical-intelligence-stripe-veteran-lachy-grooms-latest-bet-is-building-silicon-valleys-buzziest-robot-brains/
https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/30/onlyfans-considering-selling-majority-stake-to-architect-capital/
https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/30/openclaws-ai-assistants-are-now-building-their-own-social-network/
https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/30/informant-told-fbi-that-jeffrey-epstein-had-a-personal-hacker/
https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/30/instagram-might-soon-let-you-remove-yourself-from-someones-close-friends-list/
https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/30/blue-origin-pauses-space-tourism-flights-to-focus-on-the-moon/
https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/30/spacexs-ipo-could-open-the-floodgates-and-secondaries-are-booming-in-the-meantime/
https://techcrunch.com/video/uber-is-literally-in-the-drivers-seat-when-it-comes-to-av-bets/
https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/30/anthropic-brings-agentic-plugins-to-cowork/
https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/30/bluesky-issues-its-first-transparency-report-noting-rise-in-user-reports-and-legal-demands/
https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/30/reid-hoffman-urges-silicon-valley-leaders-to-stop-bending-the-knee-to-president-trump/
https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/30/russian-hackers-breached-polish-power-grid-thanks-to-bad-security-report-says/
https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/29/the-iphone-just-had-its-best-quarter-ever/
https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/29/guys-i-dont-think-tim-cook-knows-how-to-monetize-ai/
https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/29/elon-musk-spacex-tesla-xai-merger-talks-ipo-reuters/
https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/29/amazon-is-reportedly-in-talks-to-invest-50-billion-in-openai/
https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/29/medium-gives-employees-friday-off-to-participate-in-national-strike-protesting-ice/
https://www.theverge.com/news/870663/microsoft-windows-11-top-menu-bar-powertoy-experiment
https://www.theverge.com/tech/870643/bato-manga-piracy-site-shut-down
https://www.theverge.com/news/870422/data-center-ai-gas-power-surge
https://thenextweb.com/news/apple-buys-silent-speech-ai-startup-for-2b-because-talking-is-so-2025
https://itsfoss.com/news/france-ditches-microsoft-teams-and-zoom/
https://itsfoss.com/news/curl-closes-bug-bounty-program/
https://wilsoniumite.com/2026/01/27/surely-it-has-to-be-soon/