Email: Grok gets blocked - Email to RSS Admin

Subject:
Grok gets blocked
Received:
1/13/2026, 1:00:23 AM
From:
"Casey Newton" <casey@platformer.news>
To:
tile.diamond.38@rss.kinzett.io
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                                                                &lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/2722c967?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" class="post-title-link" style="text-decoration: none; display: block; margin-top: 32px; text-align: center; line-height: 1.1em; overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #000000;" target="_blank"&gt;Grok gets blocked&lt;/a&gt;
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                                                        &lt;p class="post-excerpt post-excerpt-with-feature-image" style="margin: 0; color: #15212A; font-size: 19px; line-height: 1.4em; text-align: center; padding-bottom: 28px;"&gt;More than a week into a deepfake scandal, a handful of foreign governments have found the strength to do what Apple, Google, and the United States will not&lt;/p&gt;
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                                                                By Casey Newton &#x2022; &lt;span class="post-meta-date" style="white-space: nowrap;"&gt;12 Jan 2026 &lt;/span&gt;
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                                                            &lt;span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"&gt;(Shutterstock)&lt;/span&gt;
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                                                &lt;p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"&gt;On Friday, following days of mounting outrage over Grok generating sexualized deepfakes of women and children, X said it would restrict the feature to paying subscribers. For a brief moment, it appeared as if Elon Musk&#x2019;s xAI had begun to address the harms his platform is enabling: generating thousands of sexualized images on demand every hour, and hosting them publicly for anyone to view.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"&gt;But as Robert Hart at &lt;em&gt;The Verge&lt;/em&gt; quickly discovered, the &#x201C;restriction&#x201D; &lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/c2d7b3fa?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;u&gt;applied only to one method of accessing the bot&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &#x2014; tagging @grok in a reply to an X post. The &quot;edit image&quot; button still appears on every image on X&#39;s desktop site. Long-pressing any image in the mobile app still invokes Grok. The standalone Grok website and the Grok tab throughout X remain fully functional. Hart tested all of these with free accounts. And Grok readily complied with requests to &quot;nudify&quot; images.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"&gt;Victims include Ashley St. Clair, a conservative influencer and a mother of one of Musk&#x2019;s children, who found X users &lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/031dfda2?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;u&gt;creating sexualized images of her&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt; based on a photo of her taken when she was 14. They also include &lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/08ddd82d?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;u&gt;the Princess of Wales&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt;, the host of &lt;em&gt;Love Island&lt;/em&gt;, and countless less prominent women and children. People who had posted innocuous photos of gym workouts or even author photos found that accounts were invading their mentions and asking Grok to enlarge their breasts or cover their faces in &#x201C;donut glaze.&#x201D;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"&gt;It is bad enough that the safeguards in Grok&#x2019;s underlying model did not stop these images from being generated. That they were attached to the accounts of the victims, most of whom were alerted to each fresh violation via a push notification, represents a new low in the history of content moderation for a major platform.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"&gt;In response, Musk has vacillated between his usual &#x1F602; routine and bitter defiance. On Jan. 2, when an X user posted that &quot;Grok&#39;s viral image moment has arrived, it&#39;s a little different than the Ghibli one,&quot; Musk&lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/ee2c0f80?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;u&gt;responded&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt;: &quot;Way funnier &#x1F602;.&quot; The day before, Musk had playfully&lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/8a5211b1?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;u&gt;requested&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt; Grok put &lt;em&gt;himself&lt;/em&gt; in a bikini, responding &quot;Perfect&quot; to the result. The following day, he posted that users making &quot;illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content&quot; &#x2014; placing blame on users rather than the tool he had given them.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"&gt;On Friday, after regulators had begun to threaten action against X, Musk &lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/2f714c63?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;u&gt;posted&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt; that critics &quot;want any excuse for censorship&quot; and shared an AI-generated image of UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer in a bikini with the caption &quot;They just want to suppress free speech.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"&gt;This schtick still plays with US regulators and Republican lawmakers, some of whom issued &lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/4e014c0f?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;u&gt;murmurs of concern&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt; but stopped short of taking more substantive action. And the threat of backlash from the Trump Administration has been enough to cow Apple and Google into sustained inaction, remaining silent for more than a week as an app hosted on their stores has been used to generate non-consensual sexual imagery, including content that regulators say may be illegal (potentially including CSAM).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"&gt;As of Monday, though, the dam is beginning to break &#x2014; in a few countries, at least.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"&gt;Here&#x2019;s &lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/4c0d2ceb?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;u&gt;Laura Cress at the BBC&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"&gt;The UK will bring into force a law which will make it illegal to create non-consensual intimate images, following widespread concerns over Elon Musk&#39;s Grok AI chatbot.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"&gt;Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said the government would also seek to make it illegal for companies to supply the tools designed to create such images.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"&gt;Speaking to the Commons, Kendall said AI-generated pictures of women and children in states of undress, created without a person&#39;s consent, were not &quot;harmless images&quot; but &quot;weapons of abuse&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"&gt;Separately, UK regulator Ofcom said Monday that it had &lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/d320347b?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;u&gt;launched an investigation&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt; into the scandal. If found culpable, Ofcom can issue a fine of up to 10 percent of X&#x2019;s global revenue.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"&gt;The UK&#x2019;s move followed an outright ban on Grok in both &lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/fcf56950?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;u&gt;Indonesia and Malaysia&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &#x2014; the first time an AI chatbot had been banned by a nation-state in response to the content of the material it generated. Notably, both countries have strict laws against pornography &#x2014; even of the consensual, human-created variety.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/f21ae100?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;u&gt;France&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/a8932a35?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;u&gt;Australia&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt;, and &lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/c53223c6?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;u&gt;India&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt; have also all announced investigations into Grok. In truth, though, there is very little to investigate. Thousands of public posts tell the grim story. No one is disputing that xAI made available to its user base a tool that puts women and children into their underwear &#x2014; or worse &#x2014; against their will. No one is disputing that some of this content is illegal in many of the countries where xAI operates. And no one is disputing that Grok &lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/48f9d189?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;u&gt;continues to generate this kind of material&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt; on demand.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"&gt;When deepfakes first emerged as an online harm, I took some comfort in the notion that they likely would not spread virally. Individuals might send them via messages, I thought, but platforms would intervene to remove violating posts &#x2014; particularly posts targeting children. Never could I have imagined that someday the former Twitter would deploy tools that enable and amplify those harms, and would dismiss any attempts to rein the company in as &#x201C;censorship.&#x201D;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"&gt;The question now, then, is not about what happened. We &lt;em&gt;know&lt;/em&gt; what happened. Rather, it&#x2019;s about which lawmakers and regulators will have the courage to stand up against Musk and X and defend the principle that online abuse is real abuse &#x2014; and that people should be protected from it.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class="kg-card kg-image-card" style="margin: 0 0 1.5em; padding: 0;"&gt;&lt;img src="https://www.platformer.news/content/images/2024/05/floating_linebreak_600px-1.png" class="kg-image" alt loading="lazy" width="600" height="157" style="border: none; -ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; max-width: 100%; display: block; margin: 0 auto; height: auto; width: auto;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;h3 id="platformer" style="margin-top: 0; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1.11em; font-weight: 700; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; margin: 1.5em 0 0.5em 0; font-size: 26px; color: #15212A;"&gt;&lt;strong style="font-weight: 800;"&gt;Platformer+&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"&gt;For years now, you all have been asking us to make &lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;Platformer&lt;/strong&gt; available via audio. Recently, a bunch of you suggest that we experiment with a synthetic clone of my voice to let us do this quickly. Today, we&#39;re running our first experiment with the clone &#x2014; you can hear it read the column above. To get the new &lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;Platformer+ &lt;/strong&gt;feed in your audio player of choice, &lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/ccc7236f?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" rel="noreferrer" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;head to your advanced user settings&lt;/a&gt; and enable the feed. A podcast should arrive there within several hours of this post going live.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"&gt;We&#39;ll have more to say about this soon. In the meantime, let us know what you think: &lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/c323d1c7?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" rel="noreferrer" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;casey@platformer.news&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class="kg-card kg-image-card" style="margin: 0 0 1.5em; padding: 0;"&gt;&lt;img src="https://www.platformer.news/content/images/2024/05/floating_linebreak_600px-1.png" class="kg-image" alt loading="lazy" width="600" height="157" style="border: none; -ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; max-width: 100%; display: block; margin: 0 auto; height: auto; width: auto;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"&gt;&lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;Talk about this edition with us in Discord: &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/e4ac7e1a?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" rel="noreferrer" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;This link will get you in for the next week&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2 id="following" style="margin-top: 0; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1.11em; font-weight: 700; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; margin: 1.5em 0 0.5em 0; font-size: 32px; color: #15212A;"&gt;Following&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;h3 id="apple-picks-gemini-to-power-siri" style="margin-top: 0; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1.11em; font-weight: 700; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; margin: 1.5em 0 0.5em 0; font-size: 26px; color: #15212A;"&gt;Apple picks Gemini to power Siri&lt;/h3&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"&gt;&lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;What happened:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;Apple&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;Google&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/9123ddb6?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;u&gt;announced&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt; a &#x201C;multi-year&#x201D; partnership to use Google&#x2019;s Gemini models to power Apple&#x2019;s AI features.&#xA0;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"&gt;Chief among them is &#x201C;a more personalized Siri coming this year,&#x201D; Apple &lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/f7d6ea94?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;u&gt;said&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt; in a statement. (This is the third year in a row that a more personalized Siri has been coming this year.)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"&gt;&#x201C;After careful evaluation, we determined that Google&#x2019;s technology provides the most capable foundation for Apple Foundation Models,&#x201D; Apple said.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"&gt;Google currently pays Apple billions of dollars a year to be the default search engine on iPhones. That partnership was threatened by a high-profile antitrust suit against Google, but rulings in September &lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/d338799c?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;u&gt;allowed&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt; the deal to stand so long as it is not exclusive.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"&gt;Apple has &lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/7540f4ed?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;u&gt;announced&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt; a partnership with Google competitor &lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;OpenAI&lt;/strong&gt; last year that integrated ChatGPT in Siri for complicated queries.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"&gt;&lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;Why we&#x2019;re following: &lt;/strong&gt;The language of the announcement suggests that Google is replacing OpenAI as Apple&#x2019;s key AI supplier. It also suggests that when it comes to building powerful large language models, Apple will mostly be sitting this one out.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"&gt;The news comes in the wake of disappointing releases from OpenAI, and growing hype around Google&#x2019;s Gemini models.&#xA0;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"&gt;It&#x2019;s also another close partnership between two of the biggest and most powerful tech companies in the world, which is stoking fresh antitrust concerns.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"&gt;&lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;What people are saying: &lt;/strong&gt;On &lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;X&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;xAI&lt;/strong&gt; founder Elon Musk &lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/d1d5d8e1?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;u&gt;responded&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt;: &#x201C;This seems like an unreasonable concentration of power for Google, given that [they] also have Android and Chrome.&#x201D;&#xA0;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"&gt;&lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;xAI&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/35629d1e?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;u&gt;filed a suit against&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt; Apple and OpenAI in relation to a similar partnership last year. The filing &lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/fe183abd?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;u&gt;somewhat questionably&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt; accused Apple of suppressing OpenAI competitors on the App Store, after Musk was unhappy with xAI chatbot Grok&#x2019;s performance there.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"&gt;&lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;Yuchen Jin&lt;/strong&gt;, CTO of startup &lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;Hyperbolic Labs&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/17528326?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;u&gt;responded&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt; with a quote attributed to &lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;Peter Thiel&lt;/strong&gt;: &#x201C;competition is for losers.&#x201D;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"&gt;&lt;em&gt;&#x2014;Ella Markianos&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;table class="kg-card kg-hr-card" role="presentation" width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: separate; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; width: 100%;"&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; margin: 0; padding-top: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 3em; font-size: 17px;" valign="top"&gt;&lt;!--[if !mso]&gt;&lt;!-- --&gt;&lt;hr style="position: relative; width: 100%; margin: 3em 0; padding: 0; height: 1px; background-color: transparent; border: 0; border-top: 1px solid #e0e7eb; display: none;"&gt;&lt;!--&lt;![endif]--&gt;&lt;table class="kg-hr" role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: separate; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; width: 100%;" width="100%"&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; padding-top: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 3em; margin: 0; padding: 0; border-top: 1px solid #e0e7eb; font-size: 0; line-height: 0;" valign="top"&gt;&#xA0;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;h3 id="a-big-meta-hire-a-re-org-and-layoffs" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1.11em; font-weight: 700; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; margin: 1.5em 0 0.5em 0; font-size: 26px; margin-top: 0; color: #15212A;"&gt;A big Meta hire, a re-org, and layoffs&lt;br&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"&gt;&lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;What happened: Meta&lt;/strong&gt; appointed &lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;Dina Powell McCormick&lt;/strong&gt;, a finance executive and former &lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;Trump&lt;/strong&gt; advisor, as president and vice chairman, the company &lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/6500e7cb?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;u&gt;announced&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt; today. Powell McCormick will oversee overall strategy and execution, with a &#x201C;focus on partnering with governments partnering with governments and sovereigns to build, deploy, invest in, and finance Meta&#39;s AI and infrastructure,&#x201D; &lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;Mark Zuckerberg&lt;/strong&gt; said. She will report directly to Zuckerberg.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"&gt;The high-profile hire comes amid Meta&#x2019;s shifting focus to build long-lasting AI infrastructure. Zuckerberg &lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/a9234f00?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;u&gt;announced&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt; a new &#x201C;top-level&#x201D; initiative shortly after Powell McCormick&#x2019;s appointment, &lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;Meta Compute&lt;/strong&gt;, aimed at building &#x201C;tens of gigawatts&#x201D; of infrastructure this decade.&#xA0;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"&gt;The focus on AI infrastructure appears to come at the expense of another one of Meta&#x2019;s ambitions &#x2014; the metaverse. The company reportedly &lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/3e5b7b6c?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;u&gt;plans to cut&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt; about 10 percent of its employees in the Reality Labs division; the cuts are likely to disproportionately affect those in the metaverse unit working on virtual reality.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"&gt;&lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;Why we&#x2019;re following: &lt;/strong&gt;Powell McCormick&#x2019;s hire is the latest in a series of changes Meta has made to elevate Trump-friendly faces in the company. Longtime Republican lobbyist &lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;Joel Kaplan&lt;/strong&gt; was named to Meta&#x2019;s top policy role early last year. Filings &lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/3fc96cc8?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;u&gt;showed&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt; the company hired the former top lawyer for &lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;Elon Musk&lt;/strong&gt;&#x2019;s &lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;DOGE&lt;/strong&gt; as a lobbyist in the second half of 2025.&#xA0;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"&gt;Powell McCormick herself comes with a well of connections &#x2014; aside from her previous role in the first Trump administration, her husband, Republican Sen. &lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;David McCormick&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/17c24133?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;u&gt;chairs&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt; the &lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;Senate&lt;/strong&gt; subcommittee responsible for energy policy, which is an area that significantly overlaps with Meta&#x2019;s infrastructure ambitions.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"&gt;&lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;What people are saying: &lt;/strong&gt;In a &lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/226729e5?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;u&gt;post&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt; to &lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;Truth Social&lt;/strong&gt; mere minutes after Meta&#x2019;s announcement, President Trump wrote: &#x201C;Congratulations to DINA POWELL MCCORMICK, WHO HAS JUST BEEN NAMED THE NEW PRESIDENT OF META. A great choice by Mark Z!!! She is a fantastic, and very talented, person, who served the Trump Administration with strength and distinction!&#x201D;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"&gt;Veteran tech journalist &lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;Kara Swisher&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/f90c6e77?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;u&gt;said&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt; the hire was a &#x201C;smart and even canny move,&#x201D; adding &#x201C;I get that this looks like a sop to Trump and he obvi likes her (see truth he did), but she is not without substance and smarts compared to the stupid lackeys and obsequious minions they could have hired. It is a low bar obvi.&#x201D;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"&gt;&lt;em&gt;&#x2014;Lindsey Choo&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class="kg-card kg-image-card" style="margin: 0 0 1.5em; padding: 0;"&gt;&lt;img src="https://www.platformer.news/content/images/2024/05/floating_linebreak_600px-1.png" class="kg-image" alt loading="lazy" width="600" height="157" style="border: none; -ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; max-width: 100%; display: block; margin: 0 auto; height: auto; width: auto;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;h3 id="side-quests" style="margin-top: 0; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1.11em; font-weight: 700; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; margin: 1.5em 0 0.5em 0; font-size: 26px; color: #15212A;"&gt;Side Quests&lt;/h3&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"&gt;President &lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;Trump&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/061e65c6?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;u&gt;said&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt; he plans to talk to&lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt; Elon Musk&lt;/strong&gt; about restoring internet in &lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;Iran &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/9cb3d558?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;via&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt; Starlink&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;China&lt;/strong&gt;&#x2019;s AI leaders are &lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/1c497256?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;u&gt;warning&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt; of a widening gap with the &lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;US&lt;/strong&gt; in the AI race.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"&gt;&lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;Palantir&lt;/strong&gt; chairman &lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;Peter Thiel&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/f4c15715?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;u&gt;donated&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt; $3 million to a group opposing &lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;California&lt;/strong&gt;&#x2019;s billionaire tax.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"&gt;&lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;OpenAI &lt;/strong&gt;and &lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;Common Sense Media&lt;/strong&gt; are &lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/c8c6e1c3?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;u&gt;teaming up&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt; to back a child safety-focused California ballot initiative. OpenAI reportedly &lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/71ea1fd6?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;u&gt;agreed to buy&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt; healthcare app &lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;Torch&lt;/strong&gt; for $100 million. VP of research &lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;Jerry Tworek&lt;/strong&gt; is &lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/c40a751a?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;u&gt;leaving&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt; the company. Why OpenAI and &lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;Anthropic&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/e81ed382?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;u&gt;think&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt; healthcare is the next big AI market.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"&gt;Anthropic &lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/2cbccc86?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;u&gt;launched&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;Claude for Healthcare&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;Cowork for Claude&lt;/strong&gt; is a new feature of the desktop Mac app to &lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/ecce86b0?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;u&gt;help&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt; users automate complex tasks. The company is &lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/ed2045ae?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;u&gt;cracking down&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt; on unauthorized &lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;Claude&lt;/strong&gt; usage through third-party applications. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"&gt;&lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;DeepSeek&lt;/strong&gt; is reportedly &lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/57851579?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;u&gt;set to release&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;V4&lt;/strong&gt;, its next AI model with a strong coding ability, sometime soon.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"&gt;&lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;Meta&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/6e4b7b61?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;u&gt;announced&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt; backing for new reactor projects with developers &lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;TerraPower&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;Oklo&lt;/strong&gt;, along with a deal with power producer &lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;Vistra&lt;/strong&gt; to expand three nuclear plants. &lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;WhatsApp&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/10a13016?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;u&gt;will likely have to&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt; follow stricter rules related to harmful content in the &lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;EU&lt;/strong&gt;; it &lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/b78a239c?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;u&gt;complied&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt; with an order from&lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt; Italy&lt;/strong&gt; to suspend a ban on rival AI chatbots. Meta &lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/3bd56ee0?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;u&gt;shut down&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt; nearly 550,000 accounts in &lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;Australia &lt;/strong&gt;to comply with the social media ban for kids. &lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;Instagram&lt;/strong&gt; said it &lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/252b1118?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;u&gt;fixed&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt; the issue that sent a bunch of password reset emails to users.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"&gt;&lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;Google&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/0a01137a?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;u&gt;removed&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;AI Overviews&lt;/strong&gt; for certain medical queries after &lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/05bdbefb?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;u&gt;this investigation&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt; found it provided misleading information. The search giant made multiple shopping announcements:&#xA0;AI shopping tools are &lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/51c2b0bd?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;u&gt;getting&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt; personalized ads, &lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/99196806?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;u&gt;and it also announced&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt; the &lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;Universal Commerce Protocol&lt;/strong&gt; for AI agent-based shopping. Google is also &lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/95312ed6?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;u&gt;partnering&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt; with &lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;Walmart&lt;/strong&gt; to offer AI-enhanced shopping on &lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;Gemini&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;Alphabet&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/f866489d?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;u&gt;hit&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt; a $4 trillion valuation.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"&gt;&lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;India&lt;/strong&gt; reportedly &lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/a9e9ec0d?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;u&gt;proposed&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt; requiring smartphone makers to share source code with the government as part of new security measures.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"&gt;&lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;Apple TV&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;Apple Music&lt;/strong&gt; are hitting engagement and subscriber records, senior VP of services &lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;Eddy Cue&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/b7123189?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;u&gt;said&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"&gt;&lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;Andreessen Horowitz&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/d604cd3a?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;u&gt;raised&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt; over $15 billion for new funds.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"&gt;&lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;X&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/e03b96ff?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;u&gt;sued&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt; music publishers and accused them of colluding to force X to agree to licensing deals.&#xA0;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"&gt;The &lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;FCC&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/0757a854?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;u&gt;approved&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;SpaceX&lt;/strong&gt;&#x2019;s request to deploy an additional 7,500 &lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;Starlink&lt;/strong&gt; satellites.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"&gt;Italy &lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/57173ebf?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;u&gt;fined&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;Cloudflare&lt;/strong&gt; 14.2 million euros for not blocking pirate sites on its &lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;1.1.1.1 DNS&lt;/strong&gt; service.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"&gt;The AI boom&#x2019;s &lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/38a3d338?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;u&gt;contribution&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt; to GDP growth is smaller than you might think. Why AI&#x2019;s memorization problem is &lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/d4b00d49?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;u&gt;becoming&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt; a massive liability for companies. US Gen Z and millennials &lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/9b471a07?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;u&gt;are listening to&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt; about three hours of AI music a week, a &lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;Morgan Stanley&lt;/strong&gt; survey said.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"&gt;A &lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/7217d347?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;u&gt;look&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt; at whether quantum computers are actually useful. China&#x2019;s viral &lt;strong style="font-weight: 700;"&gt;Are You Dead?&lt;/strong&gt; app helps with &lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/efb1758d?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;u&gt;checking in&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt; on people living alone.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class="kg-card kg-image-card" style="margin: 0 0 1.5em; padding: 0;"&gt;&lt;img src="https://www.platformer.news/content/images/2024/05/floating_linebreak_600px-1.png" class="kg-image" alt loading="lazy" width="600" height="157" style="border: none; -ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; max-width: 100%; display: block; margin: 0 auto; height: auto; width: auto;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;h3 id="those-good-posts" style="margin-top: 0; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1.11em; font-weight: 700; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; margin: 1.5em 0 0.5em 0; font-size: 26px; color: #15212A;"&gt;Those good posts&lt;/h3&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"&gt;&lt;em&gt;For more good posts every day, &lt;/em&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/809875b1?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;em&gt;follow Casey&#x2019;s Instagram stories&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class="kg-card kg-image-card" style="margin: 0 0 1.5em; padding: 0;"&gt;&lt;img src="https://www.platformer.news/content/images/2026/01/Screenshot-2026-01-12-at-3.59.52---PM.png" class="kg-image" alt loading="lazy" width="600" height="161" style="border: none; -ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; max-width: 100%; display: block; margin: 0 auto; height: auto; width: auto;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"&gt;(&lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/76e4c111?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" rel="noreferrer" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;Link&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class="kg-card kg-image-card" style="margin: 0 0 1.5em; padding: 0;"&gt;&lt;img src="https://www.platformer.news/content/images/2026/01/Screenshot-2026-01-12-at-4.00.17---PM.png" class="kg-image" alt loading="lazy" width="600" height="406" style="border: none; -ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; max-width: 100%; display: block; margin: 0 auto; height: auto; width: auto;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"&gt;(&lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/bd6bbf39?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" rel="noreferrer" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;Link&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class="kg-card kg-image-card" style="margin: 0 0 1.5em; padding: 0;"&gt;&lt;img src="https://www.platformer.news/content/images/2026/01/Screenshot-2026-01-12-at-4.00.38---PM.png" class="kg-image" alt loading="lazy" width="600" height="511" style="border: none; -ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; max-width: 100%; display: block; margin: 0 auto; height: auto; width: auto;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"&gt;(&lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/9c5e9662?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" rel="noreferrer" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;Link&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class="kg-card kg-image-card" style="margin: 0 0 1.5em; padding: 0;"&gt;&lt;img src="https://www.platformer.news/content/images/2024/05/floating_linebreak_600px-1.png" class="kg-image" alt loading="lazy" width="600" height="157" style="border: none; -ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; max-width: 100%; display: block; margin: 0 auto; height: auto; width: auto;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;h3 id="talk-to-us" style="margin-top: 0; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1.11em; font-weight: 700; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; margin: 1.5em 0 0.5em 0; font-size: 26px; color: #15212A;"&gt;Talk to us&lt;/h3&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; line-height: 1.6em; color: #15212A;"&gt;Send us tips, comments, questions, and blocked Grok accounts: &lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/1bf217ac?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;casey@platformer.news&lt;/a&gt;. Read &lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/00136f1a?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; color: #2047FF; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"&gt;our ethics policy here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;table class="kg-card kg-button-card" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: separate; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; width: 100%;" width="100%"&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class="kg-card-spacing" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; padding: 0 0 1.5em 0;" valign="top"&gt;&lt;table class="btn" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" style="border-collapse: separate; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; box-sizing: border-box; width: auto;" width="auto"&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td align="center" style="font-size: 18px; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; padding: 8px 20px 9px; background-color: #2047FF; border-radius: 6px; text-align: center; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;" valign="top" bgcolor="#2047FF"&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.platformer.news/r/ded39d25?m=51418983-c335-42dc-b433-9fac3bd4e54a" style="overflow-wrap: anywhere; box-sizing: border-box; color: #FFFFFF; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-size: 15px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"&gt;Sponsor a Newsletter&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;table class="kg-card kg-hr-card" role="presentation" width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: separate; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; width: 100%;"&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; margin: 0; padding-top: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 3em; font-size: 17px;" valign="top"&gt;&lt;!--[if !mso]&gt;&lt;!-- --&gt;&lt;hr style="position: relative; width: 100%; margin: 3em 0; padding: 0; height: 1px; background-color: transparent; border: 0; border-top: 1px solid #e0e7eb; display: none;"&gt;&lt;!--&lt;![endif]--&gt;&lt;table class="kg-hr" role="presentation" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: separate; mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt; width: 100%;" width="100%"&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; vertical-align: top; color: #15212A; padding-top: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 3em; margin: 0; padding: 0; border-top: 1px solid #e0e7eb; font-size: 0; line-height: 0;" valign="top"&gt;&#xA0;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;
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