Grok continues to be the ‘bad boy’ of platforms, and now according to content analysis firm Copyleaks, Grok is generating roughly one nonconsensual sexualized image per minute.’ Rolling Stone reports that while Grok isn’t generating nudes…it is creating deepfakes of women in either bikinis or skimpy lingerie or underwear. It should be noted that both the Google and OpenAI chatbots can be used to do similar things, but they apparently don’t have the vast pool of incels in their Moms’ basements cranking out the sheer number of deepfakes that Grok has. Grok is also being used to change pictures of some by putting them in more sexual positions…while remaining clothed…albeit skimpily. There is a humous side…the Grok tool was used to put Trump, Hegspeth, Rubio and others shown in a makeshift Mar a Lago war room in bikinis. Maybe that will move them do crack down on Grok more than the images of Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, Millie Bobby Brown, and Sidney Sweeney. Even if the US doesn’t act, the European Commission is on the case so we may see some guardrails put on this obnoxious use of AI. 

Paramount has had another offer to buy Warner Bros. Discovery. According to techcrunch.com, the WB board unanimously rejected the Paramount Skydance revised offer of $108.4 billion. Warner called it a ‘leveraged buyout’ that would encumber the company with $87 billion in debt. The board again recommends the $82.87 billion deal with Netflix for its film and studio assets. It is likely that this isn’t the end of things, but it seems less likely that Paramount will be able to come up with a deal that is actually better than Netflix has put on the table. For movie and video lovers, setting aside the shareholders and corporate suite folks,,,the Netflix deal is best.

WhatsApp has a good user base here, but is very widely used around the world…one reason Meta bought the platform years ago. Now, they have announced 3 group features that will enhance chats. Macrumors.com says the features are Member Tags, Text Stickers, and Event Reminders. Member Tags let you assign yourself different roles in different group chats for more context – so you can be “Coach” in one thread and “Dad” in another, for example. Meanwhile, Text Stickers instantly turn typed words into sticker graphics that users can then save to custom packs. Lastly, with Event Reminders, now when you create and send an event in your group chat you can set custom early reminders for your invitees. The features are being made available to users worldwide now. 

If you aren’t into gaming, you probably aren’t familiar with the SteamOS, Steambox, or Valve. Here’s the thing, though. With the intrusive snoop features of Windows 11, many people are ditching it for Linux and now the SteamOs is making inroads. Arstechnica.com notes that at CES, Lenovo said it is going to launch a version of last year’s pricy but powerful Legion Go 2 handheld device. Lenovo was already the first maker to embrace the SteamOS…which is native to Valve hardware. Valve has now offered support for AMD powered hand held. Now, as Valve works on the Steam Frame VR headset, they are designing it specifically for ARM based hardware, and will make it easier to run on all ARM devices. The Valve Steam Machine is more than a handheld gaming system…it is a pretty powerful little computer, and you can switch from gaming to regular computing tasks. Microsoft should keep an eye on both the SteamOS and Linux…they aren’t anywhere near dethroning Microsoft, but at some point in the not too distant future, could substantially cut into their dominance in the PC market.

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now. 

Nvidia’s latest greatest Rubin computing architecture was announced at CES by CEO Jensen Huang. Techcrunch.com reports that the system is now in production and will ramp up further this year. Huang told CES attendees “Vera Rubin is designed to address this fundamental challenge that we have: The amount of computation necessary for AI is skyrocketing.” Huang told the audience. “Today, I can tell you that Vera Rubin is in full production.” The Rubin architecture replaces the Blackwell architecture Nvidia has as the top tier for AI. The system is designed to address a bottleneck in AI computing…it introduces an ew tier of storage that connects externally to the compute device, and allows users to scale their storage pool more efficiently. This Rubin system runs three and a half times after than the Blackwell on training tasks and five times after on inference tasks. It is also more thrifty when it comes to electricity use. 

Meta showed a couple of cool features at CES that it is adding to its Ray-Ban Display glasses. According to theverge.com, users are getting an option to text on their glasses without the use of their phone or keyboard. As long as they have the Meta Neural band on their wrist, they can wrote on any surface…a desk top, your leg, whatever is handy. The feature will work with WhatsApp and Messenger. The Display glasses are also getting a new teleprompter feature…that lets users copy notes from their phone into customizable text cards that display on the glasses. The Neural Band is used again here…to navigate through the cards. The teleprompter feature is getting a phased rollout this week.

One knock on robot vacuums is that they aren’t as handy for homes with stairs. Well, that is about to change with Roborocks new Robot Vacuums. Bgr.com notes that The Roborock Saros Rover is a demo item so far, but the company showed it off at CES…not only climbing stairs, but sliding down a ramp, jumping, and even dancing! The company says the final release date and list of features…to say nothing of price…are ‘to be announced.’  Well-heeled people with stairs who would love to automate vacuuming are doing a happy dance!

Free AT&T WiFi will be available on every American Airlines flight later this year. Androidauthority.com reports that in order to get the freebie, you will need to sign  up for American’s AAdvantage loyalty program. It is high speed, satellite-based WiFi. Delta and United already have high speed WiFi on board, via partnerships with T-Mobile and Starlink. So far, American has 900 mainline aircraft fitted with the high speed WiFi…they claim they will have more satellite-equipped aircraft than any other carrier when finished equipping the fleet. 

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now. 

The FCC has effectively banned foreign drones. Mashable.com reports that the ban includes the most popular drones out there, the ones from China’s DJI. DJI presently has some 90% of the world drone market. The ban includes components, too…so even building them in another country besides China is not going to get them into the US. The FCC claims the ban is for national security…it seems that horse has been out of the barn for a number of years, however. One bright spot…According to the FCC, those who already own drones will not be affected by the ban. Consumers in the U.S. can continue to own and operate their DJI drones or any other drones made by companies affected by the blacklist. Additionally, retailers can continue to sell drone models and products from blacklisted companies that have already been approved for sale.

Amazon is making Alexa+ work with several additional services in 2026. According to TechCrunch.com, you will be able to use Alexa+ with Angi, Expedia, Square, and Yelp. Now, if you need home handy services, or want to book a hotel, or the like…you have more options. I would note that not all AI assistants and chatbots are as useful as they should be yet. Yesterday, I called a pharmacy to refill a couple of prescriptions. Instead of just keying in my information and getting it confirmed, the overly solicitous chat bot took at least twice as long to get the job done. Hopefully, they will get better!

It shouldn’t have taken a law to make it happen, but the European Union’s Digital Markets Act has pushed Apple to bring AirPods like pairing to third party devices. Macrumors.com notes that the change comes in iOS 26.3. This means gadgets like 3rd party earbuds will be able to pair with an iOS device just by bringing them close to the iPhone or whatever iIOS product, and the simple, one-tap pairing will begin. In addition, 3rd party smart watches will now be able to get notifications from an iPhone. I have an Apple Watch, and use this feature all the time. With the phone always on mute…due to on-air obligations, and not wanting a phone ringing or buzzing on-air, I can just glance at the watch and see who is calling or texting, and call them back after I am finished on air. For fans of other smart watches that aren’t Apple’s, this will be a really nice feature. The ear bud pairing is cool, but really a one-time use feature…then you just use them as always…but without a big pairing hassle. 

It’s a step in the right direction, but still creepy. While there are nasty deepfake making sites still operating, mainstream AI has generally blocked making nude photos of people. Ah, but even the big ones are still not completely free of creepiness. Both Google and OpenAI chatbots will still make deepfakes of women in bikinis. Wired.com reports that one had been spotted on Reddit. After being notified of this, Reddit removed the offending image. Of mainstream chatbots, only xAI’s Grok still allows making not safe for work images. Google just strengthened its guardrails for Gemini last month in an effort to block sexually explicit content…which would include bikini deepfakes. OpenAI’s ChatGPT users are prohibited from altering someone else’s likeness without consent and that the company takes action against users generating explicit deepfakes, including account bans. As with all things computing, people are always going to find ways around the guardrails. It’s like the radar detectors vs police radar…a constant battle. 

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now. 

TikTok is coming after Amazon and eBay, as they have just launched digital gift cards. TechCrunch.com reports that the cards will allow friends and family to choose to buy items from the millions of products featured on the app. The cards can be denominated anywhere from $10 to $500. They can be personalized with animations, and besides the holidays, they can be configured for birthdays, thank-yous, weddings, and other occasions. Right now, the digital gift cards are only available in the US. 

Alphabet, the parent company of Google, has picked up Intersect, a “data center and energy infrastructure” company that aims to provide additional support for building out its capacity for AI. According to 9to5google.com, Alphabet is paying $4.75 billion in cash for the company, and also assumes its debt. Intersect itself will remain under its own brand- separate from both Google and its parent company. Alphabet has had a minority stake in Intersect since December 2024. They are building a power center and data center in Texas, which is included in the deal. 

Nvidia plans to start shipping H200 chips to China by mid-February. Reuters.com says Nvidia intends to ship a total of 5,000 to 10,000 chip modules…equivalent to around 40,000 to 80,000 H200 AI chips. Nvidia has also told Chinese clients it plans to ramp up production capacity for the chips by the second quarter of 2026. Right now, all they are waiting on is final government approval. Allowing shipment of these chips was banned during the Biden administration, so letting Nvidia sell to China is a big reversal. It is worth noting that the H200 chips are not the most advanced ones Nvidia makes, the newer Blackwell models are the latest and greatest, and they are already ramping up for the Rubin line of chips, which will be their next top of line AI chips. 

After a power outage Saturday that affected about a third of San Francisco, and which befuddled Waymo cars, the robo-taxis are rolling again. Engadget.com notes that it was the traffic light outage that confused the Waymo vehicles. A reporter friend of mine who lives in the City posted a couple pics…one of a stalled Waymo in an intersection, and another with THREE stalled out at an intersection! This just added to the gridlock of traffic lights being out. Waymo suspended service Saturday, but was able to bring them back online today as only a few thousand people remain without power, and traffic signals are working. Waymo noted that their system is supposed to treat malfunctioning traffic lights as a 4 way stop, but with officers directing traffic and the gridlock and confusion, a number just halted and turned their flashers on. Waymo says it is working on a fix in the event this happens again (which it will.) Elon Musk tried to snark on X that Tesla’s robo-taxis did just fine…but that was just b.s., as Musk’s cars are all required to have a human driver behind the wheel. 

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now. 

Here we go again…Apple and Google will be ‘encouraged’ soon to build nudity-detection algorithms into their software by default, as part of the UK government’s strategy to tackle violence against women and girls. Macrumors.com reports that Home Office officials want device operating systems to prevent any nudity from being displayed unless users can verify that they’re adults through biometric checks or official ID. These efforts usually work about as well as Bullwinkle the Moose trying to pull a rabbit out of his hat. Privacy advocates are raising the roof about the dangers of this, as well as noting that they are often ineffective. Apple currently offers Communication Safety tools that parents can activate and which detect nude photos and videos in apps like Messages, AirDrop, and FaceTime. However, teenagers can still view flagged images after dismissing an alert, while under-13s must enter a passcode. Google also provides parental controls through its Family Link feature and includes “sensitive content warnings” in Google Messages. But neither company offers system-wide nudity blocking that extends to third-party apps like WhatsApp. The UK Home office will officially unveil their proposals in a few days. 

The Grok chatbot, from Elon Musk’s xAI, apparently spread misinformation repeatedly about the mass shooting at Bondi Beach in Australia. According to techcrunch.com, the chatbot misidentified the bystander…Ahmed al Ahmed…who disarmed one of the gunmen. One post had him as an Israeli hostage, and another had him as an IT professional named Edward Crabtree. The Grok chatbot eventually corrected itself, writing that the “misunderstanding arises from viral posts that mistakenly identified him as Edward Crabtree, possibly due to a reporting error or a joke referencing a fictional character.” 

Google’s live translate, powered by Gemini AI, is now rolling out in Translate for Android and iOS apps. It will now work with headphones. 9to5google.com notes that the live translation works between English and almost 20 other languages. With Gemini, the translation won’t be literal word for word, but will be what Google calls a ‘more natural, accurate translation.’ It will work with any pair of headphones, and the beta is being released in the US, Mexico, and India starting today. 

The maker of Roomba, iRobot, has filed for bankruptcy. The automatic vacuum maker will be taken over by its Chinese supplier, according to Financial Times. The company was just undercut too much by cheaper rivals. iRobot was started way back in 1990 by some engineers from MIT. They have sold over 40 million devices, primarily Roomba vacuums. Amazon had looked at buying iRobot, but was thwarted by European Regulators. 

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.