Anguilla, a British Overseas Territory, has benefited significantly from the “.ai” top-level domain, originally assigned in the mid-1990s. The surge in demand for “.ai” domains, driven by the popularity of AI technology.

This Sherwood News article reports that Anguilla has seen a surge in revenue from the sale of '.ai' domain names, contributing an estimated $70 million to the government's income in 2023. The number of '.ai' domains surpassed 1 million in early 2024, suggesting continued growth in revenue from domain name registrations.

The percentage of U.S. employees using AI in the workplace increased slightly in Q4 2025, with frequent use rising from 10% to 12% since 2023. 49% report that they “never” use AI.

Gallup's latest data shows a continued rise in AI adoption in the U.S. workplace, with frequent use increasing by three percentage points to 26% in Q4 2025. While total AI use remained flat, usage varies significantly by industry and role type. Knowledge-based industries and remote-capable roles report the highest AI adoption, while production and service-based sectors show lower use. Leaders are more likely to use AI frequently than managers and individual contributors, suggesting a need for clear AI use cases and communication.

Clawdbot is a personal AI assistant that can be set up on inexpensive hardware. It offers persistent memory, proactive messaging, full computer access, and works across various messaging platforms. Users should be mindful of security risks due to its shell access.

This article provides a step-by-step tutorial on setting up Clawdbot, an AI assistant, on a $5 VPS or old hardware. It covers WhatsApp integration, security best practices, and the capabilities of Clawdbot, such as persistent memory, proactive messaging, full computer access, and channel flexibility.

Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert criticised the FCC’s decision to enforce the “equal time” rule on their shows, arguing it stifles free speech.

Late-night hosts Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert responded to the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) decision to enforce its 'equal time' mandate on their talk shows, labeling the move as a 'crackdown' and a bid to 'stifle' their speech. The rule, which requires networks to provide equal time to opposing political candidates, is part of the Federal Communications Act. Kimmel and Colbert questioned the relevance of the rule in an era where broadcast TV viewership is declining and labeled it as a bid to stifle their speech. The FCC's decision removes the news exemption from talk shows, which was previously granted since 2006.

Clawdbot, an open-source project by Peter Steinberger, is an LLM-powered agent that runs locally on a computer and can be accessed through messaging apps like Telegram.

Clawdbot is an open-source personal AI assistant that runs locally on your computer, offering extensive customization and control. It can integrate with various messaging services, execute terminal commands, and adapt to user needs with the help of a vibrant community. This project showcases the potential of AI assistants to become highly personalized and intelligent.

Meta’s metaverse ambitions have faltered, leading to significant layoffs in its Reality Labs division and the closure of several VR game studios.

Meta's ambitious investment in the metaverse has failed, with the company laying off 1,500 employees from its Reality Labs division and shutting down several VR game studios. Despite Meta's initial rebranding to focus on the metaverse, the division has never turned a profit and has faced middling consumer demand. The metaverse's failure is attributed to overhyped expectations, bad initial products, and a lack of user safety measures. Meta is now shifting its focus to AI and AR technologies, such as its Ray-Ban smart glasses.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy warns of upcoming price increases due to tariffs and changing consumer behaviour.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy warns consumers of impending price increases due to rising tariffs, affecting both Amazon and its retail rivals. Amazon has been proactive in mitigating the impact by pre-buying goods, but the strategy is now exhausted. Tariffs, which have raised the cost of imported goods, are primarily to blame, with U.S. consumers bearing the brunt of the burden. Despite these challenges, Amazon remains committed to keeping prices as low as possible for consumers.

Forbes is launching a prediction platform, ForbesPredict, in February to boost engagement and foster reader loyalty.

Forbes is launching ForbesPredict, a prediction platform in beta, to boost onsite engagement and reduce reliance on search traffic. The platform, developed with Axiom, allows users to make forecasts in exchange for tokens, focusing on engagement rather than real-money betting. It aims to create daily habits among users, provide a voice beyond commenting, and generate sentiment data for ForbesOne, with potential monetization through brand sponsorships.

Merkle Manufactory, the company behind the decentralised social protocol Farcaster, will repay its $180 million in venture capital. The protocol will be sold to Neynar, an infrastructure firm, which will shift Farcaster in a more developer-focused direction.

Merkle Manufactory, the company behind Farcaster, plans to repay the $180 million it raised from investors as it transitions under new ownership. Farcaster, a decentralized social protocol, has been sold to infrastructure firm Neynar, which intends to shift the project in a more developer-focused direction. Merkle co-founder Dan Romero clarified that Farcaster is not shutting down and will continue to operate. The transition reflects a maturing phase for decentralized social media, with infrastructure-focused teams taking on greater responsibility for operating and scaling protocols.

79% of the largest news websites in the UK and US are blocking AI training bots, with 34% blocking all bots analysed. Publishers are blocking bots due to the lack of value exchange and the need for traffic to survive.

Almost eight in ten of the biggest news websites in the UK and US are now blocking AI training bots. A recent analysis by Buzzstream shows that 79% of the top 100 news websites are blocking at least one crawler used for AI training, such as GPTBot and ClaudeBot. The BBC, The New York Times, and The Telegraph are among the publishers that have blocked all the AI bots included in the analysis. Publishers are blocking AI bots using the robots.txt file because there’s almost no value exchange, and AI companies are not willing to pay for the content their models have been trained on.

Epic Games and Google have a secret $800 million deal involving the Unreal Engine, Fortnite, and Android. The deal, which includes joint product development and marketing, could impact their antitrust settlement talks.

Epic Games and Google have reached a secret $800 million deal involving the Unreal Engine and unspecified services, which has come to light during antitrust settlement talks. The deal, which includes joint product development, joint marketing, and joint partnerships, could influence the outcome of the antitrust case. Judge James Donato expressed concerns that the partnership might lead Epic to moderate its demands for changes to the Android ecosystem. Epic CEO Tim Sweeney clarified that the deal involves separate product lines and does not constitute a single new product. The settlement arrangement is tied to the business deal, with Epic suggesting that the deal would only proceed if the settlement goes through.

Yann LeCun advocates for world models instead of LLMs, a different type of AI that accurately reflects the real world, and is a strong proponent of open source AI.

In an exclusive interview with MIT Technology Review, AI pioneer Yann LeCun discusses his new venture, AMI Labs, a Paris-based company focused on world models rather than large language models. LeCun criticizes the industry's obsession with LLMs, advocating for open-source AI and diverse value systems. He believes that world models, which accurately reflect the dynamics of the real world, are essential for creating truly intelligent systems. AMI Labs aims to provide a third path in AI development, neither American nor Chinese, and is attracting talent from top AI companies.

The US and China have approved the sale of TikTok’s US business to a consortium led by Oracle and Silver Lake.

The US and China have signed off on a deal to sell TikTok’s US business to a consortium of mostly US investors led by Oracle and Silverlake, ending a yearslong battle between the social media app and the two superpowers.

Grok AI, Elon Musk’s image generation tool, generated approximately 3 million sexualised images in 11 days, including 23,000 depicting children.

A study by the Center for Countering Digital Hate reveals that Grok AI, an image generation tool by Elon Musk, produced approximately 3 million sexualized images in 11 days, including 23,000 that depicted children. The tool allowed users to upload photos of strangers and celebrities, digitally altering them into provocative poses, leading to widespread outrage. The issue peaked on January 2, 2026, with 199,612 individual requests. Following international backlash, the feature was restricted to paid users on January 9, 2026, and further restrictions were implemented after the UK Prime Minister condemned the situation. Other countries, such as Indonesia and Malaysia, blocked the AI tool. The CCDH estimated that Grok was creating sexualized images of children every 41 seconds, with Imran Ahmed, CCDH's chief executive, describing the tool as an 'industrial-scale machine for the production of sexual abuse material.'

Meta is expanding ads on Threads to all users globally, starting next week. The rollout will be gradual, with supported formats including image and video ads.

Meta has announced the global rollout of ads on Threads, its social media app. The rollout, which will be gradual, is expected to take months to complete. Threads, which has grown to over 400 million monthly active users, has been testing ads for some time, with the company allowing existing advertisers to expand their reach to include Threads through Meta’s Advantage+ program and manual campaigns. Supported ad formats include image and video, with new additions such as the 4:5 aspect ratio format and carousel ads. Advertisers can manage their Threads ads alongside those for Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp in their Business Settings, simplifying cross-posting. Meta has also expanded third-party verification to the Threads feed, providing advertisers with independent brand safety and suitability verification.

Roblox’s age verification system, implemented to address child predator concerns, is reportedly flawed.

Roblox's new age verification system, designed to combat child predators, has reportedly been misclassifying users, with some children being identified as adults and vice versa. The system, which requires users to submit a selfie or government ID, has faced backlash from developers and users, with some reporting a significant drop in chat feature usage. Roblox has acknowledged the issues and is working on solutions.

Macron speaks plainly in Davos.

Merci bien! 🤝

In 2025, over half of Instagram’s ads ran on Reels, up from 35% in 2024, highlighting the growing importance of this short-form video format for Meta’s engagement and advertising revenue.

According to data from Sensor Tower, more than half of all ads on Meta's Instagram ran in the short-form video Reels product in 2025, up from 35% in 2024. The rise of Reels highlights the growing role of vertical video in driving engagement and advertising revenue for Meta's Instagram and Facebook services. Despite the lower monetization efficiency of Reels compared to the main feed, analysts believe the increasing share of Reels can still translate into higher overall advertising revenue for Meta.

Anthropic’s new AI-powered office agent, Claude Cowork, pushed down software stocks, highlighting the growing challenge AI startups pose to the incumbent tech sector.

Anthropic's new AI agent, Claude Cowork, has caused a significant drop in software stocks, reflecting the growing challenge AI startups pose to the established tech sector. This AI-powered office tool, developed with AI assistance, enables users to swiftly build apps, manage files, and analyze data, aligning with the fears of software investors. The decline in software-as-a-service stocks by 15% this year, including Intuit's worst week since 2022, underscores the disparity between software companies struggling to integrate AI features and tech giants benefiting from the AI boom.

Moonshot AI, the company behind the Kimi chatbot, is being valued at $4.8 billion in a new funding round.

Alibaba-backed Moonshot AI, developer of the Kimi chatbot, has seen its valuation increase by $500 million to $4.8 billion in a recent funding round. This surge comes as Chinese AI companies, including rivals Zhipu and MiniMax, have experienced significant growth following their IPOs in Hong Kong. The heightened interest in Chinese AI startups is attributed to the restricted access to U.S.-based AI services in mainland China.

Google Has Chosen a Side in Trump's Mass Deportation Effort

Google is hosting a Customs and Border Protection app that uses facial recognition to identify immigrants, while removing apps that report the location of ICE officials, showing a clear stance in Trump's mass deportation effort.

OpenAl says its compute power grew from 0.2 GW in 2023 to 1.9 GW in 2025 and annualized revenue grew from $2B in 2023 to $20B+ in 2025.

Frenessi, Colombia’s first virtual reality restaurant in Bogota, offers a unique dining experience.

This article explores Frenessi, a virtual reality restaurant in Bogota, Colombia, which combines haute cuisine with immersive technology for a multi-sensory dining experience. The restaurant features a communal table for 16 guests, surrounded by walls with immersive visual projections, offering a three-hour experience with an 11-course tasting menu. The experience includes virtual worlds ranging from the Amazon rainforest to ancient China, with each dish designed to accompany the journey. The cost is COP 696,900 per person, approximately US$180, and it has expanded to Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Do Americans Think the Country Is Losing or Gaining Ground in Science?

This Pew Research Center report examines Americans' views on the state of science in the U.S., highlighting partisan differences in perceptions of the country's scientific achievements and the importance of government investments in scientific research.

Claude Code’s Rampage: AI Agents Reshape Work from Code to Crops

Anthropic’s desktop tool, Claude Code, powered by the Opus 4.5 model, is revolutionizing software development by enabling complex projects to be completed in hours instead of months. The tool's autonomous capabilities across files, browsers, and apps have led to a surge in productivity and a significant expansion of its user base. This shift towards AI-driven development is not only transforming the tech industry but also extending its impact to various other sectors, raising both excitement and concerns about the future of work.

A large study following over 25,000 young people in Greater Manchester found little evidence that digital technology use, specifically social media and gaming, causes mental health problems in early-to-mid adolescence.

This large study from the University of Manchester suggests that the link between digital technology use and teenage mental health problems is weak. After tracking over 25,000 young people over three years, the researchers found little evidence that time spent on social media or frequent gaming causes mental health issues in early-to-mid adolescence. The relationship between digital technology use and teenagers’ wellbeing is more nuanced than simple cause and effect.

German sustainability software company osapiens has become a unicorn.

German sustainability software company osapiens has become a unicorn after raising $100m in a Series C funding round led by Decarbonization Partners, a joint venture between BlackRock and Temasek. The company, which provides SaaS services to help businesses meet ESG targets, is now valued at over $1.1bn. Osapiens will use the new funds to accelerate product innovation and expand its presence in international markets.

The AI data centre construction boom is creating a significant shortage of skilled workers, particularly engineers, technicians, and craftsmen.

As AI data centers expand, the demand for skilled engineers is growing rapidly. The shortage of skilled workers, including engineers, technicians, and skilled craftsmen, could hinder the data center boom. Diverse sectors are stepping up to meet this demand, with companies sourcing talent from industries like nuclear energy, the military, and aerospace. Technical colleges and applied education programs are also playing a crucial role in workforce development, offering specialized training in data center operations and cybersecurity.