Microsoft Copilot now supports native checkout inside the app, powered by Stripe. This follows an earlier announcement of PayPal support in Copilot Shopping.

AI shopping is a big bet for Microsoft 👀

X has changed the Iran flag emoji shown on its platform, replacing the Islamic Republic’s emblem with the older Lion and Sun symbol on the green, white and red tricolour. The change followed a user request that was approved in Twemoji, the open-source emoji system used by X. Jeremy Bier, an engineer at the company, said Thursday the updated emoji would start appearing on the web version after Friday.

📰 The @askplex bot has been unsupported since December 24th.

And the bot will no longer will work rip ....

📰 Microsoft Copilot [ @CopilotOfficialBot ] will also end support for its Telegram bot in just five days, on January 15.

#AI #Grok #xAI 
xAI teases major Grok upgrade, hints at Grok Code CLI 

Elon Musk’s xAI is back in the spotlight, teasing a powerful Grok Code upgrade that could shake up AI coding tools.

Key highlights
• Grok Code is getting a major upgrade next month, promising to “one-shot” complex coding tasks 
• Elon Musk hints at a new CLI tool, possibly called “Grok Build,” focused on vibe-based coding 
• The upgrade appears to rival Google’s AI Studio, which Musk has praised 
• xAI aims to reposition Grok as a serious competitor to ChatGPT and Gemini 
• Launch could mark a turning point after recent negative press around Grok

Read More: xAI teases Grok upgrade

BleepingComputer

xAI teases major Grok upgrade, hints at Grok Code CLI

Elon Musk-backed xAI has been missing in action for a while now, but today, Musk teased a major upgrade for Grok alongside new products.

♻️ Urban Air Packed With Micro- And Nanoplastics

Chinese researchers at the Institute of Earth Environment report that urban air in Guangzhou and Xi'an contains roughly 140,000–180,000 microplastic and nanoplastic particles per cubic metre—levels far higher than those previously measured and, the team says, up to a million times greater than estimates from traditional methods.

The study is also the first to detect nanoplastics as small as ~200 nanometres in complex environmental samples, identifying city atmospheres as primary reservoirs of plastic particulates and underlining the need to reassess how airborne plastic pollution is monitored.

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🎮 Fortnite x South Park Goes Live

The long-rumored Fortnite × South Park collab is official: Epic dropped a short film that shows the boys being sucked into the metaverse and teases new gameplay.

The event adds a new five-player Battle Royale mode, a free mini-pass through which players can earn South Park cosmetics, and at least five skins in the item shop — plus Wonkeeland on the BR map is temporarily rebranded as Cartmanland.

The crossover content and limited-time mode run through February 5.

Do you play Fortnite?

❤️ — Yes, of course!
😎 — No, it's for kids
🎃 — I don't like video games

Read More

BREAKING 🚨: OpenAI is launching ChatGPT Health on mobile and web!

“We’re launching ChatGPT Health, a dedicated, private space for health conversations where you can easily and securely connect your medical records and wellness apps, Apple Health, Function Health and Peloton”

https://chatgpt.com/health/waitlist

🖥 Gaming Industry Faces Memory Crunch

The global gaming industry is heading into a memory crisis as surging chip prices threaten delays to next-generation consoles and force developers to rethink game design. Samsung's 16GB DDR5-5600 memory now sells for about $207 in early January 2026, up nearly sixfold from roughly $35 in December 2024, according to Korea's Danawa platform.

The shortage is caused by Samsung, SK hynix, and Micron shifting production toward high-bandwidth memory for AI accelerators instead of standard DRAM used in gaming hardware.

"In 2026, there's going to be issues around semiconductor supplies, and it's going to affect everyone," Samsung global marketing president Wonjin Lee said this week.

Read More

#OpenAI #GPT52 #CodexMax

OpenAI is rolling out GPT-5.2 “Codex-Max” for some users

OpenAI is testing a new model for Codex called "GPT-5.2-Codex-Max," and it's already rolling out to users with a subscription.

Key highlights
- GPT-5.2-Codex-Max rolling out to paying users; signals a new “Max” tier within Codex.
- 5.2 brings improved task handling, repo context retention, and smoother refactors/migrations.
- Better tool use, Windows workflow support, and enhanced vision for screenshots, UI bugs, and diagrams.
- OpenAI may share more details in the coming days (Jan 2026).

Read More: OpenAI’s GPT-5.2-Codex-Max rollout

BleepingComputer

OpenAI is rolling out GPT-5.2 “Codex-Max” for some users

OpenAI is testing a new model for Codex called "GPT-5.2-Codex-Max," and it's already rolling out to users with a subscription.

# AI #ChatGPT #Healthcare
OpenAI Says Over 40 Million Users Have Asked ChatGPT Healthcare Questions: Report

OpenAI reportedly says millions ask ChatGPT health questions, far beyond typical use.

Key highlights
- More than 5% of all ChatGPT messages are health-related
- 7 in 10 healthcare chats occur outside clinic hours
- Health-focused performance emphasized with GPT-5
- Rural users contribute ~600k healthcare messages weekly
- 1.6–1.9 million weekly health-insurance questions

Read More: OpenAI Says Over 40 Million Users Have Asked ChatGPT Healthcare Questions: Report

Gadgets 360

OpenAI Says Over 40 Million Users Have Asked ChatGPT Healthcare Questions: Report

OpenAI reportedly found that users ask ChatGPT between 1.6 and 1.9 million health insurance questions per week.

🥇 Lego Unveils Smart Bricks At CES

Lego has introduced new Smart Bricks with built‑in microchips at CES, calling them the company's biggest evolution in decades. A classic 2x4 brick can detect NFC tags in special tiles and minifigures, track the movement and position of other Smart Bricks, and add light and sound effects to physical builds.
​
In Lego Star Wars sets, the system can, for example, play "The Imperial March" when Emperor Palpatine is seated on his throne, let ships "battle" each other, and make cars register who crosses the finish line first or trigger an alert when they flip over. The new bricks form a Bluetooth mesh network and are set to debut in Star Wars kits starting March 1, 2026.

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💊 AI-Designed Drug Nears Phase 3 Trials

Insilico Medicine says its drug Rentosertib—the first medicine fully discovered and designed using artificial intelligence—could enter Phase 3 clinical trials within the next 18 months, marking the final stage before regulatory approval.

The drug targets idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a deadly lung disease that kills around 40,000 people in the US each year. In a Phase 2 trial involving 71 patients in China, Rentosertib improved lung function with few side effects.

Read More

Ethereum solves blockchain trilemma, Buterin says

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin announced on January 3 that the network has achieved a breakthrough in solving the blockchain trilemma, with zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machines reaching production-grade performance and PeerDAS now live on the mainnet.

The milestone marks the culmination of a decade of development that began with early data availability sampling research, enabling Ethereum to simultaneously achieve decentralization, consensus, and high bandwidth—three properties that historically required trade-offs.

Buterin outlined a roadmap through 2030 that includes gas limit increases starting in 2026 via mechanisms like BALs and ePBS, with ZK-EVMs expected to become the primary block validation method by 2027 to 2030.

Source: Binance

Boston Dynamics' Atlas robot performs first factory tests

CBS's 60 Minutes airs a segment Sunday featuring Boston Dynamics' humanoid robot Atlas performing real-world factory tasks at Hyundai's manufacturing plant near Savannah, Georgia, marking the first industrial deployment of the AI-powered robot.

Hyundai acquired Boston Dynamics for $1.1 billion in 2021 and plans to deploy tens of thousands of robots across its facilities as part of its "Software-Defined Factory" strategy, with reports indicating automation could handle up to 40 percent of vehicle assembly operations.

The all-electric Atlas robot uses machine learning vision to autonomously lift heavy parts, install vehicle doors, and adapt to environmental changes, competing with Tesla's Optimus and other humanoid robots in the expanding industrial robotics market.

Meta shares fall as scam ad strategy draws scrutiny

Meta Platforms shares fell 1.4% in after-hours trading on January 2 after a Reuters investigation revealed the company created a global "playbook" to stall scam-ad regulations by manipulating its public Ad Library to make fraudulent ads harder for regulators to find.

Internal documents show Meta resisted universal advertiser verification—which could cost $2 billion and reduce revenue by up to 4.8%—by repeatedly scrubbing search results for keywords regulators used, making problematic content "not findable" across Japan, Europe, the U.S., and other markets.

The European Commission requested information citing "doubts about compliance," while U.S. senators urged SEC and FTC investigations, as Meta spokesperson Andy Stone defended the company's actions and pointed to a 50% decline in user-reported scams.

Source

#telegram AI Summaries

Long posts in channels can now be instantly summarized — to recap the latest news and stay productive. Instant View pages get an automatic AI summary at the top.

👙 French Authorities Probe X Over Grok Deepfake Bikini Images

French authorities have launched an official investigation into X after the platform was flooded with sexually explicit deepfakes generated using Grok. The probe follows a surge of AI-altered images circulating widely over the past several days.

Users have been массово asking the bot to "dress people in bikinis" using photos of both celebrities and private individuals. In most cases, those depicted never gave consent, raising serious concerns around privacy, sexual exploitation, and the misuse of generative AI tools.

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ChatGPT captures 17% of search market, challenging Google

OpenAI's ChatGPT has captured 17-18% of the global search query market as of January 2, 2026, marking the first time in over 20 years that a competitor has achieved double-digit market share against Alphabet's Google, which retains 78-80% dominance.

Google deployed Gemini 3 in November 2025 and Gemini 3 Flash in December 2025 to counter the threat, with Gemini's generative AI web traffic share surging from 5.4% to 18.2% over the past year, though ChatGPT users demonstrate deeper engagement with 13-minute average sessions compared to Google's 6 minutes.

The shift toward AI-synthesized answers has created a "zero-click" reality with over 65% of searches now resolved directly on results pages, causing publishers to lose approximately $2 billion in annual advertising revenue and forcing them to adopt Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) to compete for citations within AI responses.

Source