Skynet isn’t yet here, but perhaps we’re seeing the first glimpses of what AIs talking to AIs will mean. Yes, I’m mentioning Clawdbot/Molbot.
- Alex Tabarrok: The Bots are Awakening (Jan. 31, 2026)
“What matters is that AIs are acting as if they were conscious, with real wants, goals and aspirations.” - Ozzie Osman: A Step Behind the Bleeding Edge: Monarch’s Philosophy on AI in Dev (Jan. 22, 2026)
“If you consider your job to be “typing code into an editor”, AI will replace it (in some senses, it already has). On the other hand, if you consider your job to be “to use software to build products and/or solve problems”, your job is just going to change and get more interesting.”Urges engineering teams to explore AI’s frontier but adopt a “dampened” approach—stay a step behind the bleeding edge—while preserving accountability: engineers must own, review, and deeply think about their work. Use AI for toil, prototypes, and internal tools, and design validation loops to ensure quality and security. - Google: Project Genie: AI world model now available for Ultra users in U.S. (Jan. 29, 2026)
Google’s Project Genie, now available to U.S. Google AI Ultra subscribers, is an experimental prototype powered by Genie 3 that lets users create, explore, and remix dynamic worlds from text and images. It generates environments and interactions in real time while Google refines limitations and plans wider access. - Anthropic: How AI assistance impacts the formation of coding skills (Jan. 29, 2026)
A randomized trial with 52 developers found AI coding assistance reduced immediate mastery by 17 percentage points (50% vs 67%) without significantly faster completion. Heavy delegation impaired debugging and conceptual learning, while using AI for explanations preserved understanding—suggesting AI can harm skill development unless used to build comprehension. - WSJ: The $100 Billion Megadeal Between OpenAI and Nvidia Is on Ice (Jan. 30, 2026)
Nvidia’s plan to invest up to $100 billion and build at least 10 GW of compute for OpenAI has stalled amid internal doubts, with the agreement still nonbinding. Nvidia says it will make a sizeable investment and maintain the partnership as OpenAI raises funds. - WSJ: Elon Musk’s SpaceX and xAI Are Planning a Megamerger of Rockets and AI (Jan. 30, 2026)
Elon Musk’s SpaceX and AI startup xAI are reportedly planning to merge, potentially consolidating his businesses and supporting ambitions like space-based AI data centers. Talks are early and uncertain as valuations, SpaceX’s planned IPO and regulatory issues remain unresolved. - TechCrunch: Apple buys Israeli startup Q.ai as the AI race heats up (Jan. 29, 2026)
Apple has acquired Israeli AI startup Q.ai, reportedly for nearly $2 billion, its second-largest deal, gaining imaging and audio ML tech that improves whispered-speech recognition and noisy-environment audio. - CNBC: Mozilla is building an AI ‘rebel alliance’ to take on industry heavyweights OpenAI, Anthropic (Jan. 27, 2026)
Mozilla president Mark Surman is assembling a “rebel alliance” of startups and technologists to promote open, trustworthy AI and counter dominant firms like OpenAI. - Andrej Karpathy: On MoltBot (Jan. 30, 2026)
The author describes large networks of autonomous LLM agents (~150,000) combine impressive capabilities with rampant spam, scams, prompt-injection, and serious security and privacy risks. Though messy now, these agent networks could trigger unpredictable system-level harms such as text viruses, correlated botnets, and widespread jailbreaks, so they need scrutiny.”TLDR sure maybe I am ‘overhyping’ what you see today, but I am not overhyping large networks of autonomous LLM agents in principle, that I’m pretty sure.” - OpenAI: Inside OpenAI’s in-house data agent (Jan. 23, 2026)
OpenAI built an internal AI data agent that explores, queries, and reasons over its platform—combining Codex, GPT‑5, embeddings, metadata, code-level table definitions, company docs, and memory—to deliver fast, accurate, contextual analytics. It automates discovery, SQL generation, and iterative self-correction to speed insights across teams. - NY Times Opinion: Pay More Attention to A.I. (Jan. 31, 2026)
Comparing early European uncertainty about the New World to today’s conflicting claims about AI, from modest internet‑like change to singularity‑level upheaval. AI is advancing rapidly and urges greater public attention because near‑term decisions could have far‑reaching consequences. - WSJ: U.S. Companies Are Still Slashing Jobs to Reverse Pandemic Hiring Boom (Jan. 28, 2026)
U.S. companies that expanded rapidly during the pandemic are now cutting tens of thousands of jobs while investing in AI and automation. Layoffs concentrate in tech and logistics even as overall labor markets remain relatively healthy.
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