Amazon to lay off thousands more office workers on path to 30,000 cuts
Amazon plans to axe thousands of corporate workers next week, after laying off 14,000 back in October, according to Reuters. The new cuts could be “roughly the same” number as last time and may hit Amazon Web Services, retail, Prime Video, and human resources, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.
The company plans to cut a total of 30,000 corporate positions as part of an effort to “streamline operations and reset its culture,” Business Insider reported separately, noting comments from CEO Andy Jassy, who said the earlier layoffs were “about culture” rather than AI-related cost cutting.
The company plans to cut a total of 30,000 corporate positions as part of an effort to “streamline operations and reset its culture,” Business Insider reported separately, noting comments from CEO Andy Jassy, who said the earlier layoffs were “about culture” rather than AI-related cost cutting.
There are now more than 1 million “.ai” websites, contributing an estimated $70 million to Anguilla’s government revenue last year
Data from Domain Name Stat reveals that the top-level domain originally assigned to the British Overseas Territory of Anguilla passed the milestone in early January.
TikTok closes deal to operate in the US
TikTok has finally sealed its deal to establish a majority American-owned joint venture to manage its US operations.
On Friday, the social media company announced that its US arm will now be led by three “managing investors” — Silver Lake, Oracle, and MGX, each with a 15% holding — while ByteDance retains 19.9% of the business, and a swath of other investors, including Michael Dell’s family office, round out the cap table.
The joint venture will be operated by a seven-person majority American board of directors, which includes TikTok CEO Shou Chew, with Adam Presser, previously TikTok’s head of operations, trust, and safety, as its CEO.
Though the valuation of the new venture has not been shared, Vice President JD Vance has previously cited the market value of TikTok’s US operations at about $14 billion, just topping Snap and lower than Pinterest.
The deal closes the platform’s battle, which kicked off in earnest in August 2020 when President Donald Trump first tried to ban TikTok over national security concerns. The announcement notes that the new TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC will “secure U.S. user data, apps and the algorithm.” Trump celebrated the deal, which has been signed off by both the US and Chinese governments, per Reuters, in a Truth Social post, saying TikTok “will now be owned by a group of Great American Patriots and Investors, the Biggest in the World.”
Elon Musk says Tesla Robotaxis are operating without drivers, sending stock higher
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that Tesla’s Robotaxis are now operating in Austin without a safety monitor. Tesla has been testing driverless cars in the area for about a month, and Musk had previously said the company would remove safety drivers by the end of 2025.
It’s unclear how many exactly of the roughly 50 Robotaxis the company operates in the area don’t have drivers. Tesla is “starting with a few unsupervised vehicles mixed in with the broader robotaxi fleet with safety monitors, and the ratio will increase over time,” Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s head of AI, posted shortly after Musk. Ethan McKenna, the person behind Robotaxi Tracker, estimates it’s two or three vehicles.
What is clear is that the move is good for Tesla’s stock, which is currently up 3.5%, extending its gains after Musk’s tweet. Morgan Stanley said yesterday that it considers the removal of safety drivers a “precursor to personal unsupervised FSD rollout.” Unsupervised Full Self-Driving is widely considered to be integral to the would-be autonomous company’s value proposition.
At the World Economic Forum earlier on Thursday, Musk said, “Self-driving cars is essentially a solved problem at this point.”
Just started Tesla Robotaxi drives in Austin with no safety monitor in the car.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 22, 2026
Congrats to the @Tesla_AI team!
If you’re interested in solving real-world AI, which is likely to lead to AGI imo, join Tesla AI. Solving real-world AI for Optimus will be 100X harder than cars. https://t.co/OnP8gredWD
Survey: CEOs and workers have wildly different thoughts on AI productivity gains
One of the main reasons companies are rushing to adopt AI is to give their workers the miraculous productivity boost that AI companies have been promising — and believe will quickly earn back their investment.
But now that companies have been using AI for a while, a growing perception gap is emerging between the C-suite and their employees.
The Wall Street Journal reported on new findings by research firm Section, which surveyed 5,000 white-collar workers from companies with more than 1,000 employees.
More than 70% of the corporate executives in the survey said they were “excited” by AI, and 19% of them said the tools have saved them more than 12 hours of work per week.
But nonmanagement workers had a very different take on AI. Almost 70% of this group said AI made them feel “anxious or overwhelmed,” and 40% said the tools saved them no time at all.
The Wall Street Journal reported on new findings by research firm Section, which surveyed 5,000 white-collar workers from companies with more than 1,000 employees.
More than 70% of the corporate executives in the survey said they were “excited” by AI, and 19% of them said the tools have saved them more than 12 hours of work per week.
But nonmanagement workers had a very different take on AI. Almost 70% of this group said AI made them feel “anxious or overwhelmed,” and 40% said the tools saved them no time at all.
Tesla jumps as Musk says he expects Optimus sales next year, European and Chinese FSD approval next month
Tesla CEO Elon Musk now says he thinks the company’s Optimus robots will be for sale to the public “by the end of next year.”
According to Musk, “That’s when we are confident that there is very high reliability, very high safety, and the range of functionality is also very high.”
Like many of Musk’s other timelines, that’s later than he previously predicted. In 2024, for example, Musk said the AI robots would be for sale in 2025.
Speaking with BlackRock CEO Larry Fink on a panel today at the World Economic Forum, Musk said the robots are currently doing “simple tasks” in Tesla factories, but believes “they’ll be doing more complex tasks and be deployed in an industrial environment” by the end of this year, before going on sale to the public in 2027.
Musk forecasts a future with “billions” of AI robots that “saturate all human needs.”
On a separate topic, Musk was bullish on regulatory approval for what Tesla calls Full Self-Driving technology in markets outside the US. “We hope to get supervised Full Self-Driving approval in Europe, hopefully next month, and then maybe a similar timing for China,” he said. Musk has said in the past that the pending regulatory approval for FSD in Europe is a key reason why Tesla’s sales in the region have been tanking.
Waymo is now offering autonomous rides in Miami
Google subsidiary Waymo announced Thursday that it’s officially open for autonomous ride-hailing in Miami, expanding the company’s coverage area to six US cities. The company will be “inviting new riders on a rolling basis” to take rides across its 60-square-mile service area, which includes the Design District, Wynwood, Brickell, and Coral Gables. Waymo said it plans to expand to Miami International Airport “soon.”
Competitor Tesla currently operates a ride-hailing service with a safety monitor in the vehicle in Austin and the Bay Area.
Apple to promote Siri from assistant to chatbot
Bloomberg reports that Apple plans to transform its Siri assistant into a full-fledged chatbot similar to OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
The chatbot would be integrated throughout the iPhone’s operating system rather than offered as a stand-alone app. It’s expected to arrive later this year and would be separate from more incremental, non-chatbot improvements to Siri rolling out in the coming months aimed at making the existing assistant more usable.
Both updates will be powered by Google’s AI models, Bloomberg reports, but the chatbot upgrade will be more advanced and akin to the much-lauded Gemini 3.
While the difference between an assistant and a chatbot may sound subtle, it represents a meaningful shift for Apple, which has long avoided a fully conversational interface and has lagged rivals that embraced one. Any new Siri chat capabilities could also eventually extend to other Apple devices under development, including wearables such as the pin Apple is developing.
Both updates will be powered by Google’s AI models, Bloomberg reports, but the chatbot upgrade will be more advanced and akin to the much-lauded Gemini 3.
While the difference between an assistant and a chatbot may sound subtle, it represents a meaningful shift for Apple, which has long avoided a fully conversational interface and has lagged rivals that embraced one. Any new Siri chat capabilities could also eventually extend to other Apple devices under development, including wearables such as the pin Apple is developing.
OpenAI shares how it will charge for ChatGPT ads
Last week, OpenAI announced that ads were going to be rolling out in ChatGPT in the coming weeks.
Now we have more details about what OpenAI is telling advertisers. According to a report from The Information, the company has reached out to “dozens” of advertisers, and will charge based on ad views.
Advertisers are still waiting for further details, but OpenAI is asking for less than $1 million each in ad spending while it tests out the new system, per the report.
Ads are supposed to begin in February, and will only appear for free ChatGPT and ChatGPT Go users.
Advertisers are still waiting for further details, but OpenAI is asking for less than $1 million each in ad spending while it tests out the new system, per the report.
Ads are supposed to begin in February, and will only appear for free ChatGPT and ChatGPT Go users.
Apple is reportedly working on a wearable AI pin
Move over OpenAI, Apple is reportedly also developing a mysterious AI-powered wearable device: a pin that looks like a “thin, flat, circular disc with an aluminum-and-glass shell.”
The Information reports that the device is the size of an Apple AirTag and has two cameras, a speaker, three microphones, and wireless charging. It could be available by early 2027.
Apple, which has lagged its peers in AI and recently teamed up with Google to support its upcoming Siri revamp, is hoping to keep up with ChatGPT and Google, which, like Apple, has an AI smartphone. Meta and Google are both also pushing into smart AI glasses.
It’s not to be mistaken with OpenAI’s secretive wearable AI device, which is being made in conjunction with former Apple designer Jony Ive and expected to debut in late 2026. The latest rumors suggest the unnamed device, meant to eventually compete with smartphones, might be earbuds.
Apple, which has lagged its peers in AI and recently teamed up with Google to support its upcoming Siri revamp, is hoping to keep up with ChatGPT and Google, which, like Apple, has an AI smartphone. Meta and Google are both also pushing into smart AI glasses.
It’s not to be mistaken with OpenAI’s secretive wearable AI device, which is being made in conjunction with former Apple designer Jony Ive and expected to debut in late 2026. The latest rumors suggest the unnamed device, meant to eventually compete with smartphones, might be earbuds.
Morgan Stanley expects Tesla to have 1,000 Robotaxis by the end of 2026. Musk had predicted 1,500 by the end of 2025
Ahead of Tesla’s earnings report next week, Morgan Stanley has released a note estimating that the company will scale its Robotaxi fleet much more slowly than CEO Elon Musk has said. The firm thinks the automaker will have 1,000 vehicles in its Robotaxi service by the end of 2026 — 500 fewer than Musk estimated a few months ago Tesla would have by the end of 2025.
More key to Tesla’s success, however, will be removing the safety monitors from those rides, which Morgan Stanley says will be a “precursor to personal unsupervised FSD [Full Self-Driving] rollout.” Musk, of course, had also promised to remove safety drivers in Austin by the end of 2025, but driverless rides are still in the testing stage.
Meta says it’s delivered new AI models internally this month and they’re “very good”
Meta’s last AI model release, Llama 4, was marred by delays and accusations of rigged benchmarks, but the company says the latest models built by its Superintelligence Labs team look promising. CTO Andrew Bosworth told reporters at the World Economic Forum that the team delivered new models internally in January and they’re “very good.”
Bosworth didn’t specify what the models are, though The Wall Street Journal has reported that Meta is working on a large language model and an AI image and video model code-named Avocado and Mango, respectively.
Two charts that show why Amazon is building a giant physical store
This week Amazon received approval to build a hybrid big-box store and fulfillment center outside Chicago that’s roughly twice the size of a typical Target. Why would the e-commerce giant want to wade into a costly and cumbersome physical store, especially after earlier brick-and-mortar iterations like Amazon Go have failed?
There are at least two reasons. First, despite e-commerce’s rapid growth, the vast majority of retail purchases still happen in physical stores, according to Census Bureau data:
Second, Amazon’s own customers regularly shop at competing big-box retailers: Consumer Intelligence Research Partners found that 93% have also shopped at Walmart. And as Amazon pushes further into groceries — a category still dominated by in-person shopping — CIRP estimates that basically all Amazon customers buy groceries elsewhere.
OpenAI rolls out age prediction system ahead of allowing adult content
OpenAI is rolling out a new “age prediction” feature for ChatGPT users. The company will look at various signals from users to predict if a user is underage.
In a blog post, the company said:
“The model looks at a combination of behavioral and account-level signals, including how long an account has existed, typical times of day when someone is active, usage patterns over time, and a user’s stated age.”
If the system suspects the user is a minor, it will reduce content with graphic violence, harmful viral challenges, sexual or romantic role-play, depictions of self-harm, and material promoting “extreme beauty standards, unhealthy dieting, or body shaming.”
If a user is incorrectly flagged as under 18, they will have to submit a selfie to an identity verification service to have the restrictions removed.
An age verification system is part of OpenAI’s plan to reduce harmful mental health encounters with the chatbot, while also allowing ChatGPT to generate “erotica” in the near future.
“The model looks at a combination of behavioral and account-level signals, including how long an account has existed, typical times of day when someone is active, usage patterns over time, and a user’s stated age.”
If the system suspects the user is a minor, it will reduce content with graphic violence, harmful viral challenges, sexual or romantic role-play, depictions of self-harm, and material promoting “extreme beauty standards, unhealthy dieting, or body shaming.”
If a user is incorrectly flagged as under 18, they will have to submit a selfie to an identity verification service to have the restrictions removed.
An age verification system is part of OpenAI’s plan to reduce harmful mental health encounters with the chatbot, while also allowing ChatGPT to generate “erotica” in the near future.
Google’s YouTube maintains its top spot as streaming accounts for nearly half of all TV-watching time
People spent a record 47.5% of their TV-watching time on streaming platforms in December, according to new data from Nielsen, up from the previous record of 47.3% in July. Google’s YouTube once again was the most popular streaming service by time spent, but Netflix’s share inched slightly upward to 9% from 8.8% in July, while YouTube’s fell to 12.7% from 13.4%. The jump was largely thanks to “Stranger Things,” which was the most watched streaming title last month.
Amazon CEO says tariffs are inflating prices and buyers are looking for bargains
While the legality of President Trump’s tariffs winds its way through the courts, their effects are beginning to show up in prices.
During an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said he is starting to see tariffs “creep into” pricing, as some sellers are “passing on those higher costs to consumers in the form of higher prices.”
Jassy said that while consumers are still spending, they are becoming more price conscious.
“I think that wherever they can, they are trying to trade down in price — they are looking for bargains wherever they can find bargains,” he said. “I see people a little more hesitant on higher-priced discretionary items.”
Trump has maintained that other countries are footing the bill for his tariffs. But new research suggests Americans will ultimately be the ones paying those higher prices.
Jassy said that while consumers are still spending, they are becoming more price conscious.
“I think that wherever they can, they are trying to trade down in price — they are looking for bargains wherever they can find bargains,” he said. “I see people a little more hesitant on higher-priced discretionary items.”
Trump has maintained that other countries are footing the bill for his tariffs. But new research suggests Americans will ultimately be the ones paying those higher prices.
Musk: Tesla restarting Dojo supercomputer effort as “AI5 chip design is in good shape”
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in a post on X over the weekend that the company plans to restart work on its Dojo supercomputer, dubbed Dojo3, saying that the AI5 chip the company had been developing is in “good shape.”
The Dojo supercomputer trains Tesla’s AI models, including the one behind its all-important Full Self-Driving tech. The company stopped work on Dojo in August. “It doesn’t make sense for Tesla to divide its resources and scale two quite different AI chip designs,” Musk said at the time. “The Tesla AI5, AI6 and subsequent chips will be excellent for inference and at least pretty good for training.”
“Pretty good” appears to be good enough.
Now that the AI5 chip design is in good shape, Tesla will restart work on Dojo3.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 18, 2026
If you’re interested in working on what will be the highest volume chips in the world, send a note to AI_Chips@Tesla.com with 3 bullet points on the toughest technical problems you’ve solved.
In the interim, Tesla relied more on companies like Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices for AI training. Restarting Dojo suggests Tesla plans to bring at least some AI training back in-house.
Musk also runs AI company xAI, which has its own supercomputer and a substantial business relationship with Tesla. A plurality of Tesla shareholders recently voted in favor of investing in Musk’s AI company, but the board declined to approve the measure because of a large number of abstentions.