OpenAI to begin testing ads on ChatGPT in the U.S.
CNBC Technology ↗
OpenAI said ads would not influence ChatGPT's responses and that it will "never" sell user data to advertisers.
AI BRIEFING · 2026-01-18
AI Briefing — January 18, 2026
The 10 most important AI stories of January 18, 2026, hand-curated from the day's coverage. Every story links to its primary source.
Sequoia to Join Funding Round for AI Startup Anthropic, FT Says
Bloomberg Technology ↗
Sequoia Capital is planning a "big investment" in Anthropic, the artificial intelligence startup behind the chatbot Claude, according to the Financial Times.
Local AI Compute, Gemini in Gmail, AI Chip Tariffs
Forward Future ↗
Local vs giant data centers, Gmail gets Gemini, Trump tariffs AI chips, OpenAI backs Altman’s Merge, Murati’s loses staff to Altman, and Open Responses launched.
Similarweb: Claude's web audience more than doubled in December 2025 compared with December 2024, as many coders spent their holiday breaks on a "Claude bender" (Bradley OlsonWall Street Journal)
TechMeme ↗
Bradley Olson /Wall Street Journal:Similarweb: Claude's web audience more than doubled in December 2025 compared with December 2024, as many coders spent their holiday breaks on a "Claude bender"— Developers and hobbyists are comparing the viral moment for Anthropic's Claude Code to the launch of generative AI
On the Verge of Superintelligence, Musk Sues OpenAI to Cripple Their Financing
Next Big Future AI ↗
Musk Lawsuit seeks to block full for-profit conversion and potentially disrupt Microsoft ties. Evidence shows intent to breach early agreements. Even if OpenAI wins the 2026 trial, discovery exposes emails/intents/depositions → creates investor uncertainty and could delay fundraising and slow them in the AI race. AI Model Breakthroughs (Grok-4.2, GPT-5.2, etc.)Models like xAI's Grok-4.2 and ...Read more
RunPod, an AI app hosting service launched four years ago that raised a 20M seed in May 2024, says it has reached a 120M annual revenue run rate (Julie BortTechCrunch)
TechMeme ↗
Julie Bort /TechCrunch:RunPod, an AI app hosting service launched four years ago that raised a $20M seed in May 2024, says it has reached a $120M annual revenue run rate— Runpod, an AI app hosting platform that launched four years ago, has hit a $120 million annual revenue run rate, founders Zhen Lu and Pardeep Singh tell TechCrunch.
Listen Labs, whose AI tools help Microsoft and others run customer research and interviews, raised a 69M Series B led by Ribbit Capital at a 500M valuation (Iain MartinForbes)
TechMeme ↗
Iain Martin /Forbes:Listen Labs, whose AI tools help Microsoft and others run customer research and interviews, raised a $69M Series B led by Ribbit Capital at a $500M+ valuation— The San Francisco-based company, which has run more than 1 million customer interviews with its automated AI tools …
Nvidia suppliers halt H200 output after China blocks chip shipments
Financial Times Tech ↗
Parts makers concerned about whether Beijing will allow imports of AI processors
Musk Says Tesla Almost Done With AI5 Chip Design, Working on AI6
Bloomberg Technology ↗
Tesla Inc. is almost finished with the design of the AI5 chip for its full self-driving system, and is in the early stages of developing the next version, AI6, Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said in a post on X.
Under Musk, the Grok disaster was inevitable
The Verge ↗
This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on dystopian developments in AI, follow Hayden Field. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here. How it started You could say it all started with Elon Musk's AI […]
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