• David Ellison extends deadline for Warner Bros. Discovery takeover offer

    January 22, 2026

    Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison is apparently still hopeful that investors will approve his $108.4 billion hostile takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery. Paramount Skydance announced Thursday that it’s extending its all-cash offer to acquire the storied studio, and giving investors until February 20, 2026 to accept. The company’s previous offer expired on January 21, but with a lawsuit in the works and a revised Netflix deal to compete with, Paramount Skydance wants to stay in the conversation. Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery originally announced their $82.7 billion acquisition agreement in December 2025. Netflix’s deal is for a significant portion, but…

  • Google DeepMind CEO is ‘surprised’ OpenAI is rushing forward with ads in ChatGPT

    January 22, 2026

    Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis said he’s “surprised” that OpenAI has already moved to introduce ads within its AI chatbot. In an interview with Axios at Davos, the AI leader was responding to a question about using ads to monetize AI services, saying the idea is something that the team at Google was thinking through “very carefully.” Hassabis also said that his team wasn’t feeling pressure from the tech giant to make “a knee-jerk” decision around advertising, despite how key ads are to Google’s core business. The DeepMind co-founder’s remarks followed Friday’s news that OpenAI will begin testing ads as a…

  • Renault’s electric car division to be plugged back into core business – report

    January 22, 2026

    Since its creation in 2023, Ampere, the electric vehicle (EV) division of Renault, has been run independently of the rest of the automaker, but this situation will soon end. According to Reuters, Renault CEO François Provost presented plans earlier this week to the company’s unions, which will see Ampere reintegrated into Renault by July. The plan does not include any cuts to the roughly 11,000 people working for the electric car division. Ampere currently houses all of Renault’s engineering, and research and development resources related to EVs. It also operates three factories in northern France that build most of the…

  • Double Fine announces delightful-looking multiplayer pottery game Kiln

    January 22, 2026

    Double Fine has been on a tear with its smaller projects lately. The popular indie game developer is following up last year’s atmospheric adventure game Keeper with a new title in a totally different direction. As its Double Fine founder Tim Schaefer attempted to say five times fast during today’s Xbox Developer Direct, Kiln is an “online multiplayer pottery party brawler” that boasts exactly the sort of colorful, clever fun that fans have come to expect from the studio. Kiln is a game with two facets: creation and destruction. On the creation side, players get to design a ceramic vessel…

  • Ring is adding a new content verification feature to videos

    January 22, 2026

    It’s going to be more difficult to fake or manipulate Ring camera video footage going forward. On Thursday, the Amazon-owned device maker introduced Ring Verify, a new video authenticity feature that will allow anyone to determine whether a video has been altered in any way. The company says this could be useful when you come across shared videos, like those sent to you by a neighbor or those purporting to show some sort of incident. While you may not be able to instantly identify whether some TikTok video was AI-generated — like bunnies jumping on a trampoline, for instance —…

  • Forza Horizon 6 will hit Xbox Series X/S and PC on May 19

    January 22, 2026

    Forza Horizon 6 is taking the racing series to Japan for the first time, and now we know exactly when you’ll be able to hit the virtual streets of Tokyo. The game will arrive on Xbox Series X/S, PC and Xbox Cloud on May 19, with an early access period commencing on May 15. That lines up with earlier reports about the release date(s) after an in-game ad supposedly appeared in Forza Horizon 5. The upcoming title will hit PS5 later this year. The standard edition of Forza Horizon 6 is expected to cost $70, though it will be on…

  • Google now offers free SAT practice exams, powered by Gemini

    January 22, 2026

    Prepping for the SAT is nobody’s idea of fun, but Google aims to make it less stressful with AI. The company announced that it’s now focusing its AI education efforts on standardized testing with free SAT practice exams powered by Gemini.  Students can prompt Gemini by typing “I want to take a practice SAT test,” and the AI will provide them with a free practice exam. Gemini then analyzes the results, highlighting strengths and identifying areas that need further review. It also offers detailed explanations for any incorrect answers.  Google The company said it partnered with education companies like The…

  • GeForce Now adds support for flight controllers

    January 22, 2026

    It only seems right that cloud gaming should welcome virtual pilots, and that’s definitely now the case if GeForce Now is your streaming platform of choice. One of the most frequently requested features from its community according to NVIDIA, flight control support has now been added to its GeForce Now offering, meaning you can live your Top Gun fantasies without worrying about your rig buckling under the pressure. The first compatible peripheral is the Thrustmaster T.Flight HOTAS One — which incidentally NVIDIA is giving away to five winners of a it’s currently running, along with a month of GeForce Now…

  • Struggling fusion power company General Fusion to go public via $1B reverse merger

    January 22, 2026

    Last year, fusion power startup General Fusion was struggling to raise funds, laying off at least 25% of its staff before receiving a $22 million lifeline investment while it figured out how to keep the company afloat. Today, General Fusion revealed its survival plan: it will go public through a reverse merger with an special purpose acquisition company, Spring Valley III, combined with additional investment from institutional investors. It’s a significant change in fortunes for a company whose CEO wrote a public letter just last year pleading for funding. If the deal closes as planned, General Fusion could receive up…

  • How to watch and what we expect to see from Fable, Forza Horizon 6 and Beast of Reincarnation

    January 22, 2026

    Xbox is set to hold the fourth installment of its now-annual Developer Direct showcase on January 22. You’ll be able to watch the 2026 edition at 1PM ET on YouTube (including versions with audio descriptions and ASL), Twitch, Facebook and Steam. Xbox will stream the Developer Direct on its regional channels simultaneously, and it’ll be available on Bilibili on Friday. The YouTube stream might be the way to go, since that one will be available in 4K and 60 fps. Because we’re so nice, we’ve embedded that stream above, so all you have to do is click the play button…