• FlashLabs Researchers Release Chroma 1.0: A 4B Real Time Speech Dialogue Model With Personalized Voice Cloning

    January 22, 2026

    Chroma 1.0 is a real time speech to speech dialogue model that takes audio as input and returns audio as output while preserving the speaker identity across multi turn conversations. It is presented as the first open source end to end spoken dialogue system that combines low latency interaction with high fidelity personalized voice cloning from only a few seconds of reference audio. The model operates directly on discrete speech representations rather than on text transcripts. It targets the same use cases as commercial real time agents, but with a compact 4B parameter dialogue core and a design that treats…

  • Meta is expanding Threads ads to all users globally

    January 22, 2026

    Threads has grown enough for Meta to fully integrate it into its advertising machine. On Wednesday, the company said that, with the platform now hosting 400 million monthly active users, ads are expanding globally to all users. The inevitable move follows a test in 30 countries early last year. Ads on Threads are powered by Meta’s AI-powered advertising system. They’ll use the “same level of personalization” (i.e., tracking and profiling) as Facebook and Instagram. Image, video and carousel ad formats will all appear natively in Threads feeds. Meta said the ad expansion will begin next week, but the full rollout…

  • Not to be outdone by OpenAI, Apple is reportedly developing an AI wearable

    January 22, 2026

    Apple may be developing its own AI wearable, according to a report published Wednesday by The Information. The device will be a pin that users can wear on their clothing, and that comes equipped with two cameras and three microphones, the report says. Should the rumored device come to market, it would mark another sign that the AI hardware market is heating up. This news follows comments made Monday by OpenAI Chief Global Affairs Officer Chris Lehane, who told a Davos crowd that his company will likely announce its highly anticipated first AI hardware device in the second half of…

  • Apple is reportedly developing a wearable AI pin

    January 22, 2026

    Apple will reportedly try to succeed where Humane failed (miserably). On Wednesday, The Information reported that the iPhone maker is working on an AI pin. The wearable is said to resemble a slightly thicker AirTag and include multiple cameras, a speaker, microphones, and wireless charging. The report coincides with another from Bloomberg that claims that Apple will revamp Siri as a ChatGPT-style chatbot. When combined with the recent announcement that Google’s Gemini will power Siri AI, it looks like the company is finally making a more defined play for a piece of the generative AI pie. On the other hand,…

  • Sources: Project SGLang spins out as RadixArk with $400M valuation as inference market explodes

    January 22, 2026

    Some of the team responsible for maintaining SGLang, a popular open source tool used by companies like xAI and Cursor to accelerate AI model training, has transitioned to its recently launched commercial startup. That company, called RadixArk, was announced last August. RadixArk, which originated as SGLang in 2023 inside the UC Berkeley lab of Databricks co-founder Ion Stoica, was recently valued at about $400 million in a round led by Accel, according to two people familiar with the matter. TechCrunch could not confirm the size of the funding. The startup previously raised angel capital from investors, including Intel CEO Lip-Bu…

  • Inworld AI Releases TTS-1.5 For Realtime, Production Grade Voice Agents

    January 21, 2026

    Inworld AI has introduced Inworld TTS-1.5, an upgrade to its TTS-1 family that targets realtime voice agents with strict constraints on latency, quality, and cost. TTS-1.5 is described as the number top ranked text to speech system on Artificial Analysis and is designed to be more expressive and more stable than prior generations while remaining suitable for large scale consumer deployments. Realtime latency for interactive agents TTS-1.5 focuses on P90 time to first audio latency, which is a critical metric for user perceived responsiveness. For TTS-1.5 Max, P90 time to first audio is below 250 ms. For TTS-1.5 Mini, P90…

  • Apple is reportedly overhauling Siri to be an AI chatbot

    January 21, 2026

    Apple has been spinning its wheels for many months over its approach to artificial intelligence, but a strategy finally appears to be emerging for the company. Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman reported today that Apple’s long-awaited Siri overhaul will allegedly involve transforming the voice assistant into an AI chatbot, internally called Campos. Sources have reportedly told Gurman that Apple chatbot will completely replace the current Siri interface in favor of a more interactive model similar to those used by OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini. He also cited sources who claimed that while Apple has been testing a standalone Campos app, the company…

  • A timeline of the US semiconductor market in 2025

    January 21, 2026

    Last year was a tumultuous one for the U.S. semiconductor industry.   From leadership changes at legacy companies to continuously changing dialogue around AI chip export controls, a lot has happened. If the first few weeks of 2026, which saw new chip tariffs and international semiconductor deals, are any indicator — this year will be as unexpected as the last.   But before we get too deep into 2026, here is a final look at everything that happened in the U.S. semiconductor industry in 2025:   December Nvidia finds gold with Groq  December 24: Nvidia announced that it struck a non-exclusive licensing deal with chip maker Groq. While this wasn’t an acquisition, Nvidia hired Groq’s founder and president,…

  • 2026 Subaru Solterra review | CarExpert

    January 21, 2026

    Subaru, like many Japanese auto brands, has been slow to embrace the electric vehicle (EV) world – at least until now with the arrival of the facelifted Solterra mid-size electric SUV. But before we get into it, it’s important to rewind. As little as five years ago, fully electric SUVs like the Tesla Model Y were taking the world by storm, sparking real conversations about the need for Western legacy brands to pick up their pace in order to keep up, especially as the Chinese car industry continued to rise. Many European brands announced ambitious EV plans, but in Japan things…

  • Marshall’s new Heddon hub adds multi-room audio to speakers with Auracast

    January 21, 2026

    Marshall plans to add seamless multi-room audio to its Bluetooth speakers via a newly announced music streaming hub called Heddon. The $300 hub makes it possible to connect and synchronize multiple older Marshall speakers together, not unlike Sonos’ audio devices. Rather than use Wi-Fi to get multiple speakers playing the same audio, though, the Marshall Heddon uses Auracast. The hub connects to services like Spotify Connect or Tidal over Wi-Fi, or other devices through Google Cast and AirPlay, and then shares that audio over Auracast to the Marshall Acton III, Stanmore III and Wobrun III speakers. You can control playback…