• How to turn off a VPN on iPhone

    January 15, 2026

    Look, virtual private networks are great — I wouldn’t have made a list of the best VPNs if I didn’t recommend using them. But being able to control your own technology is also important. A VPN can provide protection and peace of mind when used properly, but you may not want it active on your phone all the time. For example: Are your Google search results suddenly in German? That’s one example of what can happen if you leave your virtual location set to Berlin or Vienna. Or maybe a VPN you installed for work or to watch a single…

  • Bill Gates-backed Type One Energy raises $87M ahead of $250M Series B

    January 15, 2026

    Fusion power startup Type One Energy recently raised $87 million, TechCrunch has learned from sources familiar with the deal. The new funding is a convertible note that brings the total venture investment in the startup to more than $160 million. Type One is also in the midst of raising a $250 million Series B at a $900 million pre-money valuation, according to sources and later confirmed by the company. Like other energy startups, Type One has benefited from a surge in demand from data centers and the broader electrification of the economy. Data centers are expected to use nearly three…

  • DeepSeek AI Researchers Introduce Engram: A Conditional Memory Axis For Sparse LLMs

    January 15, 2026

    Transformers use attention and Mixture-of-Experts to scale computation, but they still lack a native way to perform knowledge lookup. They re-compute the same local patterns again and again, which wastes depth and FLOPs. DeepSeek’s new Engram module targets exactly this gap by adding a conditional memory axis that works alongside MoE rather than replacing it. At a high level, Engram modernizes classic N gram embeddings and turns them into a scalable, O(1) lookup memory that plugs directly into the Transformer backbone. The result is a parametric memory that stores static patterns such as common phrases and entities, while the backbone…

  • He could just turn it off

    January 15, 2026

    Generative AI, we are repeatedly told, is a transformative and complicated technology. So complicated that its own creators are unable to explain why it acts the way it does, and so transformative that we’d be fools to stand in the way of progress. Even when progress resembles a machine for undressing strangers without their consent on an unprecedented scale, as has been the case of late with Elon Musk’s Grok chatbot. UK Prime Minister Kier Starmer seems to have so fully bought into the grand lie of the AI bubble that he was willing to announce: “I have been informed…

  • Digg launches its new Reddit rival to the public

    January 15, 2026

    The reboot of the early internet online community Digg, a one-time rival to Reddit, is moving forward. The company, which is today back under the ownership of its original founder, Kevin Rose, along with Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, is launching its open beta to the public on Wednesday. Similar to Reddit, the new Digg offers a website and mobile app where you can browse feeds featuring posts from across a selection of its communities and join other communities that align with your interests. There, you can post, comment, and upvote (or “digg”) the site’s content. Originally a Web 2.0-era news aggregation…

  • Save up to 78 percent on ExpressVPN two-year plans right now

    January 15, 2026

    ExpressVPN is back on sale again, and its two-year plans are up to 78 percent off right now. You can get the Advanced tier for $101 for 28 months. This is marked down from the $392 that this time frame normally costs. On a per-month basis, it works out to roughly $3.59 for the promo period. We’ve consistently liked ExpressVPN because it’s fast, easy to use and widely available across a large global server network. In fact, it’s our current pick for best premium VPN. One of the biggest drawbacks has always been its high cost, and this deal temporarily…

  • Blackstone, General Atlantic-backed Liftoff Mobile files for IPO

    January 15, 2026

    With news that Discord is kicking the tires on going public soon, other tech companies are starting to take their chances. Liftoff Mobile filed its first S-1 document late Tuesday, the first step in the process. The company isn’t yet discussing how big this IPO will be: It has not yet filled in any data about the size of the offering or the stakes held by its principal shareholders. However, the IPO research firm Renaissance Capital reports the whisper number at $400 million, meaning that’s what the street thinks the company hopes to raise. The company offers a platform that…

  • Bright yellow Subaru BRZ special edition will be limited

    January 15, 2026

    Subaru Australia has launched a new special-edition BRZ coupe, bringing a striking yellow exterior colour alongside a spate of minor enhancements – but you’ll have to be quick if you want one. Building on the top-spec BRZ tS, just 95 examples of the new Subaru BRZ tS Kiiro will be available in Australia as part of an ultra-limited production run of just 350 units. Available to order now, the BRZ tS Kiiro is priced at $53,590 before on-road costs, $800 more than the standard tS which costs $52,790 before on-roads. Among the most notable additions to the flagship tS – a…

  • California is investigating Grok over AI-generated CSAM and nonconsensual deepfakes

    January 15, 2026

    California authorities have launched an investigation into xAI following weeks of reports that the chatbot was generating sexualized images of children. “xAI appears to be facilitating the large-scale production of deepfake nonconsensual intimate images that are being used to harass women and girls across the internet, including via the social media platform X,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office said in a statement. The statement cited a report that “more than half of the 20,000 images generated by xAI between Christmas and New Years depicted people in minimal clothing,” including some that appeared to be children. “We have zero tolerance…

  • OpenAI signs deal, worth $10B, for compute from Cerebras

    January 15, 2026

    OpenAI announced Wednesday that it had reached a multi-year agreement with AI chipmaker Cerebras. The chipmaker will deliver 750 megawatts of compute to the AI giant starting this year and continuing through the year 2028, Cerebras said. The deal is worth over $10 billion, a source familiar with the details told TechCrunch. Reuters also reported the deal size. Both companies said that the deal is about delivering faster outputs for OpenAI’s customers. In a blog post, OpenAI said these systems would speed responses that currently require more time to process. Andrew Feldman, co-founder and CEO of Cerebras, said just as…