January 09, 2026

TechCrunch Top 3

X restricts Grok's image generation to paying subscribers only after drawing the world's ire: Elon Musk's AI company has restricted Grok's controversial AI image-generation feature to only paying subscribers on X, after the tool invited heated criticism from across the world for letting users generate sexualized images of women and children. Read More

The venture firm that ate Silicon Valley just raised another $15 billion: In a blog post published Friday morning, Ben Horowitz writes that "as the American leader in Venture Capital, the fate of new technology in the United States rests partly on our shoulders." It's the kind of statement certain to cause agita at rival firms. Read More

CES 2026: Everything revealed, from Nvidia's debuts to AMD's new chips to Razer's AI oddities : CES 2026 is in full swing in Las Vegas, with the show floor open to the public after a packed couple of days occupied by press conferences from the likes of Nvidia, Sony, and AMD and previews from Sunday's Unveiled event. Read More

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Morning Must-Reads

OpenAI to acquire the team behind executive coaching AI tool Convogo: OpenAI is acquiring the team behind executive coaching AI tool Convogo in an all-stock deal, adding to the firm's M&A spree. Read More

Governments grapple with the flood of non-consensual nudity on X: For the past two weeks, X has been flooded with AI-manipulated nude images, created by the Grok AI chatbot — and governments around the world are promising to take action. Read More

Anduril's Palmer Luckey thinks the future of tech is in the past: Luckey, who initially made his fortune in VR and now runs the defense contractor Anduril, and Ohanian both seemed to agree: Stuff was better in the old days. Read More

Internet collapses in Iran amid protests over economic crisis: Internet monitoring firms and experts say Iran's internet has almost completely shut down, as protests spread through major cities. Read More

Anthropic adds Allianz to growing list of enterprise wins: Anthropic announces its first enterprise deal of 2026 which includes building agents and for, and giving Claude code, to Allianz. Read More

You missed these chats from Disrupt:

Kindred talks home-swapping platform for travelers, Chef Robotics introduces AI into commercial kitchens, and Character.AI addresses chatbot safety with teens.

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Last but Not Least

Data security startup Cyera hits $9B valuation six months after being valued at $6B: Cyera raised another $400 million just six months after its last huge round. Read More