Tech Roundup: Google AI Mode/ChatGPT Ads, Claude Cowork & More

[A recurring feature on the latest in Science & Technology.]

• Meta blocks around 550,000 accounts on its platforms (330,639 accounts on Instagram, 173,497 on Facebook and 39,916 on Threads) in response to Australia's landmark social media ban for children under the age of 16, as use of WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger increases.
• Anthropic joins OpenAI in announcing a new suite of healthcare and life sciences features, enabling users of its Claude artificial intelligence platform to share access to their health records to better understand their medical information; unveils Claude for Healthcare to offer HIPAA-ready tools for providers, insurers, and consumers in the U.S.
• AI-generated influencers are sharing fake images on Instagram that appear to show them having sex with celebrities; funnel users to an adult content site where the AI generated influencers sell nude images, according to a report from 404 Media.
• A new lawsuit against OpenAI alleges that ChatGPT caused the death of a 40-year-old U.S. man, who took his life after extensive and deeply emotional interactions with the chatbot; claims the chatbot manipulated the individual into a fatal spiral that romanticising death by writing a suicide lullaby.
• Google confirms it's beginning to gradually roll out the ability for users to change their Google Account email to another address that ends in @gmail.com.
• OpenAI plans to test ads below ChatGPT replies for users of free and Go tiers in the U.S.; says it will match ads to conversation topics using some personalisation data, but claims it will not sell user data or expose user conversations to advertisers.
• OpenAI expands its $8/month ChatGPT Go subscription tier to the U.S. and the rest of the world, after initially testing it in India and other countries.
• TikTok launches a standalone micro drama app, PineDrama, in the U.S. and Brazil, offering vertical serialised shows for free without ads or paywalls; plans to roll out a new age detection system, which analyses profile information to predict whether a user is under 13, across Europe in the coming weeks
• Italy's competition regulator opens two investigations into Microsoft's Activision Blizzard over sales practices it claims were "misleading and aggressive."
• Anthropic launches Cowork for Claude, built on Claude Code to automate complex tasks with minimal prompting, for Pro and Max subscribers; updates Claude Code with support for Dubbed MCP Tool Search, which introduces "lazy loading" for AI tools, allowing agents to dynamically fetch tool definitions only when necessary.
• Apple unveils Apple Creator Studio, a "groundbreaking collection" of creative apps like Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro and Pixelmator Pro for $13/month or $129/year; puts some AI features in iWork apps behind subscription and says the more basic Pixelmator app for the iPhone and iPad will no longer be updated.
• Meta plans to discontinue Workrooms, its VR space for workers, on February 16, 2026 and stop selling Quest headsets and Horizon services to businesses as of February 20; to close three VR gaming studios and will stop developing new content and features for its VR fitness app Supernatural as the company shifts its focus from "metaverse" to AI.
• Australia's eSafety Commissioner reports social media platforms "removed access" to about 4.7 million accounts under its ban for under-16s, which took effect in December 2025.
• Replit launches Mobile Apps on Replit, which enables vibe-coding of iOS apps with integrated Stripe monetisation.
• Google agrees to pay $8.25 million to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging its AdMob SDK illegally collected data from children under age 13.
• Google releases TranslateGemma, a suite of Gemma 3-based open translation models available in 4B-, 12B- and 27B-parameter sizes, with support for 55 languages; comes as OpenAI quietly releases ChatGPT Translate, a standalone web translation tool that supports over 50 languages.
• The Wikimedia Foundation celebrates Wikipedia's 25th anniversary, marking its growth from 100 pages to over 65 million articles with nearly 15 billion monthly views; says Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, Perplexity and Mistral joined Wikimedia Enterprise to get "tuned" API access. (It's worth noting that Google is already a member.)
• Anthropic researchers say rich countries' higher AI adoption risks deepening economic disparities and widening living standard gaps, assuming productivity gains.
• Apple announces expanded cross-border Apple Pay support for users in mainland China, allowing them to use Visa credit and debit cards issued by local banks to make contactless payments both in-store and online while traveling abroad.
• Meta's WhatsApp begins allowing AI providers to continue offering their chatbots to users in Brazil, days after the country's competition agency ordered the company to suspend its new policy that bars third-party, general-purpose chatbots from the app; comes after the company previously provided a similar exemption to users in Italy.
• Ukraine-based developer MacPaw says it plans to close Setapp Mobile, its alternative app store for iOS devices in the European Union, on February 16, 2026, citing a "still-evolving and complex business terms that don't fit Setapp's current business model." (Setapp Mobile launched in open beta in September 2024.)
• Chinese tech giant Alibaba links Qwen to its online shopping and travel services, including Taobao, Alipay, Fliggy and Amap, aiming to build a one-stop AI app for its 100 million users.
• Digg launches in open beta after re-opening the platform last year on an invite-only basis.
• Google's YouTube lets parents set time limits on their kids' YouTube Shorts feed, ranging from 15 minutes to two hours, with an option for zero minutes coming soon.
• Google launches Personal Intelligence, a Gemini feature that links to Gmail, Google Photos, Search and YouTube history to tailor answers, for paid subscribers; updates the Trends Explore page in Google Trends with Gemini integration to identify and compare relevant trends.
• Z.ai releases GLM-Image, an open-source multimodal AI model trained on Huawei chips that it says is China's first to be fully trained using domestic chips.
• Bandcamp bans music and audio that is "generated wholly or in substantial part by AI."
• Mercedes pauses the rollout of Drive Pilot, a Level 3 "eyes off" driving feature available in Europe and the U.S., citing low demand and high production costs.
• Roblox's AI-powered age verification system, which expanded globally last week using tech from a company called Persona, faces criticism for misidentifying ages.
• Google announces MedGemma 1.5 with improved medical imaging support and MedASR for medical dictation; makes improvements to Veo 3.1's Ingredients to Video feature to make videos "more expressive," and adds native vertical video generation and 4K upscaling
• The U.S Federal Communications Commission lets Verizon lock phones to its network for longer periods, eliminating a requirement to unlock handsets 60 days after they are activated on its network, making it harder for people to switch from Verizon to other carriers.
• Indian government urges quick commerce companies to drop their 10-minute delivery promise due to concerns about rider safety.
• Global PC shipments rise 9.6% YoY to 76.4 million units in Q4 2025, driven by Microsoft ending Windows 10 support and OEMs pulling forward inventory amid tariffs.
• Salesforce makes Slack's new AI-powered Slackbot generally available, helping users answer workflow questions, draft documents and schedule meetings.
• Proton updates Lumo, its privacy-focused AI chatbot, with a new feature called Projects that acts as a "dedicated, encrypted space where you can bundle chats, files, and requirements for any task and have them remain in sync across every device and session."
• Alphabet hits a $4 trillion market cap, becoming the fourth Big Tech company after Apple, Microsoft and NVIDIA to reach the milestone.
• Google and Apple announce a multi-year partnership that allows its Gemini and Google Cloud services to power a more personalised version of Siri and a range of future Apple Intelligence features; says Google's technology "provides the most capable foundation."
• Meta plans to establish a new "top-level" initiative called Meta Compute to build "tens of gigawatts" of AI infrastructure during this decade.
• Italy's antitrust authority reduces the record fine imposed on Amazon in 2021 for abusing its dominant position in logistics services, from €1.13 billion to €752 million, after a recalculation.
• OpenAI acquires Torch, a one-year-old AI healthcare app that aggregates and analyses medical records, shortly unveiling ChatGPT Health.
• Microsoft abruptly retires the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit, a free platform that IT administrators have relied on to deploy Windows operating systems and applications for more than two decades; also discontinues the Lens scanner app for iOS and Android as of January 9, 2026, and plans to remove support for it after February 9, as it urges users to switch to OneDrive, which includes a built-in scanning feature.
• Apple says its App Store has more than 850 million weekly users, up from 813 million in June 2025.
• Amazon begins automatically upgrading Prime members to Alexa+ at no extra cost.
• Google takes on AI shopping wars, announcing plans to turn Gemini into a merchant and launching an open-source standard built together with major retailers including Shopify, Target, Walmart, Wayfair and Etsy called the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) that lets AI agents work across different parts of the customer's buying process.
• Global smartphone shipments increase 2% YoY in 2025; Apple leads with 20% market share and 10% YoY growth, followed by Samsung's 19% market share and 5% YoY growth.
• Walmart plans to expand Wing, Alphabet's on-demand drone delivery service, to another 150 stores in the U.S., bringing the total to more than 270; partners with Google to offer AI-enhanced shopping, allowing users to purchase Walmart and Sam's Club items directly on Gemini.
• Google debuts new personalised ads in AI mode, powered by Gemini, which allow advertisers to offer exclusives for users preparing to buy a product; launches Business Agent as a new way for shoppers to chat with brands directly on Search.