1. News broke a few days ago that YouTube was slowing down buffers on videos if users had adblock. Turns out this was actually a mistake from the makers of Adblock Plus. Generally there's this issue that the original rage inducing news will always get more traction than the follow up clarification but Google certainly doesn't help its case with its previous attacks on adblock. Anyway uBlock Origin is my preferred adblock extension.
2. Tor.com to become Reactor (the publishing group's magazine not the browser). Pretty surprising news but a welcome one. As Tor.com states, they have always been publisher agnostic but the name is confusing as it relates to the Tor Publishing Group. The new website is debuting on January 23rd which is pretty exciting because honestly the old one is kinda ugly. I think this also corresponds generally with a general backlash against getting news exclusively from social media and a return to slightly longer form content and community spaces.
3. Formula E team Mahindra introduced an "AI Ambassador" that is female-presenting... an AI that "looks" like a conventionally attractive young woman posted on Instagram about shoes, self-care, restful sleep, "recharge the mind, the body, and the soul"... Yeah after backlash, it was wiped in less than 48 hours... which any woman could've told you was going to happen...