On January 17, 2026, Japan's government said it is investigating X over sexually suggestive images generated by Elon Musk's AI chatbot Grok and has demanded immediate improvements. Officials in Tokyo are weighing legal options, while other countries and regions including the Philippines, Indonesia, Canada, California, the EU and several European states are already examining or restricting Grok over explicit or degrading image outputs.

On January 17, 2026, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced that ChatGPT has begun testing advertisements for a subset of users in the United States who do not want to pay for AI access. The company states that paid subscribers will not see ads, user conversations will not be shared with advertisers, and ads will not influence ChatGPT's responses, framing the experiment as a way to support growing operational costs while maintaining privacy protections.

On January 17 2026, Germany and several Holocaust memorial institutions called on major social media platforms to curb the spread of misleading AI-generated Holocaust images. The organizations urged platforms to clearly label such content, proactively remove certain manipulated depictions, and restrict monetization of the fabricated imagery. Experts have also warned that the growing volume of AI "slop" risks distorting historical facts and undermining trust in authentic records.

On January 16 2026, DeepMind chief Demis Hassabis said China's artificial intelligence capabilities are only a few months behind those of the United States. He noted that Chinese tech groups such as Alibaba, Moonshot AI, Zhipu and DeepSeek have built strong models, but still lag in breakthrough innovation, while U.S. chip export controls and limited access to Nvidia's most advanced processors may slow China's progress.

On January 15, 2026, WhatsApp suspended enforcement of its new AI chatbot restrictions in Brazil after the country's regulators intervened. The policy would block third-party general-purpose AI chatbots such as ChatGPT and Grok from using WhatsApp's business API, while leaving customer-service bots for businesses unaffected. Brazil's antitrust regulator CADE has opened an investigation into whether Meta's updated terms could undermine competition and favour its own Meta AI on WhatsApp.

On January 15, Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan said South Korea will keep monitoring newly announced U.S. tariffs on advanced AI chips and assess effects on domestic manufacturers. The 25% duties target select Nvidia and AMD processors, and Seoul is also watching won stability alongside a US$350 billion investment pledge and related U.S. currency remarks.

On January 15, 2026, Morningstar introduced a daily index that measures valuation movements across 20 private generative AI companies, such as OpenAI, xAI, Anthropic, Databricks, Mistral AI, and Cohere. The tool uses PitchBook's private market data to give investors performance visibility into high-profile AI firms that are not publicly listed, while OpenAI and Anthropic simultaneously expand their healthcare offerings with new tools for clinicians, researchers, and consumers.

CleanSpark is advancing a strategic move beyond standalone Bitcoin mining by agreeing to purchase 447 acres in Brazoria County, Texas, to host large-scale AI and high-performance computing infrastructure. Combined with its existing development in Austin County, the company is building a regional compute hub near Houston with potential power capacity approaching one gigawatt to serve hyperscale and enterprise clients.