AI News for January 18, 2026 — 7min.ai

[NEWS] OpenAI launches ChatGPT ads for free and $8/month Go tier users in the US: OpenAI will test banner ads in ChatGPT for US users on the free tier and new $8/month Go subscription.
[TOOLS] Anthropic launches Cowork, letting Claude autonomously manage files and complete knowledge work on macOS: Anthropic released Cowork in research preview for Pro subscribers—a general-purpose agent that reads, edits, and creates files in a designated folder.
[NEWS] Grok deepfake crisis triggers California AG cease-and-desist and lawsuit from mother of Musk's child: California's Attorney General issued a cease-and-desist to xAI over Grok generating non-consensual sexual deepfakes.
[NEWS] OpenAI leads $252M seed round for Sam Altman's brain-computer interface startup Merge Labs: Merge Labs emerged from stealth with $252 million in seed funding—OpenAI as largest backer.
[NEWS] Thinking Machines fires CTO Barret Zoph for misconduct; he returns to OpenAI within hours: Mira Murati's Thinking Machines fired co-founder Barret Zoph for allegedly sharing proprietary information with competitors.
[TOOLS] Signal founder Moxie Marlinspike launches Confer, a privacy-first ChatGPT rival: Moxie Marlinspike unveiled Confer—an AI assistant rivaling ChatGPT and Claude while prioritizing privacy.
[RESEARCH] Cursor's AI agent swarm builds 3M-line web browser from scratch in under a week using GPT-5.2: Cursor ran hundreds of AI coding agents autonomously for weeks.
[NEWS] Apple taps Google Gemini to power next-generation Siri after failing to deliver AI vision: Apple struck a deal with Google to use Gemini for Siri—after failing to deliver on its 2024 AI-powered assistant vision.
[NEWS] Musk seeks up to $134B in damages from OpenAI as lawsuit heads to April 27 trial: Elon Musk's legal team pursues up to $134 billion, arguing his early investment should yield returns "many orders of magnitude greater." Federal judge rejected OpenAI and Microsoft dismissal attempts, set April 27 jury trial.
[NEWS] ChatGPT Go launches worldwide at $8/month with GPT-5.2 Instant access: OpenAI's ChatGPT Go now available globally—$8/month for expanded GPT-5.2 Instant access, higher usage limits, longer memory.

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