Phil Spencer will retire after 38 years at Microsoft; Asha Sharma, the president of product in Microsoft's Core AI business, will become the CEO of gaming (Jordan Novet/CNBC)

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/20/microsoft-gaming-chief-phil-spencer-retires-asha-sharma-replacing.html
http://www.techmeme.com/260220/p17#a260220p17

Sources: Amazon's AI tools caused at least two AWS outages, including a 13-hour disruption in December after its Kiro AI deleted and recreated an environment (Rafe Rosner-Uddin/Financial Times)

https://www.ft.com/content/00c282de-ed14-4acd-a948-bc8d6bdb339d
http://www.techmeme.com/260220/p1#a260220p1

YouTube appears to be suffering a widespread outage starting at ~7:45pm ET, with feeds, Shorts, and homepage inaccessible, based on 300K+ Downdetector reports (Ben Schoon/9to5Google)

https://9to5google.com/2026/02/17/youtube-outage-february-2026/
http://www.techmeme.com/260217/p58#a260217p58

Moltbook was peak AI theater, less of a glimpse at the future and more of a mirror simply reflecting society's current obsession with AI (Will Douglas Heaven/MIT Technology Review)

https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/02/06/1132448/moltbook-was-peak-ai-theater/
http://www.techmeme.com/260208/p18#a260208p18

If assumptions hold, SpaceX-xAI could own a full stack of capabilities, from launch to orbital bandwidth to frontier AI models, and offer AI on demand anywhere (Eric Berger/Ars Technica)

https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/02/spacex-acquires-xai-plans-1-million-satellite-constellation-to-power-it/
http://www.techmeme.com/260202/p48#a260202p48

Adobe plans to discontinue its 2D animation software Animate on March 1; enterprise customers can receive support until March 2029, and others until March 2027 (Sarah Perez/TechCrunch)

https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/02/adobe-animate-is-shutting-down-as-company-focuses-on-ai/
http://www.techmeme.com/260202/p42#a260202p42

Sources: SpaceX plans to merge with xAI ahead of an IPO; the combined company is expected to price shares at ~$527 each and would have a valuation of $1.25T (Bloomberg)

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-02-02/elon-musk-s-spacex-said-to-combine-with-xai-ahead-of-mega-ipo
http://www.techmeme.com/260202/p37#a260202p37

After X updated Grok to ban sexual deepfakes of women, tests show Grok still undresses men on the Grok app, website, and X, rarely resisting user requests (Robert Hart/The Verge)

https://www.theverge.com/report/872062/grok-still-undressing-men
http://www.techmeme.com/260202/p20#a260202p20

French IT company Capgemini plans to sell its US subsidiary Capgemini Government Solutions, whose contract with the US ICE drew scrutiny from French lawmakers (Sybille de La Hamaide/Reuters)

https://www.reuters.com/business/french-tech-company-capgemini-sell-us-unit-linked-ice-2026-02-01/
http://www.techmeme.com/260202/p1#a260202p1

Meta blocks users from sharing links to ICE List, which compiles names of DHS staffers; Meta cites a policy against "asking for personally identifiable" info (David Gilbert/Wired)

https://www.wired.com/story/meta-is-blocking-links-to-ice-list-on-facebook-instagram-and-threads/
http://www.techmeme.com/260127/p47#a260127p47

As tech CEOs stay silent after two fatal shootings, 450+ workers at Google, Meta, OpenAI, Amazon, and others urge CEOs to cancel any ICE contracts and speak out (Axios)

https://www.axios.com/2026/01/26/tech-workers-ceos-ice
http://www.techmeme.com/260126/p19#a260126p19