AI Model Qwen3-Max-Thinking Outperforms Competitors, TikTok Investigates Messaging Issue, and More
A new AI language reasoning model, Qwen3-Max-Thinking, developed by Alibaba Cloud's Qwen Team, is reportedly outperforming competitors like Gemini 3 Pro and GPT-5.2, according to VentureBeat on January 26, 2026. Meanwhile, TikTok is investigating why some users have been unable to send the word "Epstein" in direct messages, an issue that prompted an inquiry from California Gov. Gavin Newsom, NPR News reported on January 27, 2026. In other news, Chris Madel, a Republican running for governor of Minnesota, withdrew from the race, citing the GOP's inability to win and criticizing the federal immigration crackdown in the state, Fortune reported.
According to VentureBeat, Qwen3-Max-Thinking is the latest in a line of powerful, open-source models from Qwen, which has gained recognition in the AI marketplace for its diverse modalities, including text, image, and spoken audio. Airbnb CEO and co-founder Brian Chesky reportedly endorsed Qwen's free, open-source models as a more affordable alternative.
On the technology front, Kimi K2.5, described as a "Visual Agentic Intelligence," was introduced as the most powerful open-source model to date, according to a Hacker News report. Kimi K2.5 builds on Kimi K2 with continued pretraining over approximately 15T mixed visual and text tokens. The model is capable of self-directing an agent swarm with up to 100 sub-agents, executing parallel workflows across up to 1,500 tool calls, reducing execution time by up to 4.5x compared to a single-agent setup. Kimi K2.5 is available via Kimi.com, the Kimi App, the API, and Kimi Code.
TikTok officials stated that they "don't have rules against sharing the name 'Epstein' in direct messages and are investigating," according to NPR News. The issue gained widespread attention on social media, leading to Gov. Newsom's inquiry.
In Minnesota, Chris Madel announced his withdrawal from the governor race, stating, "I cannot support the national Republican stated retribution on the citizens of our state, nor can I count myself a member of a party that would do so," according to Fortune. Madel also criticized the Jan. 24 killing by a federal agent of Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse, calling the Trump administration officials' portrayal of Pretti as a violent agitator an "unmitigated disaster."
In other news, MIT Technology Review highlighted the importance of sound in virtual settings, featuring insights from Erik Vaveris, vice president of product management and chief marketing officer at Shure, and Brian Scholl, director of the Perception Cognition Laboratory at Yale University. They emphasized that audio is a "human factor shaping how people perceive intelligence, trustworthiness, and authority in virtual settings."
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