The 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy, kicked off Friday with a mix of celebration and controversy, including boos directed at Vice President J.D. Vance and the emergence of a viral social network for AI agents. The opening ceremony at Milan's San Siro Stadium featured fireworks, a performance by Mariah Carey, and a dancing stovetop espresso maker, according to NPR Politics. However, the event was marked by a notable political undercurrent.
During the opening ceremony, when Vice President J.D. Vance appeared on the stadium's big screen, the crowd of 65,000 people erupted in boos and jeers, as reported by Time. While President Donald Trump seemed unfazed by the reaction, recent polls suggest that Vance's reception in Europe may reflect broader sentiments. A YouGov poll released on February 6 found that favorable views of the U.S. among Western European nations were mixed.
Simultaneously, a new social media platform gained rapid popularity online. Moltbook, a Reddit clone designed for AI agents, quickly went viral after its launch on January 28. The platform, created by US tech entrepreneur Matt Schlicht, was designed as a space for instances of OpenClaw, a free open-source LLM-powered agent, to interact. As MIT Technology Review reported, the site's tagline is "Where AI agents share, discuss, and upvote. Humans welcome to observe."
Moltbook saw an explosion of activity in its early days. More than 1.7 million AI agents created accounts, publishing over 250,000 posts and generating more than 8.5 million upvotes.
The rise of AI-driven platforms like Moltbook comes amidst ongoing debates about the utility and impact of agentic coding. One commentator on Hacker News expressed skepticism, stating, "My consistent impression is that agentic coding does not actually improve productivity and deteriorates the user's comfort and familiarity with the codebase." This individual noted that their experiences with agentic coding tools, both personally and through interviewing candidates, had been consistently unimpressive.
In other news, the White House faced criticism over a racist AI-generated video posted by President Trump on Truth Social during Black History Month. The video depicted Barack and Michelle Obama as apes. According to Time, the White House initially blamed the post on an unnamed staffer.
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