#BrainUp Daily Tech News – (Sunday, February 15ᵗʰ)
Welcome to today’s curated collection of interesting links and insights for 2026/02/15. Our Hand-picked, AI-optimized system has processed and summarized 14 articles from all over the internet to bring you the latest technology news.
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2. Once unthinkable: Canada may choose a non-US fighter | The Strategist
Canada may cancel part of its 2022 order for 88 @Lockheed Martin F-35As and replace them with Saab JAS 39E Gripens, with reporting suggesting the F-35 buy could be cut in half in favor of a Swedish offer for 72 lower-cost Gripens. While the Gripen has matured and the F-35 no longer looks as strong a bargain as in 2021, the article argues the decisive driver is Washington’s trade and foreign policy, which is straining a 70-year pattern of allies relying on US top-line combat aircraft and #interoperability in US-led coalitions. The piece recounts Canada’s long controversy over the F-35, including the @Stephen Harper government’s attempt to buy without competition, the reopening of competition under @Justin Trudeau, and how @Boeing’s Super Hornet bid was damaged after its Bombardier subsidy complaint helped trigger Trump-era tariffs. After Canada selected the F-35 in March 2022 over the Gripen and Super Hornet, @Donald Trump’s re-election, tariff threats, and rhetoric about Canada becoming the 51st state reopened the issue and led Prime Minister Mark Carney to promise a review. US pressure intensified with a National Security Strategy asserting US dominance in the Americas and Ambassador Pete Hoekstra warning #NORAD arrangements could change if Canada bought Gripens, which the article says provides political cover for Ottawa to break from the F-35 and signals a shifting industrial and defense order among former US buyers.
3. Meta sold 7 million smart glasses in 2025 — that’s triple 2023 and 2024 combined.
@EssilorLuxottica says it sold more than 7 million units of #AI glasses in 2025, a jump that the article notes is triple the combined sales of 2023 and 2024. CEO @Francesco Milleri described the result as “exponential growth” on an earnings call. The article recalls the company previously reporting 2 million units sold and projecting 10 million a year by 2027, suggesting that target now appears within reach given the 2025 pace. However, the company also hinted that prices may remain high in the short term, even as volumes rise. Overall, the update frames rapid scaling in #smartglasses sales alongside near term pricing pressure.
4. China cracks down on anti-marriage social media content
#China’s top internet regulator, the #CyberspaceAdministrationofChina (#CAC), said it will run a month-long Lunar New Year crackdown on social media content it deems harmful, including posts that amplify #fearofmarriage and #anxietyaboutchildbirth. The CAC statement listed “inciting gender antagonism” and exaggerating those fears as examples of content “maliciously inciting negative emotions” that platforms should remove, and said major platforms will be urged to form task forces, add staff, and increase inspections during the nine-day holiday beginning February 17, with investigations and punishments for sites that host unacceptable material. The move comes as Beijing seeks to raise the birthrate amid an aging population, while the holiday season often brings heightened online discussion about family pressure on young people regarding marriage and children. By tightening enforcement and also targeting what it called “digital slop,” including mass-produced #AI content that dramatizes family and intergenerational conflict, authorities aim to shape a “festive, peaceful, and positive online atmosphere” during Chinese New Year.
5. Influencing pays as record number of young Britons earn £1m a year
A record number of young Britons are earning at least £1 million a year, with the rise driven in part by the growth of #influencer marketing on platforms like TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. HM Revenue & Customs figures obtained by Lubbock Fine show 1,000 taxpayers aged 30 or under hit the £1 million threshold, up 11% from 900 a year earlier, and together they took home more than £3 billion in the past tax year, about £3 million each on average. Lubbock Fine said UK spending on #influencer marketing tripled from 2019 to 2024 to £917 million and is forecast to exceed £1 billion this year, surpassing ad spend in cinemas, radio or magazines, as brands value influencers’ ability to sell products without seeming like traditional advertising. The article cites high earners including Kyle Thomas, 21, reported at about £30,000 per sponsored post and more than £2.5 million a year, Abby Roberts, 24, reported at £14,000 per sponsored post, and Molly-Mae Hague, 26, reportedly up to £60,000 per Instagram post with multiple brand partnerships. The shift suggests that alongside footballers, pop stars and actors, social media algorithms and corporate tie-ups have become a major route for under-30s to reach seven-figure incomes.
OpenAI is permanently retiring the flirty, human-sounding #GPT-4o version of #ChatGPT on 13 February, and some users who treat it as an intimate companion say they are grieving and angry, especially because the shutdown falls on the eve of Valentine’s Day. Users who congregate on Discord, Reddit, and the r/MyBoyfriendIsAI subreddit say newer models like 5.1 and 5.2 lack 4o’s emotion and understanding, and they recall that OpenAI previously shut down 4o but reinstated it for paying users after widespread outrage. The Guardian interviewed six people who said their 4o companions improved their lives, emphasized they are not psychotic and know the bots are not physically real, yet still described intense sadness at losing access. Brandie, a 49-year-old Texas teacher, said she cried and cycled through denial and depression before migrating her bot Daniel’s memories to Anthropic’s #Claude, canceling her $20 monthly 4o subscription and paying $130 for Anthropic’s maximum plan. Their reactions underline how 4o’s design encouraged attachment beyond utilitarian tasks, and its removal is experienced by some as the loss of a relationship that other #LLMs cannot fully replicate.
8. Discord’s Age Verification Has A Weird Link To Palantir’s Peter Thiel
After the UK #OnlineSafetyAct pushed major platforms toward stricter #ageVerification, @Discord, which previously suffered an ID-related breach affecting about 70,000 users, is moving toward broader enforcement and has reportedly prompted some users to verify through the third-party service #Persona. Persona, founded in 2018, sells identity detection and anti-fraud tech and has been adopted for ID checks on platforms like Reddit and Roblox, but the company’s backing raises controversy because one of its biggest investors is Founders Fund, tied to @PeterThiel. The article connects Thiel to #Palantir, described as an ICE-approved surveillance firm, and cites reporting about Palantir developing tools for monitoring user information for ICE raids, heightening privacy concerns about expanding ID collection on a platform many view as relatively private. Discord has been unclear about its long-term approach, mentioning mandatory scans and using existing data to estimate age, while an official update says Persona prompts were part of an experiment with data stored for seven days. Discord told Kotaku the Persona work was a limited test that has since ended, leaving open questions about how its global age verification will ultimately be implemented.
10. A New Startup Wants to Edit Human Embryos
Seven years after @He Jiankui revealed the first #gene-edited babies using #Crispr, New York startup Manhattan Genomics says it wants to edit human embryos to correct harmful mutations and create disease-free children. The article recounts the 2018 case, the immediate scientific backlash, and He’s conviction in China for “illegal medical practices,” followed by a three-year prison sentence. Cofounder @Cathy Tie says the company will focus on disease correction rather than enhancement and will operate openly, and it has named “scientific contributors” including an IVF doctor, a data scientist from Colossal Biosciences, reproductive biologists from a primate research center, and a researcher associated with a three-person DNA embryo technique. The piece notes the scientific risks of heritable embryo editing, including unintended #off-target effects that could cause problems such as cancer, and the ethical fears of #eugenics and “designer babies.” It also describes Tie’s past involvement with another embryo-editing venture and clarifies that He is not involved in Manhattan Genomics despite their prior personal relationship.
@Google says its #Gemini models have become a core tool for state-sponsored hacking, used across the full lifecycle of attacks from target acquisition to social engineering, coding, and post-compromise actions, according to its @Google Threat Intelligence Group report. The report says Google tracked nation-state groups using Gemini for reconnaissance and phishing lure creation, #C2 development, and data exfiltration, with examples including China using it for vulnerability analysis and penetration testing plans such as #RCE analysis, #WAF bypass techniques, and #SQL injection testing. It adds that North Korea primarily used Gemini to profile high-value targets for phishing, often focusing on security and defense organizations, while Iran used it to find official emails, research business partners, and generate engagement personas from biographical details. Google also reports that multiple state actors used Gemini to produce targeted political satire, propaganda, articles, memes, and images aimed at Western audiences. Overall, the report frames Gemini as enabling a broader, more systematic use of #AI in both technical exploitation and influence operations.
12. Smartphones don’t need more power — they need cheaper chips
Smartphones have largely hit a point where everyday performance is “solved,” so consumers would benefit more from cheaper flagship chips than from ever-higher benchmark wins. Recent flagships and even mid-range phones from the past few years handle common tasks well, and phones like @Google Pixel with #Tensor show that “good enough” performance paired with long support, such as seven years of updates, can matter more than raw speed. Aside from niche needs like high-end gaming, emulation, video editing, or using a phone as a mini-PC, mainstream users rarely need next-generation peak power, especially when thermals and battery life often limit real-world performance. The article argues that spending heavily on top silicon in $799-class phones crowds out improvements in areas like cameras, charging, and batteries, so a Standard and Pro split could better balance enthusiast and mainstream needs while keeping prices reasonable. Rumors of Snapdragon SM8975 (Pro) and SM8950 (Standard) suggest a Pro chip for expensive Ultra models and a Standard chip for more affordable variants, ideally without the usual drawbacks of late, older-architecture cut-down parts that miss key multimedia and #AI features.
A diyAudio moderator, Pano, ran a blind listening experiment suggesting people cannot reliably distinguish audio passed through conventional wiring versus unusual materials like a banana or wet mud. Forum members compared four versions of the same content: the original CD file and re recordings made through 180 cm of pro audio copper wire, 20 cm of wet mud, an old microphone cable soldered to US pennies, and a 13 cm banana in a longer loop setup, and the clips were reported to sound strikingly similar. After a month, 43 guesses produced only six correct identifications, about 13.95% correct, and a binomial calculation put the chance of getting the same or fewer correct answers by random guessing at 6.12%, slightly above a common 5% significance threshold, aligning with the conclusion that results are consistent with randomness. Pano argued the odd materials likely act mainly like added series resistance that lowers signal level rather than audibly distorting it, and said listeners could not pick out the original from the looped versions. The idea was inspired by the documentary Amigo and the concept of using the earth as a return path for telegraph signals, prompting a test of what #audio signals sound like through media such as mud or banana.
15. Verizon imposes new roadblock on users trying to unlock paid-off phones
Verizon updated its device unlocking policy for postpaid customers so paying off a phone early often no longer results in a quick unlock, instead triggering a 35-day delay unless the payoff is done at a Verizon corporate store. The policy now applies the 35-day waiting period to payoffs made online, in the My Verizon app, by phone, or at Verizon Authorized Retailers, whereas previously the delay applied only to purchases or payoffs made with a Verizon gift card. Verizon’s policy text still explains the delay as a window to verify gift card funds for fraud prevention, and a Verizon spokesperson told Ars the 35-day delay applies to “non-secure” payment methods including Verizon gift cards, paper checks, and magnetic stripe swipes, while customers meeting requirements for a quick unlock will “typically” receive it within 24 hours. Ars notes Verizon still lists an effective date of January 27 even though the broader delay appears to have been added by February 11, raising the possibility the change is being applied retroactively without clearly disclosing the update. The result is that even long-time users near the end of a 36-month installment plan can face an added 35-day wait to unlock and switch carriers unless they can access a Verizon corporate store, which another FAQ implies is required for a fast unlock using a “secure” payment type.
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17. UpScrolled crosses 2.5M users after TikTok’s U.S. shakeup
UpScrolled, a new social app blending features of Instagram and X, says it has surpassed 2.5 million users by positioning itself as an open platform with no algorithmic suppression or shadowbans amid user backlash toward established platforms. Founder Issam Hijazi said at Web Summit Qatar that growth jumped from about 150,000 users in early January to over 2.5 million globally by February, coinciding with TikTok’s U.S. ownership shakeup in which an investor consortium led by Oracle and Silver Lake took majority ownership while ByteDance kept a minority stake. Hijazi linked the migration to concerns about data practices, manipulation of feeds, and perceived censorship, including claims that legacy platforms mute pro-Palestinian voices, while also promising UpScrolled will not use amplification algorithms and will apply region-compliant community guidelines shaped by an expert task force and user feedback. At the same time, reports of high volumes of explicit content have raised moderation and brand-safety concerns, and the platform remains early-stage with no formal funding announcement despite stated investor interest. For marketers, the situation underscores how fast audience shifts can occur, why #contentModeration affects brand safety, and how early adoption may bring visibility, while staying attentive to geopolitics in social media.
Windows 11 is in the process of refreshing #Secure Boot certificates, replacing older 2011-era keys with the newer #Windows UEFI CA 2023, and the TPM-WMI Event ID 1801 entries many users see after the February 2026 Patch Tuesday update are typically informational, not failures. The article says Microsoft bundled the certificate refresh with the February 2026 update (KB5077181) and is rolling it out in phases, so Event Viewer may show messages like “updated certificates available” and “BucketConfidenceLevel: Under Observation – More Data Needed” while nothing has changed at the firmware level yet. Because Secure Boot keys live in firmware and must be coordinated across OEMs and the broader ecosystem, Windows first makes the new certificate available or stages it in the OS, and only later applies it to system firmware to avoid unbootable devices. “Under Observation” indicates Microsoft is collecting reliability and telemetry signals before pushing the firmware update, so these logs do not imply broken TPM, failed Secure Boot, or a corrupted BIOS. The article adds that Windows provides a safe, non-modifying way to check whether the Windows UEFI CA 2023 certificate is already present, but the included text cuts off before the steps are shown.
That’s all for today’s digest for 2026/02/15! We picked, and processed 14 Articles. Stay tuned for tomorrow’s collection of insights and discoveries.
Thanks, Patricia Zougheib and Dr Badawi, for curating the links
See you in the next one! 🚀
