Tech and XR Industry News - February 9th, 2026
Stories that caught our attention this week, our read between the lines and what it means for you.
January was the worst layoff month in the US since the Great Recession. Citigroup announced that it is preparing for a layoff to “adopt a more commercial mindset” and target senior management layers.
Reading between the lines: This means they want to see how the work you do makes the company money. Managing managers who make decks isn’t going to cut it. Employees, even those at high corporates, are getting closer to the P&L. As someone who worked at a big legacy corporation, senior management is the least incentivized to adopt technology that is a) transformative and b) disruptive because it’s easier to just keep doing what you've always done until you retire. Retirement didn’t come fast enough, it seems. And like we said last week, people are going to get laid off and more than ever won’t go back to a 9-5.
Exposed Moltbook Database Reveals Millions of API Keys. Moltbook is an experimental, Reddit-style social networking site created last week for AI agents to chat, post, and interact with each other, with humans allowed only to watch. Its overload is human tech entrepreneur Matt Schlicht. Moltbook is tied to OpenClaw, an open-source, lobster-themed AI assistant that runs on a user's own computer. These AI assistants are designed to be "agentic," meaning they can do tasks like managing email, booking travel, or browsing the web on their own. Allegedly.
While the public watched AI bot users climb into the millions, the fine folks over at wiz.io identified a misconfigured database belonging to Moltbook that allowed them full read and write access to all platform data, plus 1.5 million API authentication tokens, 35,000 email addresses, and private messages between agents. Moltbook has since patched the vulnerability.
The Dauntless Take: If you are a non-technical founder who thinks you can create a company with no technical founder, I need you to go read the wiz.io recap before you have user data on your platform. Go ahead and vibe code a proof of concept to test it out. But be precise in defining a prototype (ex. prototype: something not production-ready) and set a boundary around what stays in a sandbox and what goes into production. What happened with Moltbook is the equivalent of investing in a crazy sophisticated security system with passcode locks on every entrance and door for your home...But then you leave a spare key under the plant pot next to the door. With a sticky note on the planter that says “key”.
The Meta and Snap Earnings Calls: A Tale of Two Markets. Revenue is up for both companies, but each faces different kinds of growth constraints.
The Dauntless Analysis: The narrative is shifting away from “the metaverse” and to who will own the next computing touchpoint (aka, wearables). Meta is seeing two markets emerge for their XR products. 1) low-friction AI glasses and 2) high-friction VR headsets. Meta is now talking about them as two separate business units on different trajectories. Over in the Snap, CEO Evan Spiegel is preparing to transition the Snap Specs out of R&D and focus on launching experiences for early adopters. Snap uses a bespoke operating system and isn’t OpenXR compatible, so developers can’t port over existing apps. You have to use their OS. Which I see as a missed opportunity to capitalize on decades of existing apps and games…but this keeps happening with headset manufacturers. Tell me what I’m missing, or is Snap getting something wrong when it comes to the developer incentive?
Spotify partnered with bookshop.org to sell physical books. Spotify hard launched it’s new relationship with physical book retailer bookshop.org so that Spotify listeners can order the hardcopy version of their audiobook from the app. They did this because they noticed that audiobook power users like to switch between the physical and audiobook so they can keep “reading” on the go. You switch back by taking a picture of the page you're on, and the app uses OCI (aka old school AI) to find your place in the audiobook.
The Dauntless Perspective: We predict fast adoption because it’s easy to use and the user behavior is already there. From a journalist's perspective, it’s another example of the ad revenue model failing and a company innovating on an established business model. Instead of looking for new users, Spotify found a way to further monetize its existing audience. Legacy media needs to think more like Spotify if they want to be around in 2027. Also, how did Amazon not do this first? They’ve owned Audible since 2012!
Speaking Opportunities for XR Professionals
When you stop attending conferences and become the conference
Meaningful XR has an open call for submission that explores the transformative potential of XR. The submission deadline is February 20, 2026, so act fast.
The Air Force has an open call for abstracts to present at the Modeling, Simulations & Analytics Summit. XR companies with applications for AR/MR/VR wearables, virtual environments, and virtualization should consider applying, even if you aren’t a government contractor. It’s a great way to get your technology in front of people who have been using VR for decades.
America’s Largest AI Conference, AI4, has an open call for speakers.
The 10th Annual AI Manufacturing & SCADA Technology Conference is also looking for speakers who can talk about digital transformation.
If you’re mostly interested in XR conferences, this Roundup by Cognitive3D is the best.
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