Listen to today’s podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/silk-logic-small-business-daily/id1841930957
Small Business Daily Podcast — January 19, 2026
Today’s podcast episode was created from the following stories:
xTool F2 Ultra Fiber Laser Review: Fast Metal Engraving in Color
The xTool F2 Ultra pairs a 60W MOPA fiber laser with a 40W diode to deliver rapid, precise engraving across metals, wood, and acrylic—complete with color marking on stainless steel. With AI-assisted camera alignment and galvo-driven speeds up to 15,000 mm/s, it’s built for production, though safety practices and fume filtration are musts. Starting at $4,999, it’s a serious investment that can pay off for jewelry makers and personalization businesses looking for top-tier metal results.
MCP Launchpad
MCP Launchpad is a lightweight CLI that discovers and executes tools across multiple MCP servers with unified search, a persistent session daemon, and OAuth support. It plays nicely with popular AI agents, exposing tools via simple bash calls and JSON output for automation. For lean teams, it’s a practical way to orchestrate cross-service capabilities without wiring up bespoke integrations.
11 tips for AI coding with Ralph Wiggum
Ralph is an autonomous loop for AI coding CLIs: start with human-in-the-loop to refine prompts, then go AFK with clear scopes, stop conditions, and strong feedback loops (types, tests, lint). Keep tasks small, prioritize risky work first, and sandbox with Docker for safety. The takeaway: you can reliably ship with autonomous agents—if you define quality gates and keep iterations tight.
Battle for AI talent heats up as former OpenAI staff who left for Mira Murati’s Thinking Machines return
OpenAI rehired Barret Zoph, Luke Metz, and Sam Schoenholz amid leadership changes at Thinking Machines, where Soumith Chintala steps in as CTO. Reports point to escalating compensation battles as Big Tech outbids startups, fueling rapid team reshuffles. For founders and partners, this volatility can affect product roadmaps and vendor reliability—plan for redundancy and longer lead times.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Roblox, OpenAI, More: Sunday ResearchBuzz, January 18, 2026
This roundup spans a new Canadian high-risk offender database, Roblox’s bumpy age verification rollout, the UK dropping a worker digital ID plan, and legal scrutiny on AI and Big Tech. Marketing-side, OpenAI is reportedly planning a costly Super Bowl ad, underscoring the AI brand race. The mix highlights how policy, safety, and platform rules are shifting—watch for downstream impacts on compliance, ad buys, and content strategy.
U.S. govt says Musk’s gas turbine generators for xAI aren’t exempt from permits — EPA ruling closes local loophole
The EPA will now require air permits for gas turbines—including temporary, portable units—closing local loopholes used to power fast-tracked AI data centers. Hyperscalers relying on on-site generation to bridge grid delays face higher compliance burdens and potential slowdowns. Expect longer timelines and tighter environmental reviews for large-scale AI infrastructure—and possible knock-on effects for cloud capacity growth.
