Research & Development news

• Microsoft Introduces Maia 200, Its Most Powerful AI Chip Yet

  26-01-2026 20:46 via eweek.com
  Microsoft is betting on a deeper kind of AI control… one most users never see.On Monday, the tech giant introduced Maia 200, its newest custom-built AI workhorse. Designed specifically to handle the heavy lifting of running massive AI models, this chip serves as a direct challenge to the hardware crowns held by Amazon and Google.The Maia 200 is built on a cutting-edge 3-nanometer process and packed with over 140 billion transistors. According to the Microsoft announcement, this translates
  
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• Yahoo Launches Scout, an AI Answer Engine Taking On Google Search

  26-01-2026 20:24 via eweek.com
  Yahoo on Tuesday introduced Scout, an AI-powered answer engine debuting in beta across desktop and mobile in the US. It will be available through a standalone site and app, as well as within the existing Yahoo Search app on iOS and Android, the company said.Search products are increasingly delivering direct answers rather than lists of links, a shift that has raised the stakes for legacy search brands. Yahoo is leaning on its decades of data, scale, and publisher relationships as competitors suc
  
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• How an AI Goth Girl Became a Political Meme Machine

  26-01-2026 20:19 via eweek.com
  In the strange churn of social media, trends often appear from nowhere. This month, one of the most unlikely stars is Amelia, a purple-haired, AI-generated British schoolgirl who was never meant to exist outside a classroom but is now flooding timelines with extremist memes.Originally created as part of an anti-extremism project, Amelia has been reshaped online into a nationalist symbol, shared thousands of times a day across platforms like X and Facebook, according to reporting by The Guardian.
  
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• World Models Just Got Their GPT-2 Moment — Here’s What That Means For You

  26-01-2026 20:12 via eweek.com
  Want to generate interactive video simulations on demand? Or turn a single photo into a fully explorable 3D world? Two APIs just made both possible.First, Odyssey launched Odyssey-2 Pro, a world model that streams real-time, interactive video at 720p/22fps.
  Type “a laughing baby,” and it generates continuous video you can interact with while it’s running.Send “a kitten appears,” and the simulation updates instantly (you like AI cat slop? Now we get interactive cat s
  
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• Apple Tests Internal AI Chatbot to Boost Employee Productivity

  26-01-2026 19:59 via eweek.com
  Apple is still working through its plans to revamp Siri into a more capable AI chatbot this year. Inside the company, however, employees are already using generative AI in their day-to-day work. The tech giant has rolled out an internal chatbot called Enchanté to help staff brainstorm ideas, write and edit content, research topics, and analyze files. The company is also using a second internal tool, Enterprise Assistant, to answer questions about company policies and technical proces
  
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• Brookings Warns Clerical Work Faces AI Displacement Risk

  26-01-2026 17:02 via eweek.com
  Clerical and administrative roles are expected to be among the hardest hit by AI-driven job displacement, according to a Brookings analysis. While artificial intelligence is forecast to affect millions of US workers, certain roles could be significantly more vulnerable due to a combination of economic and geographic factors.Office clerks, receptionists, and secretaries are among the most at-risk occupations, largely because of their low adaptive capacity. Workers in these roles typically have be
  
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• OpenAI’s New AI Foundations Course Promises ‘Job-Ready’ Skills and Credential

  26-01-2026 15:54 via eweek.com
  OpenAI is stepping beyond AI tools and into workforce training, launching its first formal certification program built around hands-on courses delivered through ChatGPT. The initiative is OpenAI’s most direct move yet to turn everyday AI use into verified, job-ready skills.The company said the certifications are built around hands-on training inside ChatGPT, where users learn by completing real tasks rather than watching demos. The effort aims to provide workers and educators with a formal
  
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• Gemini 3 Pro Is Changing How People Search: Here Are 8 Prompts to Try

  26-01-2026 15:31 via eweek.com
  Google Search is no longer just about blue links and quick answers. With Gemini 3 Pro now built directly into Search through AI Mode, Google is quietly reshaping how people plan, learn, and accomplish tasks online.Instead of bouncing between chatbots and browser tabs, users can now ask deeper, more conversational questions and get structured, visual, and context-aware responses, all without leaving Google Search.Gemini 3 Pro, which launched in late 2025, is Google’s most capable consumer-f
  
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• EU Investigates Musk’s Grok Over Sexual AI Deepfakes

  26-01-2026 14:02 via eweek.com
  European Union regulators have opened a new investigation into Elon Musk’s social media platform X, focusing on its AI chatbot Grok and claims that it can be used to generate sexualized deepfake images of women and minors.
  The probe, announced today (Jan. 26), follows growing international criticism of the tool and concerns that users can manipulate ordinary photos into explicit content using basic text prompts such as “put her in a bikini” or “remove her clothes.”
  
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• 7 Google AI Features That Make the Internet Easier to Use

  26-01-2026 12:23 via eweek.com
  Google is steadily changing how people use the internet, not by reinventing search or browsers, but by embedding artificial intelligence into everyday virtual tasks. The company’s growing set of AI-powered features makes it easier for users to find information, create content, and get things done online. Rather than pushing users toward separate AI platforms, Google is integrating these tools directly into familiar apps such as Gmail, Search, Chrome, Maps, and Gemini. These AI-powered
  
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• Synthesia Secures $200M Funding at $4B Valuation

  26-01-2026 12:22 via eweek.com
  London-based AI video firm Synthesia has closed a $200 million funding round that nearly doubled its valuation to $4 billion.
  Google’s venture arm GV led this latest round, bringing Synthesia’s total funding to over $500 million since launching in 2017.
  The UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, said in today’s (Jan. 26) announcement: “Synthesia is a UK success story, creating new jobs and opportunities in this country. It shows that by backing innovators
  
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• YouTube Leads Google AI Overviews Citations for Health Queries

  26-01-2026 09:54 via eweek.com
  A study suggests that Google’s AI has started prioritizing YouTube videos over hospitals, medical journals, and government health agencies.
  Analysis of over 50,000 health searches reveals AI is quietly rewriting the rules of medical information, and the consequences are raising alarm bells across the healthcare industry.
  Findings from SE Ranking show YouTube dominating Google’s AI Overview citations at an unprecedented 4.43% of all references—making it the single most-cited hea
  
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