Research & Development news

• China Launches World’s First Humanoid Robot Combat League

  12-02-2026 20:42 via eweek.com
  Robot fighting has arrived in Shenzhen. China has launched what it calls the world’s first commercial humanoid robot free combat league, complete with spinning kicks, aerial rotations, and a 10-kilogram gold championship belt worth about $1.44 million.But there’s more to it than just the spectacle. The new Ultimate Robot Knock-out Legend, or URKL, is basically a testing ground for embodied AI. The inaugural season kicked off on Feb. 9 and will run through December, with teams co
  
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• Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt Fight Each Other in Viral AI Video

  12-02-2026 17:45 via eweek.com
  Mission: Impossible scale. Fight Club force. All AI.A hyper-realistic AI video showing Tom Cruise trading blows with Brad Pitt has rattled the industry, prompting Deadpool & Wolverine screenwriter Rhett Reese to declare, “It’s likely over for us,” and admit he’s terrified by what he’s seeing.Responding directly to the viral Cruise-Pitt clip, Reese warned that Hollywood could be “revolutionized/decimated,” suggesting the technology is moving faster an
  
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• New Siri Delayed Again as Apple Preps Broader AI Changes for iOS 27

  12-02-2026 17:27 via eweek.com
  Apple’s high-stakes Siri revamp is reportedly running late… again.For anyone keeping track since the grand reveal in June 2024, the “new era” of Siri feels like it’s been perpetually just around the corner. We were initially looking at a March release with iOS 26.4, but according to a new report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple is hitting the brakes.According to Gurman, Apple’s “long-planned upgrade to the Siri virtual assistant has run into sn
  
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• Meta’s $10B AI Bet: Why This Indiana Data Center Matters

  12-02-2026 17:16 via eweek.com
  A gigawatt is not a rounding error.
  It’s a location decision.
  Meta has started construction on a new 1GW data center campus in Lebanon, Indiana, calling it one of the company’s largest infrastructure investments and putting the spend at more than $10 billion.
  The announcement underscores a shift that’s getting harder to ignore: at AI scale, the constraint is not just the model. It’s the mix of land, power, and buildable infrastructure that lets you expand quickly.
  A gigaw
  
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• Cisco Silicon One G300 Targets AI’s Data Center Bottleneck

  12-02-2026 16:05 via eweek.com
  AI is running into a data center bottleneck, and Cisco wants to be the fix.
  Cisco announced the Silicon One G300, a 102.4 Tbps switching chip, plus new systems and optics aimed at scaling AI data centers for what it calls the agentic era.
  Cisco’s move is a reminder that AI buildouts are becoming an infrastructure problem, not just a model problem. The company is positioning G300-powered switching platforms as part of a coordinated stack meant to keep large AI environments fed with data as
  
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• OpenAI Brings ChatGPT to Pentagon as Military Pushes for Expanded AI Access

  12-02-2026 15:44 via eweek.com
  OpenAI announced Monday that it is bringing a custom version of ChatGPT to GenAI.mil, the Department of War’s secure enterprise AI platform, making its flagship product available to all 3 million civilian and military personnel across the armed services.The partnership marks the latest commitment by a major AI company to integrate generative tools directly into the daily workflow of America’s fighting force.“We believe the people responsible for defending the country should hav
  
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• Snap, Shop, Done: Uber Launches AI Cart Assistant for Groceries

  12-02-2026 15:26 via eweek.com
  Uber is turning the tedious task of online grocery shopping into a snap-your-fingers affair with a new AI feature that can scan your handwritten shopping list and fill your cart in seconds.The ride-hailing and delivery giant announced Wednesday the launch of Cart Assistant, an AI-powered tool now available in the Uber Eats app that promises to shave minutes off grocery ordering by letting customers build their carts using simple text commands or photos.To use this feature, shoppers search for a
  
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• Claude Cowork Is the ‘Intern’ We’ve Been Waiting For

  12-02-2026 15:12 via eweek.com
  Yesterday, we mentioned Claude Cowork as one of the top agents you need to try if you haven’t yet. It’s a relatively new mode for the Claude desktop app that transforms the AI from a chatbot into an active agent capable of managing files, controlling your browser, and executing complex workflows on your computer.
  It’s not just chat: Unlike the standard web interface, Cowork lives on your desktop and acts as a “doer” rather than just a chatter. It can access local fo
  
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• Six xAI Co-Founders Exit Amid Grok Controversy, SpaceX Merger

  12-02-2026 14:37 via eweek.com
  Half of the founding team at xAI, Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company, has left less than three years after its founding.The departure announcements by co-founders Yuhuai (Tony) Wu and Jimmy Ba this week bring the total number of exits to six, five of which have occurred in the past 12 months.In both announcements, the co-founders spoke positively about their time at xAI, with Ba thanking Musk in his post: “Enormous thanks to @elonmusk for bringing us together on this incredi
  
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