Research & Development news

• OpenAI Hires ‘Jester’ Who Hacked Silicon Valley for Fun

  02-03-2026 21:28 via eweek.com
  Riley Walz has built a reputation pranking San Francisco with viral tech stunts. Now the 23-year-old engineer is taking his experiments to OpenAI. Walz, known for reverse engineering city systems and launching provocative web tools, is joining the company behind ChatGPT. He will join OAI Labs, a team focused on prototyping new ways for people to interact with artificial intelligence systems.From viral ranks to OAI labsWIRED reported that Walz is joining OpenAI to work on OAI Labs led by res
  
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• BMW’s Humanoid Robot Joins the Assembly Line in Europe

  02-03-2026 21:20 via eweek.com
  BMW is bringing a humanoid robot onto the factory floor in Germany, taking another step toward modernizing vehicle production. The automaker has launched a pilot at its Leipzig plant to test how human-shaped machines perform in live production, starting with battery assembly and component manufacturing. This deployment follows a nearly yearlong trial at BMW’s Spartanburg, South Carolina, plant, where a humanoid robot worked 10-hour shifts positioning sheet-metal parts for welding.&nbs
  
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• Claude Overtakes ChatGPT in US App Store Amid Pentagon AI Dispute

  02-03-2026 18:11 via eweek.com
  Claude has knocked ChatGPT off the top of the US App Store.Anthropic’s chatbot seized the No. 1 spot after the Pentagon moved to blacklist the company over disputed AI safeguards, as online calls to “Cancel ChatGPT” gained momentum following OpenAI’s own Department of War deal. Axios first reported the ranking shift, noting Claude’s surge came as tensions between Anthropic and the Pentagon spilled into public view.ChatGPT slipped to No. 2 on the US free apps chart a
  
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• China’s Honor Unveils Moonwalking Humanoid Robot, Sparks Awe at MWC 2026

  02-03-2026 16:29 via eweek.com
  At this year’s Mobile World Congress 2026 in Barcelona, Chinese tech brand Honor unveiled its first-ever humanoid robot, marking a bold expansion beyond smartphones and laptops into full-scale robotics.The unnamed humanoid robot walked on stage alongside human dancers and performed a choreographed routine to “Believer” by Imagine Dragons. In a moment that caught the crowd by surprise, it executed a moonwalk and even attempted a backflip.While the robot doesn’t have a form
  
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• Google Brings Robotics Startup Intrinsic In-House to Boost AI

  02-03-2026 16:17 via eweek.com
  Google is pulling its robotics ambitions closer to home. The company announced it is bringing Intrinsic — the Alphabet-founded industrial robotics platform often described as the “Android for robotics” — fully under Google to accelerate its push into physical AI.The move unites Intrinsic with Google DeepMind, Gemini models, and Google Cloud, linking advanced AI research more directly to industrial automation and outlining plans to scale across manufacturing and logis
  
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• Anthropic Blacklisted, OpenAI Welcomed: Inside the Pentagon’s AI Pivot

  02-03-2026 16:01 via eweek.com
  Last Thursday, Anthropic drew a line: Claude cannot be used for mass surveillance of Americans, or for fully autonomous weapons. By Friday evening, President Trump ordered every federal agency to stop using the company’s technology.The Pentagon went further, designating Anthropic a “supply-chain risk to national security“… a label normally reserved for companies deemed foreign adversaries to the US, like Huawei. Anthropic has vowed to challenge the designation in court,
  
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• OpenAI Raises $110B at $730B Valuation in Massive Funding Round

  02-03-2026 15:38 via eweek.com
  OpenAI has closed one of the largest-ever funding rounds for a private company, raising $110 billion and valuing the company at $730 billion. Major AI players such as Nvidia, Amazon, and SoftBank were involved in the round, alongside small commitments from sovereign wealth funds and investment firms. Nvidia and SoftBank both invested $30 billion, while Amazon initially invested $15 billion with an additional $35 billion available when OpenAI goes public or reaches artificial general intelli
  
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• Agentic AI Is Set to Dominate in 2026: Get Ready for the Revolution

  02-03-2026 15:33 via eweek.com
  Agentic AI is already woven into the product roadmaps of nearly every major tech platform. It’s the layer many apps now use to get things done without constant human steering, and over the past year, mainstream platforms have used it to ship agents that plan steps, call tools and APIs, and monitor progress and then report back. That shift is visible in coding, customer operations, enterprise search, and even consumer web tasks. Microsoft set the tone by declaring 2025 the start of hum
  
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