Research & Development news

• AI Chatbots Help Teens Plan Violence, Study Reveals

  12-03-2026 12:13 via eweek.com
  The AI industry keeps saying its guardrails are improving. A new investigation suggests those protections still falter when conversations turn dark, emotional, and specific, especially when the user appears to be a distressed teen edging toward violence.
  This was not a case of one obscure bot answering a single reckless prompt. Researchers found that across scenarios involving school shootings, bombings, and assassinations, many of the most prominent AI chatbots failed to consistently shut down
  
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• DoorDash Launches App Paying Workers to Train AI

  19-03-2026 19:08 via eweek.com
  Your next delivery driver might also be training your AI. Welcome to the gig economy’s newest side quest: data wrangler with a dash of camera work.
  DoorDash is rolling out a new “Tasks” app that pays couriers to complete small digital jobs, like recording videos and capturing real-world data to help train AI systems. The move signals a broader shift in how tech companies are sourcing the human input that powers machine learning and robotics.
  Instead of relying solely on traditi
  
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• Meet the $300K Robot Dogs Guarding Massive Data Centers

  19-03-2026 17:27 via eweek.com
  Data centers are getting bigger… and so is the cost of securing them. To keep up with the demand for constant security across their massive facilities, some of the largest data center operators in the US are turning to robot dogs. According to Business Insider, these are not experimental machines. They’ve already been deployed by both first responders and law enforcement and are equipped with advanced surveillance technologies designed for high-security environments. Despi
  
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• Pentagon Seeks Anthropic Alternatives Amid $200M Contract Dispute

  19-03-2026 17:14 via eweek.com
  It looks like the Pentagon and Anthropic will not be patching things up anytime soon, as the Department of Defense is already pursuing multiple language models to replace the AI company.The Department of Defense (DoD) is exploring the use of OpenAI’s GPT and xAI’s Grok, both of which have signed contracts with the Pentagon following the fallout from the Anthropic split.Anthropic had its $200 million contract with the Pentagon terminated after the two sides were unable to agree on ter
  
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• Nvidia Signals Comeback in China After Months of AI Chip Restrictions

  19-03-2026 17:04 via eweek.com
  After months of regulatory hurdles and geopolitical tension, Nvidia is preparing a significant return to China’s artificial intelligence chip market.CEO Jensen Huang recently suggested the company is now positioned to restart production and prepare deliveries to Chinese customers, potentially reopening a market worth tens of billions of dollars. The AI chip giant confirmed this week that it has received multiple US government licenses and new purchase orders from Chinese customers, allowin
  
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• Comet Hits iOS: Perplexity Brings Its AI Browser to iPhone

  19-03-2026 16:53 via eweek.com
  After making waves on desktop and Android, Perplexity is finally bringing its AI-powered browser, Comet, to the iPhone.While most mobile browsers are just windows to the web, Comet wants to be the assistant that actually reads the pages for you. Originally slated for a March 11 release, the app officially hit the App Store on Thursday after a brief one-week delay.What makes Comet different isn’t the page-loading. Apple’s platform rules require every iOS browser to run on WebKit, the
  
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• AI Brings Val Kilmer Back for One Final Performance in New Drama

  19-03-2026 16:29 via eweek.com
  Nearly a year after his death, Val Kilmer is getting one more shot at the movies. The “Top Gun” star, who passed away in April 2025 at 65 from pneumonia following a long battle with throat cancer, will appear posthumously in the upcoming drama “As Deep as the Grave,” brought to life through AI. Production company First Line Films announced this week that an AI-generated likeness of Kilmer will appear in a significant portion of the film.This marks what the company ca
  
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• This Week in AI: Meta Incident Highlights a Loss of Control

  19-03-2026 14:52 via eweek.com
  This week, five stories landed within hours of each other that, on the surface, look unrelated. Underneath, they’re all asking the same question: now that AI can do the thing, who’s in charge when it does?Let’s start with Meta: Apparently, one of their AI agents went rogue, posted unauthorized analysis of company and user data on an internal forum, and triggered a Sev 1 security incident (the same severity level reserved for major outages and data breaches).Meta ran its employe
  
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• Trevor Milton’s Post-Pardon Jet Bet Takes Off

  19-03-2026 12:30 via eweek.com
  Trevor Milton is trying to raise $1 billion for AI-powered planes, putting the Nikola founder back in the spotlight with a new aviation pitch nearly a year after his presidential pardon.
  The new effort centers on SyberJet Aircraft, a struggling aviation company that Milton and an investment group bought late last year. The plan is not a modest relaunch of an existing business jet. It is a much bigger bet on building aircraft around AI-focused flight technology, with Milton once again pitching an
  
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• Sam Altman-Backed Startup Aims to Verify Humans Behind AI Transactions

  18-03-2026 21:38 via eweek.com
  AI agents are starting to shop online for consumers, but that convenience is introducing new risks. As automated purchases increase, businesses are finding ways to confirm that real people are still in control. World, the identity startup co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, is stepping in with a proposed fix. Its new AgentKit tool aims to verify that a human is authorizing purchases made by AI agents, adding a layer of trust to the fast-changing world of agent-based shopping. Building
  
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• Jensen Huang: OpenClaw Is ‘the Next ChatGPT’ and a Historic Open-Source Breakthrough

  18-03-2026 18:54 via eweek.com
  Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang just threw his considerable weight behind the fast-growing OpenClaw AI agent platform, declaring it a seismic shift in how humans will interact with artificial intelligence going forward.Speaking with CNBC’s Jim Cramer on “Mad Money” from the sidelines of Nvidia’s GTC conference in California, Huang declared about OpenClaw:“It is now the largest, most popular, the most successful open-sourced project in the history of humanity.” He adde
  
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• The Most Important Thing Jensen Huang Said at GTC 2026 Wasn’t About a Chip

  18-03-2026 18:08 via eweek.com
  Jensen Huang was selling a worldview: that AI has moved beyond the training era and into something much bigger, more durable, and potentially far more lucrative. He shared his vision and belief of an economy built on inference, agents, and always-on compute demand.That was the real signal during his live press Q&A on March 17 with reporters and creators, as well.Yes, there were the expected hardware flexes. Yes, there were giant numbers. But the deeper story was Huang’s attempt to refr
  
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• Google Kills AI Health Feature After Safety Backlash

  18-03-2026 18:03 via eweek.com
  Google has removed “What People Suggest,” an experimental Search feature that used AI to organize health-related perspectives from online discussions.
  The feature had been introduced as a way to help users quickly see how other people described living with certain conditions, but it drew criticism because the material came from forum-style conversations and social posts rather than medical professionals.
  Google told The Guardian that the removal was part of a broader simplificat
  
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• 8 Gemini AI Prompts Tailored for Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn & More

  18-03-2026 17:48 via eweek.com
  Most AI photo prompts floating around the internet are basically the same. “Make it look cinematic.” “Add a warm glow.” Cool, but so what? Every other account is doing the same thing.What actually moves the needle on social media is knowing which visual language speaks to each platform, understanding the aspect ratios and lighting styles the algorithm rewards, and writing prompts precise enough that Gemini doesn’t have to guess what you want.These eight prompts are
  
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• Mistral Forge Gives Enterprises a New Way to Build Custom AI Models

  18-03-2026 16:03 via eweek.com
  Mistral AI has launched Mistral Forge, a new platform for enterprises that want more control over how AI models are trained, adapted, and deployed. The company is pitching Forge as a way for organizations to move beyond generic AI systems and build models around their own data, internal policies, and infrastructure requirements.
  Many enterprise AI deployments still rely on general-purpose models customized through fine-tuning or retrieval-augmented generation. Forge pushes further than that.
  Acc
  
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• China’s New Horse-Inspired Robot Can Haul Gear, Climb Stairs

  18-03-2026 15:32 via eweek.com
  To celebrate the 2026 Year of the Horse, Hangzhou-based startup DEEP Robotics has traded the traditional paper lanterns for something much more durable: a limited-edition robot horse. While most “robot dogs” on the market look like walking toolboxes, this new machine leans into a bionic look with legs and hooves that actually look like they belong to a living creature. The robot horse combines bionic design with industrial quadruped robotics technology to create a machine that i
  
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• New 3D Vision System Lets Humanoid Robots Navigate Without Human Help

  18-03-2026 14:43 via eweek.com
  A vision company is proving that robots can finally see well enough to be trusted around people.A humanoid robot moved around a space, mapping it, avoiding obstacles, and climbing surfaces without anyone holding its hand. No remote control. No tightly scripted environment. Just a machine seeing the world and moving through it on its own terms.Behind that moment was RealSense, a Cupertino-based computer vision company that spun out of Intel last year. Partnering with Shenzhen-based robotics firm
  
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• Nvidia Declares the Rise of ‘Physical AI’ — and a World Run by Robots

  17-03-2026 19:57 via eweek.com
  AI is no longer just living in data centers and chatbots. Nvidia says it is stepping into the physical world.At its GTC conference, Nvidia announced a major push to accelerate “physical AI.” The company revealed new AI models, simulation frameworks, and partnerships with global robotics companies to help build the next generation of robots for factories, hospitals, and logistics systems.Nvidia said it’s working with robotics companies across multiple sectors, from industrial ma
  
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• Nvidia Expands AI Agent Ecosystem With New Toolkit for Adobe, SAP, Salesforce

  17-03-2026 19:11 via eweek.com
  At its GTC conference, the Santa Clara-based company unveiled the Nvidia Agent Toolkit, an open-source software platform designed to help enterprises deploy AI agents that not only respond to commands but also think, plan, and act autonomously.It’s a significant pivot from hardware dominance into the increasingly crowded arena of enterprise software, and Nvidia is bringing some very big friends along for the ride.Adobe, Salesforce, SAP, ServiceNow, Siemens, Atlassian, and more than a dozen
  
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• 9 AI Email Prompts and Templates for Clear, Professional Messages

  17-03-2026 19:03 via eweek.com
  In today’s corporate environment, email remains the most widely used communication tool across industries. From sales and customer support to management and recruiting, professionals send dozens of emails every week. Yet many people still struggle to write messages that are clear, well-structured, and respectful of the reader’s time.But what if you had a system that worked every single time?AI tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Copilot can help solve that problem. However, th
  
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• AI Singer Nava Becomes a Symbol of Resistance for Iranians

  17-03-2026 17:35 via eweek.com
  An AI-generated singer has become an unexpected symbol of resistance for many Iranians after her song “Javanan-e Vatane” (“Youth of the Homeland”) drew more than 13 million Instagram views.
  The track’s rapid spread has turned Nava from a digital art project into a political and cultural flashpoint.
  The digital vocalist, Nava, was created by UK-based, Iran-born artist Farbod Mehr. Mehr has said he designed the character to represent Iranian women, who are banned from
  
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• Are You in a High-Risk AI Job? New Study Reveals the Most Exposed Roles

  17-03-2026 17:02 via eweek.com
  Artificial intelligence is expected to wreak havoc on the job market, with industry leaders and policymakers warning that entire professions and sectors could disappear in the next few years.New research suggests that adaptability, rather than exposure, may be the key factor in how long someone is temporarily out of work due to AI. The researchers mapped thousands of jobs using this scale, with adaptability defined by factors such as education level, wealth, age, and the availability of work in
  
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• Humanoid Military Robots Deployed to Ukraine for Battlefield Testing

  17-03-2026 16:49 via eweek.com
  Humanoid robots built for military use have been delivered to Ukraine for testing.A US robotics startup, Foundation, deployed two of its Phantom MK-1 humanoid robots to Ukraine in Feb. for battlefield testing. The machines were sent to conduct reconnaissance and help engineers evaluate how the technology performs under real combat conditions.The San Francisco-based company unveiled the Phantom MK-1 in October 2025 as a humanoid robot designed specifically for military operations. Standing about
  
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• Britannica Sues OpenAI, Alleging Copyright Misuse and Brand Harm

  17-03-2026 16:31 via eweek.com
  Britannica is coming for OpenAI. In a new lawsuit, the publisher accuses the company of taking its copyrighted content to build and improve ChatGPT, then sending that material back out in responses that allegedly borrowed too much and sometimes got attribution wrong. Filed in federal court in New York, the complaint says the problem goes beyond training data. Britannica and Merriam-Webster claim ChatGPT’s outputs can act as substitutes for their work while also attaching their names t
  
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• Everything Nvidia Just Announced at GTC 2026: 7 Chips, 5 Racks, 1 Giant Bet on Agentic AI

  17-03-2026 15:12 via eweek.com
  Nvidia’s GTC conference kicked off yesterday, and it’s basically the company’s Super Bowl. Actually, at this point, it might as well be the official Super Bowl of the whole AI industry. No other event has brought together as many industries, companies, AI influencers, VCs, and startups in one place. We say all this not to give you FOMO, but to clarify for non-tech people: this event is a big deal. Now, last year at GTC, Jensen said he saw $500B in high-confidence demand. I
  
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• OpenAI Debuts GPT-5.4 mini and nano for Coding, Automation, and Multimodal Tasks

  17-03-2026 14:32 via eweek.com
  OpenAI is shrinking GPT-5.4 without scaling back its ambitions. The AI company has launched GPT-5.4 mini and GPT-5.4 nano, introducing faster, cheaper versions of its flagship model built for high-volume workloads where speed and cost matter most.According to OpenAI, the new models inherit many of GPT-5.4’s strengths while targeting coding, subagents, multimodal tasks, and other jobs that require quick response times without the heavier price tag. Built for different kinds of workThe
  
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• Apple Cuts China App Store Fees to 25% After Regulator Talks

  17-03-2026 11:58 via eweek.com
  Apple has lowered App Store commission rates in mainland China, cutting its standard fee from 30% to 25% and reducing some discounted rates from 15% to 12%. The change took effect on March 15 and applies to paid apps and in-app purchases sold through the mainland China App Store.
  The fee cut is limited to China, where Apple said it made the change after discussions with the country’s regulator. Apple did not announce similar changes for other App Store markets.
  What changed for developers
  
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• At GTC 2026, Jensen Huang Shows How Nvidia Plans to Run the ‘Full AI Stack’

  17-03-2026 01:12 via eweek.com
  Before Jensen Huang said a word at GTC 2026, Nvidia had already framed the moment: the leather jacket, the vision, the sense that something big was about to be announced.Huang is no longer just the CEO presiding over the AI boom. He has become one of its central figures, a rare tech leader whose stage appearances feel less like product launches and more like industry forecasts.That’s what made this year’s keynote different. Nvidia billed GTC as a tour of the “full AI stack,&rdq
  
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• Giant Robot Gladiators Fight in a Detroit Church — and the Show Keeps Selling Out

  16-03-2026 17:55 via eweek.com
  On an unassuming stretch of 7 Mile Road, sandwiched between industrial lots and fast-food joints, nine-foot-tall metal warriors are shooting explosive projectiles at each other inside a church. And people are paying good money to watch.Since its debut last summer, this live spectacle, dubbed Robowar, has been packing the house on a regular basis.The venue might raise some eyebrows: Global Empowerment Ministries, a church founded by entrepreneur Art Cartwright, has transformed part of its sp
  
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• Want a Six-Figure Tech Job in 2026? These 6 AI Courses Could Strengthen Your Resume

  16-03-2026 17:43 via eweek.com
  In today’s fierce job market, any extra help to refine your resume can go a long way. AI skills are becoming increasingly important for standing out among the competition and landing higher-paying roles. This type of knowledge is what sets mid-level workers apart from higher-income professionals.Fortunately, there are plenty of courses accessible online that you can take to build your skillset when it comes to AI knowledge. And don’t underestimate how helpful these courses can be for
  
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