Research & Development news

• Fake AI Chrome Extensions Exposed 260,000 Users, Targeting Gmail

  14-02-2026 01:01 via eweek.com
  More than 260,000 Chrome users installed what appeared to be helpful AI productivity tools… only to unknowingly grant remote servers deep access to their browser activity. LayerX researchers identified a coordinated campaign of 30 fake AI assistant extensions that used embedded iframes and backend-controlled logic to extract data and maintain persistent access.“We found over 30 malicious extensions with a combined install base of 260,000 users, all using the same sophisticated
  
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• Pentagon Weighs Axing $200M Anthropic Deal in Moral Standoff Over AI Safeguards

  17-02-2026 19:03 via eweek.com
  Here’s a sentence you don’t hear every day: the US military is threatening to punish an AI company for being too ethical.Axios reported that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is “close” to cutting ties with Anthropic and designating it a “supply chain risk,” a label normally reserved for foreign adversaries like Chinese tech firms. The reason? Anthropic won’t give the Pentagon blanket permission to use Claude for “all lawful purposes.”Anthropic&
  
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• Cohere’s Tiny Aya Models Bring 70+ Languages to Offline AI

  17-02-2026 19:00 via eweek.com
  In the world of generative AI, language support has often been a luxury reserved for a handful of global languages. That’s changing fast.
  Cohere just unveiled a suite of open multilingual models designed to push AI out of data centers and into everyday devices while embracing linguistic diversity at scale. These “Tiny Aya” models underscore a broader shift toward accessible, globally relevant AI without the cloud tether.
  And they’re opening doors for developers, researche
  
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• Alibaba Launches Qwen3.5 AI Model With 60% Lower Costs, 8x Throughput

  17-02-2026 16:44 via eweek.com
  Alibaba has officially launched Qwen3.5, the latest version of its flagship artificial intelligence model, positioning it as a system built for the emerging era of AI agents.The model was released on Feb. 16 in both open-weight and hosted versions, allowing developers to run it on their own infrastructure or through Alibaba Cloud. Alibaba says Qwen3.5 delivers major efficiency gains. According to the company, the model is 60% cheaper to run and offers eight times the throughput when handling lar
  
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• China’s Humanoid Robots Dazzle Millions at Lunar New Year Gala

  17-02-2026 16:32 via eweek.com
  At this year’s CCTV Spring Festival Gala, humanoid robots from four Chinese startups took center stage, turning what is usually a night of songs and comedy into a powerful display of the country’s fast-moving robotics industry.The annual gala, aired on Lunar New Year’s Eve, is China’s most-watched television event, often compared to the Super Bowl in the United States. This year, four companies — Unitree Robotics, MagicLab, Galbot, and Noetix — showcased their
  
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• ‘Robot Dogs’ to Lead First Response During 2026 World Cup

  17-02-2026 15:21 via eweek.com
  Authorities in Guadalupe, a city in the Monterrey metropolitan area, have unveiled four robot dogs that will help secure the BBVA Stadium during the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The venue is one of Mexico’s host sites and is scheduled to stage three group-stage matches and one knockout game. The machines form part of a newly created K9-X unit and will patrol areas in and around the stadium, supporting local law enforcement personnel during the tournament.Officials say the robots are not armed
  
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• OpenAI Introduces New Safeguards in ChatGPT to Prevent AI Prompt Injection

  17-02-2026 15:15 via eweek.com
  OpenAI is tightening the bolts on ChatGPT as attackers zero in on AI systems.In a Feb. 13 announcement, the company introduced two new safeguards to combat prompt injection attacks, a growing threat that can trick AI into exposing sensitive data:
  The first is an “Elevated Risk” label that warns users before they take potentially dangerous actions such as opening external links or connecting to internal networks.The second is Lockdown Mode, which can limit or fully disable high-risk f
  
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• Apple Reportedly Working on Face ID Doorbell That Unlocks Your Home

  17-02-2026 14:57 via eweek.com
  In a year filled with talk of iPhones and AI upgrades, one of Apple’s most intriguing rumored products isn’t something you hold in your hand.It’s something that could greet you when you get home.Multiple reports suggest Apple is developing a smart video doorbell equipped with Face ID, designed to recognize residents and potentially unlock the door automatically. If it arrives, it would mark Apple’s most ambitious step yet into the smart home security space.The first credi
  
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• Elon Musk Pushes AI to Be ‘Unhinged,’ Former Employees Say

  16-02-2026 19:38 via eweek.com
  As OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google race to fortify their AI guardrails, Elon Musk appears to be loosening his.Former xAI insiders say the billionaire is pushing to make his chatbot “more unhinged,” framing safety measures as censorship rather than protection. According to employees who spoke anonymously, the company’s dedicated safety function has effectively been dismantled, replaced by a high-pressure, top-down culture where decisions flow directly from Musk.Supporters argue th
  
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• Microsoft AI CEO: AI to Automate Most Office Work Within 12–18 Months

  16-02-2026 17:42 via eweek.com
  The countdown for white-collar work may have already begun.Mustafa Suleyman, the CEO of Microsoft AI, suggests that the future of white-collar work may be uncertain. In a recent interview with the Financial Times, he predicted that artificial intelligence will automate most professional tasks within 12 to 18 months, including work done by lawyers, accountants, marketers, and project managers. The forecast adds fuel to a growing debate about how quickly AI systems will transition from assist
  
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• 5 Video Generators That’ll Blow Your Mind in 2026

  16-02-2026 16:09 via eweek.com
  We’ve officially moved past the era of glitched-out characters and floating objects. Today, creating a high-end film or an elite social ad is less about having a massive budget and more about having a solid internet connection. As a journalist who has covered the tech beat for years, I’ve seen AI video generator tools go from shaky prototypes two years ago to tools that are actually making Hollywood a little nervous.Choosing the right tool is no longer just about “which on
  
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• OpenAI Just Solved 5 of 10 ‘Impossible’ Math Problems

  16-02-2026 15:50 via eweek.com
  Remember when AI winning a math olympiad felt like a big deal?Eleven of the world’s top mathematicians (including a Fields Medalist) decided that was child’s play. So they created First Proof, a set of 10 unpublished, research-level math problems pulled straight from their own work, and gave AI one week to solve them.The catch: none of these problems had ever appeared on the internet. No training data shortcuts. No pattern matching. Just raw mathematical reasoning.OpenAI’s Chie
  
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• Google Chrome Launches WebMCP in Early Preview for AI Agent Interactions

  16-02-2026 15:00 via eweek.com
  Google’s Chrome team has rolled out an early preview of WebMCP, a proposed web standard that enables websites to communicate directly with AI agents via structured tools rather than relying on messy screen scraping.Today, when AI agents access websites, they often rely on screenshots or raw HTML to determine what to do. That means parsing code, scanning layouts, and making repeated guesses, a process that can be slow, expensive, and prone to breaking when page designs change.WebMCP, short
  
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• Weave’s $8K Laundry Robot Still Needs Human Help

  13-02-2026 20:46 via eweek.com
  If you were hoping for a home robot that could finally handle laundry for you, Weave Robotics has an answer — sort of. The company’s new Isaac 0 folding robot is now shipping in the Bay Area, but it can’t do the job alone. The roughly $8K device folds common garments in 30 to 90 minutes and improves through weekly AI updates. When it gets stuck, remote human specialists step in to correct mistakes in real time. Isaac 0 offers a candid look at where home robotics will
  
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• Elon Musk Slams Anthropic AI as ‘Evil’ After $380B Valuation

  13-02-2026 19:54 via eweek.com
  Anthropic should have been popping champagne. The AI startup recently announced a massive $30 billion funding round that reportedly values the company at roughly $380 billion, cementing its place among the most valuable private AI players in the world.
  But instead of applause, the company got a public broadside from Elon Musk.
  In a sharply worded post on X, the xAI founder accused Anthropic’s models of being “misanthropic and evil,” igniting yet another high-profile clash in th
  
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• Waymo Begins Deploying Next-Gen Ojai Robotaxis in the US

  13-02-2026 18:01 via eweek.com
  Waymo is putting its most advanced self-driving system yet on the road.The Alphabet-owned company announced on Feb. 12 that it has begun fully autonomous operations with its sixth-generation Waymo Driver system. The new fleet, built on base vehicles from Chinese automaker Geely, represents the company’s most aggressive push yet to scale its technology while driving down costs.“This latest system serves as the primary engine for our next era of expansion, with a streamlined configurat
  
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• Hackers Try to Clone Google’s Gemini With 100,000+ AI Probes

  13-02-2026 17:49 via eweek.com
  Google built Gemini to answer questions. Now attackers are using questions as lockpicks.In a surge of more than 100,000 carefully engineered prompts, threat actors have been hammering Google’s Gemini chatbot in what the company calls “model extraction” or “distillation” attacks. By systematically probing the system, adversaries attempt to reverse engineer the model’s underlying logic, reasoning patterns, and chain of thought to build rival AI systems without p
  
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• ByteDance Launches Seedance 2.0 AI Video Model to Rival OpenAI, Google

  13-02-2026 17:31 via eweek.com
  ByteDance just fired a starting pistol in the AI video race… and it is not aiming for second place.The TikTok parent rolled out Seedance 2.0, a video model that quickly went viral in China, and highlighted major upgrades to its Seedream image tools. The company has designed Seedance 2.0 for professional film, e-commerce, and advertising production, signaling its latest foray into multimodal generative AI. The launch puts ByteDance into direct competition with OpenAI, Google, and Alib
  
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• OpenAI Debuts GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark, a Near-Instant AI for Real-Time Coding

  13-02-2026 16:53 via eweek.com
  OpenAI has released a research preview of GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark, a lightweight version of its latest Codex system built specifically for real-time coding. The model is designed to deliver rapid responses for tasks such as editing functions, refining logic, or adjusting interfaces inside development tools. According to OpenAI, the model is optimized to feel “near-instant” and can produce more than 1,000 tokens per second when running on ultra-low-latency hardware.At launch, Codex-S
  
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• Figure Launches Humanoid Robot Upgrade Helix 02 for Full-Body Autonomy

  13-02-2026 14:36 via eweek.com
  Figure has introduced Helix 02, its most advanced humanoid AI yet, designed to control an entire robot’s body as a single coordinated system. The new model allows a humanoid to walk, handle objects, balance, and adapt continuously without human input, marking a significant step toward practical robot autonomy. The company says the system moves beyond short demonstrations and scripted motions, enabling robots to perform real-world tasks from start to finish.To showcase the upgrade, Hel
  
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• 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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• eSpeaks MIT xPRO on Building Smarter Professionals for the AI Era

  11-02-2026 22:48 via eweek.com
  In this episode of eSpeaks with Corey Noles, Dr. Luke Hobson, Senior Instructional Designer at MIT xPRO, offers a rare look into both sides of the AI learning equation: why it’s urgently needed in today’s workplace, and how MIT builds courses that meet that demand with precision and purpose.
  The post eSpeaks MIT xPRO on Building Smarter Professionals for the AI Era appeared first on eWEEK.
  
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