Research & Development news

• Global Investment in Data Centers Hits Record $61B in 2025

  22-12-2025 14:46 via eweek.com
  The global race to power AI has turned the once-humble data center into the hottest real estate on the planet.Global investment in data centers climbed past $61 billion in 2025, setting a new high as companies race to support fast-growing AI workloads, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence, first reported by CNBC.The figure already beats the full-year total for 2024, underscoring how central data centers have become to the AI boom. More than 100 deals were recorded in the fir
  
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• Meet ‘Atlas’: Boston Dynamics’ New Robot Takes First Real Factory Job at Hyundai Plant

  05-01-2026 19:26 via eweek.com
  Boston Dynamics’ humanoid robot, Atlas, has taken a significant step beyond flashy lab demos. For the first time, the AI-powered robot is being tested in a real factory, learning how to do actual industrial work.CBS’s 60 Minutes was invited to Hyundai Motor Group’s new auto plant near Savannah, Georgia, where Atlas was put to work inside a parts warehouse. The visit offered a rare look at how close humanoid robots are to joining human workers on factory floors.Standing 5 feet,
  
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• 10 Essential AI Terms Every Beginner Should Learn Today

  05-01-2026 18:30 via eweek.com
  Artificial intelligence is everywhere now, powering search engines, rewriting emails, and even seeping into the apps you use every day. But for anyone just stepping into the space, the language around AI can feel like a wall of unfamiliar terms: tokens, models, hallucinations, and more. The tech isn’t hard to follow, but the jargon is. Once you decode the vocabulary, the entire field becomes far less mysterious and far more usable.Here are the 10 AI terms that give beginners the clear
  
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• Elon Musk Pushes Grok Beyond X With New Business, Enterprise AI Offerings

  05-01-2026 17:57 via eweek.com
  Grok is stepping out of the public timeline and into the office.Elon Musk’s AI company, xAI, has launched Grok Business and Grok Enterprise, two new paid tiers designed to bring its flagship AI assistant into workplaces, from small teams to large global organizations. The move marks xAI’s clearest push yet to compete for enterprise customers already weighing tools from OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic.In a post announcing the launch, xAI said it’s making Grok available to employee
  
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• 170 Million New Jobs, 92 Million Lost: Inside the AI Employment Paradox

  05-01-2026 17:26 via eweek.com
  The question is no longer whether AI will disrupt jobs, but how many and how fast. For much of the past two years, analysts and labor studies have warned of a looming job apocalypse, particularly for entry-level roles that once served as the primary on-ramp for new college graduates. That near-dystopian narrative has been reinforced by sustained layoffs across sectors through 2025, including technology, media, finance, consulting, and corporate retail operations, even as companies acce
  
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• Meet Pickle 1: The ‘Soul Computer’ AR Glasses That May Be Ahead of Reality

  05-01-2026 16:46 via eweek.com
  A Y Combinator startup just launched a new pair of AI-powered AR glasses they’re calling the world’s first “soul computer.” The name? Pickle 1.Yep. A company named after a preserved vegetable wants you to strap always-on cameras to your face to capture your “soul.”Here are the details
  The Pickle 1 went live for pre-orders on New Year’s Day with a $799 price tag ($200 deposit, Q2 2026 delivery).Founder Daniel Park, a medical school dropout turned e-commer
  
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• Plaud Pursues Plaudits With AI Note-Taking Wearable Launch

  05-01-2026 13:34 via eweek.com
  Farewell, my lovely memory. If you decide to have a ‘big sleep’ in a meeting, fear not, a wearable could come to the rescue.
  Plaud has revealed its laudable ambitions with the unveiling of two products that could redefine how professionals capture and use information from conversations.
  On show is the upgraded wearable device, the Plaud NotePin S, alongside a new desktop application, Plaud Desktop. Together, the company positions the releases as the first unified AI note-taking syste
  
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• Google AI Overviews Put Health Searches and Patients at Risk

  05-01-2026 12:51 via eweek.com
  When a search result starts sounding like a diagnosis, the stakes change fast. Google’s AI Overviews are under scrutiny after experts warned that the tool is surfacing misleading health information that could put patients at risk.According to an investigation by The Guardian, the generative AI summaries shown at the top of Google Search have produced inaccurate and potentially harmful medical guidance across health topics, raising fresh concerns about trusting AI-generated health answ
  
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• Embrace AI as ‘Cognitive Amplifier’ Urges Microsoft CEO

  05-01-2026 12:05 via eweek.com
  Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has declared the industry needs to abandon “slop vs sophistication” debates and embrace AI as humanity’s new “cognitive amplifier.”
  In his brief “Looking Ahead to 2026” post, Nadella said, “We need to get beyond the arguments of slop vs sophistication and develop a new equilibrium in terms of our ‘theory of the mind’ that accounts for humans being equipped with these new cognitive amplifier tools as we relate
  
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• AI Inflation Crisis Could Derail 2026 Economic Boom

  05-01-2026 09:38 via eweek.com
  The love for AI could be a dangerous thing.
  Global stock markets that surged to record highs on enthusiasm for AI and easier monetary policy may be overlooking a growing risk that could derail the rally: a renewed upswing in inflation driven in part by the technology investment boom itself.
  U.S. stock indexes posted double-digit gains in 2025, with just seven major technology groups accounting for roughly half of total market earnings. Optimism surrounding AI adoption, combined with expectations
  
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• 10 Under-the-Radar AI Companies to Watch in 2026

  02-01-2026 21:18 via eweek.com
  When people discuss artificial intelligence in 2026, the same handful of companies tend to dominate the conversation. Google. OpenAI. Nvidia. Microsoft. Amazon.However, there are some burgeoning, under-the-radar vendors focused on making AI systems easier to deploy, manage, and leverage within organizations.This list highlights 10 hidden gems in the AI industry worth watching in 2026. While none of these companies are yet household names, each is gaining traction in healthcare, data governance,
  
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• Rumor: OpenAI’s New ‘Audio-Based’ Device Could Arrive Very Soon

  02-01-2026 21:12 via eweek.com
  Screens had a good run. Now OpenAI is betting that the future of AI lives in your ears, not on your phone.OpenAI is ramping up work on its audio AI as it prepares for an upcoming personal device that will rely primarily on voice, according to The Information. The device is expected to be “largely audio-based,” marking a shift away from screens as the main way users interact with AI.Inside the company, researchers believe OpenAI’s current audio models are not yet on par with its
  
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• 7 Robots Handling Jobs Too Dangerous for Humans

  02-01-2026 18:59 via eweek.com
  Robots are no longer limited to factory floors or research labs.Across the world, they are stepping into jobs that are simply too risky for people — from fighting fires and disarming bombs to inspecting radioactive sites and navigating deep underground pipelines.As technology improves, machines are being trusted with environments filled with heat, radiation, toxic chemicals, unstable structures, and live explosives. These machines do not breathe smoke, absorb radiation, or panic under pres
  
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• Inside DARPA’s High-Stakes Challenge to Build Life-Saving Robots

  02-01-2026 17:59 via eweek.com
  The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is pushing robots into one of the hardest jobs in emergency medicine: triage. Through its multi-year DARPA Triage Challenge, the agency is testing whether machines can help overwhelmed responders quickly locate injured people, assess injury severity, and share that information in time to save lives. Earthquakes, plane crashes, battlefield attacks, and large accidents often leave too many injured people and too few medics. DARPA b
  
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• AI Startups Raise Record $150B in 2025, Redefining Venture Capital

  02-01-2026 15:49 via eweek.com
  The AI funding boom just rewrote the record books. In 2025, startups raised roughly $150 billion, setting a new high for venture capital investment.
  Data released on Dec. 28 confirms this marks the third consecutive year of record growth, surpassing the 2021 peak by $92 billion and representing a 63% increase over an already historic market.
  But the most striking shift isn’t just the headline number. AI companies now account for nearly 50% of all global startup funding, up from just 34% in
  
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• Best Nano Banana Prompts to Try in 2026 (And Why They Work)

  01-01-2026 13:00 via eweek.com
  Since its debut in August, Google’s Nano Banana image model has gone from a cool tech demo to a daily companion for millions. With the November release of Nano Banana Pro, the capabilities jumped from nice-to-have to studio-quality.Google’s latest update notes that the model has become a favorite because of its “ability to maintain a consistent look across edits, blend photos together and otherwise use advanced editing to bring prompts to life.”If you’re looking to
  
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• Meet the 24-Year-Old Who Raised $64M to Build an AI Mathematician

  31-12-2025 20:17 via eweek.com
  A 24-year-old just raised $64 million to build an AI mathematician that’s smarter than Terence Tao (widely considered the world’s greatest living mathematician).Her name is Carina Hong, and her startup Axiom Math has already solved a 130-year-old problem and disproved a 30-year-old conjecture.Don’t get it twisted, though; this isn’t about making ChatGPT better at algebra. This is about creating AI that discovers entirely new mathematical theorems, proves them formally, an
  
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• Chinese AI Startup MiniMax Eyes $600M IPO Backed by Alibaba and Abu Dhabi

  31-12-2025 19:35 via eweek.com
  MiniMax is no longer just another AI startup. It’s preparing for a public debut.The Chinese AI company is targeting a $600 million IPO with backing from Alibaba and Abu Dhabi investment authorities, according to people familiar with the matter. The final size and timing of the offering could still change.According to a report by The Business Times, sources familiar with the situation said the Chinese startup recently secured a deal with the investment authority of Abu Dhabi and Alibaba. Th
  
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• How to Pick an AI Chatbot That Fits Your Work

  31-12-2025 19:11 via eweek.com
  Most people choose chatbots the wrong way. They compare model names, skim benchmarks, or follow brand momentum, then wonder why the tool feels unreliable in daily use. But the problem isn’t intelligence; it’s fit.AI chatbots fail in different ways depending on the task. Some drift from instructions. Some sound confident but can’t back up their claims. Others work brilliantly in a demo, then fall apart when fed real documents or long threads. This guide will help you look a
  
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• Zu Beginn des Jahres 2026 sehen sich Behörden mit rekordhohen Cyberbedrohungen konfrontiert – warum hochsichere Notebooks zur ersten Verteidigungslinie werden

  31-12-2025 18:55 via eweek.com
  Das Jahr 2025 endete mit einer beispiellosen Welle von Cyberangriffen auf öffentliche Institutionen in Europa. Mehrere EU-Ministerien meldeten gezielte Phishing-Kampagnen, die durch generative KI unterstützt wurden, während neue Vorschriften – wie die erweiterte EU-Cyber-Resilience-Act, die Anfang 2026 in Kraft tritt – die Anforderungen an Hardware- und Datenschutzmaßnahmen weiter erhöhen.Für Behörden waren die Risiken noch nie so groß: Vertr
  
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• This AI Tool Can Plan and Execute Penetration Tests on Its Own

  31-12-2025 17:15 via eweek.com
  A new generation of AI tools is reshaping offensive cybersecurity, making vulnerability discovery faster, cheaper, and far more automated.
  NeuroSploitv2 exemplifies that shift. The AI-powered penetration testing framework works across multiple large language models, including Gemini, Claude, GPT, and Ollama, automating tasks that once required skilled human researchers.
  In practice, it’s beginning to replace entire phases of the penetration testing process.
  That transition is already real.
  
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• A Stark Warning: The Man Who Built Modern AI Says Your Job May Not Survive It

  31-12-2025 17:04 via eweek.com
  “Human intelligence is becoming irrelevant.”That was Geoffrey Hinton’s warning as the AI pioneer predicted that millions of jobs could disappear by 2026, driven by artificial intelligence advancing faster than workers, companies, and governments can respond.On Dec. 28, during CNN’s State of the Union, Hinton raised concerns about AI’s staggering advancement, noting that the technology has already replaced jobs in call centers and will replace more in the coming year
  
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• SoftBank Completes $40B OpenAI Deal After Months of Buildup

  30-12-2025 19:40 via eweek.com
  SoftBank has finally written the check. A $40 billion gamble is now fully funded.
  SoftBank Group has completed its previously announced roughly $40 billion investment in OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, fulfilling the largest private tech funding commitment in history.
  As reported by CNBC, the Japanese investment powerhouse confirmed that the final transaction — estimated at $22 billion to $22.5 billion — was transferred last week, after earlier installments of $8 billion and $10 billio
  
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• Best AI Tools to Keep Your New Year’s Resolutions

  30-12-2025 18:32 via eweek.com
  Every New Year starts with a fresh set of goals. Maybe you’re finally sticking to a workout routine, staying consistent with learning something new, or building better daily habits. But then life happens — schedules get busy, motivation fades, and well-intentioned resolutions slide off track.Thankfully, there are AI tools that can help you stick to your 2026 resolutions. These tools won’t promise an overnight transformation, but they can help make habits easier to manage, keep
  
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• China Unveils ‘Electronic Skin’ That Gives Robots Human-Like Reflexes

  30-12-2025 18:11 via eweek.com
  Humanoid robots are moving past simple metal and gears to something much more sensitive.In a major leap for embodied intelligence, researchers in China have developed a “neuromorphic” electronic skin (NRE-skin) that allows robots to experience touch, detect injury, and even react to pain through reflexive movements, mimicking the way the human nervous system protects the body.While most current robotic skins are limited to basic pressure sensing using complex, bulky wiring, this new
  
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• ChatGPT Just Became an App Store. Here’s What You Need to Know

  30-12-2025 17:49 via eweek.com
  Developers can now submit apps to be hosted inside ChatGPT that extend conversations with real functionality. These aren’t your ma or pa’s GPTs… these are real applications for ordering groceries, building slide decks, booking apartments, all without leaving the chat.Here’s the setup: OpenAI launched the Apps SDK earlier this year at DevDay. Now they’ve opened the floodgates for app submissions and introduced an app directory where users can browse and search for p
  
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• Sam Altman: ‘Stressful’ OpenAI Job Pays $555,000 Annually

  30-12-2025 17:36 via eweek.com
  Generative AI has become powerful enough to create a brand-new kind of problem… and OpenAI is willing to pay handsomely for someone brave enough to deal with it.That role is OpenAI’s new “head of preparedness,” a job that comes with enormous responsibility, immediate pressure, and a reported annual salary of $555,000. CEO Sam Altman framed the position as a mission-critical effort to empower cybersecurity defenders while preventing attackers from weaponizing the same cut
  
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• 10 Clever Tips to Get Better Answers From ChatGPT

  30-12-2025 16:49 via eweek.com
  ChatGPT can feel either incredibly smart or oddly unhelpful.The difference, it turns out, often comes down to how people use it. As more workers, students, and creators lean on AI tools every day, experts are sharing practical ways to get sharper, more useful answers from the chatbot without any technical skills.I have curated some of the most user-friendly ChatGPT tips making the rounds right now, along with simple examples you can try.1. Give ChatGPT a job before you give it a taskOne of the f
  
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• Meta Acquires AI Startup Manus in $2B Deal, Plans Integration Across Facebook, WhatsApp

  30-12-2025 16:36 via eweek.com
  Meta Platforms has officially announced the acquisition of Manus, a high-flying startup known for building autonomous AI agents that don’t just chat, but actually get work done. This acquisition marks a major pivot for Meta, moving from its focus on open-source Llama models to snapping up a product that is already a proven moneymaker. Manus reportedly hit an annual recurring revenue of over $100 million just eight months after its launch.In its announcement, Meta described Manus as &l
  
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• AI Conquers YouTube: Nearly 33% of Your Feed Is Now Fake Content

  29-12-2025 21:17 via eweek.com
  YouTube’s algorithm has been quietly conquered by artificial intelligence… and the numbers are more jaw-dropping than you think.
  Research research published on Dec. 29 by The Guardian reveals that between 21-33% of content in fresh user feeds now consists of AI-generated material, fundamentally reshaping what millions of viewers see every single day.
  Upon creating a new YouTube account, researchers discovered that 104 of the first 500 videos were AI-generated, per The Guardian. Anot
  
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