Research & Development news

• Google Expands AI Plus Subscription to 35 New Countries

  28-01-2026 12:26 via eweek.com
  Google is taking its AI subscription global. The company announced that Google AI Plus is launching in 35 countries, with auto-upgrades for existing Google One subscribers.According to the announcement, the rollout extends AI Plus availability alongside Google’s broader AI subscription plans.Google AI Plus is priced at $7.99 per month in the US, with a 50% introductory discount for new subscribers.Standardization before accelerationThe timing is deliberate. Instead of introducing new headl
  
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• DeepSeek Boosts OCR Performance With Alibaba Open-Source AI

  28-01-2026 16:24 via eweek.com
  Chinese AI company DeepSeek has dropped some intriguing news in the document processing world.
  The firm has unveiled DeepSeek-OCR 2, a completely revamped optical character recognition system that replaces its previous architecture with Alibaba’s Qwen AI technology.
  Tech swap
  DeepSeek has ditched OpenAI’s CLIP framework that powered its original system and swapped it for Alibaba Cloud’s lightweight Qwen2-0.5b model.
  This new approach delivers a 3.7% performance boost over the p
  
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• Robot Restaurant in China Handles Cooking, Serving, and Cleaning

  28-01-2026 15:41 via eweek.com
  Walk into a restaurant in Hangzhou right now, and you might not see a chef shouting orders or servers rushing plates. Instead, you’ll find robotic arms cooking noodles, machines pouring coffee, and delivery bots gliding between tables.Hangzhou’s first “AI robot restaurant” has officially begun trial operations, offering diners a glimpse of what a fully automated dining experience could look like. The venue, called the “24 Solar Terms AI Robot Restaurant,” bega
  
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• Waabi’s $1B Raise Fuels Expansion Into Robotaxis With Uber

  28-01-2026 14:45 via eweek.com
  A Toronto-based firm’s vision for success in physical AI is moving along well.
  Autonomous vehicle company Waabi has secured a landmark $1 billion in new financing, underscoring growing investor confidence in physical AI and intensifying competition in the race to commercialize self-driving vehicles at scale.
  The company announced it has closed an oversubscribed $750 million Series C round, co-led by Khosla Ventures and G2 Venture Partners, alongside an additional future investment commitme
  
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• Anthropic Poised for $20B Funding Round

  28-01-2026 13:08 via eweek.com
  The AI investment frenzy carries on. Let’s all try to keep up.
  Anthropic is on the verge of raising about $20 billion from venture capital firms and other investors, double the amount it initially sought, in a striking demonstration of the intense enthusiasm surrounding leading AI start-ups.
  According to the Financial Times, people familiar with the matter said the fundraising, which is close to being finalised, would value the company at roughly $350 billion. If completed, it would rank a
  
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• Pinterest to Lay Off Nearly 15% of Staff in AI Shift

  28-01-2026 12:41 via eweek.com
  Pinterest plans to lay off less than 15% of its workforce as part of a restructuring that shifts more resources toward artificial intelligence. The company also expects to reduce its office space and reevaluate its sales and marketing strategy, according to a securities filing. Pinterest hopes to complete the changes by the end of its third quarter in late September. Investors reacted quickly, sending Pinterest shares down more than 9% as the company positions itself around AI-powered
  
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• Sundance Documentary Claims to Expose AI’s Dark Truth

  28-01-2026 11:42 via eweek.com
  A documentary premiering at Sundance this week reckons it reveals the disturbing reality behind AI’s rapid rise.
  It all starts with a chilling story from 2016 that predicted today’s AI chaos. “Ghost in the Machine” opens with Microsoft’s experimental chatbot ‘Tay,’ which transformed into a hate-spewing machine within 24 hours of launch, opening what director Valerie Veatch calls a Pandora’s Box that’s now consuming the creative industry.
  Well
  
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• OpenAI Unleashes Prism for AI-Fueled Scientific Research

  28-01-2026 09:19 via eweek.com
  Don’t miss Prism as one AI firm has shown the importance of being earnest when it comes to research.
  OpenAI has launched Prism, an AI workspace powered by GPT-5.2 that integrates directly into scientific research workflows.
  This is a cloud-based environment that offers unlimited projects and collaborators, and is accessible to anyone with a ChatGPT account.
  The platform represents OpenAI’s objective to dominate the scientific research field, with the chance that every future paper wi
  
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• Ranked: 8 Things You Should Never Paste Into an AI Chatbot

  27-01-2026 21:37 via eweek.com
  Pasting something into a chatbot feels casual, almost disposable. It’s the digital equivalent of thinking out loud. But that muscle memory is exactly the problem. In a rush to get an answer, people drop sensitive data, work docs, and personal details they’d never post publicly, even though the risk profile is a lot closer than it feels.Below are the top eight things you should never paste into an AI chatbot, ranked from easy-to-overlook mistakes to the most dangerous exposu
  
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• What Is Clawdbot? The Viral Self-Hosted AI Assistant Taking Over X

  27-01-2026 19:36 via eweek.com
  An open-source AI assistant called “Clawdbot” exploded across X this weekend, so naturally, we had to investigate.Not to be confused with “Claude”, Clawdbot is a self-hosted agent that runs on your computer, texts you through WhatsApp/Telegram/Discord, remembers everything, and can build itself new capabilities on the fly. For a quick TL;DR, Harper Carroll explains Clawdbot well here.Unlike cloud-locked ChatGPT or Claude, Clawdbot lives on your hardware (or a $5 AWS insta
  
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• Apple’s Google-Powered Siri Overhaul Set for February Debut

  27-01-2026 17:26 via eweek.com
  Apple is finally getting ready to show us what a smart Siri actually looks like.According to the latest Power On newsletter from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple is less than a month away from debuting a revamped Siri powered by Google’s Gemini. The announcement is expected in the second half of February, with the features likely arriving in the iOS 26.4 beta shortly after.Users will finally get features like Personal Context, which lets Siri reference previous conversations, and on-sc
  
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• Why Apple Considered an AI Home Screen for the iPhone

  27-01-2026 15:34 via eweek.com
  Apple flirted with letting AI reshuffle your iPhone apps. In the end, it was decided that muscle memory mattered more.The tech giant briefly considered using AI to change how the iPhone Home Screen works, including dynamically rearranging apps based on user behavior. The proposal surfaced internally but was ultimately shut down by Apple’s software chief, Craig Federighi, according to The Information.The idea was part of broader internal discussions about pushing AI deeper into Apple’
  
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• Nvidia Makes $2B CoreWeave Investment for AI Factories Buildout

  27-01-2026 12:52 via eweek.com
  AI factories are on the agenda as Nvidia has made a $2 billion investment in CoreWeave.
  The chip giant purchased CoreWeave’s Class A common stock at $87.20 per share, building on their previous $6.3 billion investment from four months ago that secured a 6.6% stake.
  The partnership aims to construct more than 5 gigawatts of AI factories by 2030. This means computing infrastructure that could reshape how AI systems are built and operated on a global scale.
  Jensen Huang, Founder and CEO of Nv
  
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• AI Robot Brings Emotional Care to Pets

  27-01-2026 12:02 via eweek.com
  Leaving pets home alone has always come with a little guilt. Cameras can show what they’re doing, and smart feeders can ensure they’re fed, but neither really answers the question that many owners worry about the most: how their pets are actually feeling. Your pet’s new best friend might be a robot. At CES 2026, Tuya Smart introduced Aura, an AI-powered companion robot designed to provide cats and dogs with interaction and emotional stimulation during long periods of
  
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• Google Cloud’s Gaming Chief Thinks AI Is the Iron Man Suit for Devs

  27-01-2026 10:23 via eweek.com
  Ladies and gentlemen, for your consideration… an Iron Man analogy.
  Jack Buser, the global director for games at Google Cloud, compared equipping game developers with AI to giving them Iron Man’s suit—and warned that studios refusing to embrace this tech revolution might not survive.
  “It’s like the Iron Man suit of armor, right? It’s still you inside the suit of armor, but you’re suddenly able to do things that you couldn’t do before,” Buser
  
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• AI-Powered CCTV Deployed in Fight Against Illegal Dumping

  27-01-2026 09:46 via eweek.com
  Smile, Northamptonshire litterbugs, you’re on camera.UK-based West Northamptonshire Council is turning to AI in an effort to crack down on fly-tipping, the illegal dumping of waste, across the region. A new AI-powered CCTV camera tower will rotate between locations through January 2027, providing authorities with flexible surveillance coverage while helping identify offenders. The initiative marks a significant step in how local authorities are using technology to enforce the law and prote
  
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• Microsoft Introduces Maia 200, Its Most Powerful AI Chip Yet

  26-01-2026 20:46 via eweek.com
  Microsoft is betting on a deeper kind of AI control… one most users never see.On Monday, the tech giant introduced Maia 200, its newest custom-built AI workhorse. Designed specifically to handle the heavy lifting of running massive AI models, this chip serves as a direct challenge to the hardware crowns held by Amazon and Google.The Maia 200 is built on a cutting-edge 3-nanometer process and packed with over 140 billion transistors. According to the Microsoft announcement, this translates
  
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• Yahoo Launches Scout, an AI Answer Engine Taking On Google Search

  26-01-2026 20:24 via eweek.com
  Yahoo on Tuesday introduced Scout, an AI-powered answer engine debuting in beta across desktop and mobile in the US. It will be available through a standalone site and app, as well as within the existing Yahoo Search app on iOS and Android, the company said.Search products are increasingly delivering direct answers rather than lists of links, a shift that has raised the stakes for legacy search brands. Yahoo is leaning on its decades of data, scale, and publisher relationships as competitors suc
  
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• How an AI Goth Girl Became a Political Meme Machine

  26-01-2026 20:19 via eweek.com
  In the strange churn of social media, trends often appear from nowhere. This month, one of the most unlikely stars is Amelia, a purple-haired, AI-generated British schoolgirl who was never meant to exist outside a classroom but is now flooding timelines with extremist memes.Originally created as part of an anti-extremism project, Amelia has been reshaped online into a nationalist symbol, shared thousands of times a day across platforms like X and Facebook, according to reporting by The Guardian.
  
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• World Models Just Got Their GPT-2 Moment — Here’s What That Means For You

  26-01-2026 20:12 via eweek.com
  Want to generate interactive video simulations on demand? Or turn a single photo into a fully explorable 3D world? Two APIs just made both possible.First, Odyssey launched Odyssey-2 Pro, a world model that streams real-time, interactive video at 720p/22fps.
  Type “a laughing baby,” and it generates continuous video you can interact with while it’s running.Send “a kitten appears,” and the simulation updates instantly (you like AI cat slop? Now we get interactive cat s
  
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• Apple Tests Internal AI Chatbot to Boost Employee Productivity

  26-01-2026 19:59 via eweek.com
  Apple is still working through its plans to revamp Siri into a more capable AI chatbot this year. Inside the company, however, employees are already using generative AI in their day-to-day work. The tech giant has rolled out an internal chatbot called Enchanté to help staff brainstorm ideas, write and edit content, research topics, and analyze files. The company is also using a second internal tool, Enterprise Assistant, to answer questions about company policies and technical proces
  
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• Brookings Warns Clerical Work Faces AI Displacement Risk

  26-01-2026 17:02 via eweek.com
  Clerical and administrative roles are expected to be among the hardest hit by AI-driven job displacement, according to a Brookings analysis. While artificial intelligence is forecast to affect millions of US workers, certain roles could be significantly more vulnerable due to a combination of economic and geographic factors.Office clerks, receptionists, and secretaries are among the most at-risk occupations, largely because of their low adaptive capacity. Workers in these roles typically have be
  
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• OpenAI’s New AI Foundations Course Promises ‘Job-Ready’ Skills and Credential

  26-01-2026 15:54 via eweek.com
  OpenAI is stepping beyond AI tools and into workforce training, launching its first formal certification program built around hands-on courses delivered through ChatGPT. The initiative is OpenAI’s most direct move yet to turn everyday AI use into verified, job-ready skills.The company said the certifications are built around hands-on training inside ChatGPT, where users learn by completing real tasks rather than watching demos. The effort aims to provide workers and educators with a formal
  
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• Gemini 3 Pro Is Changing How People Search: Here Are 8 Prompts to Try

  26-01-2026 15:31 via eweek.com
  Google Search is no longer just about blue links and quick answers. With Gemini 3 Pro now built directly into Search through AI Mode, Google is quietly reshaping how people plan, learn, and accomplish tasks online.Instead of bouncing between chatbots and browser tabs, users can now ask deeper, more conversational questions and get structured, visual, and context-aware responses, all without leaving Google Search.Gemini 3 Pro, which launched in late 2025, is Google’s most capable consumer-f
  
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• EU Investigates Musk’s Grok Over Sexual AI Deepfakes

  26-01-2026 14:02 via eweek.com
  European Union regulators have opened a new investigation into Elon Musk’s social media platform X, focusing on its AI chatbot Grok and claims that it can be used to generate sexualized deepfake images of women and minors.
  The probe, announced today (Jan. 26), follows growing international criticism of the tool and concerns that users can manipulate ordinary photos into explicit content using basic text prompts such as “put her in a bikini” or “remove her clothes.”
  
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• 7 Google AI Features That Make the Internet Easier to Use

  26-01-2026 12:23 via eweek.com
  Google is steadily changing how people use the internet, not by reinventing search or browsers, but by embedding artificial intelligence into everyday virtual tasks. The company’s growing set of AI-powered features makes it easier for users to find information, create content, and get things done online. Rather than pushing users toward separate AI platforms, Google is integrating these tools directly into familiar apps such as Gmail, Search, Chrome, Maps, and Gemini. These AI-powered
  
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• Synthesia Secures $200M Funding at $4B Valuation

  26-01-2026 12:22 via eweek.com
  London-based AI video firm Synthesia has closed a $200 million funding round that nearly doubled its valuation to $4 billion.
  Google’s venture arm GV led this latest round, bringing Synthesia’s total funding to over $500 million since launching in 2017.
  The UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, said in today’s (Jan. 26) announcement: “Synthesia is a UK success story, creating new jobs and opportunities in this country. It shows that by backing innovators
  
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• YouTube Leads Google AI Overviews Citations for Health Queries

  26-01-2026 09:54 via eweek.com
  A study suggests that Google’s AI has started prioritizing YouTube videos over hospitals, medical journals, and government health agencies.
  Analysis of over 50,000 health searches reveals AI is quietly rewriting the rules of medical information, and the consequences are raising alarm bells across the healthcare industry.
  Findings from SE Ranking show YouTube dominating Google’s AI Overview citations at an unprecedented 4.43% of all references—making it the single most-cited hea
  
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• This $800M Startup Makes ChatGPT 24x Faster

  23-01-2026 19:24 via eweek.com
  Every time ChatGPT takes three seconds to respond instead of 30, there’s probably infrastructure like vLLM working behind the scenes. You’ve been using it without knowing it. And now, the team behind it just became an $800 million company overnight.Here are the detailsToday, Inferact launched with a massive $150 million seed round to commercialize the open-source inference engine that’s already powering AI at Amazon, major cloud providers, and thousands of developers world
  
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• AI Is Becoming a Default Job Requirement, Indeed Report Finds

  23-01-2026 17:45 via eweek.com
  AI is rapidly becoming a baseline expectation in hiring, showing up across job listings far beyond engineering and IT. Employers are adding language about artificial intelligence to job postings across industries, from sales and marketing to finance and operations.New research from Indeed’s Hiring Lab shows AI references spreading rapidly across job listings, including roles where the technology is not yet central to the day-to-day work. The trend suggests AI is becoming a default qualific
  
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