Research & Development news

• Xcode 26.3 Brings Agentic Coding to Apple’s Development Ecosystem

  04-02-2026 11:14 via eweek.com
  Apple has released an update to its flagship development environment that signals a significant shift in how software for its platforms can be built.
  With Xcode 26.3, the company is formally introducing agentic coding, a new approach that allows AI agents to operate with a higher degree of autonomy inside the development workflow.
  According to Apple’s announcement, the update enables developers to use coding agents such as Anthropic’s Claude Agent and OpenAI’s Codex directly wi
  
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• Drama Alert: Anthropic Just Dropped a Super Bowl Attack Ad on OpenAI

  05-02-2026 21:46 via eweek.com
  Anthropic is running a series of Super Bowl ads that directly mocks OpenAI’s decision to put ads in ChatGPT.The 30-second spot (reportedly costing $8 million) features satirical skits of AI assistants interrupting users with intrusive sponsored content mid-conversation. The tagline: “Ads are coming to AI. But not to Claude.”The company also published a full manifesto titled “Claude is a space to think” to explain the commitment. Their argument:
  AI conversations are
  
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• 4 Google Gemini Prompts for Budgeting: How to Plan Without the Headache

  05-02-2026 20:51 via eweek.com
  Starting a new month’s budget can feel overwhelming, but AI tools like Gemini can actually help simplify the process. Instead of starting at a blank spreadsheet, you can describe what you want in plain language and let Gemini create an organized budget plan for you. According to Google’s official blog, Gemini works well because it reduces friction without trying to replace actual financial advice. Think of it more as a planning assistant that helps you organize financial data an
  
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• This Startup Created a Wearable ‘Kid Tracker’ That Is Soaring Without Any Digital Capabilities

  05-02-2026 16:54 via eweek.com
  Parents can rejoice. A new wearable for kids that gives them a view into their child’s day is helping parents stay connected without caving to the digital world.As more US schools ban smartphones, Littlebird “bridges the gap between a baby monitor and an iPhone,” founder Monica Plath said. “Parents don’t have an option besides AirTagging their kids, and AirTags were meant to find luggage, not for on-demand, real-time alerts.”As AI increasingly permeates people
  
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• Startup Wearable Kid Tracker Littlebird is Soaring Without Any Digital Capabilities

  05-02-2026 16:54 via eweek.com
  Parents can rejoice. A new wearable for kids that gives them a view into their child’s day is helping parents stay connected without caving to the digital world.As more US schools ban smartphones, Littlebird “bridges the gap between a baby monitor and an iPhone,” founder Monica Plath said. “Parents don’t have an option besides AirTagging their kids, and AirTags were meant to find luggage, not for on-demand, real-time alerts.”As AI increasingly permeates people
  
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• US Senator Demands Answers on Google’s New Commerce Protocol

  05-02-2026 16:45 via eweek.com
  Another legislative trouble is around the corner for Google.US Senator Elizabeth Warren, who represents Massachusetts, is clamoring for deeper insights into the privacy structure of Google’s Gemini checkout. In a letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai, she raised concerns about how Google intends to use user data for the feature.The letter, dated Feb. 3, said, “On January 11, 2026, you announced Google’s partnership with Shopify, Etsy, Wayfair, Target, Walmart, and other retailers
  
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• China Unveils World’s First ‘Biomimetic AI Robot’ Capable of Human-Like Walking

  05-02-2026 15:57 via eweek.com
  Not metal, not cartoonish, and definitely not trying to hide its identity.China’s humanoid robotics race took a striking turn in late January when DroidUp unveiled Moya, a humanoid it calls the world’s first fully biomimetic embodied intelligent robot.The robot was presented during the opening of DroidUp’s new headquarters and showroom at Zhangjiang Robotics Valley in Shanghai. Moya quickly became the center of attention, both at the event and online. Standing 1.65 meters
  
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• Anthropic Refuses Ads in Claude, Betting on Subscriptions Instead

  05-02-2026 13:22 via eweek.com
  Anthropic is drawing a firm line on how it plans to make money from AI.In a new announcement, the company said Claude will remain ad-free, rejecting advertising inside conversations and doubling down on subscriptions and enterprise revenue.The decision is intended to keep the AI a trusted tool, with the company arguing that conversational systems are not an appropriate venue for ads and should remain focused on helping users think and work without commercial influence.Open-ended by designAnthrop
  
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• Mistral AI’s Voxtral Transcribe 2 Launch Breaks Sound Barrier

  05-02-2026 13:21 via eweek.com
  Speed of sound? Sounds good.
  French firm Mistral AI has unleashed Voxtral Transcribe 2, a new family of speech recognition models, that transcribes “at the speed of sound.”
  Voxtral Transcribe 2 consists of two speech-to-text models with transcription quality, diarization, and ultra-low latency. The family includes Voxtral Mini Transcribe V2 for batch transcription and Voxtral Realtime for live applications.
  According to Mistral, Voxtral Realtime uses “a novel streaming architec
  
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• Voice AI Startup ElevenLabs Raises $500M at $11B Valuation

  05-02-2026 11:01 via eweek.com
  In a neat bit of number-soaked action, it’s a case of 11 meets 11.
  ElevenLabs has raised $500 million in a Series D funding round, valuing the AI audio company at $11 billion and marking one of the largest private financings in the generative AI sector to date.
  The round, led by Sequoia Capital, more than triples the company’s valuation from a year ago and brings total funding since its 2022 founding to $781 million. The raise comes as ElevenLabs reports accelerating enterprise adopt
  
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• Intel Launches GPU Push Into Nvidia-Dominated Sector

  05-02-2026 09:03 via eweek.com
  Intel has signaled a major shift as it seeks to expand its presence in the graphics processing unit (GPU) market.
  Considering this market has long been dominated by Nvidia, Intel’s step is part of a broader industry move to reduce reliance on a single supplier for AI chips.
  The announcement highlights growing competitive pressures in the AI semiconductor sector, as rising costs, supply constraints, and geopolitical risks reshape long-standing alliances.
  GPU ambitions
  Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan a
  
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• 5 Best ChatGPT Cover Letter Prompts in 2026: How to Get Hired Faster

  04-02-2026 20:48 via eweek.com
  As artificial intelligence continues to transform the job search process, a growing number of candidates are turning to ChatGPT to craft effective, personalized cover letters.Cover letters remain an important part of many hiring processes, especially for roles that require strong communication, leadership, and client-facing skills. With the right prompts, ChatGPT can help applicants save time, tailor their messages to specific job descriptions, and effectively highlight their achievements. 
  
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• Waymo Expanding to 20+ Cities in 2026, Including Tokyo and London

  04-02-2026 18:11 via eweek.com
  Waymo is stepping on the accelerator. Backed by a fresh $16 billion funding round, the self-driving car company says it is preparing for its biggest expansion yet, with plans to roll out ride-hailing services in more than 20 new cities worldwide in 2026.In a blog post published Monday, Waymo announced the new investment, which values the Alphabet-owned company at $126 billion post-money. The round was led by Dragoneer Investment Group, DST Global, and Sequoia Capital, with Alphabet continui
  
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• Meta Makes AI Adoption a Formal Part of Performance Reviews

  04-02-2026 18:06 via eweek.com
  In a first for big tech, Meta is now grading its employees on how well they use AI. The policy, first implemented last year, is now fully active.The pathway to implementation began in 2025, when Meta employees were told to start documenting their “AI-driven impact.” According to internal communications, Janelle Gale, Meta’s head of People, laid the groundwork:“As we move toward an AI-native future, we want to recognize people who are helping us get there faster,” sh
  
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• Tim Cook Highlights Apple Intelligence’s Fastest-Growing Feature

  04-02-2026 17:46 via eweek.com
  Tim Cook just gave Apple watchers their clearest clue yet about which Apple Intelligence feature is capturing the most attention.During Apple’s Q1 earnings call, the Apple CEO called out Visual Intelligence as one of Apple Intelligence’s most popular features. Citing transcripts from the call, 9to5Mac reported that he said, “During the quarter, we were excited to see that the majority of users on enabled iPhones are actively leveraging the power of Apple Intelligence.”Coo
  
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• Texas Instruments Snaps Up Chip Designer Silicon Labs for $7.5B

  04-02-2026 16:25 via eweek.com
  Texas hold ’em… and AI is part of the game.
  Texas Instruments will acquire Silicon Labs in a $7.5 billion all-cash transaction, a move that significantly expands Texas Instruments’ position in embedded wireless connectivity and deepens its reach across fast-growing industrial, automotive, and Internet of Things markets.
  While Texas Instruments is not a direct competitor to AI chip leaders such as Nvidia and AMD, the acquisition strengthens its position in the foundational semi
  
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• Chinese Humanoid Robot ‘Bolt’ Just Broke the World Speed Record

  04-02-2026 15:39 via eweek.com
  The global race for robotic speed has a new frontrunner. On Monday, a research team from Zhejiang University, in partnership with technology firms MirrorMe Tech and Kaierda, officially unveiled “Bolt,” a full-sized humanoid robot that has clocked a blistering peak speed of 10 meters per second.Standing 175 centimeters tall and weighing 75kg, the metallic athlete was built to push the absolute physical boundaries of bipedal movement. To prove its mettle, the robot was pitted agai
  
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• Why Apple, Anthropic Might Be the Real Winners of the AI Disruption Era

  04-02-2026 15:07 via eweek.com
  While software stocks were melting down yesterday, Apple quietly dropped something that might explain the chaos.Xcode 26.3 now ships with full Claude Agent SDK integration, giving millions of iOS developers an autonomous AI copilot.This means Claude can now work autonomously on long-running tasks: exploring your project’s file structure, understanding how SwiftUI and UIKit connect, then making changes across multiple files to achieve a goal. Give it a task, and it breaks it down, decides w
  
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• Positron Secures $230M AI Funding for $1B Valuation

  04-02-2026 15:03 via eweek.com
  Nvidia has another rival to think about.
  Positron AI has raised $230 million in an oversubscribed Series B funding round at a post-money valuation exceeding $1 billion, marking one of the largest recent financings in the AI inference hardware space.
  The round was co-led by ARENA Private Wealth, Jump Trading, and Unless, with participation from Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), Arm, and Helena. The announcement was made at Web Summit Qatar, underscoring the company’s growing international p
  
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• Anthropic’s Legal AI Tool Debut Hits European Data Company Shares

  04-02-2026 13:30 via eweek.com
  The advance of AI is decimating many other industries.
  Anthropic dropped a legal plugin causing some of Europe’s biggest data companies to lose billions in market value.
  Thomson Reuters shares crashed nearly 18% in a single day, the UK’s  RELX plummeted 14% and is now trading at half its value from just one year ago—marking its steepest single-day drop since 1988.
  The trigger? A plugin released on GitHub that automates legal workflows including contract review, NDA triage,
  
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• Fitbit Founders Debut AI Platform for Family Health Tracking

  04-02-2026 09:13 via eweek.com
  Who needs a chatbot, when you can call on a guardian?
  Former Fitbit co-founders James Park and Eric Friedman are returning to the health technology spotlight with a new company aimed at a different challenge.
  Their new AI venture, Luffu (pronounced “loo-foo”), has launched. It positions itself as an “intelligent family care system” designed to help families coordinate health, safety, and caregiving across generations.
  Announced in San Francisco, Luffu reflects a shift fro
  
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• Elon Musk Aims for Orbital Data Centers After Record-Setting Merger

  03-02-2026 21:25 via eweek.com
  In what is officially the largest merger in history, SpaceX has acquired artificial intelligence startup xAI. The deal, confirmed Monday in a statement by SpaceX, creates a $1.25 trillion “innovation engine” that effectively fuses the world’s most successful rocket company with its fastest-burning AI lab.According to people familiar with the matter cited by Bloomberg, the breakdown values SpaceX at $1 trillion and xAI at $250 billion. The transaction was structured as an a
  
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• 5 Best ChatGPT Resume Prompts in 2026 for Job Seekers

  03-02-2026 21:08 via eweek.com
  Job searching in 2026 can feel like its own full-time job. Between tailoring applications, getting past applicant tracking systems, and trying to sound confident, even experienced professionals struggle with resumes. Writing a strong resume isn’t just about listing job titles and responsibilities. Employers want clarity, measurable impact, and skills that match what they’re looking for. ChatGPT has become a valuable tool for job seekers, but the quality of results depends on you
  
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• 7 Best ChatGPT Writing Prompts in 2026: How to Get Better Outputs

  03-02-2026 20:15 via eweek.com
  In 2026, the gap between passable AI-written text and genuinely strong writing usually comes down to one thing: how the prompt is framed.ChatGPT is no longer the novelty it once was. Most people know how to ask it to “rewrite this” or “write a blog post about that.” What fewer people realize is that vague instructions can hold the model back. The strongest results come from prompts that read less like requests and more like professional briefs.Writers who get consistent v
  
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• xAI Launches Grok Imagine 1.0 Video Generator Amid Ongoing Safety Controversies

  03-02-2026 18:43 via eweek.com
  Elon Musk’s xAI has launched Grok Imagine 1.0, a major upgrade to its AI video generator. It’s a leap in capability that arrives wrapped in a storm of controversy.The company announced the update on X, calling it its “biggest leap yet.” The technical specs are a clear shot at competitors like OpenAI’s Sora and Google’s Veo.“Grok 1.0 unlocks 10-second videos, 720p resolution, and dramatically better audio,” xAI stated in its announcement post. The m
  
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• 6 Best Gemini Photo Editing Prompts in 2026: How to Get Better AI Images

  03-02-2026 18:21 via eweek.com
  Getting your photos to look exactly how you imagined doesn’t require expensive software anymore. It requires the right words. Google’s Gemini AI has become one of the most versatile photo editing tools available, capable of understanding complex creative instructions and delivering surprisingly polished results. The secret is knowing how to ask.Whether you’re fixing a casual selfie or prepping product shots for your online store, the quality of your edit comes down to how
  
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• Intel Teams Up With SoftBank Subsidiary on Next-Gen AI Memory

  03-02-2026 15:29 via eweek.com
  Hello Saimemory. It may be a name worth remembering.
  Saimemory, a subsidiary of multinational investment giant SoftBank, has signed a collaboration agreement with US chipmaker Intel Corp. to advance the commercialization of memory technology.
  The partnership, announced today (Feb. 3), underscores intensifying global efforts to address some of AI’s biggest bottlenecks: memory performance, power consumption, and supply constraints.
  As AI models grow larger and more complex, conventional memo
  
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• AI Startups Raise Billions for Blue-Collar Robot Brains

  03-02-2026 13:49 via eweek.com
  AI job anxiety has mostly lived in the office so far, with people worrying about what happens to analysts, support teams, and other technical roles. Now, automation may be moving into workplaces that rely on physical labor and unpredictable conditions. Startups are raising billions of dollars to build AI “brains” for robots that can operate in settings such as construction sites, warehouses, and energy facilities. If these systems work as intended, automation could expand into w
  
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• OpenAI Unleashes Codex macOS App for Multi-Agent Coding

  03-02-2026 12:37 via eweek.com
  An AI just wrote a complete user authentication system in under a minute—a task that typically consumes three hours of careful developer work.
  That’s not a futuristic demo. That’s what’s happening with OpenAI’s new Codex app for macOS.
  According to the announcement, OpenAI has built an agentic system that actually completes entire coding projects—no hand-holding required. While you’re in meetings or grabbing coffee, it analyzes problems, writes solutions
  
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• Building a Complete Tax Compliance Architecture for Global Scale

  03-02-2026 11:34 via eweek.com
  Global indirect tax compliance is increasingly defined by three requirements that run on different timelines but rely on the same transaction data: real-time CTC e-invoicing, periodic VAT reporting, and granular SAF-T audit files.As tax authorities digitize enforcement across the full transaction lifecycle, these obligations are no longer isolated checkpoints. They are interconnected controls, and inconsistencies between them now represent one of the biggest sources of compliance risk for multin
  
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