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OpenAI plans to start testing ads in the US for Free and Go tier users in the coming weeks. Plus, Pro, Business, and Enterprise users will not see ads. The Go tier is a new $8 per month subscription with access to GPT-5.2 Thinking. Ads will not influence the answers that ChatGPT provides and will always be separated and clearly labeled. Conversations will be kept private from advertisers. A screenshot of what the ads will look like is available in the article.
Elon Musk wants OpenAI and Microsoft to pay him damages in the range of $79 billion to $134 billion as he claims OpenAI defrauded him by abandoning its nonprofit roots and partnering with Microsoft. The court filing says Musk is entitled to a chunk of OpenAI's current $500 billion valuation as he donated $38 million in seed money when he helped found the startup in 2015. Musk also plans to seek punitive damages and possibly an injunction. OpenAI claims the lawsuit is baseless and is aimed at harassment.
Sid Sijbrandij, founder of GitLab, got the news that he had cancer on November 18, 2022. He underwent a brutal care regimen that involved surgical removal of his tumorous vertebrae and rounds of radiation and chemotherapy so intense that he required four blood transfusions to stay alive. After his cancer resurfaced in 2024, he decided to go 'founder mode' on his cancer, assembling a team to navigate his care journey. This article details the story of how he took charge of his health.
While the humanoid form factor is likely to stay due to its clear advantages, that doesn't mean that robots will still stay human. Boston Dynamics' Atlas is an interesting look at a very different vision of what a humanoid robot can and should be. Robots don't have to be limited to what evolution resulted in. They can be engineered to have capabilities that far exceed humans.
Over 70% of orgs are using AI agents, but only 11% of agentic use cases made it to prod in 2025. In this webinar, Camunda's CTO joins automation experts to cover the proven controls that help AI agents progress. Secure your spot to learn how to move AI agents from pilot to prod.
Files represent personal creations, so they should live somewhere users control. File systems allow data to outlive the software used to create it. Other apps are able to open the same files to read or write data, and it's up to the users' choice on what app to use. This is analogous to how the AT protocol (the protocol behind Bluesky and other social apps) works.
This article details how a developer created an image-to-ASCII renderer. The resulting renderer converts 3D models and still images into ASCII. The renderer is interactive, and you can move the 3D models around by dragging. The post is detailed and contains many interactive examples explaining the work.
Prediction markets let people wager on basically anything. These sites have recently boomed in popularity and are creeping into the mainstream. They are transforming news into a form of gambling. It is unclear whether these sites are meaningful predictors of anything, but the markets are manipulable.
Agents have improved over the last year due to structures that provide them with automated feedback and allow them to work on longer-horizon tasks. This back pressure allows agents to identify mistakes, and the feedback helps them align on tasks for much longer. Developers should think about how to build back pressure into their workflows. Afterwards, they can loop agents until they have stamped out all of the inconsistencies and issues.
We're hiring the first engineer on TLDR's new Applied AI team. You'll build production AI agents and design modular, composable Claude Skills to let non-technical teammates create their own AI workflows. Learn more.
Granola is AI that transcribes your meetings and enhances your notes - so you can give each call your full attention. The best part? There's no meeting bot. Try Granola free
This post discusses Brex's culture, how it facilitated an aggressive shift towards a culture of AI fluency, and how Brex modernized its tech stack and applied AI agents to streamline its business.
Google was behind in the AI race in August, but by September, its Gemini AI app had become the most downloaded app in Apple's App Store. The company launched its most powerful Gemini model yet two months later, leapfrogging over OpenAI to the front of the AI pack. Google's deep roots in science and research, willingness to invest in custom hardware, and leadership changes in recent years cleared the way for faster experimentation. The company's AI work has begun generating substantial revenue through search ads, paid versions of Gemini, and sales of new computer chips developed in-house.
xAI has successfully closed a $20 billion Series E funding round. The capital will be used to accelerate the development of the company's compute infrastructure. xAI has introduced several business-oriented offerings, including Grok Business, a team plan priced at $30 per seat per month, and Grok Enterprise, which includes Custom SSO and SCIM features. It has also released a Collections API that features built-in RAG, OCR, layout-aware parsing, and more.
Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) has installed the first magnet in its Sparc fusion reactor, a demonstration device scheduled to turn on next year. The reactor will have 18 magnets in total in a donut-like shape. These magnets will create a powerful magnetic field for confining and compressing superheated plasma. If successful, the plasma will release more energy than it takes to heat and compress it. CFS is working with Nvidia and Siemens to develop a digital version of the reactor.
Aviation innovation has been stuck in a rut in the 56 years since Concorde debuted due to noise, regulation, and cost. All three of these issues are at various stages of being solved. Regulatory walls are cracking, and the technology is better than ever. This article looks at the work being done by Boom Supersonic, Astro Mechanica, and Hermeus toward Supersonic 2.0, where anyone can catch a quick, affordable flight almost anywhere on Earth.
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Dynamic Context Discovery is a pattern that allows agents to pull relevant context on their own with fewer details provided up front. It optimizes token usage while still allowing agents to gather enough context for tasks. Data is stored in files, which can then be accessed as necessary. Cursor will release dynamic context discovery for all users in the coming weeks.
OpenAI's GPT-5.2 Codex-Max is now rolling out to subscribers. There is little public information about the model available, but OpenAI may share more details in the coming days. The standard GPT-5.2 Codex can stay on track for long tasks, make large contexts useful through compaction, and handle heavy changes like refactors and migrations. It can understand screenshots, UI bugs, and diagrams.
CES 2026 has already revealed several unexpected surprises, such as devices that detect gluten and dairy in food, a robot vacuum that climbs stairs, and a lollipop that plays music via bone-conduction technology. This page wraps up some of the biggest highlights of the event. CNET's Best of CES 2026 awards will be announced today.
OpenAI executives are debating whether to attend the Cannes Lions festival, a festival where the ad industry celebrates its ability to turn creativity into influence. The company has yet to find an ads boss, and it still needs to figure out how to best handle data privacy and ensure its commerce proposition proves successful. Competition is heating up, with Google now building the infrastructure needed to monetize its AI services. OpenAI isn't actively talking to advertisers about advertising yet.
This post provides readers with a simple mental model for evaluating sandboxes and then walks through the boundaries that show up in real AI execution systems: containers, gVisor, microVMs, and runtime sandboxes.
Mantic is a structural code search engine for AI agents that provides sub-500ms file ranking across massive code bases without embeddings, vector databases, or external dependencies.
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Nvidia plans to start shipping its Vera Rubin AI chip later this year. The chip, designed to fulfill AI requests more quickly and cheaply than its predecessors, has been in development for three years. Nvidia's CEO, Jensen Huang, discussed the company's surprisingly ambitious work around autonomous vehicles during CES 2026. Mercedes-Benz plans to start shipping cars equipped with Nvidia self-driving technology this year.
Boston Dynamics' Atlas humanoid robot is entering production. The first companies to receive deployments will be Hyundai and Google DeepMind. The final version of Atlas can work autonomously, via a teleoperator, or with a tablet steering interface, and perform a wide array of industrial tasks. It has a reach of 7.5 feet and can lift up to 110 pounds.
Amazon Leo, formerly known as Project Kuiper, will launch in the first quarter of this year with a three-tier hardware strategy that will first target the US, UK, Germany, France, and Canada. Customers will be able to choose between three terminals: Leo Nano, which is capable of delivering 100 Mbps; Leo Pro, a standard unit that can push 400 Mbps; and Leo Ultra, an enterprise terminal capable of 1 Gbps. The smaller terminals will help the service scale, while the Ultra terminal signals to traditional broadband providers that Amazon plans to support them rather than bypass them.
Dried blood analysis could be a feasible and scalable way to detect the brain changes linked to Alzheimer's. Researchers have developed a dried blood test that, while less accurate than traditional blood tests, showed good ability to distinguish people with Alzheimer's-related disease. The method is cheaper than traditional testing and could potentially be performed outside of clinical settings. The same technique could potentially be used to detect other conditions, such as multiple sclerosis and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
An Agent Harness is the infrastructure that wraps around an AI model to manage long-running tasks. It is the system that governs how the agent operates. Agent harnesses turn vague, multistep agent workflows into structured data that can be logged and graded to improve systems. They can be used to validate real-world progress, empower the user experience, and improve models via real-world feedback.
Change is the only constant. Keep a finger on technology trends to avoid being caught off-guard by hype or doom. Update skills, diversify abilities, and focus on uniquely human aspects to stay in the loop. There will always be demand for engineers who think holistically, learn continuously, and drive technology toward solving real problems.
Alexa+ is now available to everyone through a free early access program. The AI is now accessible as a chatbot on a website, similar to other AI products. Alexa+ will be included with Amazon Prime memberships, which start at $15 per month, or cost $20 per month as a standalone subscription. While still in early access, reports say that Alexa+ is slower than expected and struggles with inaccuracies at times.
This year, multi-step, tool-using, self-correcting loops will become the default way of working. The gap between those who use AI effectively and those who do not will become more obvious. Organizations will become more streamlined and deal with different risk models. Consultancies that help businesses become 'AI-native' will clean up.
Join Miro and Forrester for a webinar discussing the results of a new study on the AI implementation gap, and how reality is diverging from hype. Watch live on 01/22
Cursor, the fast-growing AI code assistant, uses WorkOS Radar to detect and stop abuse in real time. With device fingerprinting and behavioral signals, Radar blocks fraud before it reaches your app.
OpenAI is aiming to create an app store that rivals Apple's, but early tests suggest that the company still has a long way to go. ChatGPT's more than 800 million users can now perform various tasks, such as order groceries from Instacart or create a playlist with Spotify, using ChatGPT instead of opening an app. However, the current system requires too many extra steps, making it more complicated to use than traditional apps. Also, many ChatGPT apps only have very basic functionality, steering users back to more capable apps or sites.
Elon Musk has bet Tesla's future and his personal fortune on Optimus. The humanoid robots have the potential to generate infinite revenue for the company and eliminate poverty and the need for work. The company is currently working on the third generation of its robot. This article looks at how the robot is being trained and the challenges that Tesla will need to address before a commercial version is viable.
The peptide scene exposes regulatory theater, economic desperation, and a philosophical tension about bodily autonomy. While there is some evidence that these compounds work, people are taking on a lot of risk by using untested substances on themselves. The peptide gray market has matured, making it likely unregulatable. This article looks at some of the peptides available on the market and the evidence behind their effectiveness.
Furiosa is a startup that makes neural processing units (NPUs), chips designed to handle the type of computing calculations underpinning AI. The startup's chips can provide similar performance to Nvidia's advanced GPUs with less electricity usage. Mass production of the chips is slated to start this month. This article tells the story of June Pai, Furiosa's founder, and how he founded the company.
Boris Cherny created Claude Code. In this thread, he details his setup and how he works with Claude Code. Claude Code was created to be very customizable, but Cherny uses a surprisingly vanilla setup. Each person on the Claude Code team uses the IDE very differently.
The center of software work is moving. Previously, the model of software work - turning intent into something real - absorbed most of the time, attention, and craft of software teams. AI agents can now produce working code from goals, context, and tasks. As systems improve, the middle will get thinner, and less time will be spent manually translating intent into implementation. Developers will still need to understand the problem, gather the right context from customers and internal teams, and shape the work. Directing and managing agent work will become the craft in this era.
Netflix wants to start streaming Warner Bros.' movies just 17 days after their release in theaters. The companies may end up negotiating a larger window of up to 45 days. This highlights the tension between Hollywood and Netflix's priority of bolstering streaming. Netflix expects the Warner Bros. transaction to close in the next 12 to 18 months, if it passes regulatory scrutiny.
The University of Waterloo has a co-op program that is famous for the opportunities offered and the different countries you could work in. All of the students in every graduating class always have jobs lined up due to the over two years of work experience they gained in the program. This post, written by a student who has been in the co-op for a bit longer than a year, discusses how the program has changed them and helped them. While the program gives students a massive head start on their careers, financial independence, and the chance to live in a new city every four months, it creates a lot of pressure, and students are forced to grow up fast.
This post presents a disciplined approach to AI-assisted engineering that leverages AI aggressively while staying accountable for the software produced.
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OpenAI has unified several engineering, product, and research teams over the past couple of months to overhaul its audio models. The company is reportedly preparing to launch an audio-first personal device in about a year. Its new audio model will sound more natural, be able to handle interruptions, and even speak when users are talking. The entire tech industry seems to be headed toward a future where screens become background noise and audio takes center stage.
One of the big transformations of this year will be robotaxis. Waymo will likely partner with Uber in many locations because Uber owns demand, but over time, Waymo will want to go direct. Cybercab will appear sometime this year and undercut both Uber and Waymo in price. Uber's demand for rides will go down pretty quickly once price drops - Waymo is currently more expensive than Uber, but it is still thriving because people prefer to ride without a driver.
SpaceX is lowering all Starlink satellites from around 550 km to around 480 km over the course of the year. The shell lowering will be tightly coordinated with other operators, regulators, and USSPACECOM. Condensing Starlink orbits will increase space safety, particularly with difficult-to-control risks like uncoordinated maneuvers and launches by other satellite operators.
Mark Thomson is now the director general of CERN. One of the first things he will do during his term is to turn off the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) to make way for a major upgrade that will make the LHC more precise with its measurements of particles and their interactions. The upgrade will dominate Thomson's five-year tenure. The LHC will reach its end of life around 2041.
Writing a lot of tests doesn't always guarantee software quality. Engineers need to study target users more deeply to really understand how they will use their products. One way to do this is by creating AI users to test software. This can result in a feedback loop that allows engineers to iterate quickly.
Once coding speed jumps, everything around it becomes a constraint. Developers' throughput is now capped by clarifying requirements, reviewing changes, validating correctness and performance, getting to production safely, and operating the product. The great engineering divergence will be determined by who raises that ceiling end-to-end. Organizations that update their processes to improve the non-code chokepoints will reap the largest rewards this year.
Silicon Valley and the Communist Party are similar in that both are serious, self-serious, and completely humorless. They both tend to speak in either a bland corporate tone or a philosophical register. These two forces both aim to increase their centrality while weakening the agency of whole nation-states. This article looks at how the two parties differ in their AI efforts and what that might mean for the future of humanity.
Hasbro's 'Toy Tycoon' is a role-playing strategy game designed for up-and-coming leaders. The game takes a full day to play. Players confront a series of scenarios that test their managerial mettle. The game helps players think through how to manage their company's cash, time, and other resources, and to pivot when the most thoughtful plans fail. Players aim to build a brand, scale a business, and smartly apply market research.
Meta took steps to make scam ads less discoverable to regulators, investigators, and journalists due to fears that Japanese regulators would require advertiser verification, a measure the company estimated would cost roughly $2 billion to implement and potentially reduce revenue by nearly 5%. The campaign was so successful that Meta added the tactic to a 'general global playbook' that has since been deployed against regulatory scrutiny in other markets. Meta had previously estimated that 10% of its 2024 revenue was from ads tied to scams and banned goods.
Creation tools are getting better and better. This will make creators matter more. Those who have the ability to be real, to connect, and to have a voice that can't be faked will be those who succeed in this new world. The bar will shift from whether someone can create to whether someone can create something that only they could create. Only the creators who can maintain trust and signal authenticity will stand out.
A Tesla owner successfully drove coast-to-coast across the US on Full Self-Driving (FSD) Supervised with zero interventions during the trip. Their Model 3 completed the drive in 2 days and 20 hours, starting at the Tesla Diner in Los Angeles, CA, and ending in Myrtle Beach, SC. It was accomplished with Tesla FSD V14.2 on AI4 hardware. The milestone trip was widely lauded by members of the Tesla community.
Neuralink received FDA breakthrough device designation for its speech restoration in 2025. The company also launched clinical trials in the Middle East and the UK, and completed two surgeries in Canada. It upgraded its surgical robot to be able to insert an electrode thread every 1.5 seconds at insertion depths of over 50mm. The threads go through the dura without the need to remove it. Neuralink plans to move to an almost completely automated surgical procedure this year.
The primary security question for companies will be how good their attackers' AI is versus their own AI. There will be increased spending on agentic security platforms and significantly more in-house building of security tools. Asset management will become possible for the first time because of agents. Most security platforms will eventually be replaceable with AI prompts.
Ben Tossell, who works at Factory, a company developing a frontier software development agent, has spent 3 billion tokens in four months through an agent without writing any code. None of the code was read, but Tossell read the agent output religiously, which led to him picking up a ton of knowledge around how code works, how projects work, where things fail, and where they succeed. Tossell has shipped several projects using his method over the past few months, including a personal site, a 'wrapped' product for Factory, several custom CLIs, and an AI-directed video demo system. This post contains Tossell's guide to learning to program.
2026 will be the year when generative UI takes off, the Smart Home finally fulfills its promise, and biometric proof of personhood becomes the new social login. Engineers looking to separate themselves from the crowd need to build and learn, as deep technical intuition is what will distinguish them from others. Agents will continue to be the main headline. This year, they will start interacting in our daily lives to anticipate needs.
AI tends to improve at the same pace that AI researchers get access to faster hardware. The hardware scheduled to come online in the next few years makes current hardware look like pocket calculators. If previous observations hold true, then we are not approaching a plateau, the field is just getting started.
There is a lot less money going towards hiring, but that could change if the tax code gets rolled back, interest rates fall, and data centers stop being the rage.
