AI, Robotics & Automation in 2026: What’s Likely, What’s Not, and What Comes Next
An insightful analysis of what AI, robotics, and automation will realistically achieve in 2026—what’s likely, what’s not, and why it matters for the future.
Equity’s 2026 Predictions: AI Agents, Blockbuster IPOs, and the Future of VC
TechCrunch’s Equity crew is bringing 2025 to a close and getting ahead on the year to come with our annual predictions episode! Hosts Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Rebecca Bellan were joined by Build Mode host Isabelle Johannessen to dissect the year’s biggest tech developments, from mega AI fund...
Waymo is testing Gemini as an in-car AI assistant in its robotaxis
Waymo is testing a Gemini-powered in-car AI assistant, per findings from a 1,200-line system prompt. The assistant can answer general knowledge questions, control certain in-cabin features, and more.
Step into a fictional cocktail party where today’s most popular AI models—ChatGPT, Copilot, Claude, Gemini, MidJourney, Stable Diffusion, and Bard—banter, argue, and collaborate. This playful analogy highlights their unique personalities, training philosophies, and biases, while revealing how they c...
Scientists reverse Alzheimer’s in mice and restore memory
Alzheimer’s has long been considered irreversible, but new research challenges that assumption. Scientists discovered that severe drops in the brain’s energy supply help drive the disease—and restoring that balance can reverse damage, even in advanced cases. In mouse models, treatment repaired brain...
What we put on our plates may matter more for the climate than we realize. Researchers found that most people, especially in wealthy countries, are exceeding a “food emissions budget” needed to keep global warming below 2°C. Beef alone accounts for nearly half of food-related emissions in Canada. Sm...
Italy tells Meta to suspend its policy that bans rival AI chatbots from WhatsApp
Italy has ordered Meta to suspend its policy that bans companies from using WhatsApp's business tools to offer their own AI chatbots on the popular chat app.
AI supercharges scientific output while quality slips
AI writing tools are supercharging scientific productivity, with researchers posting up to 50% more papers after adopting them. The biggest beneficiaries are scientists who don’t speak English as a first language, potentially shifting global centers of research power. But there’s a downside: many AI...
Can AI fix the operating room? This startup thinks so
There’s plenty of hype around AI and robots in healthcare, but the problem that’s actually costing hospitals money right now is operating room coordination. Two to four hours of OR time is lost every single day, not because of the surgeries themselves, but because of everything in between from manua...
John Carreyrou and other authors bring new lawsuit against six major AI companies
These authors rejected Anthropic's class action settlement, arguing that "LLM companies should not be able to so easily extinguish thousands upon thousands of high-value claims at bargain-basement rates."
Lemon Slice nabs $10.5M from YC and Matrix to build out its digital avatar tech
Digital avatar generation company Lemon Slice is working to add a video layer to AI chatbots with a new diffusion model that can create digital avatars from a single image.
How social media encourages the worst of AI boosterism
Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind, summed it up in three words: “This is embarrassing.” Hassabis was replying on X to an overexcited post by Sébastien Bubeck, a research scientist at the rival firm OpenAI, announcing that two mathematicians had used OpenAI’s latest large language model, GPT-5...
OpenAI says AI browsers may always be vulnerable to prompt injection attacks
OpenAI says prompt injections will always be a risk for AI browsers with agentic capabilities, like Atlas. But the firm is beefing up its cybersecurity with an 'LLM-based automated attacker.'
AI Quantum Intelligence & Pic of the week (2025&12&19)
Visualizing the "AI Orchestrator" concept of 2025. This image depicts the synergy between human creativity and autonomous AI agents. It highlights key 2025 trends including agentic workflows, multimodal interfaces, and sustainable AI energy consumption in a futuristic, biophilic office setting.
The Rise of Personal AI Agents: What They May Actually Do for You in 2026
Personal AI agents are becoming more capable and more accessible, but not everyone will use them the same way. This article explains what these agents are, how they might fit into everyday life, and what to consider before adopting them.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul signs RAISE Act to regulate AI safety
The bill will require large AI developers to publish information about their safety protocols and report safety incidents to the state within 72 hours.
Hardware’s brutal week: iRobot, Luminar, and Rad Power go bankrupt
The hardware world had a brutal week, with iRobot, Luminar, and Rad Power Bikes all filing for bankruptcy. Each company faces its own mix of tariff pressures, supply chain issues, and shifting markets, but together they tell a larger story about the challenges of building physical products in an er...
OpenAI adds new teen safety rules to ChatGPT as lawmakers weigh AI standards for minors
OpenAI updated its guidelines for how its AI models should behave with users under 18, and published new AI literacy resources for teens and parents. Still, questions remain about how well policies translate into practice....