What we're reading, in the order we're reading it.
Anthony and Harry's working stream — links, charts, tweets, and short takes. The unprocessed inputs behind the briefings.
Allianz partners with Anthropic to scale AI in insurance
Allianz and Anthropic announce a global partnership to integrate Claude AI models into insurance workflows, focusing on security and compliance.
AI PCs aren’t selling, and Microsoft’s PC partners are scrambling
Microsoft has gone all-in with its plans to turn the Windows PC into an AI-powered ‘agentic OS.’ But at least one PC maker says consumers aren’t buying the Copilot hype.
Oil Isn’t the Only Commodity at Play in the U.S. Ouster of Mamdani
While oil gets the attention, the U.S. has plenty of it, perhaps too much. What it doesn’t have are the critical minerals essential to America’s artificial intelligence push.
3 Questions: How AI could optimize the power grid
MIT researchers are working on AI tools to optimize the power grid, which could improve efficiency, increase resilience to extreme weather, and enable the integration of more renewable energy.
China’s AI chip dragons’ firepower is mostly mythical
The three newly listed makers of semiconductors are lossmaking, and none has sales worth more than a tenth of their bigger rival
Walmart Connect takes a play out of the Amazon playbook to make agentic AI the next battleground in retail media
The next retail media war is between Walmart Connect’s Sparky and Amazon’s Rufus, driven by agentic AI and first-party data.
Future starts to sharpen its AI search visibility playbook
Future is boosting AI search citations and mentions with a tool called Future Optic, and offering the product to branded content clients.
Inside the brand and agency scramble for first-party data in the AI era
Brands are moving faster to own first-party data as AI and privacy changes alter the digital advertising landscape.
Color-Changing Material That Mimics Octopus Skin Could Be Used for Robotics
Learn more about the polymer film that can change color and texture when electron beams are applied.
Amazon’s AI is shopping on your behalf where it’s not supposed to — and retailers aren’t happy
Small retailers revolt against Amazon’s Buy for Me AI experiment
Siemens and Nvidia outline a radical realignment of manufacturing at CES
With AI as a new “operating system” and the Digital Twin Composer, the partners to merge the real and digital worlds into an industrial metaverse.
Hollywood Unions Pencil in Bargaining Dates as AI and Health Funding Issues Loom
The Hollywood unions are expected to begin bargaining in February on three new contracts for the first time since the 2023 strikes.
Elon Musk’s xAI to build $20 billion data center in Mississippi
Elon Musk’s AI company, xAI, plans to spend $20 billion on a data center in Southaven, Mississippi. Gov.
The Economics of Transformative AI
Anton Korinek is an economist at UVA and the Brookings Institution who focuses on the macroeconomics of AI. This is a lightly edited transcript of a…
UK Prime Minister says ‘we will take action’ on Grok’s disgusting deepfakes
X could face a ban in the UK.
AI Bubble Dashboard
A practical framework to analyze whether AI is in a bubble. Monitor five key gauges measuring economic strain, industry strain, revenue growth, valuation heat, and funding quality.
Decoding the Arctic to predict winter weather
MIT research scientist Judah Cohen is using machine learning and Arctic climate indicators to improve subseasonal weather forecasting. His model won first place in the 2025 AI WeatherQuest subseasonal forecasting...
Google Adding an AI Inbox, AI Overviews to Gmail. Does Anybody Want This?
Google is dropping the paywall on some if its Gmail AI features, including ‘Help Me Write.’ But it’ll soon be harder to avoid Gemini inside your inbox.
Sony Patents AI That Plays Video Games for You If You Get Stuck
Japanese tech giant Sony is looking to let an AI navigate PlayStation games on the human player’s behalf.
How will the United States and China power the AI race?
How will rising energy demand shape geopolitical competition between the United States and China?
Why Are Grok and X Still Available in App Stores?
Elon Musk’s chatbot has been used to generate thousands of sexualized images of adults and apparent minors. Apple and Google have removed other “nudify” apps—but continue to host X and...
OpenAI launches ChatGPT for Healthcare with US hospitals
OpenAI introduces “OpenAI for Healthcare,” offering secure, HIPAA-compliant AI solutions tailored for hospitals and healthcare systems at scale.
‘Worst in Show’ CES products include AI refrigerators, AI companions and AI doorbells
The promise of artificial intelligence was front and center at this year’s CES gadget show. But spicing up a simple machine like a refrigerator with unnecessary AI was also a...
High RAM prices mean record-setting profits for Samsung and other memory makers
SK Hynix and Micron are also riding high on the AI industry’s demand for RAM.
The sneaky ways AI chatbots keep you hooked – and coming back for more
The rise of social media turned human attention into a commodity. Now, the AI race is taking that to new heights.
Is artificial intelligence really plagiarism on a massive scale?
Is AI “Intelligence” or plagiarism software? By plagiarism, is meant not the use of AI that plagues teachers, that is, AI used by students to produce papers, the writing and...
Nvidia’s reportedly asking Chinese customers to pay upfront its for H200 AI chips
Nvidia is now requiring its customers in China to pay upfront in full for its H200 AI chips even as approval Stateside and from Beijing remains uncertain.
Officials piloting software to tackle deepfakes ahead of Scottish and Welsh elections
Electoral Commission says tools to detect AI-generated content could be in place before campaigns begin
Microsoft is now integrating shopping directly into Copilot
Microsoft will soon begin implementing shopping directly into Copilot. The tool is called Copilot Checkout and lets shoppers complete purchases while using the service.
AI Devices Are Coming. Will Your Favorite Apps Be Along for the Ride?
Tech companies are calling AI the next platform. But some developers are reluctant to let AI agents stand between them and their users.
U.S. Productivity Surges, but AI Isn’t Driving Efficiency Gains Yet
Productivity jumped in the third quarter, easing labor cost pressures and helping inflation. But the gains reflect how output is measured—more than an AI-driven efficiency boom.
ChatGPT Health lets you connect medical records to an AI that makes things up
New feature will allow users to link medical and wellness records to AI chatbot.
AI Copilot Keeps Berkeley’s X-Ray Particle Accelerator on Track
In the rolling hills of Berkeley, California, an AI agent is supporting high-stakes physics experiments at the Advanced Light Source (ALS) particle accelerator. Researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory...
Modernizing clinical process maps with AI
Clinical evidence is always evolving, but traditional clinical process map development and EHR build cycles often take months. In his upcoming HIMSS26 session, one informatics leader will show how to...
Accelerating LLM and VLM Inference for Automotive and Robotics with NVIDIA TensorRT Edge-LLM
Large language models (LLMs) and multimodal reasoning systems are rapidly expanding beyond the data center. Automotive and robotics developers increasingly want to run conversational AI agents…
ThunderSoft Showcases AIOS Platforms for Vehicles, AIoT, and Robotics at CES 2026
At CES 2026, ThunderSoft (Thunder Software Technology Co., Ltd., Stock Code: 300496) showcased AIOS Platforms for Vehicles, AIoT, and Robotics. A broad portfolio of products and solutions built on the...
Microsoft will put buy buttons directly in Copilot
Yet another AI shopping feature.
OpenAI launches ChatGPT Health to review your medical records
The firm says its chatbot sees health and wellbeing questions from 230 million people every week.
SimpleMem: Efficient Lifelong Memory for LLM Agents
To support reliable long-term interaction in complex environments, LLM agents require memory systems that efficiently manage historical experiences. Existing approaches either retain full…