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AI

xAI's massive new $20B raise

Zach Mink • 6 minutes

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Good morning, AI enthusiasts. OpenAI and Anthropic may be racing towards IPOs, but xAI is quickly climbing the ranks while staying private.

With a new $20B raise valuing Elon Musk's AI startup at $230B and deeper integrations with X, Tesla, and Optimus on tap, Grok is positioned for a major 2026 leap — if it can stop undressing people.

In today’s AI rundown:

  • xAI hits $230B valuation with Nvidia backing

  • Razer’s holographic AI gaming companion

  • Turn any UI into a landing page with Gemini 3 Pro

  • Stanford AI predicts 130 diseases from a night’s sleep

  • 4 new AI tools, community workflows, and more

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

XAI

💰 xAI hits $230B valuation with Nvidia backing

Image source: xAI

The Rundown: xAI just announced the completion of a new $20B Series E funding round, valuing the company at over $200B, with Elon Musk’s AI startup receiving backing from Nvidia, Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, and others.

The details:

  • The reported $230B valuation puts xAI third among frontier AI labs, trailing Anthropic ($350B) and OpenAI ($500B) but far ahead of most competitors.

  • The company is quickly scaling compute infrastructure in Memphis, with a third data center planned that would push total power capacity close to 2 gigawatts.

  • xAI also revealed that Grok 5 is currently in training, with plans to ship new products tying together the chatbot, X, and its Colossus supercomputer.

Why it matters: The AI funding wars show no signs of cooling, with xAI now joining OAI and Anthropic in the rarefied $200B+ valuation club. Musk's unique advantage of owning both the AI and the distribution platform (X), alongside expanded Tesla and Optimus integrations, positions Grok for a potential major leap up the AI ladder.

TOGETHER WITH VANTA

🛡️ Turn compliance into a deal accelerator

The Rundown: Vanta’s Agentic Trust Platform helps fast-moving startups and security teams get audit-ready fast and stay continuously compliant, turning compliance into a deal accelerator, not a blocker.

Join the live demo to learn how to:

  • Accelerate compliance with agentic workflows across SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, and more

  • Build real security foundations, not check-the-box fixes

  • Show credibility faster with a public Trust Center and AI-powered questionnaires

  • Keep engineers focused with guided workflows and dev-native automation

Register here for the live demo and ask your questions in real time.

RAZER

🎮 Razer unveils holographic AI gaming companion

Image source: Razer

The Rundown: Gaming tech company Razer debuted Project AVA at CES 2026, a Grok-driven hologram device that puts an animated AI assistant inside a glowing physical cylinder, teasing use cases like game coaching, brainstorming, and more.

The details:

  • AVA displays a 5.5-inch animated avatar inside a clear capsule, with options ranging from Grok personalities and anime characters to esports likenesses.

  • A built-in camera and dual microphones let the AI watch users’ screens and listen for voice commands, offering real-time gameplay tips or work assistance.

  • Razer is using xAI's Grok as the default brain for AVA, though the company says it's building for compatibility with other AI providers down the line.

  • Reservations are open now for $20 for U.S. customers, with shipments expected in late 2026 and final pricing still unannounced.

Why it matters: Move over OpenAI, there’s a new AI desk device rolling into town. AVA is a pretty cool take on bringing AI companions into a ‘physical’ form, though there is some irony in positioning it for gamers first when that user segment has been notoriously against nearly everything AI.

AI TRAINING

🚀 Turn any UI into a landing page with Gemini 3 Pro

The Rundown: In this tutorial, you will learn how to use Gemini 3 Pro to study any UI design from video and turn it into a fully working landing page, complete with animations, interactions, and polished layouts that don't look AI-generated.

Step-by-step:

  1. Find UI inspiration on Dribbble, Behance, or any live SaaS site, then download a screen recording of the scrolling page (not just a static screenshot)

  2. Upload it to Gemini 3 Pro and prompt: "Study this video and write a prompt describing the UI—layout, colors, etc, then turn it into instructions for a dev"

  3. Ask Gemini to convert the analysis into markdown format for a clean handover document, then copy the full prompt into a new Gemini chat

  4. Adapt the prompt to your product and add: "Create a high-fidelity interactive landing page based on this design spec and show me a live preview"

Pro tip: Iterate on colors, sections, or animations before exporting to Cursor, Bolt, or Replit for deployment

PRESENTED BY UNFRAME

💸 Build or buy enterprise AI?

The Rundown: AI is a must-have for enterprises – but deciding when to buy versus when to build in-house can be tough. Unframe’s guide shares strategic insights for leaders to balance innovation, control, and speed.

In this guide, you’ll learn:

  • A practical framework for when to build vs. buy

  • Lessons from enterprise AI failures, and what to do differently

  • How to combine the speed of buying with the precision of building

Download the guide to make smarter AI investment decisions.

AI RESEARCH

😴 Stanford AI predicts 130 diseases from a night’s sleep

Image source: Nano Banana Pro / The Rundown

The Rundown: Stanford researchers just published SleepFM, a new AI foundation model that can predict over 130 health conditions like dementia, heart attacks, and Parkinson's from a single overnight sleep recording.

The details:

  • The model was trained on 600K hours of sleep data from 65K participants, analyzing brain waves, heart activity, breathing, and muscle signals.

  • When body signals fell out of sync, like a brain in deep sleep with a racing heart, the model flagged it as a warning sign for future disease.

  • The team linked 25 years of Stanford Sleep Clinic health records to sleep data, testing predictions across 1,000+ disease categories.

  • SleepFM predicted Parkinson's with 89% accuracy, dementia at 85%, heart attacks at 81%, and general overall risk of death at 84%.

Why it matters: We spend so much of our lives asleep, but there is still so much to learn about what data from that time might reveal. SleepFM shows overnight recordings could be an early warning system — and as wearables get more advanced, predictive health monitoring could move from sleep labs right onto your wrist.

QUICK HITS

🛠️ Trending AI Tools

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  • 📱 LFM 2.5 - Liquid AI’s new AI models for on-device speed and efficiency

  • 🎥 LTX-2 - Lightricks' new open-source foundation video model

  • 📦 Alexa.com - Amazon's AI assistant experience now on the web

*Sponsored Listing

📰 Everything else in AI today

Nvidia unveiled the Rubin platform at CES 2026, combining six new chips into a unified AI supercomputer that delivers 5x the training compute of its Blackwell line.

Liquid AI released LFM 2.5, a new SOTA open-weight model family for on-device AI across text, vision, and audio that tops benchmarks compared to similar-sized rivals.

Lightricks open-sourced LTX-2, an AI video model capable of generating native 4K footage and synced audio with granular camera and motion control.

AMD CEO Lisa Su said during a presentation at CES 2026 that global AI users will surpass 5B in the next five years, requiring compute to increase 100x to meet demand.

AI benchmarking platform LM Arena raised $150M in Series A funding at a $1.7B valuation, tripling its seed round value.

Anthropic’s Daniela Amodei appeared on an interview with CNBC, saying “the exponential continues until it doesn’t… and every year it has” in regards to AI scaling.

COMMUNITY

🤝 Community AI workflows

Every newsletter, we showcase how a reader is using AI to work smarter, save time, or make life easier.

Today’s workflow comes from reader Tom G. in Nashville, TN:

"While running errands with my wife, our 2014 Honda Odyssey's ‘Check Engine’ light came on. I asked ChatGPT for help, providing my car's make, model, and engine size. ChatGPT told me to go to AutoZone and ask for a free code-cypher and to tell her what code(s) the car was sending out.

I provided the codes I got from AutoZone to ChatGPT, who proceeded to diagnose the problem, told me how to fix it, and helped me order the replacement items needed."

How do you use AI? Tell us here.

🎓 Highlights: News, Guides & Events

See you soon,

Rowan, Joey, Zach, Shubham, and Jennifer — the humans behind The Rundown

Tech

Lego's iconic brick just got a brain

Jennifer Mossalgue • 5 minutes

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Good morning, tech enthusiasts. The classic Lego just got a digital upgrade that reacts as you build. The company has unveiled a “Smart Brick” that senses motion, light, and nearby pieces — and works with Smart Minifigures to trigger real-time audio and effects.

Lego calls it “its biggest innovation in decades,” designed to give bricks an interactive edge but without pulling kids onto screens.

In today’s tech rundown:

  • Lego’s new tech-loaded smart bricks

  • Grok’s deepfake crisis goes global

  • Uber unveils new Lucid-Nuro robotaxi

  • Data centers drive $6.5B spike in grid costs

  • Quick hits on other tech news

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

LEGO

🧱 Lego’s new tech-loaded smart bricks

Image source: Lego

The Rundown: At CES 2026, Lego introduced the Smart Brick, a revamped 2x4 that adds sensors, lights, sound, and wireless connectivity so that builds can react to motion, light, and nearby pieces while still looking like regular bricks.

The details:

  • A tiny ASIC chip powers the bricks and Smart Minifigures with near-field magnetic positioning, accelerometers, LED arrays, and miniature speakers.

  • Smart Tags tell bricks how to behave — a helicopter set triggers propeller sounds and lights that sync with actual movement, for example.

  • Lego developed proprietary Bluetooth-based tech that lets multiple Smart Bricks recognize and operate with each other.

  • Lego’s Smart Play Star Wars sets will debut in March, with preorders opening this Friday.

Why it matters: Lego’s betting that embedding intelligence directly into physical toys beats staring at screens, while keeping kids’ hands on actual bricks. The move transforms analog play into responsive storytelling without surrendering to the iPad — a rare middle path in children’s entertainment.

XAI

🛑 Grok’s deepfake crisis goes global

Image source: xAI

The Rundown: Regulators in India, the EU (including France), and Malaysia are scrutinizing Elon Musk’s X after its AI took Grok’s “spicy mode” was used to generate sexualized deepfakes of women and minors.

The details:

  • U.S. advocates are urging the Justice Department and FTC to join them, arguing that existing child sexual abuse laws already cover AI-made CSAM.

  • The EU is assessing whether “spicy mode” violates the Digital Services Act, with officials calling some outputs not “spicy” but “illegal” and “appalling.”

  • India’s IT ministry has ordered X to complete a “technical, procedural, and governance-level review” of Grok or risk sanctions.

  • UK regulator Ofcom has made “urgent contact” with X and xAI over allegations that Grok can be used to generate sexualized images of children.

Why it matters: This could kick off a new era of scrutiny for AI platforms, where companies — not just users — may be held responsible for harmful outputs. If regulators classify Grok’s sexualized deepfakes as illegal, AI firms could face heavier compliance requirements, stricter oversight, and slower deployment of generative tools

UBER

🚖 Uber unveils new Lucid-Nuro robotaxi

Image source: Lucid Motors

The Rundown: Uber is turning Lucid’s Gravity SUV into a full-blown robotaxi, kitted out with Nuro’s self-driving tech and already running test rides on Bay Area streets ahead of a planned launch later this year.

The details:

  • The trio just pulled the wraps off a production-intent robotaxi built on Lucid’s Gravity SUV, revealed at CES.

  • The vehicle packs high-res cameras, solid-state lidar, radar, and a roof “halo” running Nvidia’s Drive AGX Thor, with integrated LEDs.

  • All autonomous hardware is installed during the factory build, avoiding the teardown-retrofit process used on Waymo’s current Jaguar I‑Pace fleet.

  • Inside, a new Uber-built interface shows an isometric city view, ETA, trip progress, and controls for climate, music, rider support, and pull-over requests.

Why it matters: Uber’s betting a factory-integrated approach can outpace Waymo’s retrofit model and transform robotaxis into an Uber-controlled business rather than a platform dependent on external fleets. If successful, it also gives Lucid a much-needed volume customer — but the real test is whether Nuro’s tech can match Waymo’s.

AI

⚡️ Data centers drive $6.5B spike in grid costs

Image source: Ideogram / The Rundown

The Rundown: The biggest U.S. power grid is buckling under data center demand. PJM-tied facilities have driven a $6.5B spike in the cost of securing reliable electricity, now claiming nearly half the system's future capacity bill, Bloomberg reports.

The details:

  • Data centers on the PJM grid have added $6.5B to the cost of securing future power, bringing their total capacity costs to $23.1B across recent auctions.

  • That $23.1B represents about 49% of PJM’s $47.2B in capacity costs for June 2025 through May 2028 — PJM’s grid spans 13 states.

  • The surge reflects a wave of new AI and cloud facilities demanding around-the-clock, high-reliability electricity at unprecedented scale.

  • Grid planners warn that this demand is colliding with lagging transmission projects and retiring older plants, forcing gas generation to fill the gap.

Why it matters: For the tech industry, the numbers flag a hard ceiling that better chips or model pruning can’t fix: across PJM, from Illinois to New Jersey, surging data center demand is colliding with slow transmission build‑out and patchy new generation, a mismatch that could mean higher prices just to keep hyperscale sites powered.

QUICK HITS

📰 Everything else in tech today

Amazon says its 2025 “Thursday Night Football” slate on Prime Video averaged 15.3M viewers per game, making it the most‑watched season in its 20‑year history.

Three offshore wind developers are suing the Trump administration after the Interior Department abruptly halted five nearly built projects worth about $25B.

Smart rings are on the rise, with IDC data showing shipments on track to jump about 49% in 2025 — far outpacing smartwatch growth, Bloomberg reports.

LG is reviving its “wallpaper” TV at CES with the OLED evo W6, a 9mm‑thick, reflection‑free 4K set that uses a wireless Zero Connect Box for lossless video.

Xreal refreshed its entry-level AR line with the 1S, a $449 pair of smart glasses that bump video resolution to 1200p while undercutting last year’s model by $50.

Eli Health announced that its saliva-based Hormometer gadget will soon add instant at-home tests for testosterone and progesterone, with per-test prices starting at $8.25.

Voice AI startup Subtle launched $199 “voicebuds” that build its noise-isolation models into wireless earbuds, claiming far clearer calls than AirPods.

Pebble is reviving its thinnest smartwatch as the $199 Pebble Round 2, a 10–14-day battery, 8.1mm-thick round watch with a higher‑res color e‑paper display.

Geely used CES to announce a plan to enter the U.S. EV market within two to three years, likely via brands like Zeekr and Lynk & Co. and U.S.-based Volvo production.

Elon Musk’s Starlink is offering free satellite internet to users in Venezuela through February 3 after U.S. airstrikes and a raid that captured Nicolás Maduro.

COMMUNITY

🎓 Highlights: News, Guides & Events

See you soon,

Rowan, Joey, Zach, Shubham, and Jennifer — The Rundown’s editorial team

AI

Alexa+ comes for ChatGPT's web turf

Zach Mink • 6 minutes

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Good morning, AI enthusiasts. Last year, Alexa stepped into the AI ring with a major + upgrade. Now, it's breaking free from the speaker to fight on a new turf.

With a new standalone Alexa.com and a redesigned mobile app, Amazon’s assistant is expanding into the browser for the first time — and right into the chatbot arena with ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok, and the very Claude the company is betting billions in.

In today’s AI rundown:

  • Amazon brings Alexa+ to the web

  • Nvidia’s open-source AI for self-driving cars

  • Create Instagram product shots with Nano Banana

  • 40M+ people use ChatGPT daily for health advice

  • 4 new AI tools, community workflows, and more

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

AMAZON

🌐 Amazon brings Alexa+ to the web

Image source: Amazon

The Rundown: Amazon just introduced Alexa.com, a new browser-based interface that brings its newly AI-infused Alexa+ assistant to the web — directly challenging rivals like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Grok in the chatbot space.

The details:

  • Early Access users can access Alexa+ through any browser for research, writing, and planning tasks, marking a first-time extension beyond devices.

  • Alexa+’s agentic capabilities expand with companies like Expedia, Yelp, Angi, and Square joining Uber and OpenTable for reservations, services, and more.

  • Amazon says engagement has surged since the Alexa+ rollout, with users shopping and cooking with the assistant at 3-5x previous rates.

  • The Alexa mobile app is also getting a chatbot-first redesign, elevating conversational AI as the main feature instead of leaving it buried in menus.

Why it matters: Amazon's massive investment in Anthropic makes this chatbot push a bit strategically awkward, with the company betting billions on Claude while also trying to position Alexa in a similar space. But with distribution across one of the few actually used AI-integrated devices on the market, Alexa+ definitely sits in a unique position.

TOGETHER WITH YOU.COM

🤑 Get the most out of your AI investment

The Rundown: Successful AI transformation starts with deeply understanding your organization’s most critical use cases. This practical guide from You.com walks through a proven framework to identify, prioritize, and document high-value AI opportunities.

In this AI Use Case Discovery Guide, you’ll learn how to:

  • Map internal workflows and customer journeys to pinpoint where AI can drive measurable ROI

  • Ask the right questions when it comes to AI use cases

  • Align cross-functional teams and stakeholders for a unified, scalable approach

Get the Guide.

NVIDIA

🚗 Nvidia’s open-source AI for self-driving cars

Image source: Nvidia

The Rundown: Nvidia just launched Alpamayo at CES 2026, a new family of open-source AI models and tools designed to help autonomous vehicles reason through complex driving scenarios like a human would.

The details:

  • Alpamayo 1 is a 10B-parameter "chain-of-thought" model that breaks down problems step-by-step to handle rare cases that fall outside of training data.

  • The model generates driving trajectories alongside reasoning traces, essentially explaining why it made each decision.

  • Jensen Huang called it the "ChatGPT moment for physical AI,” when machines begin to reason and act in the real world.

  • Nvidia is also releasing AlpaSim, an open-source simulation framework, and 1,700+ hours of real-world driving data.

Why it matters: Waymo and Tesla have proven robotaxis can work, but their billions in proprietary R&D aren't exactly replicable. Nvidia’s open-sourcing of Alpamayo changes the math, with any automaker or startup now able to build reasoning-based AV systems without starting from zero.

AI TRAINING

🖼️ Create Instagram product shots with Nano Banana

The Rundown: In this tutorial, you will learn how to use Nano Banana Pro to generate a full 9-image Instagram feed from a single inspiration photo, turning your product shots into cohesive, high-quality visuals for social media campaigns.

Step-by-step:

  1. Go to Gemini → Tools → Create Images, ensure Pro mode is enabled, and upload an inspiration image that reflects your desired style or aesthetic

  2. Upload your product image, describe it, then prompt with: “Create a 9-image Instagram feed for this product with varied angles, people, and environments”

  3. Click Submit to generate your 9-image grid. Review results and, if needed, ask Nano Banana to regenerate or isolate specific shots

  4. Download your favorite visuals and post them directly to Instagram, TikTok, or your brand’s storefront for an instant, consistent feed

Pro tip: The more specific and visually aligned your examples are, the better the AI matches your desired aesthetic.

PRESENTED BY GENSTORE

🤝 Introducing your AI founding team

The Rundown: Genstore gives solo sellers something they've never had — an AI agent team that handles the work that wears you down, so you can focus on your brand, product, and vision.

With Genstore, you can:

  • Turn your story into a fully built store in minutes

  • Delegate research, marketing, and ops to AI agents that work like co-founders

  • Grow your business without burning out doing ten jobs alone

Meet your AI founding team and stop building alone.

AI RESEARCH

🏥 40M+ people use ChatGPT daily for health advice

Image source: OpenAI

The Rundown: OpenAI just released a new report revealing that over 40M people globally turn to ChatGPT for health information daily, with over 5% of all messages now related to healthcare topics.

The details:

  • Common uses include symptom checking, decoding medical jargon, spotting billing errors, and preparing for doctor visits.

  • 70% of health-related chats happen outside normal clinic hours, with around 600K weekly messages coming from rural "hospital deserts."

  • Users send 1.6-1.9M health insurance questions weekly, covering plan comparisons, billing disputes, and claim appeals.

  • The report also included policy proposals urging the FDA to create clearer pathways for AI medical devices.

Why it matters: Healthcare is clearly already a massive AI use case — and with wearable integrations, medical breakthroughs, and OAI's push for clearer FDA pathways, it's only getting bigger. The policy proposals tucked into the report hint at a future where ChatGPT’s personalized insights may look like a digital doctor.

QUICK HITS

🛠️ Trending AI Tools

  • 🗣️ Unwrap Customer Intelligence - Turn unstructured customer feedback into data-backed insights that inform your product roadmap*

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  • 📝 Granola - Enhance meeting notes with transcriptions right from Mac audio

*Sponsored Listing

📰 Everything else in AI today

Boston Dynamics and Google DeepMind announced a partnership to integrate Gemini Robotics AI models into the company’s Atlas humanoids.

OpenAI researcher Jerry Tworek revealed that he is leaving after seven years, having contributed to OAI’s first coding systems and led the team behind reasoning AI.

Claude Code creator Boris Cherny posted a guide to how he uses the agentic coding tool, including running up to 15 parallel sessions at a time.

OpenAI CPO Fidji Simo outlined the company's 2026 product roadmap in a new blog, detailing plans to transform ChatGPT into a proactive "personal super-assistant".

Abu Dhabi’s TII released Falcon H1R 7B, a small, hybrid reasoner that outperforms rivals up to 7x its size on math and coding while running at double the inference speed.

Microsoft renamed its Office 365 productivity suite to "Microsoft 365 Copilot app," using the same name as its AI assistant for the rebrand.

COMMUNITY

🤝 Community AI workflows

Every newsletter, we showcase how a reader is using AI to work smarter, save time, or make life easier.

Today’s workflow comes from reader Lawrence R. in New Jersey:

"Each year, my friends and I engage in an NFL Playoff fantasy league built in Google Sheets. My friend manually runs all tasks from gathering the list of players to point totals. This year, I vibe-coded with Claude to automate the sheet.

With Claude, I built proper documentation, including a roadmap, workflow, tech spec, etc., and Claude provided the code files that I inserted into the Google Apps Script. We then back-tested using last year's NFL Playoff results, comparing against our previous Google Sheet. Now this year's Sheet will have automated scripts that can build a Player Database, Collect Stats through an API, and calculate Point Totals for our teams!"

How do you use AI? Tell us here.

🎓 Highlights: News, Guides & Events

See you soon,

Rowan, Joey, Zach, Shubham, and Jennifer — the humans behind The Rundown

Robotics

Agibot's tiny, portable humanoid

Jennifer Mossalgue • 5 minutes

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Good morning, robotics enthusiasts. Agibot just shrunk its humanoid playbook to 31 inches. The Chinese startup’s new Q1 survives crashes, codes without scripts, and teaches English — all in a package that fits in a backpack.

As China’s robot boom spills from factories into homes, this tiny testbed could be a sign of where the industry’s headed: smaller, cheaper, and everywhere.

In today’s robotics rundown:

  • This tiny humanoid fits in your backpack

  • SwitchBot puts a robot butler on wheels

  • NEO’s $20K home bot now comes with pillows

  • AVs could cut a million road injuries by 2035

  • Quick hits on other tech news

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

AGIBOT

🎒 This tiny humanoid fits in your backpack

Image source: Agibot/YouTube

The Rundown: Chinese startup Agibot just built Q1, a 31-inch robot with crash-proof joints, zero-code programming, and tutoring skills — plus it fits in a backpack and costs a fraction of full-size humanoids.

The details:

  • The tiny Q1 stands about 80 cm tall and is roughly one-eighth the size and weight of a typical full-size humanoid.

  • The company says the bot’s crash-resistant joints — smaller than an egg — survive stunts and repeat tumbles while maintaining precise force control.

  • Agibot built it as an open platform with developer kits, 3D-printable shells, and zero-code motion programming.

  • Out-of-the-box capabilities include voice interaction, English tutoring, guided dance lessons, and indoor positioning.​

Why it matters: In December, AgiBot said it had built its 5,000th robot and is now adding the backpack-sized Q1 to that growing fleet. With three mass-produced humanoid lines and a new portable AI testbed, the company highlights both its rapid scaling and how fast China’s robotics industry is expanding beyond industrial settings.

SWITCHBOT

🧺 SwitchBot puts a robot butler on wheels

Image source: SwitchBot

The Rundown: SwitchBot is debuting a torso-on-wheels at CES 2026 that ditches bipedal ambitions for practical household labor. The Onero H1 comes with arms, a face, and household skills like coffee-making and laundry folding.

The details:

  • The bot packs 22 degrees of freedom, Intel RealSense depth sensing, and cameras in its head and wrists to navigate cluttered rooms.

  • An onboard “OmniSense” VLA model handles object recognition and natural-language commands locally, letting H1 adapt without cloud dependency.

  • SwitchBot positions it as “the most accessible AI household robot” but hasn't disclosed pricing.

Why it matters: SwitchBot hints it will price the H1 below rivals Figure, Tesla, Agility, and LG's upcoming home bot, all while sidestepping the stability and cost problems of bipedal designs. If a wheeled bot can tackle the same chores for less, it could prove that strong arms on wheels are all robots need to move into people’s homes.

1X

🤖 NEO’s $20K home bot now comes with pillows

Image source: 1X

The Rundown: Humanoid maker 1X thinks you’ll warm up to robots if they come with merch. The company just dropped a “Home Collection” — pillow, hoodie, tote — all in the same beige, soft-touch aesthetic that wraps its $20K NEO robot itself.

The details:

  • The brand’s beige, soft-textured aesthetic is led by VP of Design, Product, and Marketing Dar Sleeper, a former Tesla product lead.

  • By pairing robotics with tangible lifestyle products, 1X hopes to make NEO look more like a gentle companion than a machine.

  • It’s part of a strategy to turn NEO into a lifestyle object, seeding desire for the brand long before most people ever share a home with a humanoid.

  • 1X is rolling out a human-in-the-loop model where paying customers deploy NEO while remote operators take the wheel during tasks the bot can’t handle.

Why it matters: Most robotics companies lead with specs, but 1X is selling vibes, betting that domestic robot adoption depends less on what bots can do than on how they make people feel. Whether ensconcing a humanoid with beige-colored lifestyle goods will actually convince consumers to invite NEO home remains the ultimate test.

AVS

🚘 AVs could cut a million road injuries by 2035

Image source: Waymo

The Rundown: A JAMA Surgery study projects that autonomous vehicles could prevent more than 1M road injuries across the U.S. between 2025 and 2035, slashing traffic injuries by 3.6%.

The details:

  • Motor vehicle crashes kill over 120 people daily in the U.S. and send 2.6M to emergency rooms annually, costing roughly $470B in medical expenses.

  • Researchers modeled 2009–2023 U.S. crash data and simulated AVs driving 1–10% of miles, assuming they’re 50–80% safer than humans.

  • At 1% adoption and 50% safer performance, AVs prevent roughly 67K injuries; at 10% adoption and 80% safer, that figure exceeds 1M.

  • Waymo data suggests AVs could be 80% safer than humans, though long-term real-world safety data remains limited as AV deployment is still nascent.

Why it matters: Most crashes stem from human error or substance use, making them preventable through automation. If AVs deliver on safety promises at scale, they could potentially eliminate hundreds of thousands of injuries within a decade — reframing autonomous driving from convenience tech into a major public health intervention.

QUICK HITS

📰 Everything else in robotics today

Unitree posted a new training video of its 180 cm (5 ft. 11 in.) tall H2 humanoid pulling off flying kicks, backflips, and sandbag strikes, in a significant agility upgrade.

Figure CEO Brett Adcock bet that 2026 will bring neural network–driven humanoids doing unsupervised home chores and FAA-compliant eVTOL test flights in cities.

FrontierX launched Vex, a spherical robot that follows your pet around the house, filming them, and using AI to stitch the footage into shareable highlight reels.

AI robotics startup Zeroth is using CES 2026 to debut a $5,599 WALL-E-inspired W1 cargo bot and a $2,899 doll-sized M1 home humanoid in the U.S.

South Korean firm ECOPEACE is rolling out its ECOBOT fleet to Singapore, where the bots will autonomously skim algae, collect trash, and monitor surface water quality.

Hyundai’s MobED all-terrain robotic base won CES 2026’s Best of Innovation Award in Robotics for keeping payloads stable in rough environments.

Sharpa moved its SharpaWave dexterous robotic hand into mass production ahead of CES, promising human-sized manipulators for general-purpose robots.

A viral clip from Shenzhen shows EngineAI’s T800 humanoid casually patrolling alongside armed police at a tourist attraction in a public safety demo.

Beijing-based Surgerii Robotics raised $100M in a Series D round to scale its SHURUI single-port surgical robot across China and international markets.

UniX AI is pitching its Wanda humanoids at CES as mass-producible service robots built for repetitive hotel, retail, security, and household work.

UBTech released a video of its Walker S2 humanoid rallying tennis balls against a human opponent, using stereo vision, full-body dynamic balance, and 23 DoF.

COMMUNITY

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Rowan, Joey, Zach, Shubham, and Jennifer — The Rundown’s editorial team

AI

Meta’s AI chief scientist leaves with parting shots

Zach Mink • 7 minutes

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Good morning, AI enthusiasts. Acclaimed AI chief scientist Yann LeCun just departed Meta after over a decade, and the outspoken researcher definitely didn’t leave quietly.

From calling his boss Alexandr Wang "inexperienced" to admitting Llama 4 benchmarks were "fudged," LeCun’s parting shots in a candid interview encapsulate the tension between Meta's old guard and new AI direction.

In today’s AI rundown:

  • LeCun blasts Meta's AI leadership on way out

  • The Rundown Roundtable: Our 2026 AI predictions

  • Create Claude Skill to design YouTube thumbnails

  • Grok faces backlash over ‘undressing’ AI capabilities

  • 4 new AI tools, community workflows, and more

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

YANN LECUN & META

🚪 LeCun blasts Meta's AI leadership on way out

Image source: Nano Banana Pro / The Rundown

The Rundown: Meta's outgoing chief AI scientist, Yann LeCun, just shed light on his new AI startup and criticized Meta in an FT interview, calling Alexandr Wang "inexperienced" and predicting more departures from the company’s GenAI team.

The details:

  • LeCun called Wang, who was elevated to run Meta's Superintelligence Labs after the $14B Scale AI deal, "young" and lacking research experience.

  • He also admitted Llama 4 benchmarks were "fudged a little bit," with Zuckerberg reportedly losing confidence in the entire GenAI org.

  • LeCun said Meta's new AI hires are "completely LLM-pilled," while he maintains LLMs are a "dead end" for achieving superintelligence.

  • Lecun revealed that he will be the ‘executive chair’ of his new AMI venture, with French AI healthcare startup Nabla’s founder Alex LeBrun leading as CEO.

Why it matters: The tension between Meta’s old guard and new hires has been felt since this summer’s re-org, and LeCun has always been outspoken… But these are serious statements to make publicly. Only time will tell if Zuck, Alexandr Wang, and co’s new direction ends up proving him right — or makes him look out of touch.

TOGETHER WITH GURU

🧠 Your AI source of truth

The Rundown: Guru is the AI Source of Truth that connects all of your company’s tools and delivers cited, permission-aware answers everywhere you work. With one governed knowledge layer powering both your people and your AIs, teams move faster — with fewer blind spots and mistakes.

Guru allows you to:

  • Connect all knowledge with permission-aware access

  • Get trusted, cited answers in chat and everywhere else you work

  • Experience knowledge that improves and verifies itself

Learn more about Guru.

THE RUNDOWN ROUNDTABLE

🔮 The Rundown Roundtable: Our 2026 AI predictions

Image source: Ideogram / The Rundown

The Rundown: The Rundown Roundtable is a weekly feature in which we poll members of The Rundown staff about how we use AI in our work and daily lives. In today’s first edition of 2026, we’re giving our industry predictions for the year ahead.

Rowan, Founder & CEO: Google finally nails the integration of AI into its existing products (Gmail, Search, YouTube, Android) and starts gaining a lead over OAI in total AI users. ChatGPT remains the dominant chatbot, but Google dominates all other AI capabilities (integrating with existing products, video, and image gen).

Jason, Developer: We see our first major AI drug moment, and the tech stops being a cool lab demo and becomes a boring, repeatable way to produce drug candidates. I'm not saying AI cures cancer, but an AI-first candidate gets a big Phase 3 launch or something similar, which prompts the wave of “AI discovery stack” across pharma.

Zach, AI Writer: One of the major Western labs declares a new release as AGI in 2026, though the term has been so overused and distorted that everyone continues to argue over definitions. The “AGI” model is an upgrade, but nothing world-shaking — and life goes on much like after other invisible broken milestones like the Turing Test.

AI TRAINING

🤩 Create Claude Skill to design YouTube thumbnails

The Rundown: In this tutorial, you will learn how to build a custom Claude Skill that automatically generates branded YouTube thumbnails by analyzing top-performing videos and applying your brand guidelines.

Step-by-step:

  1. Go to Claude Settings → Capabilities, enable Code execution & file creation, then toggle skill-creator under Skills and click Try in Chat

  2. Start a chat, upload your logo, and prompt: “Create a skill that generates high-CTR YouTube thumbnails. It should analyze video links, use the PIL library, place the logo top-right, and use Black, White, and Blue”

  3. Download the generated ZIP, then go to Profile → Settings → Capabilities → Upload Skill and install the skill

  4. Start a new chat and prompt: “Generate a YouTube thumbnail for ‘AI Productivity Tools 2025’. Here are the top videos: [paste URLs]. Create a high-CTR thumbnail with the logo top-right using brand colors”

Pro tip: Refine the thumbnails with follow-ups or use this approach to create Skills for other productivity tasks, such as presentation generation.

PRESENTED BY CONCIERGE

👋 Your brand's AI answer engine

The Rundown: Today’s buyers use AI every day to answer their questions, and have no patience for a scavenger hunt on your website. Concierge is a custom Perplexity-style answer engine, trained on your company’s content, that lives on your website and delivers accurate, personalized responses to ultra-specific questions.

Modern brands use Concierge to:

  • Handle any buyer question (no matter how technical) with advanced RAG on your content & media

  • Control and visibility over every conversation, with guardrails and sentiment analysis

  • Build trust with website visitors before they are willing to commit to a demo

Use Concierge to turn every question into an opportunity. 

XAI & GROK

⚠️ Grok faces backlash over ‘undressing’ AI capabilities

Image source: X / The Rundown

The Rundown: xAI’s Grok is facing criticism and government action from multiple countries after complying with users’ requests to edit images of women and minors in revealing fashion — a trend that has become prevalent throughout the platform.

The details:

  • X has been flooded with users prompting Grok to digitally undress people using the model’s AI editing capabilities, with some requests involving minors.

  • Musk said users making illegal content with Grok "will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content."

  • France, India, Malaysia, and the UK have all condemned the outputs, with France calling them "clearly illegal" under the EU's Digital Services Act.

  • The X @Safety account posted a similar statement as Musk, saying it will work to remove, permanently suspend accounts, and work with law enforcement.

Why it matters: Grok’s less restrictive behavior has been marketed as a feature, but we’re now witnessing one of the first viral results of giving powerful, unrestricted AI editing powers to the masses — and it’s ugly. While Musk and X talk of taking action, anonymous accounts and a global userbase make that a tall task.

QUICK HITS

🛠️ Trending AI Tools

  • ⚙️ Claude Code - Anthropic’s deep-context agentic AI coding tool

  • 🌌 Grok Imagine - xAI's image and video generation platform

  • 🎥 Kling 2.6 - Featuring Motion Control for precise character animation

  • 🏷️ Shopify SimGym - Simulate buyer behavior with AI shoppers

📰 Everything else in AI today

Google Principal Engineer Jaana Dogan shared that Claude Code replicated in one hour what her team spent a year trying to build.

Elon Musk responded to a post from Midjourney founder David Holz on AI coding development, declaring that “we have entered the Singularity”.

Prime Intellect published research on Recursive Language Models, an approach allowing AI agents to manage their memory to enable tasks spanning weeks/months.

Anthropic is purchasing as many as 1M of Google’s TPUv7 AI chips from Broadcom, with the Ironwood chip line continuing to gain ground as an alternative to Nvidia.

xAI released a new upgrade to its Grok Imagine creative platform, with Elon Musk revealing that there will be “another major upgrade” in 3 weeks.

COMMUNITY

🤝 Community AI workflows

Every newsletter, we showcase how a reader is using AI to work smarter, save time, or make life easier.

Today’s workflow comes from reader Suvankar in Australia:

"I received a bread-maker for Christmas. I use AI to work alongside me as a diagnostic partner rather than just handing my recipes, translating what I see, feel, and smell into small, controlled adjustments that steadily improve results. Each bake builds on the last. We observe dough behaviour early, interpret it through simple baking science, then change only one or two variables at a time so that cause and effect stay clear.

This turns the machine from a black box into a predictable tool, helps me develop repeatable house recipes, and gives me the confidence to correct a loaf instinctively."

How do you use AI? Tell us here.

🎓 Highlights: News, Guides & Events

See you soon,

Rowan, Joey, Zach, Shubham, and Jennifer — the humans behind The Rundown

Tech

Neuralink's bet to scale brain surgery

 • 5 minutes

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Good morning, tech enthusiasts. Elon Musk says Neuralink will hit ‘high-volume production’ for its brain chips this year, with implant surgery becoming ‘almost entirely automated.’

So far, only a handful of patients have received the device, and full FDA approval is still years off. The bigger question: Is mass-producing brain surgery where we really want to go?

In today’s tech rundown:

  • Musk will soon mass-produce brain implants

  • SpaceX drops Starlink satellites to cut space junk

  • MIT shrinks IV antibody infusions into a single shot

  • Norway’s EV revolution hits record highs

  • Quick hits on other tech news

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

NEURALINK

🧠 Musk will soon mass-produce brain implants

Image source: Ideogram / The Rundown

The Rundown: Elon Musk said on X that Neuralink aims for “high-volume production” of its brain implants and automated neurosurgery this year — pushing brain-computer interfaces out of bespoke experiments and into scalable medicine.

The details:

  • Neuralink says about a dozen severely paralyzed patients now use its implant to control a computer cursor and play games using only their thoughts.

  • The first wave of applications targets people with serious neurological disorders, helping them communicate and manage daily tasks.

  • Musk said the device’s threads will pass through the dura — the protective membrane around the brain — without surgeons needing to remove it.​

  • Neuralink still needs to clear clinical trials and secure full FDA approval before it can move from tightly controlled experiments to routine medical use in the U.S.

Why it matters: Musk has previously talked about scaling to more than a thousand patients by 2026, backed by a hiring spree. If he can pull that off ahead of rivals like Synchron and Precision Neuroscience, the company will be first to test whether BCIs can move from a medical moonshot to something closer to a commercial product.

SPACEX

🛰️ SpaceX lowers Starlink satellites to cut space junk

Image source: SpaceX

The Rundown: SpaceX is lowering its Starlink megaconstellation from 550 km to 480 km this year — not for better internet, but to stop satellites from crashing into each other and triggering a wave of space junk.

The details:

  • The change will apply to around 4K Starlink units currently flying at the higher orbit and is expected to be completed within the year.

  • Flying lower increases atmospheric drag, which cuts collision risk and pulls dead satellites out of orbit faster.

  • The move follows a December incident where a Starlink satellite had an “unusual kinetic incident” and spewed debris.

  • Starlink now flies roughly 10K satellites, beaming broadband to everyone from homeowners to governments and Fortune 500s across multiple continents.

Why it matters: This is a rare example of Starlink tweaking its design to ease congestion, cut collision risk, and ensure dead satellites fall out of the sky faster instead of lingering as long‑lived junk. The move sets a precedent for rivals, that “move fast and launch things” now has to coexist with basic rules of orbital sustainability.

MIT

💉 MIT shrinks IV antibody infusions into a single shot

Image source: Christine Daniloff, MIT

The Rundown: MIT researchers just cracked a way to shrink therapeutic antibodies into injectable nanoparticles, swapping multi-hour IV infusions for a quick jab — a potential game-changer for millions of patients who depend on antibody treatments.

The details:

  • The method concentrates antibodies to roughly 360 mg per milliliter — up to 36x denser than standard formulations.

  • Engineers emulsify tiny drug droplets into a specialized liquid, dry them into nanoparticles, then rehydrate for injection.

  • The process uses standard, continuous-flow equipment instead of lab steps like centrifuges, so it can be scaled up to make large batches reliably.

  • A full dose fits into a 2-milliliter syringe instead of an IV bag hanging for hours, and the medications can sit in a fridge for months without going bad.

Why it matters: Turning IV infusions into quick shots could make powerful antibody drugs far easier to get, especially for people who live far from hospitals or cannot afford to lose hours in an infusion chair. A simple, factory‑friendly process that packs a full dose into a single syringe opens the door to cheaper, more convenient treatment.

EVS

🚙 Norway’s EV revolution hits record highs

Image source: Tesla

The Rundown: Norway closed out 2025 with 96% of new cars sold running purely on batteries and nearly 98% sporting a plug when hybrids are counted — completing one of the fastest fossil-fuel phaseouts any country has ever pulled off.

The details:

  • Out of 179,549 new cars registered in 2025, 95.9% were fully electric, and 97.5% had a plug when hybrids are counted.

  • Tesla dominated with a 19.1% market share, and the Model Y outsold the second-place VW ID.4 by more than three to one.

  • Norway spent two decades tilting the playing field with massive tax breaks, free tolls and ferries, bus-lane access, and a dense fast-charging network.

  • As Norway’s EV market matures, it is scaling back perks for pricier models but keeping incentives in place to help retire the remaining fossil-fuel cars.

Why it matters: Norway shows that aggressive incentives, infrastructure build-out, and clear phase-out dates can flip an entire car market from fossil fuel to electric in barely a decade. Its success gives other countries a real-world blueprint for cutting oil demand and transport emissions much faster than most current plans.

QUICK HITS

📰 Everything else in tech today

Apple reportedly slashed production and marketing of its high-priced Vision Pro headset after weaker-than-expected demand exposed limited mainstream appeal.

Governments are tightening rules on kids’ social media use worldwide, with countries like Australia, France, Denmark, Malaysia, and Norway moving toward under-16 bans.

China conducted its second attempt to land a reusable Long March 12A rocket booster, failing to recover the stage but successfully reaching orbit and gathering data.

British clean-energy supplier Octopus Energy is spinning off Kraken, its AI “operating system” for utility companies, into a software business valued at $8.65B.

TikTok owner ByteDance plans to spend about $14B in 2026 on Nvidia AI chips, pending U.S. approval for purchases of the latest H200 processors.

Pickle, a California startup, opened U.S.-only reservations for Pickle 1, a pair of AI-powered AR “soul computer” glasses that observe, remember, and anticipate daily life.

Trump Mobile’s $499 gold T1 smartphone, run by Trump’s sons, has been delayed again, with the company blaming the holdup on the U.S. government shutdown.

LG launched the Gallery TV, a wall-mounted “art TV” that mimics Samsung’s Frame with swappable frames and an always-on artwork mode.

Feds are targeting “The Com,” a teen-heavy hacking network behind Scattered Spider that recruits kids to run social-engineering ransomware attacks on major companies.

Uber is reportedly in talks to acquire SpotHero, a parking app that lets drivers reserve spaces in advance, as part of its push to expand beyond ride-hailing.

Tech startups are reportedly stocking offices with free nicotine pouches as a productivity perk, and installing nicotine-pouch vending machines and fridges.

COMMUNITY

🎓 Highlights: News, Guides & Events

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Rowan, Joey, Zach, Shubham, and Jennifer — The Rundown’s editorial team

AI

Instagram's AI-driven identity crisis

Zach Mink • 6 minutes

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Good morning, AI enthusiasts. The app that pioneered filter culture is now declaring the curated aesthetic dead.

Instagram head Adam Mosseri says AI content has made polished posts worthless as proof of authenticity — and the platform that built its empire on the perfect grid is quickly scrambling to evolve to the new dynamics of social media in the AI age.

In today’s AI rundown:

  • IG head says platform must “evolve fast” due to AI

  • DeepSeek hints at next-gen AI architecture

  • Use Codex to write code on the web with AI agents

  • Report: OAI overhauling audio for upcoming device

  • 4 new AI tools, community workflows, and more

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

INSTAGRAM

📸 IG head says platform must “evolve fast” due to AI

Image source: @mosseri on Threads / The Rundown

The Rundown: Instagram leader Adam Mosseri just posted a year-end essay arguing that AI-generated content has killed the curated aesthetic that made the app famous, saying that raw, unpolished posts are now the only proof that something is real.

The details:

  • Mosseri says most users under 25 have already abandoned the polished grid for more personal direct message photos and "unflattering candids."

  • He also pushed for camera makers to cryptographically sign photos at capture to verify real media instead of just weeding out fakes.

  • Mosseri said Instagram needs to “evolve” fast, predicting a shift from trusting what images you see to scrutinizing who posted it.

  • Instagram plans to label AI content, surface more context about accounts, and build tools so creators can compete with AI.

Why it matters: IG was one of the pioneers of social media’s “filter culture”, so there’s some irony in now declaring the death of authenticity. But the trend feels accurate, with both a shift in how younger users communicate and the flood of AI images, video, and content completely upending traditional dynamics of social media platforms.

TOGETHER WITH NEBIUS

💻 Nebius Token Factory — Post-training Launch

The Rundown: Nebius Token Factory just launched Post-training — the missing layer for teams building production-grade AI on open-source models. You can now fine-tune frontier models like DeepSeek V3, GPT-OSS 20B & 120B, and Qwen3 Coder across multi-node GPU clusters with stability up to 131k context.

What you get with Post-training:

  • Models deeply adapted to your domain, tone, structure, and workflows

  • One-click deployment with dedicated endpoints, SLAs, and zero-retnetino privacy

  • Shift from generic base models to custom production engines

Start fine-tuning now – GPT-OSS 20B & 120B (Full FT + LoRA FT) is free until Jan 9.

DEEPSEEK

📈 DeepSeek hints at next-gen model architecture

Image source: Nano Banana Pro / The Rundown

The Rundown: DeepSeek just published new research that proposes changes to how neural networks are structured for breakthroughs in model cost and stability, a potential preview of efficiency gains heading into its next major release.

The details:

  • The paper introduces mHC, a technique that stabilizes and improves AI training at a large scale while adding minimal extra computing cost.

  • CEO Liang Wenfeng co-authored and personally uploaded the paper to arXiv, signaling continued hands-on involvement in the startup’s research.

  • Tests on 3B, 9B, and 27B parameter models showed improved benchmark scores over existing methods, especially reasoning tasks.

  • The timing aligns with previous papers telegraphing DeepSeek’s moves, with similar research dropping before R1 and V3.

Why it matters: Last year’s DeepSeek moment made waves with R1 nearing frontier models at a fraction of the cost, and this paper hints that they may not be done finding efficiencies. Between increased access to advanced AI chips and these types of research breakthroughs, China’s releases will be more competitive than ever in 2026.

AI TRAINING

💻 Use Codex to write code on the web with AI agents

The Rundown: In this tutorial, you will learn how to use OpenAI's Codex to ship your first change from a GitHub repository without writing code by hand — connecting a repo, planning changes, implementing them with AI agents, and opening pull requests.

Step-by-step:

  1. Go to ChatGPT, open the left sidebar, and click "Codex" to access it

  2. Click "Manage environment," select your GitHub organization and repo, then configure code execution settings

  3. Choose "Plan" to discuss scope without coding, or "Execute" to make changes on a branch — example: "Can you give insights on what this project is about?"

  4. Enter implementation prompt (e.g., "Turn this static landing page into a website where users can paste their own stories and poetry"), preview changes with "Run this code and show me the site," then click "Create PR" when satisfied

Pro tip: Use branches for safety. Avoid writing code directly to main unless required.

PRESENTED BY CDATA

🚂 You bought the AI train — did you build the data track?

The Rundown: CData's 2026 State of AI Data Connectivity Report surveyed 200+ data and AI leaders on what's working (and breaking) when connecting AI to enterprise systems at scale.

The report covers:

  • Why only 6% of companies are satisfied with their data integration architecture for AI adoption

  • How real-time connectivity and semantic intelligence define AI maturity

  • What leading orgs are building to scale GenAI and agentic AI systems in 2026

Click here to read the report.

OPENAI

🎙️ Report: OAI overhauling audio for upcoming device

Image source: OpenAI

The Rundown: OpenAI has reportedly consolidated multiple teams to improve its audio AI models, according to The Information — laying the groundwork for the company’s Jony Ive-led, voice-first personal device expected in about a year.

The details:

  • OAI’s voice models are reportedly behind the text-based ChatGPT in accuracy and response speed, prompting the internal restructuring.

  • An upgraded model due in Q1 2026 will let users talk over the AI mid-response without breaking conversation flow for more natural interactions.

  • The first device launch is reportedly still around a year out and will prioritize voice over screens, with glasses and a smart speaker also discussed.

  • Ive's design firm io, acquired for ~$6.5B in May, is leading the hardware — with an explicit goal of avoiding smartphone-style addiction.

Why it matters: OpenAI's device ambitions are well publicized at this point, and the ultimate reveal of the form factor for its hardware will be a big moment to watch in 2026. Ive's involvement brings the pedigree and hype, but a graveyard of other AI wearables shows the category is still waiting for a true breakout success.

QUICK HITS

🛠️ Trending AI Tools

  • 📑 Qwen Image Layered - Image AI that breaks outputs into layers for edits

  • 🌌 ChatGPT Images - OpenAI’s upgraded image generation system

  • 🤖 GLM-4.7 - Z AI's new SOTA open-source model

  • 📪 CC - Google Labs’ experimental AI productivity agent in Gmail

📰 Everything else in AI today

Chinese AI lab IQuest Labs released IQuest-Coder-V1, a new model family that claims to surpass rivals like Claude Sonnet 4.5 and GPT 5.1 on coding benchmarks.

LMArena posted the 2025 results for top AI models, with Google’s Gemini 3 Pro leading text, vision, and search, and Veo 3.1 models topping video rankings.

Chinese AI startup Kimi reportedly raised $500M in a new Series C round, bringing the company’s valuation to $4.3B.

SoftBank is acquiring DigitalBridge for $4B, adding a data center and digital infrastructure portfolio to the Japanese giant’s growing AI bet.

X user Martin_DeVido shared an experiment giving Claude full control of keeping a tomato plant alive for over a month, controlling systems without human intervention.

COMMUNITY

🤝 Community AI workflows

Every newsletter, we showcase how a reader is using AI to work smarter, save time, or make life easier.

Today’s workflow comes from reader Prasanna A. in Atlanta, GA:

"When reading e-books, it can be difficult to retain and connect key concepts. To solve this, I leverage Google Gemini’s large context window by uploading the book's text. I have the AI explain the key points of each chapter and analyze how they relate to previous sections using real-world examples tailored to my specific goals.

To ensure mastery, I conclude each chapter with a knowledge check and perform a comprehensive exam once the book is finished. The real 'magic' happens at the intersection of the book’s theory and practical application."

How do you use AI? Tell us here.

🎓 Highlights: News, Guides & Events

See you soon,

Rowan, Joey, Zach, Shubham, and Jennifer — the humans behind The Rundown

Robotics

Robotaxis that plug into your brain

Jennifer Mossalgue • 5 minutes

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Good morning, robotics enthusiasts. Your next Tesla or Waymo robotaxi might know exactly how you’re feeling — and adjust its driving to keep you calm.

Chinese researchers are testing cars that read passengers’ brain signals to slow down, stiffen, or smooth out the ride in real time. If it leaves the lab, expect AVs that finally listen to the humans inside, not just the sensors outside.

In today’s robotics rundown:

  • Self-driving cars now tap brain signals

  • Unitree’s first brick-and-mortar robot store

  • New synthetic skin lets robots feel pain

  • Robots just got night vision superpowers

  • Quick hits on other robotics news

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

SELF-DRIVING VEHICLES

🧠 Self-driving cars now tap brain signals

Image source: Ideogram / The Rundown

The Rundown: Chinese researchers are testing self-driving software that reads passengers’ brain signals and automatically slows or stiffens the car’s behavior when riders feel stressed, boosting simulated safety and comfort over conventional systems.

The details:

  • Chinese researchers are experimenting with self-driving systems that tap passengers’ brain signals, using fNIRS headbands to monitor stress.

  • The system feeds these brain metrics into a deep reinforcement learning algorithm that dynamically adjusts the driving style.

  • Simulated tests showed faster learning curves, fewer close calls, and smoother rides versus standard AV controllers.

  • The study suggests that human physiological data could act as an extra safety channel for AVs, supplementing radar, lidar, and camera inputs.

Why it matters: Today's autonomous cars treat passengers like cargo — you get the ride the algorithm chose, anxiety be damned. Brain-in-the-loop driving flips that script, letting the vehicle sense fear and back off before you white-knuckle the armrest. If it works beyond the lab, expect AVs that build trust by actually listening to passengers.

UNITREE

🛍️ Unitree’s first brick-and-mortar robot store

Image source: Unitree and JD.com

The Rundown: Chinese robotics giant Unitree just opened its first brick-and-mortar robot store today with JD.com at JD Mall in Beijing’s Shuangjing district, letting shoppers poke, prod, and purchase its humanoid and quadruped machines in person.

The details:

  • The store showcases Unitree’s G1 humanoid, Go2 quadruped, and other robots, which visitors can try in person before buying.

  • Customers can purchase on-site or scan a QR code to order through JD’s mini-program, with options for in-store pickup or JD home delivery.

  • Unitree logged about $129M in revenue in 2024, with its quadruped robots making up roughly 69.75% of global sales and 1,500 humanoids delivered.

  • Unitree sells the R1 for $5,117, the G1 for $12,683, and the H1 for $83,526, and has also launched a humanoid app store for tap-to-deploy motions.

Why it matters: Unitree’s first physical storefront marks a hard pivot into mainstream consumer retail for its popular robots. It shows how a fast-growing Chinese robotics player with millions in revenue, strong quadruped share, and IPO ambitions is building an ecosystem around app-downloadable robot skills instead of just pushing hardware.​

CHINESE ROBOTICS

🔥 New synthetic skin lets robots feel pain

Image source: Xinge Yu, City University of Hong Kong

The Rundown: Chinese researchers have designed a neuromorphic “e-skin” that lets humanoids jerk away from danger before their central processor even notices — like yanking your hand off a hot stove.

The details:

  • The four-layer synthetic skin converts touch into spike-train pulses that mimic biological nerves.

  • Continuous low-level “heartbeat” signals let robots self-diagnose cuts and localize damage.

  • When pressure crosses a preset “pain” threshold, the system routes a high-voltage signal straight to the motors, triggering immediate reflex actions.

  • The e-skin is built from modular, magnetically attached patches that can be swapped out in seconds.

Why it matters: When pressure passes a preset “pain” threshold, the e-skin skips the robot’s main brain and snaps a signal straight to the motors, triggering an instant pullback like yanking an arm from a hot stove. The team now wants multi-touch capability so robots can track — and respond to — several contact points at once.

ROBOTICS RESEARCH

👁️ Robots just got night vision superpowers

Image source: The University of Manchester

The Rundown: Researchers at the University of Manchester have taught robots to see in total darkness by training a machine-learning model to reconstruct crisp, visible-light-style images from grainy infrared camera feeds.

The details:

  • The University of Manchester team has built CLEAR-IR, a machine-learning system that turns infrared camera feeds into clear, visible-light-like images.

  • The method slots in front of existing perception stacks, so robots can keep using their current vision and navigation algorithms without retraining.

  • The researchers say CLEAR-IR yields images sharp enough to give robots daylight-grade situational awareness when no visible light is present.

  • The team adds that the same technique could potentially work underwater or in extreme-heat environments where normal cameras fail.

Why it matters: CLEAR-IR turns any infrared-equipped bot into a night-vision machine without new hardware or retraining their vision stacks — unlocking search-and-rescue missions and underground infrastructure mapping. If the method scales, expect robots tackling disaster zones and industrial sites humans can’t safely enter.

QUICK HITS

📰 Everything else in robotics today

Chinese robotics firm UBTECH says it has hit a key milestone, rolling its 1,000th Walker S2 humanoid off the line at its Liuzhou manufacturing plant.​

Amazon said it has dropped plans to launch drone deliveries in Italy, citing broader business regulatory hurdles despite progress with aviation authorities.

China’s cyber regulator issued draft rules for AI systems that emotionally interact with users, requiring providers to police addiction risks and protect data.

VinMotion, widely seen as Vietnam’s leading humanoid robotics startup, rolled out a second-generation version of its flagship Motion robot.

Schaeffler unveiled a production-ready planetary gear actuator — a compact in-house drive unit — designed specifically for humanoids.

A Nvidia-powered Unitree G1 humanoid told CNBC that “only time will tell” if the AI boom is a bubble, but predicted robots like it will soon move into more roles.

AI² Robotics unveiled ZhiCube, a modular “embodied AI” kiosk built around its AlphaBot2 that can swap coffee, ice cream, or retail modules for malls and parks.

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🎓 Highlights: News, Guides & Events

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Rowan, Jennifer, and Joey—The Rundown’s editorial team

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