News and Analysis from the Era of Large Language Models
OpenAI announced that it will begin testing advertisements in ChatGPT for free and Go tier users in the United States, marking a significant shift in the AI company's revenue strategy. The advertisements will appear at the bottom of user conversations and will be targeted to the topic of
VoiceRun, a startup developing voice agents, raised $5.5 million in seed funding led by Flybridge, with participation from RRE Ventures and Link Ventures. The company, initially known as Prim AI, launched VoiceRun to address the gap between low-quality no-code tools and resource-intensive specialised solutions by enabling developers and coding
Google unveiled new AI features for Gmail on 8th January 2026, including a personalised AI Inbox, AI Overviews in search, and a Proofread tool. The updates integrate functionality from Gemini, Google's large language model, into the 22-year-old messaging application. These capabilities initially launched in English within the U.
More than 200,000 European banking jobs could vanish by 2030 as lenders lean into AI and shutter physical branches, according to a Morgan Stanley analysis reported by the Financial Times. This represents approximately 10 per cent of the workforce across 35 major European banks. The banks in the analysis
Dassault Aviation, the French maker of military aircrafts and business jets, led a €200 million Series B funding round in autonomous drone maker Harmattan AI on 12 January 2026, valuing the Paris-based startup at €1.4 billion and establishing France's first defence unicorn. The strategic partnership aims to
More than 20% of videos recommended to brand-new YouTube users are low-quality, AI-generated clips known as AI slop, according to a study released last month by researchers at Kapwing, a video editing platform, who analysed the first 500 Shorts shown to a newly created account and identified 104 videos generated
AI research lab Anthropic announced on 9th January 2026 a partnership with Munich-based insurance conglomerate Allianz to deploy responsible AI across the insurer's global operations, marking its first enterprise deal of 2026. Anthropic holds 40% of enterprise AI market share according to a December survey from investor Menlo
Anthropic announced a new suite of healthcare and life sciences features on Sunday, enabling users of its Claude AI platform to share access to their health records to better understand their medical information. The launch comes just days after rival OpenAI introduced ChatGPT Health, signalling a broader push by major
Following an investigation by the Guardian that found Google AI Overviews offering misleading information in response to certain health-related queries, the company appears to have removed the AI Overviews for some of those queries. The Guardian initially reported that when users asked what is the normal range for liver blood
Google announced the Universal Commerce Protocol on 11th January 2026 at the National Retail Federation's annual conference, introducing an open standard for agentic commerce spanning the entire shopping journey from discovery and buying to post-purchase support. The protocol was co-developed with industry leaders including Shopify, Etsy, Wayfair, Target
Nearly a decade after Google sold Boston Dynamics to SoftBank, the two companies reunited at CES 2026, announcing that DeepMind will enhance the Atlas humanoid with its Gemini Robotics foundation models. The announcement was attended by executives from Hyundai Motor Group, Boston Dynamics' parent company since its $880 million
Malaysia and Indonesia have become the first countries to block Grok, the AI chatbot developed by Elon Musk's xAI, after authorities said it was being misused to generate sexually explicit and non-consensual images, with Indonesia blocking access on the 10th January 2026 and Malaysia following the next day.
