AI Insider

Insider Brief Generalist AI has released GEN-1.5, a new robot foundation model designed to learn physical tasks from one or a few demonstrations while also generalizing to some new situations without task-specific training. The company said GEN-1.5 can learn some tasks after being shown a single three- to 12-second demonstration, without updating the model’s underlying […]

Insider Brief Researchers led by the University of Hong Kong have developed a new benchmark for testing physical AI systems across both simulation and real-world robot tasks, finding that even the strongest models remain far behind human performance. The RoboDojo platform was developed by the Multimedia Laboratory at the University of Hong Kong, in collaboration […]

Insider Brief Veeda AI has raised more than $90 million in seed funding to build world models designed to give robots virtual environments where they can learn through trial and error, The Logic has reported. The Canadian startup, founded by former Nvidia AI researchers Sanja Fidler, Zan Gojcic and Huan Ling, is backed by Radical […]

Every forecast for AI compute demand written in the last two years has turned out to be too conservative within months of publication. Data centers, chips, power grids, and networking fabric are all being redesigned in real time to keep pace with a growth curve that keeps outrunning the plans built around it. Understanding how […]

Google has announced a new interactive button that publishers can embed directly on their websites, allowing readers to mark a site as a favorite source to be highlighted more prominently across Google Search, Discover, and Google News. The move follows criticism that AI-powered search features have reduced website traffic for publishers, and builds on Google’s […]

A new Pew Research study released Thursday found that over one-third of web pages published since ChatGPT’s late 2022 release showed signs of AI authorship, corroborating other research on AI’s growing footprint online. Using the Common Crawl archive and detection technology from Open Pangram, Pew analyzed nearly half a million English-language pages, finding that .com domains […]

Meta announced a new Mac application for Meta AI featuring system-wide dictation and screen-context awareness powered by its Muse Spark model, joining similar tools from Wispr Flow and Google’s Gemini app. The release accompanied a broader business-focused update allowing merchants to connect Instagram, Facebook, ad campaigns, and Google Workspace accounts to Meta AI for performance […]

Insider Brief PRESS RELEASE — STRGY AI Oy, the Helsinki-based startup building StrategyOS, announced it has raised €1M in angel funding, backed by a private investor base spanning the UK, Norway, Switzerland, and Finland, with additional equity participation from Innovestor’s Angel CoFund and non-dilutive support from Business Finland. The round reflects a deliberately international investor base…

Insider Brief PRESS RELEASE — Skan AI, the context graph of work for enterprise AI, announced $63 million in funding co-led by Cathay Innovation and Dell Technologies Capital, with participation from Citi Ventures, Bloomberg Beta, State Farm Ventures®, and Wipro Ventures. The funding comes alongside the launch of Skan AI’s enterprise AI platform including the general availability of Skan […]

Stripe confirmed on Wednesday that it was acquiring OpenRouter, with sources telling the New York Times the deal was valued at $7.5 billion. The price marked a sharp jump from OpenRouter’s $1.3 billion valuation in May, with founders reportedly set to receive $1.5 billion and investors the remaining $6 billion. Stripe reportedly outbid other interested […]

SpaceX attempted to acquire AI coding startup Cognition, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter, as the company works to close the AI gap with OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google. Cognition CEO Scott Wu disputed the report, stating on X that the company was not for sale and that no talks had occurred between the […]

Blacksmith raised a $45 million Series B led by Peak XV Partners, valuing the company at $550 million, a steep rise from the $60 million valuation it held less than a year ago. Existing investors GV and Y Combinator also participated, bringing total funding to $58.5 million. Founded in 2024, Blacksmith helps companies build, test, […]

Insider Brief Long just a staple of sceince fiction or lab demonstration, humanoid robots are making their mark in the real world in 2026. With the $905 million Shanghai stock market debut of Unitree Robotics dominating the headlines this week, the U.S. ban on sales of new foreign-made robotics last month, hardly a week goes […]

Insider Brief Acorn Robot has raised an angel funding round to further develop a general purpose tactile-focused physical AI model the company says will allow robots to hit the factory floor with no pre-training data. The angel round was led by CM Venture Capital and Nio Capital, with participation from the Shuimu Tsinghua Alumni Seed […]

Italy’s AI scale-up scene is anchored in Lombardy, with Milan alone home to four of the ten companies on this list, but the range of what is being built stretches from Genoa’s humanoid robotics to Turin’s crowdsourced mapping and autonomous mobility. From responsible AI for regulated industries to AI legal research assistants, and from offensive […]

Growing public unease about AI is beginning to translate into political and financial pressure, according to a series of recent reports. Axios reported that the National Republican Senatorial Committee warned top AI companies that data center construction is hurting the party’s prospects in a key Ohio election, while Pew Research found that 52% of Americans now say they’re more […]

Google announced a broad set of new AI-powered study features across Search and Gemini, including interactive visuals, 3D simulations, customized practice quizzes, and a dedicated learning hub, as the company works to position Gemini as a primary AI tool for students amid growing competition from OpenAI and education-focused startups. Within Search, students can now generate […]

Multiple security researchers reported losing access to OpenAI’s Trusted Access for Cyber program, which grants vetted researchers reduced-restriction access to advanced AI models for legitimate security work. OpenAI confirmed the issue stemmed from a technical error affecting a limited number of users, primarily those located outside the U.S. and Europe, and asked affected researchers to […]

Insider Brief PRESS RELEASE — Axle, the AI-native clearinghouse for insurance, announced $17.5M in Series A funding led by Base10 Partners. The round included continued investment from Y Combinator and Gradient, with participation from Stage 2 Capital and industry angels, including the founders of Cover Genius. They join existing investors, including the early team at Plaid. Axle […]

Insider Brief PRESS RELEASE — Corma, the first frontier AI lab for defensive cybersecurity, announced $60 million in seed funding led by Sequoia Capital, alongside Khosla Ventures and Coatue. Already working with Fortune 100 companies, Corma is developing the first foundation model purpose-built for defensive cybersecurity, tackling a rapidly growing challenge the world is only beginning to […]