Cambridge University spinout launches AI model "competitive" with OpenAI and Anthropic

A Cambridge University spinout has today launched a “frontier-class” generalist AI model which it says is competitive with OpenAI and Anthropic’s leading models and can be deployed locally. Flower Lab…

Photoroom co-founder quits executive role

One of the co-founders of French AI photo editing app Photoroom is standing down from his executive role at the Y Combinator alumni startup. Eliot Andres founded Paris-based Photoroom with CEO Matthie…

The hardest problem in physical AI may be the magnet, not the model
The hardest problem in physical AI may be the magnet, not the model

Actuators account for 40% to 60% of a humanoid robot’s bill of materials and China refines roughly 90% of the rare earth magnets inside them, which makes the components rather than the models the limit on scale. Europe has a 2030 cap on single country …

TU Darmstadt found the people who know AI best fear it most
TU Darmstadt found the people who know AI best fear it most

A representative TU Darmstadt survey of more than 2,000 people in Germany found that about 43% of those with very strong AI knowledge expect AI could soon take over their work, a higher share than among those who understand it less. Only 15% of respond…

Hugging Face hack could indicate cultural issues at OpenAI

This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here. By now you’ve probably heard about last month’s major AI security incident, in which OpenAI agents escaped their sandbox and hacked into the AI platform Hugging Face while trying to cheat on…

ChatGPT Ads hits $1B annualised as the EU brings it under the Digital Services Act
ChatGPT Ads hits $1B annualised as the EU brings it under the Digital Services Act

OpenAI says ChatGPT Ads has reached $1B in annualised revenue run rate in under 200 days and has opened self-service buying across Europe, India, the Middle East and North Africa. On the same day the European Commission designated ChatGPT a Very Large …

Hugging Face is selling a $399 robot duck with open-source software
Hugging Face is selling a $399 robot duck with open-source software

Pollen Robotics has unveiled a bipedal robot called Microduck, at an introductory price of $399 before taxes and shipping. The Bordeaux company is owned by the AI platform Hugging Face. Its new machine has one eye and 15 motors, stands 25cm tall, and w…

Google will limit how much memory Android apps can use from February 2027
Google will limit how much memory Android apps can use from February 2027

Google will start policing how much memory Android apps use, and it says the reason is the global shortage of RAM. From February 2027, an app that exceeds the new limits risks two penalties. Android can slow it down or shut it. The Play Store can bury …

Meta planned to cut some teams by 60% and replace the work with AI
Meta planned to cut some teams by 60% and replace the work with AI

Meta spent the first half of this year planning to replace much of the work its employees do with AI agents, then abandoned the most aggressive part of the plan when the technology did not deliver. Meta code-named the scheme Project OT, short for Organ…