Research & Development news

• Google’s Latest AI Video Generator Veo 2 Delivers Cinematic Results

  19-04-2025 00:00 via eweek.com
  
  Gemini Advanced users can now create and share high-resolution videos with its newly released Veo 2. The AI video generator Veo 2 lets users generate a cinema-quality eight-second, 720p video delivered as an MP4 file in a 16:9 landscape.
  Veo 2 understands real-world physics and human motion better, which enables it to deliver “fluid character movement, lifelike scenes, and finer visual details across diverse subjects and styles,” Google stated.
  Who can use Veo 2
  To use Veo 2, you nee
  
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• Google Rolls Out Gemini 2.5 Flash Native Audio for Natural Voice Interactions

  16-12-2025 16:26 via eweek.com
  Google is turning up the volume on Gemini. This week, the company rolled out an upgraded version of Gemini 2.5 Flash Native Audio, introducing smoother conversations, improved instruction handling, and live speech translation to a broader range of users and products.The updated Gemini 2.5 Flash Native Audio is designed for live voice interactions, especially for AI agents that talk back in real time. The new version is already available in Google AI Studio and Vertex AI for developers. It i
  
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• UK Creative Industries Win Massive AI Copyright Victory

  16-12-2025 15:58 via eweek.com
  This AI news will bring creatives ‘moments of pleasure’ and the feeling of ‘everything in its right place.’
  The UK government just suffered a crushing defeat in its controversial plans to let AI companies freely train on copyrighted work.
  After nearly a year of fierce protests from Britain’s creative community, today’s (Dec. 16) survey results revealed 88% of 11,500+ respondents demanded that AI companies secure licenses before using any copyrighted material.
  
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• JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon: People With Soft Skills Will Have ‘Plenty of Jobs’

  16-12-2025 15:47 via eweek.com
  Amid all the doom and gloom about AI taking jobs, there is some good news: Soft skills matter. That’s what JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon believes, anyway.While acknowledging that AI “will eliminate jobs,” Dimon, head of the country’s largest bank, told Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures that “this doesn’t mean that people won’t have other jobs. My advice to people would be critical thinking … learn your EQ [emotional quotient, also refer
  
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• Joseph Gordon-Levitt Warns AI May Leave Us ‘Lacking Empathy’

  16-12-2025 14:50 via eweek.com
  Actor and tech entrepreneur Joseph Gordon-Levitt warned that artificial intelligence could leave society “lacking empathy” if it replaces real human connection. Speaking at Utah’s 2025 AI Summit this month, Gordon-Levitt expressed concern that AI-driven conversations could erode people’s ability to form genuine human relationships, particularly for children. His comments come as lawmakers, technology companies, and regulators debate how to balance AI innovation
  
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• OpenAI Communications Chief Exits

  16-12-2025 10:31 via eweek.com
  Another one bites the dust. OpenAI has received another massive leadership shake-up.
  Hannah Wong, the executive who steered OpenAI through its most chaotic period, has announced she’s leaving the company.
  Wong announced the news on LinkedIn. She was only promoted to chief communications officer four months ago, yet she’s already heading for the exit.
  “After nearly five years at OpenAI and a lot of reflection, I’ve decided it’s time for me to step back and move into
  
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• Which Jobs Are Using AI the Most? New Gallup Data Offer Answers

  16-12-2025 09:07 via eweek.com
  AI is no longer just a buzzword at work. But who’s really using it, and how often? New survey data provide a clearer picture and show a growing divide across jobs and industries.More American workers are now using artificial intelligence on the job, according to new data from Gallup. In the third quarter of 2025, 45% of US employees said they used AI at work at least a few times a year, up from earlier levels.Regular use is also rising. About 23% of workers said they use AI a few times a w
  
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• Nvidia Nemotron 3 Nano: Everything You Need to Know

  15-12-2025 22:20 via eweek.com
  Nvidia’s newest open model release is less about chasing frontier benchmarks — and more about fixing what breaks when AI leaves the demo stage.On Monday, the company announced Nemotron 3, a new family of open large language models designed specifically for agentic AI systems: applications where multiple AI agents collaborate, reason over long horizons, and route work between specialized models.The release includes three model sizes (Nano, Super, and Ultra) alongside open datasets, re
  
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• OpenAI Researcher Leaves, Accusing Company of Silencing Research

  15-12-2025 21:59 via eweek.com
  OpenAI, the world’s leading AI developer, is facing accusations of censoring its own economic research to downplay the negative impacts of artificial intelligence, leading to the departure of at least two staffers.A high-profile resignation at OpenAI’s economic research team has brought internal conflicts over transparency and business interests into the spotlight. Tom Cunningham, an economics researcher, left OpenAI in September after growing frustrated with limits around publishing
  
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• 1X Plans to Deploy 10,000 Household Robots as Industrial Labor

  15-12-2025 21:24 via eweek.com
  1X, the Norwegian robotics company that recently began taking pre-orders for its $20,000 household robot, has secured a commitment to deploy up to 10,000 of its Neo humanoids to major companies worldwide.This unprecedented rollout is the result of a new partnership with its major investor, the Swedish private equity giant EQT.The deal, announced last Thursday, involves the rollout of the bipedal, general-purpose Neo models to EQT’s extensive portfolio of over 300 companies between 2026 and
  
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• 10 Humanoid Robot Facts That Make the Future Feel Uncomfortably Close

  15-12-2025 21:11 via eweek.com
  Humanoid robots have long been the internet’s favorite parlor trick. A flawless backflip here, a perfectly staged demo there, and then silence when you ask what happens on an ordinary Tuesday.2025 looks different.The fascinating stories are not just about stunts, but about handling actual work in warehouses, factory trials measured in hours, and price points executives will actually put in a budget. This year, humanoids began trading spectacle for repetition, and repetition is where real t
  
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• Colleges Turn to Oral and Handwritten Exams as AI Disrupts Exams

  15-12-2025 17:00 via eweek.com
  In higher education, cheating has been a transgression that academic institutions have long prided themselves on detecting and deterring — until recently. The twin storms of the COVID pandemic and the arrival of ChatGPT in 2022 have wreaked havoc on longstanding assessment methods, as students have outsourced take-home exams, essays, and even coding assignments to AI platforms. Called cognitive offloading, the pervasive use of AI in higher education has created a crisis of trust
  
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• Colleges Turn to Oral and Handwritten Exams as AI Disrupts Assessments

  15-12-2025 17:00 via eweek.com
  In higher education, cheating has been a transgression that academic institutions have long prided themselves on detecting and deterring — until recently. The twin storms of the COVID pandemic and the arrival of ChatGPT in 2022 have wreaked havoc on longstanding assessment methods, as students have outsourced take-home exams, essays, and even coding assignments to AI platforms. Called cognitive offloading, the pervasive use of AI in higher education has created a crisis of trust
  
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• Google Turns Any Headphones Into a Live Translator With Gemini

  15-12-2025 16:11 via eweek.com
  Google wants language barriers to feel a little less real. With help from its Gemini AI, the app is now rolling out live speech translation through headphones, along with smarter text translations and new tools for language learners.Google says Translate is now better at understanding meaning, not just words. Using Gemini, the app can handle tricky phrases such as idioms, slang, and local expressions that often lose their meaning when translated literally.According to Google, this update im
  
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• OpenAI-Backed Chai Discovery Lands $130M to Accelerate AI Molecule Design

  15-12-2025 14:24 via eweek.com
  The pharmaceutical industry is looking a lot healthier.
  OpenAI-backed Chai Discovery has secured $130 million in funding to boost how life-saving medicines are created.
  According to the Bloomberg report, the deal, which values the company at $1.3 billion, comes three months after the startup’s last funding round and brings its total financing to $225 million. The Series B financing was co-led by Oak HC/FT and General Catalyst. Investors including Thrive Capital, Menlo Ventures, and OpenAI
  
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• How Alibaba Aims to Conquer the AI World

  15-12-2025 12:16 via eweek.com
  Alibaba is driving full-force into conquering the e-commerce sector, expanding its future reach with a renewed push into artificial intelligence. Once best known outside China as an online marketplace giant, in 2025, Alibaba is harnessing a full-stack AI powerhouse to develop enhanced AI aimed at taking the company to the next level.Alibaba is assembling an integrated AI strategy across consumer hardware, foundational models, e-commerce, chips, and cloud infrastructure, designed to embed in
  
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• Oracle Lease Commitments Surge Nearly 150% Amid AI Infrastructure Expansion

  15-12-2025 10:47 via eweek.com
  Oracle has news to share that’s making even the most AI-optimistic investors sweat.
  The tech giant has revealed lease commitments that nearly tripled in just three months, raising urgent questions about whether this unprecedented infrastructure spending spree signals massive opportunity—or dangerous overreach in an overheated AI market.
  According to a CNBC report, Oracle disclosed $248 billion in lease commitments for data centers and cloud infrastructure as of November 30, represent
  
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• China Debuts Six-Armed ‘Super Humanoid’ Robot Built for Efficiency

  12-12-2025 22:14 via eweek.com
  The future of work on the factory floor just got a lot more hands.China’s home-appliance giant Midea Group has revealed what may be one of the most unusual robots to hit the manufacturing world: a six-armed humanoid machine on wheels. And it’s built to take on complex factory tasks.The robot, called MIRO U, made its public debut last week and is set to begin real factory work at Midea’s Wuxi washing machine plant before the month ends, according to reporting from the South Chin
  
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• This Rugged Robot Dog Was Built for War Zones

  12-12-2025 20:30 via eweek.com
  Ghost Robotics, a Philadelphia-based developer of rugged quadruped robots, has launched a new Manipulator Arm for its Vision 60 Quadruped Unmanned Ground Vehicle (Q-UGV). This addition gives the all-weather “robot dog” the ability to interact with and adapt to its environment, significantly expanding its usefulness on hazardous missions for the military, first responders, and industry.The Vision 60 has long been praised for its all-terrain agility, able to handle rain, snow, and
  
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• AI Predictions for 2026: 5 Changes Reshaping Enterprise IT

  12-12-2025 20:17 via eweek.com
  Artificial intelligence has spent the past few years proving its usefulness.Enterprises will expect AI to demonstrate its trustworthiness by 2026. After years of pilots and proof-of-concept projects, AI is moving into permanent roles inside enterprise IT.The focus is shifting away from impressive demos and toward reliable, day-to-day work. Agentic systems are beginning to handle real tasks, while AI governance is moving from IT departments into boardroom discussions. At the same time, companies
  
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• Google Unveils ‘Disco,’ an AI Browser That Turns Tabs Into Custom Apps

  12-12-2025 18:09 via eweek.com
  Juggling dozens of open tabs to plan a vacation or research a topic is the bane of modern web use. Google now has a new idea to tackle that problem.Google this week launched Disco, a lightweight, experimental browser from Google Labs built to test new AI ideas for the future of web discovery. The company describes Disco as a “discovery vehicle,” with its first major feature dubbed GenTabs.According to Google, “Disco is our new ‘Disco’very vehicle designed to reimagi
  
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• Best AI Tools for Better Sleep

  12-12-2025 16:16 via eweek.com
  Falling asleep is easy for some people, but for many of us, getting consistent and high-quality rest can be a challenge. Stress, screens, snoring partners, and unpredictable schedules all play a role. Thankfully, there are plenty of new technologies to help you get better sleep. These smart tools track your patterns, analyze your habits, and help you achieve deeper, healthier sleep. Finding the right AI sleep app will help you understand what your body is doing and how to help it rest more
  
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• Trump’s AI Order Threatens $1.8B California Funding Cut

  12-12-2025 14:15 via eweek.com
  President Donald Trump has signed a sweeping executive order that creates a federal task force specifically designed to challenge state AI laws through lawsuits and funding cuts.
  The saga continues, and this news marks the latest federal attempt to strip states of their power to regulate AI technology, potentially affecting billions in federal funding across dozens of states.
  After failed congressional attempts to block state AI regulation in July and November, Trump is now using executive power
  
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• BBVA and OpenAI Seal Alliance for AI-Powered Banking

  12-12-2025 13:22 via eweek.com
  Spanish banking giant BBVA and OpenAI have teamed up for an ambitious AI transformation.
  The dynamic duo is co-developing an intelligent conversational assistant that will anticipate customer financial needs before they even ask.
  Even more revolutionary (or alarming) is their plan to create digital “alter egos”—AI systems that learn each employee’s working style and can execute tasks with their authorization and oversight, essentially creating a digital twin workforce.
  Th
  
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• Disney Sends Cease-and-Desist to Google Over AI Copyright Claims

  12-12-2025 13:01 via eweek.com
  Disney has accused Google of using its AI tools to reproduce Disney characters at scale, prompting the company to issue a cease-and-desist letter that pushes the two giants into a new copyright fight. The clash centers on how Google trains its AI systems and what those systems generate.According to Variety, Disney’s letter alleged Google used copyrighted works to train its AI models and enabled users to create unauthorized images through Google’s AI products, setting the stage for a
  
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• Google DeepMind and UK Team Up for £5B AI Deal

  12-12-2025 09:54 via eweek.com
  Google has revealed plans for its first-ever automated research lab, backed by a £5 billion investment that could boost the UK’s economic trajectory.
  As nations worldwide pour unprecedented resources into AI infrastructure, the UK has secured a decent technology partnership.
  Automated AI research lab
  According to the announcement, Google will open its first automated research laboratory in 2026, creating a facility that uses AI and robotics to conduct hundreds of experiments per day.
  
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• Global-First Finance: Building Scalable, Compliant Operations in an Uncertain World

  12-12-2025 09:33 via eweek.com
  eSpeaks’ Corey Noles talks with Rob Israch, President of Tipalti, about what it means to lead with Global-First Finance and how companies can build scalable, compliant operations in an increasingly uncertain world. They explore how automation, AI, and integrated platforms are helping finance teams tackle today’s biggest challenges, from cross-border compliance and FX volatility to forecasting, risk management, and operational efficiency.
  The post Global-First Finance: Building Scalab
  
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• The Biggest AI Moments of 2025: Surveillance, Layoffs, and Robots

  11-12-2025 21:34 via eweek.com
  Artificial intelligence shaped nearly every corner of tech in 2025 as organizations weighed how to integrate new capabilities while managing operational and governance challenges.The year’s major developments reflected technical progress, workforce shifts, security concerns, and the realities of deploying AI at scale. Companies and institutions experimented with new AI tools, regulators worked to understand emerging risks, and researchers pushed boundaries, shaping both opportunities and c
  
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• Amazon’s Same-Day Fresh Grocery Delivery Now Reaches 2,300+ US Cities

  11-12-2025 21:16 via eweek.com
  Amazon is doubling down on same-day fresh food delivery.The company has expanded its Same-Day Delivery service for perishable groceries to more than 2,300 cities and towns across the United States, marking one of its biggest grocery rollouts to date. Amazon confirmed the milestone in a Wednesday announcement, noting that continued expansion into additional areas is scheduled for 2026.The service originally launched in major cities including Seattle, Los Angeles, Dallas, Chicago, Miami, and New Y
  
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• OpenAI Launches GPT-5.2 ‘Garlic’ with 400K Context Window for Enterprise Coding

  11-12-2025 19:58 via eweek.com
  On Thursday, OpenAI released GPT-5.2, codenamed “garlic” during development, marking the company’s most capable model for coding and agentic workflows. The model brings a massive 400,000-token context window and 128,000-token output capacity — roughly 5x the context of GPT-4.In a blog post, OpenAI called it “the most capable model series yet.”“We announced this code red to really signal to the company that we want to martial resources in one particular a
  
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