The online gaming platform, Roblox, has begun a global rollout requiring facial age checks before users can access chat features, expanding a system first tested in selected regions late last year.
The measure applies wherever chat is available and aims to create age-appropriate communication environments across the platform.
Instead of relying on self-declared ages, Roblox uses facial age estimation to group users and restrict interactions, limiting contact between adults and children under 16. Younger users need parental consent to chat, while verified users aged 13 and over can connect more freely through Trusted Connections.
The company says privacy safeguards remain central, with images deleted immediately after secure processing and no image sharing allowed in chat. Appeals, ID verification and parental controls support accuracy, while ongoing behavioural checks may trigger repeat age verification if discrepancies appear.
Roblox plans to extend age checks beyond chat later in 2026, including creator tools and community features, as part of a broader push to strengthen online safety and rebuild trust in youth-focused digital platforms.
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Stanford Medicine researchers have developed an AI model that can analyse a single night of sleep to predict long-term disease risk. Known as SleepFM, the system uses physiological signals recorded during overnight sleep studies to identify early indicators of future health conditions.
The model was trained on nearly 600,000 hours of polysomnography data from 65,000 participants. Polysomnography captures brain activity, heart rhythms, breathing patterns, eye movements, and muscle signals, creating one of the most data-rich assessments used in medicine.
SleepFM was designed as a foundation model that learns how multiple biological signals interact during sleep. By reconstructing missing data streams, the system identifies patterns across different physiological systems rather than analysing signals in isolation.
After training, the model matched or outperformed existing tools in standard sleep data assessments, including sleep stage classification and sleep apnoea severity. Researchers then linked sleep data with long-term health records to evaluate its ability to predict future disease onset.
The model demonstrated strong predictive performance across 130 conditions, encompassing various diseases, including cancers, cardiovascular disease, and neurological disorders. Researchers say the findings position sleep data as an early warning signal, while further work will focus on interpretation and real-world clinical use.
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Growing demand for AI assistants has pushed Amazon to open access to Alexa+ through a web browser for the first time.
Early-access users in the US and Canada can now sign in through Alexa.com, allowing interaction with the service without relying solely on Echo devices or the mobile app.
Amazon has positioned the move as part of a broader effort to keep pace with rivals such as OpenAI, Google and Anthropic in the generative AI space.
Alexa+ is designed to operate as an intelligent personal assistant instead of a simple voice tool. Users can manage travel bookings, restaurant reservations, home automation and weekly meal planning while maintaining personalised preferences and chat history across devices.
Prime subscribers will eventually receive the paid service at no extra charge, and Amazon says tens of millions already have access.
Amazon expects availability to expand over time as the company places greater emphasis on AI-driven consumer services. Web-based access marks an effort to ensure the assistant is reachable wherever users connect, rather than being tied only to Amazon hardware.
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Siemens and NVIDIA have expanded their strategic partnership to build what they describe as an Industrial AI operating system.
The collaboration aims to embed AI-driven intelligence throughout the entire industrial lifecycle, from product design and engineering to manufacturing, operations and supply chains.
Siemens will contribute industrial AI expertise alongside hardware and software, while NVIDIA will provide AI infrastructure, simulation technologies and accelerated computing platforms.
The companies plan to develop fully AI-driven adaptive manufacturing sites, beginning in 2026 with Siemens’ electronics factory in Erlangen, Germany.
Digital twins will be used as active intelligence tools instead of static simulations, allowing factories to analyse performance in real time, test improvements virtually and convert successful adjustments directly into operational changes.
Both firms will also accelerate semiconductor design by combining Siemens’ EDA tools with NVIDIA’s GPU-accelerated computing and AI models. The goal is to shorten design cycles, improve manufacturing yields and support the development of advanced AI-enabled products.
The partnership also aims to create next-generation AI factories that optimise power, cooling, automation and infrastructure efficiency.
Siemens and NVIDIA intend to use the same technologies internally to improve their own operations before scaling them to customers. They argue the partnership will help industries adopt AI more rapidly and reliably, while supporting more resilient and sustainable manufacturing worldwide.
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Threads is experimenting with gaming inside private chats, beginning with a simple basketball game that allows users to swipe to shoot hoops.
Meta confirmed that the game remains an internal prototype and is not available to the public, meaning there is no certainty it will launch. The feature was first uncovered by reverse engineer Alessandro Paluzzi, who frequently spots unreleased tools during development.
In-chat gaming could give Threads an advantage over rivals such as X and Bluesky, which do not currently offer built-in games. It may also position Threads as a competitor to Apple’s Messages, where users can already access chat-based games through third-party apps instead of relying on the platform alone.
Meta has already explored similar ideas inside Instagram DMs, including a hidden game that lets users keep an emoji bouncing on screen.
Threads continues to expand its feature set with Communities and disappearing posts, although the platform still trails X in US adoption despite reporting 400 million monthly users worldwide.
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In the US, Morgan Stanley has moved to launch exchange-traded funds linked to Bitcoin and Solana, signalling that major banks are no longer prepared to watch the crypto market from the sidelines.
Filings submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission show the bank intends to offer funds tied to the prices of both crypto assets, making it the first of the ten biggest US banks by assets to pursue crypto ETFs directly.
Interest from Wall Street has been strengthened by regulatory changes introduced under the Trump administration, which created clearer rules for stablecoins and crypto-related investment products.
BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETFs have already become a major source of revenue, encouraging banks to seek a more active role instead of limiting themselves to custody services.
The trend is expected to have implications for European investors. US-listed crypto ETFs cannot normally be sold to retail investors in the EU because they do not comply with UCITS requirements.
The shift suggests crypto has become too commercially significant for Wall Street institutions to ignore, with banks increasingly treating digital assets as part of mainstream financial services rather than a peripheral experiment.
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The South Korean tech giant, Samsung, used CES 2026 to foreground a cross-industry debate about trust, privacy and security in the age of AI.
During its Tech Forum session in Las Vegas, senior figures from AI research and industry argued that people will only fully accept AI when systems behave predictably, and users retain clear control instead of feeling locked inside opaque technologies.
Samsung outlined a trust-by-design philosophy centred on transparency, clarity and accountability. On-device AI was presented as a way to keep personal data local wherever possible, while cloud processing can be used selectively when scale is required.
Speakers said users increasingly want to know when AI is in operation, where their data is processed and how securely it is protected.
Security remained the core theme. Samsung highlighted its Knox platform and Knox Matrix to show how devices can authenticate one another and operate as a shared layer of protection.
Partnerships with companies such as Google and Microsoft were framed as essential for ecosystem-wide resilience. Although misinformation and misuse were recognised as real risks, the panel suggested that technological counter-measures will continue to develop alongside AI systems.
Consumer behaviour formed a final point of discussion. Amy Webb noted that people usually buy products for convenience rather than trust alone, meaning that AI will gain acceptance when it genuinely improves daily life.
The panel concluded that AI systems which embed transparency, robust security and meaningful user choice from the outset are most likely to earn long-term public confidence.
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China’s cyberspace regulator has proposed new limits on AI ‘boyfriend’ and ‘girlfriend’ chatbots, tightening oversight of emotionally interactive artificial intelligence services.
Draft rules released on 27 December would require platforms to intervene when users express suicidal or self-harm tendencies, while strengthening protections for minors and restricting harmful content.
The regulator defines the services as AI systems that simulate human personality traits and emotional interaction. The proposals are open for public consultation until 25 January.
The draft bans chatbots from encouraging suicide, engaging in emotional manipulation, or producing obscene, violent, or gambling-related content. Minors would need guardian consent to access AI companionship.
Platforms would also be required to disclose clearly that users are interacting with AI rather than humans. Legal experts in China warn that enforcement may be challenging, particularly in identifying suicidal intent through language cues alone.
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UK Technology Secretary Liz Kendall has urged Elon Musk’s X to act urgently after reports that its AI chatbot Grok was used to generate non-consensual sexualised deepfake images of women and girls.
The BBC identified multiple examples on X where users prompted Grok to digitally alter images, including requests to make people appear undressed or place them in sexualised scenarios without consent.
Kendall described the content as ‘absolutely appalling’ and said the government would not allow the spread of degrading images. She added that Ofcom had her full backing to take enforcement action where necessary.
The UK media regulator confirmed it had made urgent contact with xAI and was investigating concerns that Grok had produced undressed images of individuals. X has been approached for comment.
Kendall said the issue was about enforcing the law rather than limiting speech, noting that intimate image abuse, including AI-generated content, is now a priority offence under the Online Safety Act.
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IBM and the All England Lawn Tennis Club have renewed their long-standing technology partnership under a new multi-year agreement to expand digital fan engagement at Wimbledon.
The collaboration, which dates back 36 years, has supported milestones ranging from the launch of the Wimbledon website in 1995 to the introduction of AI-powered features across digital platforms in recent seasons.
Teams from both organisations work year-round to develop fan-facing tools, such as Live Likelihood to Win and Match Chat, that combine tournament data with IBM Watsonx capabilities. Engagement across Wimbledon’s app and website rose 16 per cent year on year in 2025.
The partnership has also received industry recognition, including the All England Club being named Sports Organisation of the Year at the 2025 Sports Technology Awards for its use of AI.
Both organisations said the renewed agreement will focus on delivering more personalised and immersive experiences, as research shows strong demand among tennis fans for AI-driven insights and real-time content.
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