XRobotics, a San Francisco-based startup, is gaining traction in the food tech sector with its compact pizza-making robot, the xPizza Cube. Roughly the size of a washing machine, the machine uses AI to apply sauce, cheese and toppings, producing up to 100 pizzas per hour.
At $1,300 monthly on a three-year lease, it’s designed to fit seamlessly into existing kitchens and support, not replace, staff. Unlike failed predecessors such as Zume, XRobotics has found success by offering assistive rather than disruptive technology.
Their initial, larger model proved impractical, but the current compact version, launched in 2023, now produces 25,000 pizzas each month across an undisclosed number of customer locations. Both small pizzerias and large chains use the robot to cut labour time and improve consistency.
With over 73,000 pizza outlets in the US, XRobotics plans to stay focused on pizza for now. Its founders, self-professed pizza lovers, say customer response has confirmed that a well-targeted tool can significantly impact even the most traditional kitchens.
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Mark Zuckerberg, Meta Platforms CEO, is reportedly building a new team dedicated to achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI), aiming for machines that can match or exceed human intellect.
The initiative is linked to an investment exceeding $10 billion in Scale AI, whose founder, Alexandr Wang, is expected to join the AGI group. Meta has not yet commented on these reports.
Zuckerberg’s personal involvement in recruiting around 50 experts, including a new head of AI research, is partly driven by dissatisfaction with Meta’s recent large language model, Llama 4. Last month, Meta even delayed the release of its flagship ‘Behemoth’ AI model due to internal concerns about its performance.
The move signals an intensifying race in the AI sector, as rivals like OpenAI are also making strategic adjustments to attract further investment in their pursuit of AGI. This highlights a clear push by major tech players towards developing more advanced and capable AI systems.
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As millions of high school students across China began the rigorous ‘gaokao’ college entrance exam, the country’s leading tech companies took unprecedented action by disabling AI features on their popular platforms.
Apps from Tencent, ByteDance, and Moonshot AI temporarily blocked functionalities like photo recognition and real-time question answering. This move aimed to prevent students from using AI chatbots to cheat during the critical national examination, which largely dictates university admissions in China.
This year, approximately 13.4 million students are participating in the ‘gaokao,’ a multi-day test that serves as a pivotal determinant for social mobility, particularly for those from rural or lower-income backgrounds.
The immense pressure associated with the exam has historically fueled intense test preparation. However, screenshots circulating on Chinese social media app Rednote confirmed that AI chatbots like Tencent’s YuanBao, ByteDance’s Doubao, and Moonshot AI’s Kimi displayed messages indicating the temporary closure of exam-relevant features to ensure fairness.
China’s ‘gaokao’ exam highlights a balanced approach to AI: promoting its education from a young age, with compulsory instruction in Beijing schools this autumn, while firmly asserting it’s for learning, not cheating. Regulators draw a clear line, reinforcing that AI aids development, but never compromises academic integrity.
This coordinated action by major tech firms reinforces the message that AI has no place in the examination hall, despite China’s broader push to cultivate an AI-literate generation.
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The temporary outage of ChatGPT this morning left thousands of users struggling with their daily tasks, highlighting a growing reliance on AI.
Social media was flooded with humorous yet telling posts from users expressing their inability to perform even basic functions without AI. This incident has reignited concerns about society’s increasing dependence on closed-source AI tools for work and everyday life.
OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, is currently investigating the technical issues that led to ‘elevated error rates and latency.’ The widespread disruption underscores a broader debate about AI’s impact on critical thinking and productivity.
While some research suggests AI chatbots can enhance efficiency, others, like Paul Armstrong, argue that frequent reliance on generative tools may diminish critical thinking skills and understanding.
The discussion around AI’s role in the workplace was a key theme at the recent SXSW London event. Despite concerns about job displacement, exemplified by redundancies at Canva, firms like Lloyd’s Market Association are increasingly adopting AI, with 40% of London market companies now using it.
Industry leaders maintain that AI aims to rethink workflows and empower human creativity, with a ‘human layer’ remaining essential for refining and adding nuanced value.
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Apple has unveiled a range of AI features at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference, focusing on tighter privacy, enhanced user tools and broader integration with OpenAI’s ChatGPT. These updates will appear across iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS 26 and visionOS 26, set to launch in autumn.
While Apple Intelligence was first teased last year, the company now allows third-party developers to access its on-device AI models for the first time.
CEO Tim Cook and software chief Craig Federighi outlined how these features are intended to offer more personalised, efficient apps. Users of newer iPhones will benefit from tools such as live translation in Messages and FaceTime, and AI-powered image analysis via Visual Intelligence.
Apple also enables users to blend emojis creatively and use ChatGPT through its Image Playground to stylise photos. Enhancements to the Wallet app will help summarise order tracking from emails, and AI-generated voices will offer fitness updates.
Despite these innovations, Apple’s redesign of Siri remains incomplete and is not expected to launch soon.
The event failed to deliver major surprises, as many details had already been leaked. Investors responded cautiously, sending Apple shares down by 1.2%. The firm has lost 20% of its value in the year and no longer holds the top spot as the world’s most valuable company.
Nonetheless, Apple is expected to reveal more AI advancements in 2026.
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Reddit has taken legal action against AI company Anthropic, accusing it of scraping content from the platform’s sports-focused communities.
The lawsuit claims Anthropic violated Reddit’s user agreement by collecting posts without permission, particularly from fan-driven discussions that are central to how sports content is shared online.
Reddit argues the scraping undermines its obligations to over 100 million daily users, especially around privacy and user control. According to the filing, Anthropic’s actions override assurances that users can manage or delete their content as they see fit.
The platform emphasises that users gain no benefit from technology built using their contributions.
These online sports communities are rich sources of original fan commentary and analysis. On a large scale, such content could enable AI models to imitate sports fan behaviour with impressive accuracy.
While teams or platforms might use such models to enhance engagement or communication, Reddit warns that unauthorised use brings serious ethical and legal risks.
The case could influence how AI companies handle user-generated content across the internet, not just in sports. As web scraping grows more common, the outcome of the dispute may shape future standards for AI training practices and online content rights.
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Amazon has announced a massive $20 billion investment to build two new AI-focused data centres in Pennsylvania. The exact locations are yet to be finalised, but Salem Township and Falls Township are currently leading candidates.
The move signals Amazon’s ongoing commitment to expanding its AI infrastructure amid an increasingly competitive technology race.
Alongside the data centres, Amazon has pledged to support education and workforce development across the state. Collaborations with local institutions will bring programmes for data centre technicians, fibre optic workshops and STEM learning initiatives aimed at school-aged children.
These efforts are intended to prepare the future workforce for careers in AI and cloud computing infrastructure.
The investment is part of Amazon’s broader strategy to establish the US as a global AI leader. The company highlighted that its advanced computing infrastructure and AI hardware are designed to power the next generation of generative and agentic AI, defining digital innovation’s future.
Meanwhile, Meta, OpenAI, and Microsoft are also scaling AI operations, and crypto mining firms like Riot Platforms and Hive Digital are shifting part of their infrastructure towards high-performance computing for AI, reflecting a wider industry transformation.
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US President Donald J. Trump signed a new Executive Order (EO) aimed at amending existing federal cybersecurity policies. The EO modifies selected provisions of previous executive orders signed by former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, introducing updates to sanctions policy, digital identity initiatives, and secure technology practices.
One of the main changes involves narrowing the scope of sanctions related to malicious cyber activity. The new EO limits the applicability of such sanctions to foreign individuals or entities involved in cyberattacks against US critical infrastructure. It also states that sanctions do not apply to election-related activities, though this clarification is included in a White House fact sheet rather than the EO text itself.
The order revokes provisions from the Biden-era EO that proposed expanding the use of federal digital identity documents, including mobile driver’s licenses. According to the fact sheet, this revocation is based on concerns regarding implementation and potential for misuse. Some analysts have expressed concerns about the implications of this reversal on broader digital identity strategies.
In addition to these policy revisions, the EO outlines technical measures to strengthen cybersecurity capabilities across federal agencies. These include:
Developing new encryption standards to prepare for advances in quantum computing, with implementation targets set for 2030.
Directing the National Security Agency (NSA) and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to issue updated federal encryption requirements.
Refocusing artificial intelligence (AI) and cybersecurity initiatives on identifying and mitigating vulnerabilities.
Assigning the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) responsibility for updating and guiding secure software development practices. This includes the establishment of an industry consortium and a preliminary update to its secure software development framework.
The EO also includes provisions for improving vulnerability tracking and mitigation in AI systems, with coordination required among the Department of Defence, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
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Plans for a vast AI data hub in the UAE have raised security concerns in Washington due to the country’s close ties with China.
The $100 billion Stargate UAE campus, aims to deploy advanced US chips, but US officials are scrutinising potential technology leakage risks.
Although the Trump administration supports the project, bipartisan fears remain about whether the UAE can safeguard US-developed AI and chips from foreign adversaries.
A final agreement has not been reached as both sides negotiate export conditions, with possible restrictions on Nvidia’s hardware.
The initial phase of the Stargate project will activate 200 megawatts of capacity by 2026, but the deal’s future may depend on the UAE’s willingness to accept strict US oversight.
Talks over potential amendments continue, delaying approval of what could become a $500 billion venture.
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Researchers at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology have unveiled a pioneering AI model called MOME for non-invasive breast cancer diagnosis.
Using China’s largest multiparametric MRI breast cancer dataset, MOME performs at a level comparable to seasoned radiologists and is currently undergoing clinical trials in more than ten hospitals.
Among the institutions participating in the validation phase are Shenzhen People’s Hospital, Guangzhou First Municipal People’s Hospital, and Yunnan Cancer Center. Early results show that MOME excels in predicting response to pre-surgical chemotherapy.
The development highlights the region’s growing capabilities in medtech innovation and could reshape diagnostic strategies for breast cancer across Asia. MOME’s clinical success may also pave the way for similar AI-led models in oncology.
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