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By Stephanie Palazzolo

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Recent Editions

Art by Clark Miller.

The Problem With World Models

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Feb 12, 2026 7:00am PST · 2 comments

If you follow the AI world on X, you’ve probably seen in recent weeks clips of video game-like worlds where users are playing as a dog on a sunny beach, a vial of poison in the play Hamlet or a pack of cigarettes on the floor of Penn Station. These videos, generated with Google’s Genie 3 model, highlight the promise of so-called world... If you follow the AI world on X, you’ve probably seen in recent weeks clips of video game-like...

Art by Clark Miller.

How OpenAI Uses ChatGPT to Catch ‘Leakers’

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Feb 11, 2026 7:00am PST

Here at The Information, we’re always trying to break through the hype to understand how folks are actually using AI in the real world. And recently, I came across a new application of AI that I can’t say I had ever heard of before: using ChatGPT to catch so-called leakers.When a news story about OpenAI’s internal activities is published,... Here at The Information, we’re always trying to break through the hype to understand how folks...

Art by Clark Miller.

How OpenClaw Learns New Things

By Rocket Drew · Feb 10, 2026 7:00am PST · 2 comments

The sizable gap between how AIs and humans learn new things has inspired researchers to rethink the math behind today’s AI models. But developers have found a more immediate and practical workaround to get AI to continually learn: “skills.” A skill is a text prompt containing instructions for how an agent should perform a task. For... The sizable gap between how AIs and humans learn new things has inspired researchers to rethink...

Art by Mike Sullivan

Why Voice Assistants Are Dumb Compared to Text Chatbots

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Feb 9, 2026 7:00am PST

Art by Mike Sullivan

Why Voice Assistants Are Dumb Compared to Text Chatbots

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Feb 9, 2026 7:00am PST

For years, investors and founders have told me that AI which talks and listens the way humans do is on the cusp of a breakout moment. We’re still not there.Audio models are still lagging behind their text-based brethren in terms of intelligence. If you ask an audio model like the ChatGPT voice assistant a tough math question, for instance, it’s... For years, investors and founders have told me that AI which talks and listens the way humans do...

Daytona CEO Ivan Burazin. Photo courtesy of Daytona.

Datadog and Figma Back a Startup Developing Tools For AI Agents

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Feb 5, 2026 7:00am PST

First off, check out Jyoti’s Wednesday scoop about Meta’s latest AI model efforts. In sum, Meta is telling its employees “we’re back in the game!” and setting high expectations for the company’s next open-weight large language model, codenamed Avocado.Yes, Meta AI leaders did the same last year with Llama 4 and we all know how poorly that turned... First off, check out Jyoti’s Wednesday scoop about Meta’s latest AI model efforts. In sum, Meta...

Art via Mike Sullivan/Getty Images

China’s Response To Google’s Genie; Why This OpenAI Researcher Left to Start a Competitor

By Juro Osawa · Feb 4, 2026 7:00am PST

Google last week generated buzz with a new AI tool called Project Genie, which enables users to create and play in virtual worlds like ultra-realistic videogames. An upstart Chinese competitor that recently announced a similar product is trying to keep up with Google and capture some of that buzz.PixVerse, which a few weeks ago unveiled its “... Google last week generated buzz with a new AI tool called Project Genie, which enables users to...

Carina Hong, founder and CEO of Axiom. Screenshot via YouTube

A Major Anthropic Backer Quintuples an AI Math Startup’s Valuation in New Deal

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Valida Pau · Feb 3, 2026 7:00am PST

Investors usually fund startups based on metrics involving revenue, profits or product usage. But investors backing newer AI research startups that are taking on Anthropic and OpenAI have to rely on other measures of success, such as incremental research breakthroughs or recent talent hirings. One example is AI math startup Axiom, which is... Investors usually fund startups based on metrics involving revenue, profits or product usage. But...

Art by Getty Images

Why OpenClaw FKA Clawdbot Matters

By Rocket Drew · Feb 2, 2026 7:30am PST

Art by Getty Images

Why OpenClaw FKA Clawdbot Matters

By Rocket Drew · Feb 2, 2026 7:30am PST

If you’ve been online in the past few days, you’ve likely been bombarded with words like “Moltbook,” “OpenClaw” and “Clawdbot.” We’re here to break down what it means and how it’s giving us a peek into how AI might evolve.OpenClaw is an open-source AI agent released late last year that can write code, edit files and surf the web to complete... If you’ve been online in the past few days, you’ve likely been bombarded with words like “...

Photo by Christopher Juhn/Getty Images

ICE Says It Uses AI From Palantir, OpenAI; Meta’s Humanoid Robot Training Plan

By Erin Woo and Jyoti Mann · Jan 29, 2026 7:00am PST

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday released a new database describing its use of artificial intelligence last year, including how Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an agency within DHS, relied on technology from Palantir and OpenAI.ICE has been a flashpoint around the country after government agents fatally shot two people... The U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday released a new database describing its use...

Sam Altman. Photo by Kyle Grillot/Getty Images

What Went Wrong With OpenAI’s Year of Agents?

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Sri Muppidi · Jan 28, 2026 7:00am PST

A year ago, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wrote in a blog post that he expected 2025 to bring the first AI agents that could join the workforce and “materially change the output of companies.” Altman, like so many other AI leaders at the time, was being overly optimistic.As my colleagues Kevin and Sri have reported, OpenAI’s ChatGPT Agent, a product it... A year ago, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wrote in a blog post that he expected 2025 to bring the first...

Art by Mike Sullivan

OpenAI One-Ups Anthropic with New Whistleblower Policy

By Rocket Drew · Jan 27, 2026 9:19am PST

OpenAI recently updated its policy for handling whistleblower complaints, following concerns about AI startups ignoring what are standard rules applying to all companies. It follows similar steps from Anthropic and could pressure other AI companies to follow suit. Federal government rules mandate that companies cannot retaliate against... OpenAI recently updated its policy for handling whistleblower complaints, following concerns...

Sam Altman. Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Why OpenAI Is Doubling Down on Enterprises

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Jan 26, 2026 7:00am PST

Sam Altman. Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Why OpenAI Is Doubling Down on Enterprises

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Jan 26, 2026 7:00am PST

The circular funding party continues! This morning, Nvidia announced that it’s invested $2 billion into cloud provider CoreWeave, who said it’ll use that capital to build more than five gigawatts in AI data center capacity by 2030. CoreWeave also said that it’ll be an early adopter of Nvidia products like its AI chips and software. This is just... The circular funding party continues! This morning, Nvidia announced that it’s invested $2...

Art by Getty Images

Why Some Researchers at OpenAI, Thinking Machines and Amazon Want to Change How LLMs Are Trained

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Jan 22, 2026 7:00am PST

It seems like every AI researcher these days has lots of ideas around how to combat major shortcomings in the field, such as the “split-brain problem” (in which a model can incorrectly answer a question just because of the way the question is phrased), by developing new models that do “continual learning,” for instance.AI researchers also tell... It seems like every AI researcher these days has lots of ideas around how to combat major...

Screenshots of Runway videos via YouTube.

AI Videos Nearly Indistinguishable From Real Videos, Runway Finds

By Rocket Drew · Jan 21, 2026 7:00am PST

Runway today is releasing its latest AI model, Gen-4.5, that can generate videos from an image. The model, from the startup that specializes in image and video-generating models, is impressive but is likely to underscore growing concerns about AI-generated deepfakes.To measure the model’s performance, Runway asked over 1,000 people to... Runway today is releasing its latest AI model, Gen-4.5, that can generate videos from an image....

Art by Mike Sullivan/Gemini

Why AI Startups' Fixation on 'Cracked' Engineers is Short-Sighted

By Rocket Drew · Jan 20, 2026 7:37am PST

Before we get to today’s column, OpenAI’s Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar pulled back the curtain this weekend on how the ChatGPT maker’s consumption of computational resources and annualized revenue have grown at approximately the same pace over time. That isn’t super surprising, given that most companies would expect their revenue to grow... Before we get to today’s column, OpenAI’s Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar pulled back the...

Photo via Shutterstock

Thinking Machines’ Personnel Shake-Up; ServiceNow Is Still Hiring Young Engineers, in Part Thanks to AI

By Rocket Drew · Jan 15, 2026 7:00am PST · 1 comment

Photo via Shutterstock

Thinking Machines’ Personnel Shake-Up; ServiceNow Is Still Hiring Young Engineers, in Part Thanks to AI

By Rocket Drew · Jan 15, 2026 7:00am PST · 1 comment

We had more drama in AI land on Wednesday night, as several people exited Thinking Machines Lab, the high-profile startup cofounded by former OpenAI Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati, for OpenAI. Details remain murky but here’s what we know for sure. On Wednesday night, Murati said in a post on X that the company had “parted ways” with ... We had more drama in AI land on Wednesday night, as several people exited Thinking Machines Lab,...

Chart by Shane Burke.

‘AI Native’ Startups Double Annualized Revenue to $30 Billion in Seven Months

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Jan 14, 2026 7:00am PST · 1 comment

The revenue picture for AI startups is brightening, a bit. In just seven months, annualized revenue at “AI native” companies selling AI models or apps has doubled, from $15 billion to more than $30 billion, according to an analysis of 32 companies from The Information’s Generative AI Database.One problem: OpenAI and Anthropic make... The revenue picture for AI startups is brightening, a bit. In just seven months, annualized...

Photo by Matteo Della Torre/Getty Images

How Apple is Using Gemini to Give ChatGPT-Like Answers

By Stephanie Palazzolo, Amir Efrati and Aaron Tilley · Jan 13, 2026 7:00am PST

In another AI win for Google lately, Apple announced on Monday that it will use Google’s Gemini models to power its artificial intelligence features, including an upcoming updated version of its Siri voice assistant.With Gemini powering its answers, Siri will have the ability to answer factual questions, tell stories, provide emotional support... In another AI win for Google lately, Apple announced on Monday that it will use Google’s Gemini...

Art via Shutterstock

Is Claude Code the Revolution?

By Amir Efrati and Rocket Drew · Jan 12, 2026 7:00am PST · 1 comment

Before we get to today’s column, we wanted to point you to Kevin’s Saturday scoop about a longtime Google DeepMind director raising capital for a visual reasoning AI startup and our Friday scoop about DeepSeek’s upcoming V4 model, which insiders say is great at coding. Major U.S.-based AI developers are waiting with bated breath to see... Before we get to today’s column, we wanted to point you to Kevin’s Saturday scoop about a...

Google’s Chatbot Health Move Can’t Be Far Behind OpenAI’s

Google’s Chatbot Health Move Can’t Be Far Behind OpenAI’s

By Amir Efrati · Jan 8, 2026 7:00am PST · 1 comment

Google’s Chatbot Health Move Can’t Be Far Behind OpenAI’s

Google’s Chatbot Health Move Can’t Be Far Behind OpenAI’s

By Amir Efrati · Jan 8, 2026 7:00am PST · 1 comment

OpenAI’s official foray into health, unveiled in this post on Wednesday, has been a long time coming, as we explained last summer. In short, OpenAI is creating a special section of ChatGPT for customers to ask health-related questions and dump data from their personal health apps and wearable devices to get personalized advice. The features... OpenAI’s official foray into health, unveiled in this post on Wednesday, has been a long time...