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By Stephanie Palazzolo

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Recent Editions

Sam Altman. Photo by Getty Images

The Loopholes in OpenAI’s Pentagon Deal

By Erin Woo · Mar 2, 2026 7:00am PST

What a weekend! Anthropic is now poised to sue the Pentagon, after being labeled a “supply chain risk,” while OpenAI has its own agreement allowing the agency to use OpenAI’s models in “classified environments.”There are still plenty of unanswered questions, including how big of a business risk being designated a “supply chain risk” poses... What a weekend! Anthropic is now poised to sue the Pentagon, after being labeled a “supply chain...

Image from Getty Images.

A Robot Data Startup Raises $60 Million

By Rocket Drew · Feb 26, 2026 7:00am PST

Companies developing AI models to power humanoid and other robots have been hard at work collecting videos and other data for training their models, even paying people to record themselves completing tasks in homes and workplaces. As these data-collection efforts start to pay off, and robots take on some of those tasks, the robot developers... Companies developing AI models to power humanoid and other robots have been hard at work...

Andrew Feldman, Cerebras Systems. Art by Clark Miller; Getty Images.

Why OpenAI’s Cerebras Chip Deal Matters; What Anthropic Wants to Know About Chinese Rivals

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Rocket Drew · Feb 25, 2026 7:00am PST

OpenAI executives have repeatedly signaled, both publicly and privately, that the only factor limiting the company’s revenue growth is access to computational resources. Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar wrote an entire blog post on this topic earlier this year, and OpenAI executives highlighted the message again in a presentation to investors... OpenAI executives have repeatedly signaled, both publicly and privately, that the only factor...

Art by Getty Images

Why ChatGPT Faces Language Barriers

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Feb 24, 2026 7:00am PST

Art by Getty Images

Why ChatGPT Faces Language Barriers

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Feb 24, 2026 7:00am PST

Many AI researchers believe AI models that listen and speak to people are trailing text-based models in capabilities and performance. That gap is even bigger when you look at audio models for languages other than English, especially outside the Western hemisphere.That could be a big issue for companies like OpenAI that are aggressively trying to... Many AI researchers believe AI models that listen and speak to people are trailing text-based...

Art by Getty Images

OpenAI’s GPT-5 Dip; Why Agents Are Hard to Evaluate

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Rocket Drew · Feb 23, 2026 7:00am PST

Before we get into today’s column, Friday’s story from Sri and me confirmed what many had been hypothesizing since OpenAI’s release of GPT-5 in August: ChatGPT’s growth hasn’t been as strong as OpenAI hoped.The story is more nuanced, obviously. The chatbot has hit new highs in terms of weekly active users—910 million, to be exact as of earlier... Before we get into today’s column, Friday’s story from Sri and me confirmed what many had been...

ZaiNar cofounder and CEO Daniel Jacker. Photo courtesy of ZaiNar.

Startup Developing GPS Alternative for Physical AI Earns $1 Billion-Valuation

By Katie Roof · Feb 19, 2026 7:00am PST · 1 comment

Over the last two years, investors and researchers have flocked to startups helping bring AI into the physical world, from developing robot hands to the AI models that train robots to software to train self-driving cars. Now one startup says it can solve a perennial problem for robots and other AI-powered systems: getting precise location... Over the last two years, investors and researchers have flocked to startups helping bring AI into...

Photo via Getty Images

Don’t Get Tricked By Fake ‘Continual Learning’

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Feb 18, 2026 7:00am PST

A new holy grail has emerged in the AI industry in recent months: continual learning, or the promise of AI that’s able to learn from real-world experience the way humans do, without having to undergo long formal training processes that require tons of computational power and data.And as you’d might expect with the rise of an ill-defined, buzzy... A new holy grail has emerged in the AI industry in recent months: continual learning, or the...

Art by Mike Sullivan.

China’s AI Giveaway War

By Juro Osawa · Feb 17, 2026 7:05am PST

Art by Mike Sullivan.

China’s AI Giveaway War

By Juro Osawa · Feb 17, 2026 7:05am PST

U.S. AI firms such as OpenAI and Anthropic haven’t yet turned a profit but they’re trying to get on the path to doing so. In China, the big tech firms behind AI chatbots are fighting a different battle.Chinese tech firms are competing so intensely to draw people to use their AI chatbots that they’re spending this week’s Lunar New Year holidays... U.S. AI firms such as OpenAI and Anthropic haven’t yet turned a profit but they’re trying to get...

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...