AI Updates for the Week of 1/31/26

Updates

Below are some of the highlights in AI, robotics, and machine learning for this past week.

Clawdbot rebrands again from Moltbot to OpenClaw
Report: Nearly 60% of worker admit to using unapproved AI tools at work
Top engineers at Anthropic and OpenAI say AI now writes 100% of their code
Video game stocks nosedive as Google’s Project Genie allows virtual world creation
Anthropic brings agentic plugins to Cowork
NASA used Claude to plot a route for its Perseverance rover on Mars
Google engineer found guilty of sending AI secrets to China

Google’s Project Genie lets users generate their own interactive worlds
Leak: Amazon discovered a ‘high volume’ of CSAM in its AI training data but isn’t saying where it came from
Leak: Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Tesla, and xAI in talks to merge
Tesla announces plan to shift from cars to AI and robots
Google Maps now lets users access Gemini hands free
Dow to cut about 4,500 jobs as emphasis shifts to AI and automation
Leak: Microsoft is walking back Windows 11’s AI overload
Napster reincarnates itself as an AI music app
Apple buys Israeli startup audio AI startup Q.ai

Matt Schlicht announces Moltbook
Chrome adds tighter Gemini integration, agentic features
LinkedIn to add proficiency badges for AI tools
Amazon axes 16,000 jobs as it pushes AI and efficiency
Apple launches Apple Creator Studio
Google integrates developer program benefits into AI Pro and Ultra subscriptions
Autonomous robot clears 6,000-sq-ft driveway in brutal New Jersey snowstorm

Anthropic and OpenAI CEOs condemn ICE violence, praise Trump
Airtable jumps into the AI agent game with Superagent
China’s Moonshot releases a new open source model Kimi K2.5 and a coding agent
Yahoo is adding generative AI to its search engine
Astronomers discover 800+ cosmic anomalies using a new AI tool
Google’s more affordable AI Plus plan rolls out to all markets
OpenAI launches Prism, a new AI workspace for scientists
The EU tells Google to give external AI assistants the same access to Android as Gemini has
Google announces Agentic Vision in Gemini 3 Flash
Pinterest lays off hundreds, citing need for ‘AI-proficient talent’
Figure announces its Helix 02 humanoid robot (and shows off its dish-washing capabilities)
Google rolls out ability to ask follow-up from AI Overviews
Mark Zuckerberg was initially opposed to parental controls for AI chatbots, according to legal filing
Anthropic selected to build government AI assistant pilot
Contextual AI launches Agent Composer tailored to technically demanding fields

European Union opens investigation into Musk’s AI chatbot Grok over sexual deepfakes
Claude Code’s ‘Tasks’ update lets agents work longer and coordinate across sessions
Anthropic launches interactive Claude apps
Anthropic announces Claude in Excel
Microsoft announces powerful new chip for AI inference
Malicious Microsoft VSCode AI extensions might have hit more than 1.5 million users
Nvidia releases Earth-2 weather forecasting models
YouTubers sue Snap for alleged copyright infringement in training its AI models

Leak: Apple to unveil its Gemini-powered Siri assistant in February
South Korea moves to investigate Grok over sexually exploitative deepfake images

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