automation

OpenAI launches dots, always-on AI agents in ChatGPT

OpenAI has introduced dots, AI agents that keep running in the background and act on a user's behalf. The company announced them at its developer event on September 29, 2026. Each dot runs on GPT-6 Astra and gets its own…

Boston Dynamics opens center to train Atlas robots for Hyundai factories

Boston Dynamics on Monday launched its Robotics Metaplant Application Center at Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America outside Savannah, Georgia, creating a dedicated facility to train its Atlas humanoid robots for real-world automotive manufacturing.

Toyota plans 400,000 factory robots, $6.4B annual spend from 2028

Toyota has outlined plans to deploy around 400,000 robots across its global manufacturing network, with an estimated annual investment of roughly 1 trillion yen ($6.4 billion) starting in 2028, in what would be one of the auto industry's largest automation…

Goldman Sachs links AI adoption to hiring slowdown in four major economies

Artificial intelligence adoption has reached 15% to 20% across major developed economies, and the shift is already dragging down hiring in technology-intensive sectors, according to a new report from Goldman Sachs The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. Research published this weekend.

Apple launches Siri AI as tech giants race to deploy autonomous agents

The era of AI that merely answers questions is giving way to one where AI systems act on their own. Across the technology industry, companies are racing to deploy autonomous AI agents capable of executing complex, multi-step workflows with minimal…

Anthropic model projects severe knowledge worker job losses in extreme AI scenario

Anthropic's economics team released an interactive model this week projecting how AI could reshape the U.S. economy through 2030, with its most extreme scenario forecasting 17.9% unemployment among knowledge workers and economy-wide joblessness of 11.9% — levels beyond anything seen…

China’s record-setting humanoid robot pivots to factory work

Two weeks after China's TianGong Ultra humanoid robot ran 100 meters in 8.64 seconds at the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing — nearly a full second faster than Usain Bolt's 9.58-second human record — its engineers say the harder…

Tech firms scale back AI-driven layoffs after falling short

The promise that artificial intelligence could seamlessly replace large swaths of the human workforce is running into hard reality. Meta, the social media giant, abandoned an ambitious internal plan to cut up to 60% of workers in some teams and…

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Meta launches Muse, a personal AI agent that acts on users’ behalf

Meta on Tuesday unveiled Muse, a personal AI agent that goes beyond chatbot-style question-and-answer interactions to autonomously handle everyday digital tasks on behalf of users. The agent can send emails, book travel, fill out forms, lower bills, and make purchases…

Unitree claims first autonomous humanoid robot powered by real-time world model

Chinese robotics company Unitree Robotics on Monday demonstrated what it called the world's first fully autonomous humanoid robot powered by a real-time world model, releasing video of two robots sparring without any human control. The system, dubbed UnifoLM-X2-1.0, marks an…

ChatGPT Astra now rolling out to $20 Plus subscribers

OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra, the company's most advanced AI model to date, is now rolling out to $20 ChatGPT Plus subscribers after launching on September 3 to a limited set of organizations and higher-tier plans. The model, which OpenAI has called…

OpenAI says it reached its ‘automated research intern’ goal

OpenAI announced on Sunday that it has reached its previously stated goal of developing an "automated research intern," a system capable of carrying out well-defined research tasks under human direction, including tasks that would take a skilled researcher several days.…

Microsoft unveils Project Opal, an AI agent that completes tasks autonomously

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced new AI-powered capabilities for Microsoft 365 Copilot, headlined by Project Opal — a system designed to plan and execute complex, long-running tasks inside a secure environment controlled by the user. The announcement, made in a…

Musk predicts 1 billion humanoid robots in a decade

Elon Musk told a gathering of global technology leaders on Tuesday that the world will have at least one billion humanoid robots within a decade, each producing five times the output of a human worker, in remarks that underscored his…

Anthropic unveils standard letting AI agents control lab and factory equipment

Anthropic opened a research preview on August 27 of the Model Hardware Standard, a framework that gives AI agents a common interface to operate physical laboratory and manufacturing equipment such as microscopes, robotic arms, and liquid handlers. The standard, developed…

Anthropic launches standard for AI agents to run lab and factory equipment

Anthropic on Thursday unveiled a research preview of the Model Hardware Standard, a framework designed to let AI agents operate physical devices in scientific laboratories and manufacturing facilities, marking the company's first move into what the industry calls "physical AI."

UK survey: 1 in 3 employers cut entry-level jobs as AI reshapes hiring

Artificial intelligence is leaving a measurable imprint on U.S. employment data, with the technology and financial services sectors shedding an average of 28,000 jobs per month in 2026 even as the broader economy continues to add positions, according to a…

Bill Gates proposes reserving some jobs for humans as AI advances

Bill Gates warned Wednesday that governments are not prepared for a "turbulent AI era" and proposed that society designate certain jobs as "Human Reserved" — work that machines could perform but that people deliberately keep for humans.

ChatGPT can now read and send texts via Apple Messages on Mac

OpenAI released a new plugin for its macOS desktop app on Wednesday that gives ChatGPT direct access to Apple's Messages app, allowing the AI assistant to read, search, summarize, and send texts on a user's behalf across iMessage, SMS, and…

Goldman Sachs says AI is already slowing hiring across developed economies

Artificial intelligence is already leaving a measurable mark on hiring across the world's largest economies, with call centers, software publishing, and management consulting among the hardest-hit industries, according to a Goldman Sachs research report published Wednesday.

New research shows AI hitting entry-level workers hardest globally

A convergence of new research from central banks, investment firms and academic institutions published this week paints a stark picture: the economic disruption from artificial intelligence is landing first and hardest on young and entry-level workers, eroding traditional pathways into…

SpaceXAI launches Grok Bot, an AI agent for business tasks

SpaceXAI on Tuesday released Grok Bot, a new AI agent tool that the company describes as "AI teammates you can give real work to," marking its latest effort to compete with Anthropic and OpenAI in the rapidly evolving AI agent…

AI agents now cost less per hour than offshore outsourced labor, a16z says

AI agents capable of operating computers have crossed a dual inflection point in both cost and accuracy, according to new research published by Andreessen Horowitz partner Fabrizio Serafini. The findings mark a turning point for the business process outsourcing industry,…

Bot traffic overtakes humans on Cloudflare’s network

Non-human internet traffic has officially surpassed human activity on Cloudflare's network, the company revealed during its second-quarter earnings call on Wednesday, with executives predicting that machine-generated packets could exceed human traffic by a factor of 1,000 within five years.

Cloudflare releases Kitesurf, a browser built for AI agents instead of humans

Cloudflare on Wednesday released Kitesurf, a web browser built from scratch for AI agents rather than humans, running entirely in V8 isolates on Cloudflare Workers with no Chromium underneath. The browser is available free while in beta through the company's…

Google’s Gemini Spark AI agent adds Chrome integration, expands to 160-plus countries

Google Alphabet Inc. on Thursday announced two updates to Gemini Spark, its personal AI agent: a Chrome auto-browse integration that allows the agent to act on a user's behalf inside the browser, and a global rollout that brings the service…

Chinese robots fill UK warehouses as U.S. bans imports

Chinese robotics firm Geek+ is rapidly expanding across Britain's warehouse sector, with major retailers including Tesco, Asda, and Next deploying its autonomous mobile robots to address persistent labour shortages and sluggish productivity growth, according to a BBC report published this…

Meta AI rolls out task automation and daily briefings

Meta Platforms is rolling out new task automation capabilities for its Meta AI assistant, allowing the chatbot to handle recurring tasks without repeated user instructions, the company announced on Thursday.

Hyundai workers set to escalate strike over humanoid robot plans

Thousands of unionized workers at Hyundai Motor in Ulsan, South Korea, staged a three-day partial strike from July 13 to 15, marking what The Wall Street Journal called the first factory stoppage in the automotive industry directly tied to humanoid…

Hyundai strike marks auto industry’s first stoppage over humanoid robots

Workers at Hyundai Motor's South Korean plants launched a three-day partial strike this week after wage negotiations collapsed, marking what The Wall Street Journal called the global auto industry's first factory stoppage tied to humanoid robots. The rolling action, which…