2026

World models

AI systems have already gained impressive mastery over the digital world, but the physical world is still humanity’s domain. As it turns out, building an AI system that can compose…

Weaponized deepfakes

For years, experts have warned that deepfakes—AI-generated videos, images, or audio recordings of people doing or saying things they haven’t actually done in real life—could be deployed in malicious ways.…

Humanoid data

I was recently invited to join an app that would pay me cryptocurrency to film myself doing tasks like putting food into a bowl, microwaving it, and then taking it…

Artificial scientists

AI companies frequently invoke the possibility of AI-enabled scientific discovery as a justification for their existence: If the technology eventually cures cancer and solves climate change, then all the carbon…

China’s open-source bet

Silicon Valley AI companies follow a familiar playbook: Keep the secret sauce behind an API, and charge for every drop. China’s leading AI labs are playing a different game: They…