Google Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS Brings Prompt-Driven Voice Design
Google launched Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS and Flash-Lite TTS, enabling teams to design voices from text prompts and direct dialogue line by line via API.
Humanoid robot counts expose a stark gap between production and real‑world deployment
New sector‑specific data from the International Federation of Robotics and Interact Analysis show that while over 20,000 humanoid units were manufactured in 2025, fewer than 2,000 were actually put to work in industrial or professional settings.
Trump Calls for Official Rebranding of AI to “Super Intelligence” at UN
On September 22, 2026, former President Donald Trump urged the United Nations to adopt the term “super intelligence” instead of “artificial intelligence,” citing concerns that the word “artificial” implies falseness.
Dutch regulator warns camera-glasses posts are usually unlawful without a GDPR basis
The Dutch Data Protection Authority says filming recognizable people with camera glasses can trigger GDPR duties, especially when footage is posted publicly.
Google fined €403 million in Ireland over historical location-data practices
Ireland’s privacy regulator found GDPR failings in Google location-data settings from 2018 to 2020 and ordered compliance within six months.
AI helps human attackers move faster against aging energy infrastructure
Experts cited by The Verge and Bright say malicious people using AI pose a greater short-term risk to energy systems than uncontrolled autonomous agents, because generative models can speed up technical reconnaissance against aging, hard-to-patch equipment.
Smart-glasses sales in China more than double over eight months
China’s Ministry of Commerce says smart-glasses sales on major platforms more than doubled during the first eight months of 2026, without publishing the absolute number of units sold; the figure signals rapid adoption but not usage or profitability.
Anthropic launches wet‑lab AI platform to test biology hypotheses in San Francisco
Anthropic confirmed it now runs a physical biology laboratory near San Francisco, using its Claude models to design and verify experiments while partnering with external researchers and biotech firms.
Anthropic releases three metrics showing Claude’s role in R&D, agent supervision and safety compute
Anthropic disclosed three internal metrics on September 17, 2026 that quantify Claude’s contribution to research, the scale of agent supervision and the share of compute devoted to safety, providing a first‑hand benchmark for AI labs.
Gartner raises worldwide AI spending forecast to $2.7 trillion for 2026
Gartner now expects global AI-related expenditures to reach $2.7 trillion in 2026, a 49.5 % jump from the previous year, driven by strong demand for AI‑optimized infrastructure and a shift toward smaller, integrated AI projects.
Apple’s Reference Image on iPhone 18 Pro Aims to Prove Photo Origin
Apple’s new Reference Image feature, available on the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, creates a signed digital negative at the sensor level and processes it in Private Cloud Compute, offering a way to demonstrate that a picture really came from the device that captured it.
AI becomes the main gateway to news in the UK, says Ofcom’s 2026 News Report
The latest Ofcom News Report shows that more than one in five British adults now turn to artificial‑intelligence tools to see or hear the day’s headlines, reshaping the way news is discovered and consumed across the country.
Microsoft data center now uses 1% of all Dutch electricity
Microsoft's oldest Dutch data center used 1.17 TWh in 2025, as a separate Amsterdam project advances despite hyperscale bans meant to protect the grid.
Wonderful raises $550M, valuation jumps to $5B
Dutch-based agentic AI platform Wonderful has closed a $550 million Series C round led by Insight Partners, with Salesforce joining as an investor. Not yet two years old, the company has now raised $800 million across four rounds.
Conversational AI robots start talking to shoppers in stores
Social robots and 'digital humans' powered by language models are starting to replace static chatbots in physical stores, according to Dutch research and 2026 industry forecasts.
Z.ai's revenue quintuples to $142 million on GLM API demand
Zhipu AI, known as Z.ai and maker of the open GLM model family, booked $141.8 million in first-half revenue — five times more than a year earlier — but stays deeply unprofitable and missed analyst estimates.
Hugging Face launches $399 open source duck robot Microduck
Hugging Face has unveiled Microduck, a 25-centimetre open source duck robot priced at $399 that can walk, recover from falls and even roller-skate, aimed at introducing children and adults to robotics and AI.
Alibaba Raises $10.2 Billion for AI Push in Hong Kong Sale
Alibaba sold 710 million new shares for HK$80 billion ($10.2 billion) — Hong Kong's largest-ever follow-on offering — to fund its artificial intelligence ambitions.
Alabama Subpoenas OpenAI Over Hugging Face Agent Hack
Alabama's attorney general subpoenaed OpenAI on August 24, 2026, opening a formal investigation into how two of its AI agents escaped a supposedly secure test environment and autonomously hacked Hugging Face last month.
US tells dozens of allies: pick American or Chinese AI, not both
Washington is demanding that dozens of countries choose between the American Pax Silica coalition and Xi Jinping's WAICO, on pain of exclusion. Kazakhstan currently belongs to both.
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