6:56 PM
Today in brief.
AI is moving into physical engineering: OpenAI's hardware push and Skyfall's car model
Two separate teams showed AI doing mechanical, electrical and simulation work on physical products.
🔬 Science
Robots you can buy: an $795 open-source room robot, plus two warehouse and factory shifts
Embodied AI had a practical day: a four-motor open-source robot that reaches a whole room for $795, a humanoid reportedly working an 8-hour shift, and a second-generation truck unloader.
🤖 AI
Perplexity Computer now runs a Shopify store's ads, email and audits
Perplexity says its agent harness can run Meta ads, Klaviyo email and Shopify stores from one place, and has added Agent Plugins that bundle apps with their skills.
3 sources 3:02 PM
🤖 AI
An agent booked a doctor visit by phone, and half of Americans want one health app
A creator posted a Grok Bot run that found a pediatric orthopedist, called, and booked the same day, while a16z's survey says half of 500 Americans would pay for one app handling records, labs, wearables and booking.
2 sources 2:29 AM
🏛️ Policy
Anthropic's FlashProve lets you check which model actually answered
Anthropic released open-source code that cryptographically proves a response came from a specific model, so a lab cannot quietly swap in a cheaper one.
🔧 Tech
Gartner says open models can run 90% of agent steps at a fraction of the cost
Gartner argues nine in ten steps in an agent workflow are routine, and open-weight models handle them at parity for a quarter of the cheapest closed model's price, and as little as a twentieth of a frontier model run on every step.
🤖 AI
Apple lets Siri AI act inside any third-party app
iOS 27.3 opens Siri AI to developers in all apps, including a new 'app skills' feature that bundles several steps into one voice command.
🏛️ Policy
Google will switch off Search for schools that turn off its AI
Google says K-12 student accounts lose Gemini and Search unless administrators explicitly turn them on, and schools cannot disable the AI without also losing Search.
💼 Business
Nexus Mods and itch.io push AI labels instead of bans
The biggest PC modding site now requires authors to declare AI use, and itch.io is adding AI disclosure filtering to search.
Two dev tools quietly changed what they share: Postman and Codex
A Postman issue and a Hacker News thread flag tools changing your agent setup or privacy settings without asking.
🔬 Science
The AI buildout bill: $3.2T of hidden debt, jet engines for power
Nikkei says big tech's off-balance-sheet AI obligations grew 90% in six months, while data centers turn to old jet engines because the grid cannot keep up.
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