Thursday, 26 March 2026
Welcome to today's roundup of the most interesting developments in AI and technology.
Top Stories
Data centers get ready — the Senate wants to see your power bills
Senators Josh Hawley and Elizabeth Warren want the Energy Information Administration to gather more details about how data centers use power — and how that affects the grid.
Read moreA ‘pound of flesh’ from data centers: One senator's answer to AI job losses
Fears of AI-driven job loss are growing fast, and they’re fueling backlash against data centers. Sen. Mark Warner suggests taxing them to help workers survive the transition.
Read moreRPA matters, but AI changes how automation works
RPA (robotic process automation) is a practical and proven way to reduce manual work in business processes without AI systems. By using software bots to follow fixed rules, companies can automate repetitive tasks like data entry and invoice processing, and to a certain extent, report generation. Ado
Read moreThe least surprising chapter of the Manus story is what's happening right now
Did anyone think there would not be a reckoning over this tie-up?
Read moreMercor competitor Deccan AI raises $25M, sources experts from India
Deccan AI concentrates its workforce in India to manage quality in a fast-growing but fragmented AI training market.
Read moreThe AI skills gap is here, says AI company, and power users are pulling ahead
Anthropic finds AI isn’t replacing jobs yet, but early data shows growing inequality as experienced users gain an edge, raising concerns about future displacement and workforce divides.
Read moreGoogle unveils TurboQuant, a new AI memory compression algorithm — and yes, the internet is calling it 'Pied Piper'
Google’s TurboQuant has the internet joking about Pied Piper from HBO's "Silicon Valley." The compression algorithm promises to shrink AI’s “working memory” by up to 6x, but it’s still just a lab experiment for now.
Read moreMelania Trump wants a robot to homeschool your child
The first lady sees AI and robotics playing a prominent role in the future of American education.
Read moreIndustry
Reddit takes on the bots with new 'human verification' requirements for fishy behavior
Reddit will require suspected automated accounts to verify they’re human, as it ramps up efforts to curb bot-driven spam and manipulation.
Read moreHarvey confirms $11B valuation: Sequoia triples down
Investors like Sequoia, Andreessen Horowitz, Kleiner Perkins, and Elad Gil can't get enough of AI legal tech startup Harvey.
Read moreOcorian: Family offices turn to AI for financial data insights
To gain financial data insights, the majority of family offices now turn to AI, according to new research from Ocorian. The global study reveals 86 percent of these private wealth groups are utilising AI to improve their daily operations and data analysis. Representing a combined wealth of $119.37 b
Read moreGranola raises $125M, hits $1.5B valuation as it expands from meeting notetaker to enterprise AI app
Granola's valuation jumped from $250 million to $1.5 billion with this round, and it has added more support for AI agents after users previously complained.
Read moreMeta turns to AI to make shopping easier on Instagram and Facebook
Meta is using generative AI to provide more product and brand information to consumers when they're shopping in its apps.
Read moreAutomating complex finance workflows with multimodal AI
Finance leaders are automating their complex workflows by actively adopting powerful new multimodal AI frameworks. Extracting text from unstructured documents presents a frequent headache for developers. Historically, standard optical character recognition systems failed to accurately digitise compl
Read moreSecuring AI systems under today's and tomorrow's conditions
Evidence cited in an eBook titled “AI Quantum Resilience”, published by Utimaco [email wall], shows organisations consider security risks as the leading barrier to effective adoption of AI on data they hold. AI’s value depends on data amassed by an organisation. However, there are
Read morePalantir AI to support UK finance operations
UK authorities believe improving efficiency across national finance operations requires applying AI platforms from vendors like Palantir. The country’s financial regulator, the FCA, has initiated a project leveraging AI to identify illicit activities. The FCA is currently testing the Foundry p
Read moreResearch & Products
ByteDance's new AI video generation model, Dreamina Seedance 2.0, comes to CapCut
The new model in CapCut will have built-in protections for making video from real faces or unauthorized intellectual property.
Read moreConntour raises $7M from General Catalyst, YC to build an AI search engine for security video systems
Conntour uses AI models to let security teams query camera feeds using natural language to find any object, person, or situation.
Read moreCohere launches an open source voice model specifically for transcription
Relatively light at just 2 billion parameters, the model is meant for use with consumer-grade GPUs for those who want to self-host it. It currently supports 14 languages.
Read moreMistral releases a new open source model for speech generation
The model, which lets enterprises build voice agents for sales and customer engagement, puts Mistral in direct competition with the likes of ElevenLabs, Deepgram, and OpenAI.
Read moreGoogle launches Lyria 3 Pro music generation model
Google is launching Lyria 3 Pro, an upgraded music model that generates longer, more customizable tracks, as it expands AI music tools across Gemini, enterprise products, and other services.
Read moreMeta launches new initiative to support entrepreneurship, drive AI adoption
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a memo to staff that small businesses have always been a big part of the company's business model, and that while tens of millions of entrepreneurs already use its platforms to grow and connect with customers, the company wants to do more in the space.
Read moreWith Sift, two ex-SpaceX engineers are bringing the software that helped launch rockets to the factory floor
Sift is building the data infrastructure for advanced manufacturing.
Read morePolicy & Ethics
OpenAI abandons yet another side quest: ChatGPT's erotic mode
It's only the latest of several side project that the AI startup has ditched over the past week.
Read moreBernie Sanders and AOC propose a ban on data center construction
Senator Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez introduced companion legislation to halt construction on new data centers until Congress passes comprehensive AI regulation.
Read moreAI agents enter banking roles at Bank of America
AI agents are starting to take on a more direct role in how financial advice is delivered, as large banks move into systems that support client interactions. Bank of America is now deploying an internal AI-powered advisory platform to a subset of financial advisers, rolled out to around 1,000 financ
Read more