ai r&d
30 articles about ai r&d in AI news
Anthropic's Jack Clark: ~60% chance of automated AI R&D by 2028
Anthropic's Jack Clark forecasts ~30% chance of automated AI R&D by 2027 and ~60%+ by 2028, driven by coding gains and agents.
NanoGPT-Bench: A New Eval for Coding Agents Doing AI Research
IntologyAI released NanoGPT-Bench, an internal eval for coding agents on an AI R&D problem. No results or task specifics have been disclosed.
Microsoft Fires Candy Crush AI Team After Years of Level-Design Tool Development
A developer claims Microsoft fired the AI team at King, the Candy Crush developer, after they spent years building tools to automate level design. This highlights the tension between long-term AI R&D and corporate cost-cutting.
Anthropic Unveils TAI Research Agenda Targeting AI Economics, Threats, R&D
Anthropic's TAI will study four areas: economic diffusion, threats, wild AI, and AI-driven R&D. No budget disclosed.
Nature Report: China's Public R&D Spending Nears US Levels, Shifting Global Science Funding Landscape
A new Nature report indicates China is close to surpassing the US in public R&D spending. This shift in funding could alter which nation sets the global pace for scientific research, though China still lags in fundamental research output.
Anthropic Acquires AI Biotech Coefficient Bio for ~$400M to Build 'Virtual Biologist'
Anthropic acquired AI biotech startup Coefficient Bio for approximately $400M. The small team was building AI to plan drug R&D, manage clinical strategy, and identify new drug opportunities, aligning with CEO Dario Amodei's vision of AI as a 'virtual biologist.'
Eli Lilly Signs $2.75B AI Drug Discovery Deal with Insilico Medicine
Eli Lilly has entered a $2.75 billion licensing pact with Insilico Medicine for multiple AI-discovered drug programs. The deal includes an upfront payment, milestones, and royalties, marking a major validation for AI-driven pharmaceutical R&D.
LVMH Executive Makes Personal Investment in Generative AI Virtual Try-On Startup
An LVMH executive has personally invested in a generative AI-powered virtual try-on technology startup. This signals high-level, direct belief in the technology's potential to impact the luxury customer journey, beyond corporate R&D.
Figure robot count surpasses human headcount for first time
Figure's robot count surpassed its human headcount for the first time, signaling a shift from R&D to deployment. Exact numbers were not disclosed.
MirrorCode Benchmark Costs $2,600 Per Run, Challenges AI Coding Limits
Epoch AI and METR launched MirrorCode, a $2,600-per-run coding benchmark. Claude Opus 4.7 leads with 56% solve rate.
Alibaba Chip Unit T-Head Triples Capital to $148M in AI Push
Alibaba's chip unit T-Head tripled capital to $148M, its first injection in 3 years, as the company vertically integrates AI hardware with Qwen models and cloud.
China Opens Two Rival Space-AI Compute Hubs Days Before SpaceX's AI1 Reveal
Beijing approved a BUPT-led Space Computing Industry Innovation Center on June 1 and a separate E-Town Space Intelligent Computing Research Institute in late May, both targeting radiation-hardened AI chips and orbital inference — coordinated moves that preceded SpaceX's AI1 satellite unveiling on Ju
NVIDIA, GENCI Launch AI Factory France Compute Access for Startups
NVIDIA and GENCI launched AI Factory France at VivaTech, giving European startups free access to AI supercomputers. The program includes compute, tools, and expert support for NVIDIA Inception members.
Shanghai Exchange Opens IPO Door for Unprofitable AI Labs, Sets $591M Cap Floor
SSE allows unprofitable AI labs to list on Star Market with $591M cap floor, matching DeepSeek's $59.2B valuation.
xAI Launches Grok Plugin Marketplace to Counter Claude Code's Ecosystem
xAI launched Grok Build Plugin Marketplace with 6 plugins, directly competing with Claude Code's 224,691-star open-source ecosystem. The move mirrors xAI's strategy of absorbing community momentum.
UK Doubles Sovereign AI Cloud Providers, Deploys 65MW Nebius Cluster
UK doubled sovereign AI cloud providers in a year. Nebius deploys 65MW cluster; Isambard-AI powers Sovereign AI Fund for homegrown startups.
AMD Gives OSS Maintainers $3.6M MI355X Cluster Access
AMD gives vLLM/SGLang maintainers $3.6M MI355X cluster access, ending NVIDIA's monopoly on OSS inference hardware access.
Kunluncore Files STAR Market IPO, Claims 32K GPU Cluster First
Kunluncore filed for a STAR Market IPO, claiming a 32K GPU cluster first, testing investor appetite for domestic AI chips.
Periodic Labs Hits $7.5B Valuation, Raises $500M for AI Science
Periodic Labs raising $500M at $7.5B valuation. Sixfold value jump in 8 months. Talent exodus from big AI labs signals shift to autonomous science.
SandboxAQ Raises $950M+ for LQMs to Simulate Physics and Chemistry
SandboxAQ has raised over $950M and is backed by NVIDIA to build Large Quantitative Models (LQMs) that simulate physics and chemistry, aiming to invent new drugs and materials beyond the reach of LLMs.
The $500B AI Chip Bottleneck: One Material, One Supplier
A single Japanese chemical company supplies 98% of the thin-film material used in every AI chip on earth. NVIDIA is paying half the capex to expand supplier fabs as lead times stretch past 6 months.
China Blocks Meta's $2B Manus Acquisition Over AI Tech Transfer Fears
China blocked Meta's $2 billion acquisition of agentic AI startup Manus, citing concerns over foreign investment and transfer of strategic AI technology to the US. The move signals Beijing's sharper stance on AI sovereignty and intensifies the US-China tech rivalry.
GenRobot Launches 6-Camera Wearable for Embodied AI Data Capture
GenRobot launched DAS Ego, a wearable with six 2MP cameras for capturing zero-distortion, 270° FOV data. They also open-sourced the 'Gen Ego Data' dataset covering 200+ skills to train models on perception-action causality.
AI Data Center Startup Phononic in Sale Talks at Multi-Billion Valuation
Phononic, a startup building liquid cooling systems for AI data centers, is in talks for a sale that could value it in the multi-billions. This reflects intense market pressure to solve the power and thermal challenges of scaling AI compute.
Foxconn to Mass-Produce 10,000+ CPO Optical Switches for AI in Q3 2026
Foxconn's manufacturing arm will begin volume production of advanced co-packaged optics (CPO) switches in Q3 2026, targeting over 10,000 units. This move directly addresses the critical bandwidth and power bottlenecks in next-generation AI data center infrastructure.
Forbes Reports on Luxury Brands' Quiet AI Adoption
A Forbes article examines the strategic, often non-public, integration of AI by luxury brands. The focus is on practical applications in customer experience, operations, and design, marking a shift from experimentation to embedded utility.
The Silent Threat to AI Benchmarks: 8 Sources of Eval Contamination
The article warns that subtle data contamination in evaluation pipelines—from benchmark leakage to temporal overlap—can create misleading performance metrics. Identifying these eight leakage sources is essential for trustworthy AI validation.
IOWN Forum Pushes All-Photonic WAN for AI Neocloud Interconnects
The IOWN Global Forum is focusing its optical networking tech on datacenter interconnects, aiming to let GPU 'neoclouds' and financial firms use cheaper, remote facilities without latency penalties for AI workloads.
Google's 'TestPilot' AI Agent Debugs Integration Tests from Logs
Google introduced TestPilot, an AI agent that diagnoses integration test failures by sifting through logs and suggesting code fixes. It autonomously resolved 15% of real-world Python test failures in an experiment.
Manycore Tech Pivots from Real Estate to AI Robotics, Hits $1B Valuation
Manycore Tech Inc., a Chinese software company previously focused on real estate, has raised $150 million to pivot into AI and robotics, achieving a $1 billion valuation. The move is led by an Nvidia alumnus and capitalizes on China's strategic push into automation.