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Amazon AI Tool Sparks Fury After Listing Products Without Retailer Consent

Amazon's experimental Buy For Me AI agent has drawn sharp criticism from independent brands after automatically listing their products without permission. Small business owners discovered they were unwittingly selling on Amazon's marketplace through website scraping, with some receiving orders for items they don't even carry. The controversy raises questions about seller consent and who controls customer relationships in AI-powered e-commerce.

4 Sources

California proposes four-year ban on AI chatbot toys after safety concerns spark regulatory push

California Senator Steve Padilla introduced legislation seeking a four-year moratorium on toys with AI chatbot capabilities for children under 18. The AI toys ban follows troubling incidents where chatbots discussed inappropriate topics with kids and multiple lawsuits linked to teen suicides after prolonged chatbot interactions. The bill aims to give regulators time to develop safety frameworks.

4 Sources

Gmail privacy concerns escalate as expert warns users about Google AI training data access

Engineering YouTuber Davey Jones warns Gmail users they've been automatically opted in to allow Google access to private messages and attachments. A lawsuit filed in November claims Google secretly enabled Gemini for all users on October 10, 2025, to track private communications. Google denies using Gmail content for training its Gemini AI model, calling the reports misleading.

3 Sources

Grab Holdings acquires AI robotics firm to accelerate delivery automation across Southeast Asia

Grab Holdings is making a strategic expansion into AI with its acquisition of Chinese robotics firm Infermove. The Singapore-based superapp aims to enhance automated delivery services across its ride-hailing and food delivery network. The company is also testing autonomous vehicles in Singapore, with public service expected by early 2026.

2 Sources

PepsiCo partners with Nvidia and Siemens on AI collaboration to transform manufacturing operations

PepsiCo announced a multi-year industrial AI collaboration with Siemens and Nvidia at CES 2026, deploying Digital Twin technology to revolutionize manufacturing plants and supply chain operations. Early pilots show a 20% throughput increase, nearly 100% design validation, and 10-15% reductions in capital expenditure by simulating facility changes virtually before physical implementation.

2 Sources

MIT and Microsoft develop AI system CleaveNet to design sensors for early cancer detection

Researchers from MIT and Microsoft created CleaveNet, an AI model that designs peptide-based molecular sensors to detect cancer in its earliest stages. The system generates peptides targeted by cancer-linked proteases, enabling diagnosis through a simple urine test that could be performed at home.

2 Sources

MSI unveils two AI-powered mini PCs with 96GB unified memory and 50 TOPS performance

MSI introduced two compact AI PC models at CES 2025. The AI Edge features AMD's Ryzen AI Max+ 395 with up to 96GB of dynamically allocated unified memory for GPU tasks, while the ultra-compact 0.5-liter Cubi NUC AI+ 3MG runs Intel's Panther Lake processors. Both deliver 50 TOPS of AI performance through dedicated NPU technology.

2 Sources

06 Jan 2026

Mobileye acquires Mentee Robotics for $900M, pushing into humanoid robots and Physical AI

Intel subsidiary Mobileye announced a $900 million acquisition of Mentee Robotics at CES, marking its bold entry into humanoid robotics. Co-founder Amnon Shashua calls this Mobileye 3.0, combining automotive autonomy expertise with breakthrough robotics technology. The deal aims to deploy general-purpose humanoid robots in factories and fulfillment centers by 2026.

12 Sources

Elon Musk's xAI raises $20 billion from Nvidia and investors as regulatory scrutiny intensifies

Elon Musk's artificial intelligence startup xAI announced it raised $20 billion in Series E funding, surpassing its initial $15 billion target. The funding round drew backing from Nvidia, Cisco, Fidelity, and Qatar Investment Authority. However, the company faces international investigations after its Grok chatbot generated child sexual abuse material and nonconsensual deepfakes of real people.

20 Sources

LMArena raises $150M at $1.7B valuation, tripling worth in seven months with AI evaluation platform

LMArena, the AI evaluation platform that started as a UC Berkeley research project, has raised $150 million in Series A funding at a $1.7 billion valuation. The startup, which lets users compare AI models through crowdsourced evaluations, tripled its valuation in just seven months and now serves over 5 million monthly users across 150 countries.

4 Sources

Sandisk Stock Rockets 22% as AI Memory Boom Fuels 830% Rally and Price Surge

Sandisk stock soared 22% to $334.75, extending an 830% rally since its February 2025 spin-off. Memory prices are projected to jump 40-70% in Q1 2026 as AI-driven demand for enterprise SSDs and NAND flash storage outpaces supply. Nvidia's new storage platform for agentic AI inference adds fuel to the memory supercycle.

2 Sources

Universal Music Nvidia partnership expands AI music discovery with responsible AI safeguards

Universal Music Group and Nvidia announced a strategic AI partnership to expand Music Flamingo across UMG's 3 million song catalog. The collaboration focuses on responsible AI for music discovery, creation tools, and an artist incubator designed to combat AI slop while ensuring copyright protection and rightsholder compensation.

5 Sources

Razer invests $600 million in AI hardware, targeting developers and gamers with new workstation

Gaming hardware giant Razer is making a significant pivot into artificial intelligence with a $600 million investment over the next couple of years. The company unveiled the Forge AI Dev Workstation at CES 2026, designed specifically for AI training, inference, and simulation workloads. Razer is also hiring 150 AI scientists as it targets what CEO Min-Liang Tan calls a multibillion-dollar opportunity in the untapped AI gaming market.

5 Sources

AWS and Aumovio expand partnership to accelerate AI-driven development of self-driving vehicles

Amazon Web Services has expanded its partnership with German automotive supplier Aumovio to support the commercial rollout of self-driving vehicles. The collaboration will leverage generative and agentic AI tools to accelerate Aurora's planned deployment of driverless freight trucks at scale from 2027, marking a shift from research to real-world autonomous driving deployment.

2 Sources

CES 2026 unveils AI companion robots with memory, as intimacy tech takes physical form

CES 2026 revealed a notable shift in AI companionship technology, moving beyond screens into physical forms. Lovense debuted Emily, an AI-powered companion robot with memory and conversational intelligence, while Lepro introduced Ami, a desktop AI soulmate with eye tracking. The展 signals how physical AI companions are being positioned to address loneliness through emotional interaction.

4 Sources

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