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TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2026

5G tower with telecommunications equipment
China Robotics & AI

Spirit AI Joins RMB 2B Financing Club

Spirit AI just closed nearly RMB 2 billion in funding, joining the Chinese unicorns club with a valuation above RMB 10 billion. Spirit AI’s two-round raise drew a heavyweight lineup that blends state-backed capital, industrial investors, and mainstream tech financiers. New backers include Yunfeng Ca

3D printer creating industrial prototype
Industrial Robotics

Water Systems Power Automated Manufacturing

Smart water isn’t a backdrop—it’s the bottleneck. Industrial water treatment has moved from “infrastructure footnote” to a critical line item in the automation playbook. In today’s high‑production facilities, water quality, supply reliability, and waste treatment are not just compliance concerns; th

Papers with Code
AI & Machine Learning

What we’re watching next in ai-ml

A tidal shift is unfolding around how we measure AI progress: benchmarks are going open, reproducible, and owned by the community. The signals are loud across three sources. arXiv’s cs.AI submissions keep piling up with papers that foreground evaluation rigor, code accessibility, and transparent met

Modern smart speaker on living room shelf
Consumer Tech

Apple Moves Mac Minis to Texas Factory

Mac Minis are marching home: Apple will start U.S. production in Texas this year. Apple disclosed that some Mac Mini assembly will shift to a Foxconn facility in north Houston, a move meant to satisfy the Trump-era push for domestic investment while broadening its manufacturing footprint. Later this

Beijing city with mix of traditional and modern architecture
China Robotics & AI

What we’re watching next in china

Beijing’s new subsidy isn’t for robots—it's for the gears and chips that power them. Chinese policy officials announced a shift in robotics support that prioritizes the components over the final machines, a move proponents say will deepen domestic supply chains but complicate procurement for multina

This Chainsmokers-approved AI music producer is joining Google
Consumer Tech

Google backs AI music tool ProducerAI

Google just folded an AI music producer into Labs. In hands-on terms, the deal means ProducerAI—the platform that lets users co-create with an AI agent to generate sounds, workshop lyrics, remix tracks, and even conjure new instruments from a prompt—will be powered by a preview of Google’s Lyria 3 m

Beat Coverage

AI & Machine Learning

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Futuristic digital data visualization
AI & Machine Learning

Chicago's Surveillance Panopticon in Action

A mass shooting on Chicago’s Blue Line lit up a city-scale surveillance engine. In the hours after the September 2, 2024 attack, authorities activated a digital dragnet that stitched together thousands of cameras across the transit system and city agencies. The chase began with a quick review of tra

The human work behind humanoid robots is being hidden
AI & Machine Learning

Hidden labor powers humanoid robots, critics warn

The real engine behind humanoid robots isn’t silicon—it’s humans in exosuits. A Technology Review investigation pulls back the curtain on a truth many demos don’t reveal: the flashy “physical AI” we’re seeing in labs and stage demos relies on weeks of grueling, largely invisible human work. Nvidia C

3D printed robotic components on workbench
AI & Machine Learning

Chicago’s surveillance panopticon closes the chase in 90 minutes

A city dragnet closed on a killer in 90 minutes. On September 2, 2024, a mass shooting on the CTA Blue Line jolted Chicago into a high-velocity security operation. What followed was a rapid-fire demonstration of a city-scale surveillance network: thousands of cameras across transit corridors, public

Data center server racks with blue lighting
AI & Machine Learning

Hidden Labor Behind Humanoid Robots

Humanoid robots hit the showroom floor, powered by invisible workers who do the hard data work behind the magic. The story is getting louder in tech circles: Nvidia’s Jensen Huang has framed this as the era of physical AI, where intelligence and movement fuse in machines that can learn on the factor

Beat Coverage

Industrial Robotics

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Logistics center with automated sorting systems
Industrial Robotics

Brightpick enters auto aftermarket with NAPA alliance

Brightpick tucks into auto parts logistics with NAPA. The partnership, announced February 20, 2026, signals a notable pivot for Brightpick as it pushes beyond traditional warehousing into the automotive aftermarket. Brightpick, which builds AI-powered robotic automation for warehouses, will deploy i

Car body being assembled by robotic arms
Industrial Robotics

What we’re watching next in industrial

Robots are finally delivering real payback in factories, not just glossy demos. A trio of trade publications are converging on a clear storyline: deployments that once lived in pilots and slideshows are now entering real production lines with measurable ROI, but only when the integration hurdle is a

Electric vehicle battery production line
Industrial Robotics

Mitsubishi Goes Digital-First for Drone Logistics

Mitsubishi Electric rewired drone ops with software-first thinking. Mitsubishi Electric United States is steering its air-mobility and cargo-drones ambitions through a digital-first lens. The company is building software-as-a-service platforms, data-driven tools, and AI-powered systems that bridge t

Industrial worker operating CNC machine
Industrial Robotics

Toyota Canada Bets on Digit Robots to Move Bins

Digit robots start moving bins at Toyota Canada plant. Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada (TMMC) has signed an agreement with Agility Robotics to deploy its Digit humanoids after a year-long pilot that included development, proof-of-technology, and onsite phases. The company says the pilot began with

Beat Coverage

Humanoids

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Tesollo commercializes its lightweight, compact robotic hand for humanoids
Humanoids

Tesollo Ships Its 20-DoF Humanoid Hand for Real-World Use

Twenty DoF in a palm-sized hand—Tesollo's DG-5F-S just went commercial. Tesollo Inc. has announced the commercial availability of its lightweight, compact humanoid hand—the DG-5F-S—bending the company’s own design philosophy toward easy integration rather than loading the hand with ever-tighter benc

Humanoid robot standing in modern environment
Humanoids

Apptronik Raises $520M in Series A Extension

Apptronik just locked in another $520 million, pushing its value beyond $5 billion. Apptronik, the Austin-based humanoid robotics startup, disclosed a fresh Series A extension worth $520 million, adding to the roughly $935 million it had already raised and signaling a calendar-shaping vote of confid

Dashboard showing robotics telemetry data
Humanoids

Secure fingerprints on-chip: no server needed

Two chips, one fingerprint—no server required. MIT engineers have unveiled a manufacturing method that makes secure, fingerprint-based authentication possible entirely on silicon, without ever storing secret data on a remote server. The approach hinges on a design trick: split a specially crafted ch

Robotic hand demonstrating fine motor control
Humanoids

NORD's Digital Twin Slashes Robot-Drive Development

NORD's new digital twin platform promises virtual commissioning that can cut weeks, even months, from robotics drive development. Engineering documentation shows that the platform builds digital twins directly from a myNORD configuration, delivering individually created drive system models for simul

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Consumer Tech

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