StepFun Unleashes Step 3.5 Flash Open Source
StepFun's Step 3.5 Flash packs 196 billion parameters, yet only 11 billion fire at inference. StepFun, a Chinese large-model startup, has fully open-sourced Step 3.5 Flash, releasing not just the model but also its Base and Midtrain weights and the Steptron training framework. The release centers on
Apple unveils $599 MacBook Neo—budget, with caveats
Apple’s new MacBook Neo lands with budget bravado and cut corners. The Verge reports the Neo starts at $599, packing an A18 Pro chip, 8GB of memory, and 256GB of storage. You can step up to $699 for the same core specs plus TouchID and 512GB of storage. It’s conspicuously plain: two USB-C ports (not
Pentagon Standoff Threatens Anthropic Defense Tie
Anthropic's Pentagon deal hangs on a looming policy deadline. The clash centers on how the AI firm and the Defense Department govern dual-use technology, with proponents and skeptics alike watching to see whether a compromise can preserve both national security aims and private-sector innovation. In
Seventh-axis RTUs Unlock Robot Cells
Seventh-axis robot-transfer units are quietly turning basic robot cells into high-throughput worklines. Peripheral motion systems—everything that moves parts to and from a robot, coordinates with conveyors, or adds axes beyond the robot’s own reach—are moving from “nice-to-have” to “must-have” for d
Agibot Goes Global with Robot Rentals
Robot rentals start at €899—and Agibot is going global. At MWC 2026 in Barcelona, Agibot rolled out the globe-spanning phase of its embodied intelligence push, showing a full lineup of general-purpose robots and drawing a rare visit from King Felipe VI. The moment wasn’t just a showroom win; it sign
Bridging the Operational AI Gap
Enterprise AI is barreling toward production—but most pilots stall. The dream of AI at scale is colliding with a stubborn reality: you can’t ship AI to the front lines without an operational backbone. MIT Technology Review Insights surveyed 500 senior IT leaders in mid- to large-size US companies in
AI & Machine Learning
More
Protests Push AI to the Spotlight
Hundreds of anti-AI protesters marched through London’s King’s Cross on Saturday, demanding that AI makers pull the plug. The demonstration, organized by Pause AI and Pull the Plug, billed itself as the largest protest of its kind yet. Chanting “Pull the plug! Pull the plug! Stop the slop!” and wavi
OpenAI's Pentagon Deal Sparks Ethics Tug-of-War
OpenAI cut a quiet Pentagon deal that reshapes AI ethics. On February 28, the company announced an agreement that would allow U.S. military use of its technologies in classified settings, a move Sam Altman described as rushed in negotiations but not a surrender to a hard line. OpenAI insisted it had
Protesters Rally at London's AI Hub
Hundreds of demonstrators converged on London’s King’s Cross tech corridor on a Saturday to demand AI’s plug be pulled, marching past the UK campuses of OpenAI, Meta, and Google DeepMind. Organized by Pause AI and the activist coalition Pull the Plug, the rally on February 28 billed itself as the la
OpenAI Strikes Pentagon Deal, Walks Moral Tightrope
OpenAI just struck a Pentagon deal, promising guardrails but no hard limits. OpenAI announced on February 28 that its technologies would be allowed for use in classified military settings, a threshold-shifting moment for AI in defense markets. CEO Sam Altman described the negotiations as “definitely
Industrial Robotics
More
SAP Data Finally Speaks Power BI
Factory dashboards just got real: SAP data now feeds Power BI in real time. A wave of industrial analytics is washing over the shop floor as enterprises connect SAP’s backbone—ECC, S/4HANA, and SAP BW—with Microsoft Power BI to turn mountains of ERP data into actionable dashboards. The move isn’t a
SAP Data Finds Its Power BI Match
SAP data finally talks to Power BI. Industrial enterprises have long wrestled with two separate worlds: the ERP backbone that runs finance, procurement, and production planning, and the analytics layer that keeps executives honest and operators informed. A March 2026 report underscores a practical m
Viscosity Mastery Drives Reliable Manufacturing
The wrong oil viscosity is quietly stealing uptime from factories. Viscosity is more than a number on a label—it’s the oil’s internal resistance to flow, the critical factor that governs friction reduction, energy use, and wear protection across every machine. In manufacturing, a proper match betwee
Seventh Axis Extends Robotic Reach
Factories are finally giving robots a seventh axis—and the payoff shows up in the way they travel less and do more. Peripheral motion systems are stepping out of the shadows to become a core enabler for modern robotics. The latest discussion centers on robot-transfer units, or RTUs, which extend aut
Humanoids
More
Open-source K-Bot collapses after internal turmoil
K-Bot’s low-cost humanoid dream died inside a YC-backed startup in late 2025. The K-Bot project, pitched as a scalable, affordable platform for human-like robots, shuttered its doors at the end of 2025, with its IP subsequently open-sourced. The collapse isn’t a single-sentence cautionary tale, but
BMW tests Hexagon's wheel-legged AEON in Leipzig
BMW’s wheel-legged AEON rolls into the Leipzig plant, announcing a real-world factory pilot that aims to demonstration-test a new class of humanoid mobility on the line. Hexagon Robotics released AEON in June 2025 as a semi-humanoid designed to bridge the gap between walking and rolling. After an in
What we’re watching next in humanoids
The latest Boston Dynamics humanoid prototype walked in a controlled lab setting, and the data points to progress that’s real but still firmly incremental. Engineering documentation shows that this platform is in the lab-demo phase, with demonstrations framed as proof-of-concept for gait, balance, a
Inside the Collapse of a Humanoid Startup
A YC-backed humanoid startup folded from the inside in 2025. Rui Xu’s candid account—written after the flagging of a once-promising venture—reads like a cautionary novella for hardware-heavy robotics: loud demos, modest cash, and a plan that didn’t survive the gap between a flashy pitch and a durabl
Consumer Tech
More
Shark's UV-Stain Hunter Redefines Robovacs
Shark’s new robot vacuum uses a UV light to hunt stains. SharkNinja’s PowerDetect UV Reveal sits at the premium end of the robo-cleaning aisle, a flagship model that combines floor-stain detection with a hands-off maintenance dock. The device isn’t just about sweeping up visible dirt; Shark position
Shark Vacuum Hunts Hidden Stains with UV
Shark's new robot vacuum hunts stains with UV light. The PowerDetect UV Reveal is SharkNinja’s flagship robot, priced at $1,299.99, and it arrives with a dock that does more than empty the bin: it refills and washes the mop, and it uses a UV lamp to spotlight stains your eyes might miss. Alongside a
Engadget Changes Hands: Yahoo Sells to Static Media
Engadget is changing hands—Yahoo has sold the tech publication to Static Media in a deal signed in early February and slated to close later this March. Terms weren’t disclosed, and staffers were told the news in recent weeks as the sites begin the transition. Yahoo’s chief communications officer, So
China Robotics & AI
More
Flowith Raises Tens of Millions in Seed Round
Flowith just raised tens of millions to turn AI into action on the factory floor. Flowith disclosed a multi-million dollar seed and seed+ round that, together, totals in the tens of millions of U.S. dollars. The seed was backed by Vertex Ventures, while the seed+ round was jointly led by Sequoia Chi
StepFun Opens Step 3.5 Flash to All
StepFun just opened Step 3.5 Flash to everyone—weights and all. StepFun, a Chinese AI startup, released the entire Step 3.5 Flash package: the model, its Base weights, Midtrain weights, and the Steptron training framework. The project uses a sparse Mixture-of-Experts architecture with 196 billion to
Agibot Launches Global Site, Rolls RaaS Rentals
Agibot just turned robot adoption into a pay-as-you-go deal—with rentals starting at €899 a day. At MWC 2026 in Barcelona on March 2, Agibot rolled out its full lineup of general-purpose embodied robots and unveiled a global push that leans hard into Robot-as-a-Service. The company’s overseas standa
Chinese Robotics Startup Secures Hundreds of Millions in Series D
Shanghai's Dajie Robot just closed hundreds of millions in Series D funding, a signal that China’s push for embodied intelligence on factory floors is crossing from pilot projects to scalable, supplier-level solutions. The round was co-led by private equity and capital funds with policy-flavored clo
Analysis
More
Anthropic in Pentagon AI Tug-of-War
Anthropic finds itself caught in a no-win deadline with the Pentagon over how its AI should be governed for military use. The dispute, highlighted by CSET senior fellow Lauren Kahn in a CNBC-backed briefing, centers on whether Anthropic can or should adapt its safety and governance principles to sat
Anthropic at Pentagon Crossroads
A looming Pentagon deadline threatens Anthropic’s defense partnership. Anthropic finds itself at a high-stakes crossroads with the Department of Defense over the rules governing AI in military applications, and the clock is counting down. The dispute isn’t just about policy pages; it’s about whether
Anthropic at Pentagon Deadlines: Lose-Lose Stakes
A looming Pentagon deadline puts Anthropic in a no-win standoff. Anthropic, the AI startup behind Claude, finds itself squarely in the crosshairs of a DoD policy dispute that could shape the future of public–private AI collaboration in national security. With a policy-change deadline approaching, th
Anthropic Faces Lose-Lose Over Pentagon AI Policy Deadline
Anthropic and the Pentagon stand on a policy cliff with no winners in sight. A looming deadline for a policy change has turned the fight over AI in national security into a bruising stalemate. On one side, the Department of Defense wants guardrails that curb risk and control how commercial models ar
Newsletter
The Robotics Briefing
Weekly intelligence on automation, regulation, and investment trends - crafted for operators, researchers, and policy leaders.
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. Read our privacy policy for details.