AI—the most consequential technology of our lifetimes.No technology has ever disrupted as quickly or as broadly as AI has. The market capitalization of the world’s 10 most valuable public companies far outpaces the rest of the market, and 9 of them are focused on AI.Last year’s agenda (where’s the ROI, where should we pilot) has given way to more difficult challenges: How will we fund the buildout, integrate AI more rapidly, and preserve IP? And how will industry structure and regulation evolve to facilitate innovation, competitiveness,...

As billions of venture capital dollars flood into humanoid robotics and embodied artificial intelligence, the industry has run headlong into a critical operational bottleneck: a severe shortage of high-quality, real-world data required to teach machines how to navigate the physical world. Seeking to capitalize on this deficit, Santa Clara-based data infrastructure startup Maxinsights announced on Thursday that it has closed an oversized $30 million seed financing round led by Peak XV.The funding round, which included participation from Tola...

Few brands are as inescapable as the green siren. By the third quarter of 2026 Starbucks counted 41,034 outlets worldwide, according to the company’s own figures. Yet the map of where those shops sit, and where they are multiplying or vanishing, says more about the chain’s fortunes than the headline number does.Start with concentration. America alone accounts for 16,933 stores, roughly 41% of the total, a share that has barely budged even as the company has talked up its global reach. China comes second with 8,103, nearly half the American...

Ciena CEO Gary Smith is ‘suitably paranoid,’ but optimistic.The historic telecommunications crash of 2001 remains etched into the corporate memory of Ciena Chief Executive Gary Smith. Yet, as Wall Street and Silicon Valley grapple with mounting anxiety over a potential speculative bubble in artificial intelligence infrastructure, Smith cautions against viewing today’s unprecedented compute buildup merely as an echo of that painful past.The 66-year-old executive, who has helmed the optical networking pioneer since May 2001, steered the com...

Colossal Biosciences’ Ben Lamm and Anduril’s Palmer Luckey had an idea to genetically engineer war dogs for the U.S. military, law enforcement, and other emergency response teams. On Thursday, that idea came out of stealth as Warhound, backed by $200 million in funding from investors including Sequoia, 8VC, Corner Ventures, and In-Q-Tel, a venture firm backed by the CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies. The round values the company at $1.2 billion.Warhound’s dogs, which do not exist yet, will take on tasks that are dangerous for human...

TikTok is primarily known for short-form video sharing, but it has also become a common place for many people to get news. A fifth of U.S. adults regularly get news on TikTok, according to a Pew Research Center survey from August. That share is unchanged from 2025 but up from just 3% in 2020.Younger adults are especially likely to regularly get news on TikTok. Among Americans ages 18 to 29, around four-in-ten (39%) say they do this regularly. That compares with 25% of those ages 30 to 49, 11% of those ages 50 to 64 and 4% of those ages 65 an...

LEGO has turned more than 380,000 hand-built botanical blooms into a giant wave spilling out from Tank Shanghai Art Center onto the city’s West Bund.Measuring approximately 30 metres long and covering 800 square metres, the Botanical Wave takes the brand’s buildable flowers beyond the vase and into a public art installation.Inside, visitors can add their own creations to a separate digital landscape.The ‘Where Blooms Begin’ experience invites people to build a LEGO flower, scan it and watch it become a digital bloom alongside those made...

A mushroom with glowing eyes is an easier sell for my nightstand than a miniature humanoid. OKA’s Mori takes that approachable shape and gives it a specific job: offering a little company and a reason to pause, without making another screen the center of attention. Currently offered through an early-purchase program, the companion robot uses light, sound, and movement to bring some presence to a quiet room. The ambition is modest enough to feel appealing.For anyone who wants to unwind without reaching for their phone, the physical design ma...

1. (PDF) Gallup 보고서 : 글로벌 정서 건강과 소셜미디어 '적정 사용'의 역설글로벌 청년층의 보편화와 일일 이용 시간 격차: 97개국 성인의 81%, 15~29세 청년층의 95%가 소셜미디어를 이용 중인 가운데, 청년층의 52%가 하루 2시간 이상, 19%는 5시간 이상 체류하며 중장년층 대비 과다 사용 비율이 3배 높게 집계.비선형적 관계와 '하루 30분~2시간' 적정 사용의 긍정성: 소통과 정보 습득 효과로 일 30분~2시간 이용하는 적정 사용자가 가장 높은 정서적 웰빙을 기록한 반면, 2시간 이상 과다 사용자는 분노(+2.2%p), 외로움(+2.2%p), 슬픔(+2.2%p), 스트레스(+2.0%p)가 유의미하게...