Edition: May 27, 2026

Snowflake has signed a $6 billion five-year deal with Amazon Web Services to access its ARM-based CPU chip, Graviton, driven by growing demand for AI processing. The deal highlights the increasing importance of AI in cloud computing and the competition between cloud providers and chip makers. Snowflake's customers are accelerating their spending on AWS, with AI driving the growth.

Remote, a payroll service provider, has achieved a 50% increase in revenue per employee without adding headcount by adopting AI across the organization. The company has surpassed $300 million in annual recurring revenue and become cash-flow positive. Remote attributes its efficiency gains to AI adoption beyond the CEO's office and engineering department, with employees launching apps in an internal marketplace.

Google's shift to AI-generated answers has changed the SEO landscape, rendering traditional strategies ineffective. Marketers must adapt to the new AI search paradigm, which includes optimizing for platforms beyond Google. AI referrals are converting at a significantly higher rate than traditional organic search.

Huawei's chip-design subsidiary HiSilicon has developed a novel approach to optimize semiconductors, dubbed Tau's Scaling Law, which could close the performance gap between Chinese and Western chips. The company claims this method will allow it to produce high-performance chips despite US export controls. Huawei plans to unveil a new chip showcasing this technology before winter 2026.

Meta has launched global subscription plans for Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp, offering extra features for a few dollars per month, and will begin testing new subscriptions for businesses, creators, and Meta AI users. The plans, including Instagram Plus, Facebook Plus, and WhatsApp Plus, provide features like profile customization and story insights. More plans, including AI-focused ones, are set to be released under the 'Meta One' brand.

Artificial Analysis and IBM have launched ITBench-AA, a benchmark for evaluating models on agentic enterprise IT tasks, with frontier models scoring below 50% on Site Reliability Engineering tasks. The benchmark tests models' ability to diagnose live systems by reading logs, tracing dependencies, and identifying root-cause entities. Top models, including Claude Opus 4.7 and GPT-5.5, achieved scores of 47% and 46%, respectively.

AI coding startup Cognition has raised $1 billion at a $25 billion pre-money valuation, marking a significant leap from its previous valuation. The funding round was led by Lux Capital and General Catalyst, with existing and new investors participating. Cognition's autonomous AI software engineer, Devin, has seen 50% month-over-month growth in enterprise usage.

Robinhood is now allowing AI agents to trade stocks on its platform, enabling automated investment decisions, but warns of significant risks and potential losses. The feature allows traders to create a separate account for an AI agent and allocate funds for it to buy and sell stocks. This move marks a significant development in the intersection of finance and AI.

ElevenLabs has launched Music v2, a new music generation model that can switch genres mid-track and handle complex vocals and composition. The model allows artists to recreate parts of a song and build tracks by sections, and is built on licensed data for commercial use. This release comes amid a surge in AI music generation models from companies like Google and Stability AI.

A new startup called Trajectory, founded by former Google and Apple researchers, aims to build a platform for AI that can learn continuously from real-world user interactions. The company has raised $15 million in seed funding and plans to help companies improve their AI products by training on user feedback. Trajectory's goal is to make AI models that can learn and adapt in real-time, a capability that is currently lacking in many AI systems.

SOND, a sleep tech startup founded by Bose's former Head of Sleep, has launched with $7 million in funding and introduced its debut product, Dreambuds, a closed-loop in-ear system that tracks physiological signals to help consumers get better sleep. The device uses real-time sensor data to select or generate sleep audio programs tailored to the individual user. Dreambuds can also interact with users through voice commands and provide sleep insights.

China is imposing travel restrictions on its top AI researchers and executives, requiring government approval before heading abroad, as part of a wider effort to retain its best AI talent and protect its growing AI sector. The move reflects China's increasing focus on AI as a national security priority and economic asset. This shift comes as China is rapidly closing the gap with the US in AI development, with the performance gap between top US and Chinese models shrinking to just 2.7% as of March 2026.

ClickHouse, a database provider, has tripled its annualized revenue to $250 million and is charting a path toward an initial public offering (IPO) within the next few years. The company's fast revenue growth and premium valuation position it for a potential IPO. ClickHouse plans to remain acquisitive, targeting startups with promising technology that complements its core product suite.

ClickHouse, a database provider, has tripled its annualized revenue to $250 million, positioning itself for a potential IPO within the next few years. The company's fast growth and premium valuation follow a $400 million Series D funding round, valuing it at $15 billion. With over 4,000 customers, including major tech firms, ClickHouse is expanding its offerings through strategic acquisitions.

YouTube will now automatically label videos that use significant photorealistic AI, making it easier for users to identify AI-generated content. The company will apply labels when its internal systems detect AI usage, and will also make AI labels more prominent on both long-form videos and YouTube Shorts. This move is part of YouTube's efforts to police AI content on its platform.

YouTube is updating its AI labeling system to make disclosures more prominent, relocating them below video players and introducing automatic identification of AI-generated content. The new labels will clearly state 'AI' next to an information symbol. This change aims to increase transparency on the platform.

Robinhood has launched support for AI agentic trading, allowing users to create separate accounts for their AI agents to trade stocks on their behalf. The feature, currently in beta, enables AI agents to analyze portfolios, suggest investments, and execute trades with user oversight. A new virtual credit card for AI agents is also being introduced, with plans to expand support to other financial products soon.

Tech CEOs may be suffering from 'AI psychosis', overestimating the capabilities of AI and underestimating the work required to generate value, according to Box founder Aaron Levie. This delusion could be contributing to mass layoffs in the tech industry, with many companies citing AI as a reason for cutting jobs. However, research suggests that AI adoption does not necessarily lead to significant productivity gains.

An analysis suggests that parts of Pope Leo XIV's latest encyclical on AI's impact on humanity may have been written using AI, with certain paragraphs showing traits common to AI-generated writing. The popular AI detector Pangram found that some sections were between 40 percent and 100 percent likely written by AI. The discovery raises questions about the role of AI in high-level writing.

Researchers have found a way to significantly reduce the data transfer required for asynchronous reinforcement learning by only shipping the changed model weights, reducing the payload from 1.2 GB to 20-35 MB. This breakthrough, implemented in the TRL library, enables more efficient and cost-effective training of large models. The approach uses a sparse delta encoding and a shared object store to facilitate the transfer of model updates.

Reachy Mini, a robot, can now run its conversation app fully locally, eliminating the need to send audio to a server. This is achieved through a cascaded VAD → STT → LLM → TTS pipeline using open-source components. Users can customize the pipeline for their needs, prioritizing factors like speed, quality, and language support.

A New York state assemblyman, Alex Bores, has gained unexpected attention due to a feud between Anthropic and OpenAI over AI regulation, with the former spending millions against him. This has inadvertently made Bores the poster child for AI safety regulation. The feud is set to continue until the Democratic primary in June.

The application window for Startup Battlefield 200 closes today, offering a chance for early-stage startups to compete for $100,000 in equity-free funding and gain global visibility. Selected companies will showcase at TechCrunch Disrupt and receive various benefits, including pitch training and exposure to investors and media. The program has a track record of producing successful startups, with over $32 billion raised and 250 exits among its alumni.

MIT Technology Review is helping readers stay on top of AI developments with its list of 10 key trends and a discounted subscription offer, while also exploring the future of IVF with the help of AI and other technologies. The publication provides in-depth coverage of AI and its impact on society. A new narrative series examines the next steps for IVF, a technology that has helped bring millions of babies into the world but still has limitations.

Pope Leo XIV has released an encyclical letter addressing the societal implications of artificial intelligence, warning that AI use affects people's rights and freedoms. The letter was unveiled in partnership with Anthropic, a major AI player. The move has elicited a range of reactions from the tech industry.

The New York Times' unionized staff are preparing for a fight over the company's use of AI, citing a lack of transparency from management on how AI will affect employees' jobs and workflow. The Tech Guild has filed an unfair labor practice charge and is seeking more information on the company's AI plans. The dispute reflects a broader debate in the media industry over the role of AI in newsrooms.

TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 is offering early bird ticket savings of up to $410, but the deal ends in three days. The event, taking place from October 13-15 in San Francisco, brings together founders, investors, and innovators to shape the future of technology. Attendees can expect actionable insights, direct access to investors, and high-value connections, with prices increasing after May 29.

A smart bird feeder with a motion-activated camera can help capture moments of backyard bird drama, allowing users to watch photos and videos of visiting birds. This technology provides a unique way to observe and appreciate the beauty of birds in one's own yard. The device is a useful tool for bird enthusiasts.