Hardware

120 Posts

One Model Talks, Another One Thinks: GPT-Live pairs full-duplex voice models with a reasoning model (GPT-5.5) on the backend
Hardware

One Model Talks, Another One Thinks: GPT-Live pairs full-duplex voice models with a reasoning model (GPT-5.5) on the backend

ChatGPT’s voice mode now listens and speaks at the same time, passing harder questions posed to the conversational model to a reasoning model in the background.

July 17, 20265 min read
Better Reward Models for Robots: Inside RoboReward, a family of vision-language reward models that train robots to take action
Hardware

Better Reward Models for Robots: Inside RoboReward, a family of vision-language reward models that train robots to take action

When you’re training a robot via reinforcement learning, a handcrafted reward function is labor-intensive to build but often dispenses rewards more effectively than a general-purpose reward model based on a vision-language model. Researchers built reward models that narrowed the gap.

July 3, 20263 min read
Large-Model AI for Apple Devices: 2026's Apple Foundation Models bring AI to MacBooks, iPhones, and the cloud
Hardware

Large-Model AI for Apple Devices: 2026's Apple Foundation Models bring AI to MacBooks, iPhones, and the cloud

The third generation of Apple Foundation Models — fruit of Apple’s collaboration with Google — introduces a variation on the mixture-of-experts architecture that runs on local devices. 

June 26, 20263 min read
Nvidia’s Nemotron Goes Big: Nvidia Nemotron 3 Ultra bets on speed and openness to win customers
Hardware

Nvidia’s Nemotron Goes Big: Nvidia Nemotron 3 Ultra bets on speed and openness to win customers

Nvidia’s largest-yet model is among the best-performing from a developer based in the U.S. and among the most open developed by anyone.

June 19, 20264 min read
How Nvidia Uses AI to Design Chips: Chipmaker's models design circuits, verify designs, and test new layouts
Hardware

How Nvidia Uses AI to Design Chips: Chipmaker's models design circuits, verify designs, and test new layouts

Nvidia’s chief scientist dreams of telling an AI model to design a new GPU, then skiing for a couple days while the system does the job.

May 8, 20263 min read
Humanoid Robots Work Factory Floors: Agility Digits humanoid robots fetch and carry bins at a Schaeffler auto-parts factory, displacing humans into higher-level jobs
Hardware

Humanoid Robots Work Factory Floors: Agility Digits humanoid robots fetch and carry bins at a Schaeffler auto-parts factory, displacing humans into higher-level jobs

A small number of humanoid robots have made their way into industrial settings, where they’re roughly matching the cost of human labor and propelling some workers into higher-level roles.

April 24, 20263 min read
GLM-5.1 Aims for Long-Running Tasks: Z.ai’s GLM 5.1 evaluates interim results and may change its approach hundreds of times before it delivers final output
Hardware

GLM-5.1 Aims for Long-Running Tasks: Z.ai’s GLM 5.1 evaluates interim results and may change its approach hundreds of times before it delivers final output

Z.ai updated its flagship open-weights large language model to work autonomously on single tasks for up to eight hours.

April 24, 20263 min read
OpenAI Tracks Agent States on AWS: OpenAI’s deal with Amazon to build a stateful runtime environment for AI agents
Hardware

OpenAI Tracks Agent States on AWS: OpenAI’s deal with Amazon to build a stateful runtime environment for AI agents

OpenAI partnered with Amazon to build infrastructure for agents on the world’s largest cloud platform, a further sign that its close relationship with Microsoft is weakening.

March 27, 20264 min read
Open-Source Speed Demon: Nvidia’s open Nemotron 3 Super 120B-A12B model sets new paces in its class
Hardware

Open-Source Speed Demon: Nvidia’s open Nemotron 3 Super 120B-A12B model sets new paces in its class

Nvidia, the dominant supplier of AI chips, released a competitive open-source large language model whose speed tops its size class — the first open-weights leader to come from the United States since last year, when Meta delivered Llama 4.

March 27, 20264 min read
DeepSeek Snubs Nvidia for Huawei: DeepSeek made its upcoming 4.0 model available for performance testing to Chinese chipmakers but not U.S, ones
Hardware

DeepSeek Snubs Nvidia for Huawei: DeepSeek made its upcoming 4.0 model available for performance testing to Chinese chipmakers but not U.S, ones

DeepSeek, the Chinese developer of outstanding open-weights models, has withheld an upcoming update of its flagship model from U.S. chip makers, a move that intensifies the AI rivalry between the U.S. and China.

March 20, 20262 min read
Drones Hit Persian Gulf Data Centers: Iran struck AWS facilities in Bahrain and the UAE, threatened data centers throughout the region
Hardware

Drones Hit Persian Gulf Data Centers: Iran struck AWS facilities in Bahrain and the UAE, threatened data centers throughout the region

Iran hit at least three Amazon data centers in the Middle East, an indicator of AI’s critical role in the United States’ war against Iran and possibly the first time such facilities have been targeted during warfare.

March 20, 20263 min read
AI Data Centers Go Off the Grid: Rather than rely on public utilities, AI companies build their own power plants
Hardware

AI Data Centers Go Off the Grid: Rather than rely on public utilities, AI companies build their own power plants

Meta and OpenAI are among the tech companies that are building private power plants that will operate independently of regional grids to supply electricity for their massive buildout of AI data centers.

March 16, 20263 min read
Can Local AI Stand In for the Cloud?: Stanford and Together.AI researchers chart edge models’ performance in intelligence per watt
Hardware

Can Local AI Stand In for the Cloud?: Stanford and Together.AI researchers chart edge models’ performance in intelligence per watt

Projected demand for output from large language models is spurring a massive buildout of data centers. Researchers asked whether smaller models running on local devices could meaningfully lighten that load.

February 27, 20263 min read
Faster Reasoning at the Edge: Liquid AI’s small reasoning model mixes attention with convolutional layers for efficiency
Hardware

Faster Reasoning at the Edge: Liquid AI’s small reasoning model mixes attention with convolutional layers for efficiency

Reasoning models in the 1 to 2 billion-parameter range typically require more than 1 gigabyte of RAM to run. Liquid AI released one that runs in less than 900 megabytes, and does it with exceptional speed and efficiency.

February 20, 20263 min read
xAI Blasts Off: SpaceX acquires xAI, announces plans for data centers In space
Hardware

xAI Blasts Off: SpaceX acquires xAI, announces plans for data centers In space

Elon Musk’s SpaceX acquired xAI, opening the door to richer financing of the merged entity’s AI research, a tighter focus on space applications of AI, and — if Musk’s dreams are realized — solar-powered data centers in space.

February 13, 20263 min read

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