Week 3 of 2026 shows AI colliding with regulation, commerce, and culture—raising hard questions about consent, platform power, and agentic systems.
Need-to-Know
- Indonesia and Malaysia blocked Grok over non-consensual sexualized AI images, as more countries move to regulate the chatbot.
- OpenAI is reportedly asking contractors to upload real past work for training, a practice critics say poses major IP risks.
- The Television Academy updated Emmy rules for 2026, revising categories, expanding eligibility, and formally addressing AI use.
- Google removed AI Overviews for some medical queries after reports of inaccurate and misleading health information.
- Amazon’s AI-powered Buy For Me test auto-listed independent sellers without consent, triggering errors and ownership disputes.
- OpenAI reportedly acquired health-records startup Torch for about $100M, integrating it into ChatGPT Health.
- Meta launched Meta Compute to centralize and accelerate its massive AI infrastructure and data-center expansion.
- UK retail leader JD Sports is launching AI shopping in the U.S., enabling purchases via Copilot, Gemini, and ChatGPT.
- Google Cloud released Gemini Enterprise, with Woolworths among the first adopters, turning assistants into agentic shopping AIs.
- The Pentagon plans to deploy Grok alongside Google’s AI, opening military and intelligence data to AI despite global backlash.
- A consumer watchdog warned Google’s AI shopping protocol could enable data-driven pricing, which Google denies.
- Google updated Veo 3.1 to support native vertical video generation from reference images with better quality and consistency.
- Salesforce launched an upgraded Slackbot that integrates data, generates content, and coordinates AI agents.
- Anthropic reshuffled leadership, moving CPO Mike Krieger into its Labs incubator to scale experimental AI products.
- Deepgram raised $130M at a $1.3B valuation to expand globally and scale its voice-AI platforms.
- Two co-founders of Thinking Machines Lab, including its CTO, are leaving to rejoin OpenAI, marking early talent exits.
- Elon Musk denied Grok produced underage nudes as California’s attorney general probes xAI over nonconsensual images.
- Google added Gemini-powered automation to Trends Explore, streamlining trend discovery and comparison.
- OpenAI launched ChatGPT Translate, emphasizing tone and context control, though it still trails Google Translate.
- Bandcamp banned AI-generated music and prohibited AI training on its content—the first major music platform to do so.
Weekly AI Launches
- Elser AI launched a tool that generates full long-form anime videos from a single prompt with strong character consistency.
- Lexie released a Tamagotchi-style language game that makes difficult French concepts fun and pressure-free.
- Squair launched an offline app offering science-backed breathing exercises for anxiety relief and focus.
- Funding Goal released a free calculator helping founders determine ideal fundraising based on burn rate.
- Atlas.new launched an AI agent for building maps, running analysis, and creating spatial apps without GIS skills.
- PicKey AI introduced a visual password manager using secure images and 3D characters instead of text.
- Trophy v1.0 launched an API for adding gamification—achievements and leaderboards—via no-code tools.
- Superdesign released a massive prompt library for UI and animation compatible with any coding agent.
- Bookmarkify launched a designer-focused bookmark tool for live site previews and asset analysis.
- Atoms introduced an AI platform automating profitable app creation from research to code and payments.
- Alpine launched a unified workspace for docs, chat, and tasks with context-aware AI agents.
- Phia released a macOS screen recorder with intelligent zoom, cursor effects, and layout tools.
- remio 2.0 shipped an update syncing full context to create a seamless AI “Second Brain.”
- Vellum launched a no-code platform that turns plain English into working AI agents.
- Simpl. introduced a tool that converts Postgres connection strings into clean admin interfaces.
- 0xCal launched a minimal AI calorie tracker for iOS with photo-based logging.