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The & Report #4

Updated: 2 days ago


The & Report #4

Prompt Engineering Accelerator available now for free during January

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This week was a busy week in the world of AI, Robotics, Politics and Economics. The focus of these weekly updates is to look at AI and Robotics primarily, and how they pertain to the nature of work, today and over the next few years.

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My process -

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The sources of this news comes primarily from these places:

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ChatGPT - ​https://chatgpt.com/​ based on a prompt.

Dr. Alex Wissner-Gross - ​https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwg/​

And many YouTube channels, too numerous to list.

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I review the news daily and select what I think matters most, or if it's interesting. Next I feed all that news into Gemini 3 and ask it to select the 10 most relevant articles. I then add my comments, and other references to fill out, and hopefully explain the news.

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If you don't have time to read this report, I am now posting the reports, along with excepts from the weekly Zoom sessions on YouTube and Spotify. Subscribe and like.

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The weekly news report from January 17–23, 2026, reveals a period of rapid acceleration where AI is transitioning from a conversational tool into an agentic force capable of physical work and complex reasoning. This shift is characterized by massive capital investment, a move toward humanoid robotics in industry, and the first major waves of national-level AI regulation.

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Comment: The World Economic Forum took place in Davos, with many of the more interesting sessions run by BlackRock's Larry Fink. (see here for some of the interviews). Demis Hassabis (Google) and Dario Amodei (Anthropic) debated AGI, and agreed that the pace of development should slow down in other to "get it right". Checkout my YouTube channel to hear more about this. See Zoom Session 1/23/26.

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Here then are the top 10 selected AI & Robotics Stories relevant to AI and Robotics, summarized for their impact on the present and the next two years.

1. Rise of "Agentic AI" in Enterprise

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The Story: e& and IBM launched "agentic AI" for corporate governance, while Salesforce’s MuleSoft introduced "Agent Scanners" to manage autonomous AI agents across platforms.

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Impact (Today - 2 Years): Work will shift from humans using AI tools to humans managing AI agents that execute multi-step tasks independently, such as compliance auditing and software deployment.

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Comment: Other related stories are

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AI is reshaping how people work, not if people work. Put another way: AI takes over parts of people's jobs. 49% of jobs can now use AI in at least a quarter of the tasks involved — up from 36% in early 2025, Anthropic found. https://www.axios.com/2026/01/15/anthropic-study-work-ai-jobs​

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AI adoption outpaces workplace training: A report shows that while AI integration at work accelerates, many employees feel unprepared for changing roles due to insufficient training. (The Times of India)

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Survey highlights workforce concerns: A report shows younger workers are more worried than older generations about job impacts from AI automation. (https://www.reuters.com/technology/young-workers-most-worried-about-ai-affecting-jobs-randstad-survey-shows-2026-01-19/?utm_source=chatgpt.com)

2. Humanoid Robots Enter the Workforce

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The Story: UBTech Robotics signed deals to supply Walker S2 humanoid robots to Airbus and Texas Instruments, aiming for 10,000 units. Tesla announced it will begin selling its own humanoid robots by late 2027.

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Impact (Today - 2 Years): Industrial and logistics roles will see the first widespread pilot programs for general-purpose humanoids, moving beyond stationary automation to mobile, human-shaped assistants.

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Comment: This is the first look at Robotics in The & Report. Some other stories and list of some interest robotic companies. There are many. many more companies, and it's predicted that there will be a lot of consolidation in the next few years. Supply chains are delaying the mass delivery of robotic this year. Expect 2027 to be the Year of the Humanoid robots.

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The interesting work now is in developing World Models. 1X, see below, is using edge AI in its robots where they learn independently by observing activity on the real world.

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  • Q&A with FedEx CEO Raj Subramaniam, only the second CEO in the company's history, on humanoid robots, automation, AI, drones, US-China trade tensions, and more (Jordyn Holman / New York Times)​

  • This humanoid robot learned realistic lip movements by watching YouTube LINK​

  • AI learns from real-world outcomes instead of labels: researchers trained models using future events as automatic supervision, eliminating the need for expensive human labeling in applications like fraud detection. LINK​

  • UBTech: Airbus to test China’s battery-swapping humanoid robots in aircraft assembly LINK​

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3. The IMF’s "AI Tsunami" and Corporate Layoffs

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The Story: The IMF warned of a "tsunami" affecting the global jobs market, while Amazon announced 14,000 job cuts specifically to refocus resources on AI.

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Impact (Today - 2 Years): "Work today" is defined by a painful restructuring where companies cut traditional corporate roles (HR, marketing, finance) to fund high-cost AI infrastructure and expert AI leadership.

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Comment: Also, 56% of CEOs report zero financial returns from AI investments LINK​

A new PwC survey of over 4,400 CEOs finds that 56% say their AI investments have produced no financial returns, while only 10% to 12% report gains on revenue or costs.

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PwC's global chairman Mohamed Kande says the problem isn't AI itself but a lack of basics like clean data, solid business processes, and governance before companies rush to adopt the technology.

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CEO confidence in their own 12-month revenue growth has dropped to a five-year low of 30%, down from 56% in 2022, even as leaders pursue long-term transformation through AI.

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4. AI-Driven Clinical Breakthroughs

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The Story: The FDA gave IND approval to an AI-discovered drug (ISM8969) for neurodegenerative diseases, and US/EU regulators established 10 guiding principles for AI in drug development.

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Impact (Today - 2 Years): The timeline for drug discovery will continue to compress, potentially bringing new treatments to clinical trials at a pace previously impossible, while setting global safety standards for AI-biotech.

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Comment: Many of the investors in AI are look for lifespan enhancements - both in the quality of life, and the length of life. You will hear the term "escape velocity" in these conversations. It's refer to adding one year to your lifespan for every year you live in the future.

5. First National AI Frameworks (Italy & EU)

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The Story: Italy became the first EU nation to implement a comprehensive national AI law, and the EU Council adopted regulations for large-scale "AI Gigafactories".

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Impact (Today - 2 Years): Businesses will face a "compliance-first" environment where operating AI models requires adherence to specific ethical and safety frameworks, similar to the rollout of GDPR.

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Comment: Sovereign AI is happening unevenly around the world. The countries currently developing their open AI models include (from Gemini 3):

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  • ​United Arab Emirates (UAE): A major leader, investing in local LLMs (e.g., Falcon) and establishing itself as a top-tier global AI computing hub.

  • ​India: Implementing the "IndiaAI Mission" to build a secure, indigenous ecosystem.

  • ​Singapore: Developing local LLMs through the National AI Strategy, focusing on Southeast Asian languages.

  • ​Japan: Developing advanced supercomputers (ABCI 3.0) and supporting local, open-source models.

  • ​France: Championing "Trusted Cloud" initiatives and investing in regional AI models (e.g., Mistral).

  • ​United Kingdom: Building the "Dawn" supercomputer for national security and research.

  • ​Saudi Arabia: Investing heavily in local data centers and language-specific AI.

  • ​Other Notable Mentions: The Netherlands (GPT-NL), Spain (Alia), Portugal (Amalia), Taiwan (Taide), and increasingly Vietnam and Thailand.

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6. The $2.5 Trillion Spending Surge

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The Story: Gartner projected global AI expenditure will hit $2.52 trillion in 2026, a 44% increase over 2025, focused heavily on data centers and GPUs.

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Impact (Today - 2 Years): The massive demand for compute will drive a boom in energy infrastructure and specialized vocational jobs (electricians and plumbers) needed to build the physical "brain" of the AI era.

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Comment: Sahar Friar, OpenAI's CFO is on a major financing mission to help the company keep up their pace of development, along with more frequent product releases and the expected Jony Ive's product later this year.

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OpenAI rolls out age‑prediction on ChatGPT: OpenAI launched a global age estimation feature to help protect minors by unlocking “adult mode” with verification mechanisms and expanded safety measures. OpenAI rolls out age prediction on ChatGPT​

7. AI-Generated Malware (VoidLink)

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The Story: Security researchers identified VoidLink, a malware framework almost entirely generated by AI, signaling a new phase of automated cyber threats.

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Impact (Today - 2 Years): Cybersecurity will become an "AI vs. AI" battleground; companies will be forced to adopt autonomous defensive agents to counter self-evolving code threats.

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Comment: At this week's Zoom session, Valene Skerpac, a cybersecurity expert, discussed prompt injections. See here to hear her presentation (14 mins into the video).

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8. Apple and the Revamped AI Interface

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The Story: Apple is overhauling Siri to function as a sophisticated chatbot powered by Google’s Gemini models.

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Impact (Today - 2 Years): Consumer interaction with technology will move away from "apps" and "searching" toward a unified, multimodal "personal intelligence" that knows the user's data across all devices.

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Comment: Finally, Siri is growing up!

9. Standardized AI Literacy in Education

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The Story: Google.org funded massive teacher training programs, and U.S. states began implementing formal AI policies for K-12 and higher education.

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Impact (Today - 2 Years): AI literacy will become a mandatory skill set for the entry-level workforce, with schools shifting focus from "how to write" to "how to prompt and verify AI".

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Comment: See below for more details on this story,

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Anthropic doubles down on India and Education

10. The Psychology of the Singularity

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The Story: Ray Kurzweil reaffirmed his prediction for human-level AGI by 2029, emphasizing that current models already perform tasks no human can.

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Impact (Today - 2 Years): As the 2029 milestone nears, "work today" will be increasingly influenced by "exponential thinking," where leaders must plan for a future where machine intelligence is no longer a tool, but a peer.

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Comment: For those interested in consciousness and AGI see here and here.

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I'll be hosting the last Zoom session on Prompting on Friday, Jan. 30th at 12 noon, EST.

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This session will include -

  • AI and Tech News updates.

  • A look at some AI tech features.

  • Giving away the Prompt Engineering Accelerator GPT, a 30-day learning program that covers how to effectively prompt Chat GPT and other LLMs.

  • A review of how the GPT works.

  • An open discussion of what future learning courses you'd like to see.

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Many thanks to Valene Skerpac for speaking at last week's session. I'll be adding a guest speaker every other month, or so, and would love to hear what topics you'd be interesting in learning about.

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