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Tech News
In a newly published full TIME interview, Apple CEO John Ternus discussed his relationship with the company's design teams, saying he has worked closely with industrial designers since joining Apple. He described design as central to Apple's culture, noting that designers and engineers collaborate from the earliest stages rather than working in isolation from one another.
Nvidia announced investments in four German startups—Agile Robots, Avelios Medical, Mirelo and Reflex Aerospace—at the Invest in Germany Summit in Berlin, part of a nearly $10 billion commitment to companies, universities and research institutions across Europe. The company did not disclose the size of the individual investments. The announcement coincided with remarks from Chancellor Friedrich Merz urging German businesses, especially small and medium-sized firms, to adopt AI and make greater use of their existing data.
The Department of Defense's fiscal year 2027 budget request shows steep increases in planned munitions purchases, including PAC-3 MSE interceptors rising from 341 to 3,203 units, THAAD interceptors from 37 to 857, and Tomahawk missiles from 57 to 1,049 compared to FY2026 figures. These requests come alongside new multiyear framework agreements between the DOD and contractors aimed at expanding the munitions industrial base.
South Korea's industry ministry approved a regulatory sandbox exemption allowing 20 bipedal robots from robotics firm Robros to operate alongside human workers without the barriers normally required under industrial safety rules. The robots will be deployed at Nepes, Sungwoo Hitech, HD Hyundai Samho, and Delivery Lab, performing tasks like cleaning semiconductor components, positioning car parts, stacking brackets, and moving logistics packaging. The trials will follow additional safety standards, and data from them will inform a broader revision of robot safety regulations.
Industrial Next, a San Francisco startup presenting at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, unveiled self-contained robotic stations that use proprietary AI foundation models to combine vision, task context and motion, allowing production lines to be retooled in minutes instead of weeks without manual reprogramming. The company also announced a partnership with BMW Group Technology Office to evaluate its dexterous manipulation technology for manufacturing use.
Mind Robotics, the industrial AI and robotics venture spun out of Rivian last year, has hired former Ford and Apple EV executive Doug Field as president. Field will oversee product, engineering and operations day-to-day, while Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe remains involved with the company. The startup has raised over $1 billion from investors including Accel, Andreessen Horowitz, Kleiner Perkins, and venture arms of Volkswagen and Salesforce.
A roboticist recounts a debate with a colleague over whether a dishwasher qualifies as a robot, arguing it does not meet technical definitions of manipulation since its spray arms and soap dispensers are mechanisms rather than object-handling tools. She contends the more fundamental issue is that 'robot' was coined by science fiction writer Karel Čapek in his 1920 play and has always been a culturally defined term rather than a strictly technical one.
Arti discusses a triple focus on responsible AI, emphasizing security, environmental efficiency, and human oversight. The company employs a multi-layered governance framework to ensure AI is used ethically and safely in both internal operations and customer products, maintaining human judgment as central to AI deployment. She highlights the importance of human responsibility in critical decision-making processes involving industrial AI systems.
A historical essay argues that Victorian Britain's ruling class, despite lacking rigorous STEM education and favoring leisure, partying, and sport over austere work habits, presided over a century in which Britain became the world's richest nation with dominant naval, industrial, and commercial power. The piece contrasts this with modern narratives that equate success with intense discipline, early rising, and relentless labor.
Paragon Solutions, the spyware maker acquired by US firm AE Industrial Partners in late 2024 and merged with RedLattice, canceled two intelligence contracts with Italy after WhatsApp alleged its Graphite spyware infected over 60 phones across 20-plus countries, including journalists and activists. RedLattice CEO Andrew Boyd told WIRED the company never investigated the abuse allegations or verified them with WhatsApp or Citizen Lab, and instead ended the Italy relationship purely because it was deemed too risky to maintain. Italian authorities have denied any wrongdoing.
A visitor documented modular industrial dashboards found in several European museums, including the Deutsches Museum in Munich, Fernmeldemuseum Stuttgart, a railway museum in Nuremberg, a tram museum in Stuttgart, Warsaw's train museum, and the DASA Museum in Dortmund. The panels, used historically for air traffic control, subway and light rail monitoring, and power plant operations, feature interchangeable lit modules, counters, switches, and labeled plates built on physical component systems rather than screens.
A writer recounts how their great-great-grandfather, a farrier in rural France, switched to becoming a mechanic after witnessing the arrival of the automobile, a shift that shaped the family's occupation for generations. The essay uses this history to reflect on current anxieties among developers about being displaced by AI.