New research from Vadim Gladyshev's team at Harvard, published in Nature, and a related Cell paper from Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte's group at Altos Labs proposes that aging is driven significantly by cells losing their specialized identity, not solely by accumulated molecular damage. The papers describe a three-tier regulatory system—fast, intermediate, and slow layers—that normally locks in a cell's epigenetic identity, and suggest that breakdown of the slow layer leads to a 'mesenchymal drift' marked by fibrous scarring and inflammation.
erictopol.substack.com
· 2026-10-01
Google sent a prototype orbital compute satellite, built by Planet Labs, aboard a SpaceX rocket from California, marking the first time one of its Tensor Processing Units has flown in space. The test will check whether the chip can sustain a kilowatt of continuous power, manage heat, and run AI models in short bursts without failure. Google's Travis Beals, who leads the effort called Project Suncatcher, said a more advanced two-satellite demo with laser communication links is planned for next year.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-10-01
DoorDash revealed its new drone aircraft at its Dash Forward 2026 event, built by DoorDash Labs, the team behind its sidewalk robot Dot. The company says it designed ground logistics, packaging and its Autonomous Delivery Platform software before finalizing the drone itself, sizing the system using historical order data on weight and delivery distance. The drone service, called DoorDash Air, follows a Part 135 air carrier certification the company received from the FAA and announced in July.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-09-30
AMD has agreed to buy AI research firm World Labs in an all-stock deal valued at roughly $8.2 billion, pending regulatory approval. World Labs co-founder Fei-Fei Li will join AMD as executive vice president and chief scientist, reporting directly to CEO Lisa Su. World Labs builds spatial-intelligence models that generate and simulate 3D environments, and had already collaborated with AMD on optimizing its Instinct hardware and ROCm software.
tomshardware.com
· 2026-09-30
A group of mathematicians published recommendations for how AI labs should responsibly share mathematical results generated by their models, after collecting over 600 responses from the mathematical community. The recommendations call on labs to stop testing advanced mathematical problems on proprietary models that remain inaccessible to outside researchers.
agmai.org
· 2026-09-30
AMD and World Labs announced AMD will acquire the AI startup by the end of the year, pending regulatory approval, in a deal valued at $8.2 billion. World Labs, founded in 2024 by Fei-Fei Li and colleagues with $230 million in funding including from AMD, builds world models such as Marble and Atlas that generate 3D scenes from video data.
arstechnica.com
· 2026-09-29
EDA vendors including Cadence, Synopsys, and Siemens EDA, along with simulation software maker Ansys, began rolling out AI-enhanced design tools in the early 2020s using machine learning and reinforcement learning to optimize floorplans, placement, routing, and verification. Architect Labs recently said it produced a chip design developed almost entirely by AI, which the report calls an industry first, while generative AI increasingly assists engineers writing RTL code and emerging agentic systems can run EDA tools with less human oversight.
tomshardware.com
· 2026-09-29
AMD has agreed to buy World Labs, the startup founded by AI researcher Fei-Fei Li, in a stock deal valued at roughly $8.2 billion, making it AMD's second-largest acquisition. World Labs builds 'world models' that simulate 3D physical environments for robotics and other embodied AI systems. Li will join AMD as chief scientist and executive vice president once the deal closes later this year, with World Labs operating separately from AMD's chip business until then.
slashdot.org
· 2026-09-28
AI inference infrastructure provider Modal Labs is close to finalizing a $750 million funding round led by Accel, valuing the company at $15.75 billion including the new capital, according to a source familiar with the deal. That figure more than triples Modal's $4.65 billion valuation from a $355 million raise just four months earlier. Modal declined to comment on the report.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-09-28
AMD announced an agreement to acquire World Labs, the San Francisco AI lab building 3D 'world models' founded by researcher Fei-Fei Li, in an all-stock deal valued at roughly $8.2 billion. Li will join AMD as chief scientist and executive vice president, while World Labs will operate separately from AMD's chip business until the deal closes later this year.
cnbc.com
· 2026-09-28
AMD announced an $8.2 billion deal to acquire World Labs, the AI startup founded by Fei-Fei Li that builds deep learning models focused on understanding physical reality. Li will join AMD as executive vice president and chief scientist, deepening a partnership the two companies formed last year around inference optimization and training.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-09-28
AMD announced it will acquire World Labs in a deal valued at $8.2 billion. AMD said the acquisition brings in AI research and development talent to strengthen its hardware, software, and systems capabilities, particularly in physical AI and robotics.
wsj.com
· 2026-09-28
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