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Anthropic published research describing how it designs memory systems for Claude-based agents, drawing an analogy to human memory consolidation during sleep. The approach, built on work from Letta and UC Berkeley researchers on 'sleep-time compute,' has agents reorganize logs and transcripts during idle periods to fix errors, write notes, and build new memory representations for future sessions.
A pre-print study from University of California, Berkeley neuroscientists found that human and macaque brains appear to cycle between 'conscious epochs' and 'suppressed micro-epochs' at a rate of about 15 times per second. Using anaglyph glasses to show different faces to each eye while monitoring neural activity, researchers observed subjects' brains actively shift to perceive a newly introduced face rather than struggling with both overlapping images at once.
Fields Medal-winning mathematician Richard Borcherds has stopped assigning graded homework at UC Berkeley, saying AI tools make it impossible to distinguish student work from machine-generated answers. He now relies mainly on in-person, device-free exams, noting that online exam scores have risen sharply in ways he attributes to AI use rather than learning gains.
A former journalism professor writing for CNET describes how AI chatbots like ChatGPT have made grading homework nearly impossible, citing a UC Berkeley math professor who has stopped grading assignments because students rely on AI. The author recounts struggling to detect AI-generated writing in advanced communications courses and noting that students could pass most assignments with AI help, only faltering on tasks like live presentations that AI couldn't complete for them.
UC Berkeley has unveiled a new facility housing its College of Computing, Data Science, and Society, featuring curved glass and interlocking architectural elements. The design reportedly aims to encourage encounters between researchers across disciplines rather than isolating them in separate departments.
A UC Berkeley mathematics professor says the prevalence of students using AI tools to complete assignments has led them to conclude that grading homework no longer serves a useful purpose. The professor indicated this shift reflects difficulty verifying whether submitted work reflects a student's own understanding.
Researchers from Columbia University and UC Berkeley found that microplastics, unlike larger plastic objects, become chemically reactive when exposed to water, spontaneously generating reactive oxygen species such as hydroxyl radicals. The study, published in Nature, shows this reaction occurs under ordinary environmental conditions without sunlight or other degradation triggers, and is attributed to the much larger surface area of smaller particles.
Arena, the crowdsourced AI model ranking platform that began as a UC Berkeley research project in 2023, announced a $200 million Series B funding round at a $3.1 billion valuation. The raise follows a $150 million Series A in January at a $1.7 billion valuation, when annualized revenue stood at $30 million; the company says that figure has since hit $100 million. The round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Khosla Ventures, with participation from Salesforce Ventures, Dell Technologies Capital, a16z and others, and Arena also introduced a new alignment category to its leaderboard.
UC Berkeley's Grimes Engineering Center, designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, has been named a winner in Fast Company's 2026 Innovation by Design Awards. The building sits near a major Bay Area fault line and features a new seismic-responsive structural system engineered to withstand strong earthquakes, with the bracing left visible rather than hidden behind walls.
Fast Company named the winners of its 2026 Innovation by Design Awards in the architectural design category, honoring buildings and interiors that address challenges in the built environment. The top prize went to UC Berkeley's Grimes Engineering Center, designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, an adaptive-reuse project featuring a new seismic-responsive structural system aimed at improving earthquake resilience.
XDOF, a startup founded by UC Berkeley researchers Philipp Wu and Fred Shentu that supplies teleoperation data for training robots, is reportedly in late-stage talks for a Series B round valuing it at roughly $1.2 billion, led by 8VC. The company raised a $70 million Series A only in June, but investors approached it again after its annualized revenue climbed toward $50 million. The final size of the raise and whether it includes new capital in the valuation remain unconfirmed, and terms could still shift.