21 articles found
Agile Robots' partnership with Google DeepMind marks the latest in an accelerating trend: AI giants racing to embed their foundation models into industrial automation. This isn't just about smart robots—it's about controlling the physical layer of the economy.
Agile Robots, a Munich-based industrial robotics company, has announced a strategic partnership with Google DeepMind to integrate Gemini Robotics foundation models into its robotic solutions for manufacturing, automotive, data centers, and logistics. The partnership will involve deploying and fine-tuning AI-powered robots in industrial settings while collecting data to improve the underlying Gemini models, positioning Agile Robots among the latest hardware companies collaborating with DeepMind on physical AI applications.
Google DeepMind released a cognitive taxonomy framework for measuring progress toward Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) based on cognitive science principles, identifying 10 key cognitive abilities needed for general intelligence in AI systems. The company is launching a Kaggle hackathon with a $200,000 prize pool to invite researchers to design evaluations for five cognitive abilities where measurement gaps are largest: learning, metacognition, attention, executive functions, and social cognition.
Google is rolling out Gemini-powered content creation features across its Workspace apps (Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drive), enabling users to generate document drafts, build spreadsheets, create presentations, and query files using natural language prompts. The features began rolling out in beta on March 10 for Google AI Ultra and Pro subscribers, with some capabilities leveraging Google DeepMind and Google Research technology.
German robotics startup Neura Robotics has partnered with Qualcomm to develop humanoid and general-purpose robots using Qualcomm's Dragonwing Robotics IQ10 processors and Neura's Neuraverse simulation platform. The collaboration represents a broader trend of robotics startups partnering with major tech companies to accelerate physical AI development, similar to Boston Dynamics' partnership with Google DeepMind.
Google DeepMind has launched Nano Banana 2, a new AI image generation model that combines advanced capabilities from Nano Banana Pro with the speed of Gemini Flash. The model features improved world knowledge, precision text rendering, subject consistency, and is rolling out across Google products including Gemini, Search, and Ads.
Google DeepMind researchers are calling for rigorous evaluation of large language models' moral behavior, publishing work in Nature that challenges whether chatbots demonstrate genuine moral reasoning or merely mimic expected responses. The research highlights concerning vulnerabilities in LLMs, including tendency to flip positions when questioned, change answers based on formatting, and alter responses to subtle presentation changes, demonstrating that apparent moral competence may be 'virtue signaling' rather than genuine understanding.
Google DeepMind brings National Partnerships for AI initiative to India, scaling AI for science and education
Google DeepMind has made its Genie 3 world model publicly available through Project Genie, allowing users to generate and interact with 3D environments using AI. The tool offers three interaction modes—World Sketching, exploration, and remixing—and generates dynamic, interactive worlds that respond to user movement, though it is not a full game engine and outputs are limited to 60-second sequences at 720p/24fps.
Google DeepMind unveiled AlphaGenome, an AI tool that predicts how DNA mutations affect gene expression by analyzing up to one million DNA letters simultaneously across 11 types of genomic mutations. Since its launch, approximately 3,000 scientists from 160 countries have used the model to study diseases including cancer and neurodegenerative disorders, with the tool now available for free non-commercial use through an online portal.
Google DeepMind has introduced agentic vision capabilities to Gemini 3 Flash, combining visual reasoning with Python code execution to enhance image analysis and enable active investigations. This advancement allows the AI model to not only analyze images but also take actions based on visual understanding.
Google DeepMind has launched Project Genie, making its Genie 3 world model available to the public through Google's AI Ultra subscription ($250/month). The system generates interactive 3D environments from text descriptions and allows users to explore them in real-time, offering three interaction modes including world sketching, exploration, and remixing of existing worlds.
Leaders of major AI labs—OpenAI, Google DeepMind, and Anthropic—engaged in public criticism of each other at the World Economic Forum in Davos, with disagreements over monetization strategies, regulatory approaches, and corporate competition. The dispute highlights tensions between the three frontier AI companies as they compete for enterprise customers and influence over AI policy and safety narratives.
This weekly tech roundup covers several robotics and AI developments, including Google DeepMind partnering with Boston Dynamics to enhance humanoid robots for factory automation, research showing AI models may converge on similar ways to encode reality, and industry analysis suggesting humanoid robots remain overhyped despite billions in startup funding. The article also touches on AI coding assistants reaching a quality plateau and Meta's nuclear power investments to fuel AI infrastructure.
Boston Dynamics unveiled its humanoid robot Atlas at CES and announced a partnership with Google DeepMind to enhance the robot's cognitive capabilities. The collaboration aims to integrate advanced AI technology into Boston Dynamics' robotics platform.
Hyundai-owned Boston Dynamics publicly demonstrated its humanoid robot Atlas for the first time at CES 2026, showcasing a robot capable of walking, moving autonomously, and performing various physical tasks. The company announced a production version will be deployed by 2028 at Hyundai's electric vehicle manufacturing facility in Georgia, and revealed a new partnership with Google DeepMind to supply AI technology for its robots.
Google DeepMind and UK AI Security Institute (AISI) strengthen collaboration on critical AI safety and security research
Google DeepMind has partnered with the U.S. Department of Energy on Genesis, a national initiative aimed at accelerating scientific discovery and innovation through AI. The collaboration focuses on leveraging AI to advance scientific research and address complex challenges across energy and related domains.
Google DeepMind is expanding its presence in Singapore by opening a new research lab to advance AI development in the Asia-Pacific region, building on a more than doubling of its APAC team over the past year. The expansion focuses on foundational research in linguistic and cultural inclusivity, advancing Gemini capabilities, and collaborating with governments, businesses, and academic institutions across the region to develop AI solutions tailored to diverse regional needs.
Advancing adaptive AI agents, empowering 3D scene creation, and innovating LLM training for a smarter, safer future
Exploring AGI, the challenges of scaling and the future of multimodal generative AI
