Artificial Intelligence Industry News

OpenAI Confirms First Consumer Hardware Device Unveiling in Second Half of 2026 as Company Expands Beyond Software into Physical Products

AI Code Security Startup Symbiotic Security Raises $10 Million Seed Round to Launch Symbiotic Code Agent Securing AI-Generated Software

Industrial Cybersecurity Startup Claroty Raises $150 Million Series F at $3 Billion Valuation as Cyberattacks on Critical Infrastructure Surge

LiveKit Raises $100 Million Series C at $1 Billion Valuation as Infrastructure Powering ChatGPT Advanced Voice Mode and Millions of Daily AI Conversations

AI Inference Startup Inferact Raises $150 Million Seed Round at $800 Million Valuation to Commercialize Open-Source vLLM Project

UC Berkeley researchers transition popular AI optimization tool into venture-backed company led by Databricks co-founder Ion Stoica with backing from Andreessen Horowitz and Lightspeed as industry shifts focus from model training to deployment efficiency

South Korea Enforces Asia's First AI Law as Apple Abandons In-House Models for Google's Gemini in $1 Billion Annual Deal

Regulatory infrastructure solidifies with Korean Framework Act while Apple's billion-dollar Gemini licensing exposes foundation model development costs even trillion-dollar companies can't justify alone

Apple Partners with Google to Power Next-Generation Siri Using Gemini Models in Multi-Year Deal Worth $1 Billion Annually

iPhone maker licenses Gemini after determining Google's AI technology provides "most capable foundation" for Apple Foundation Models, with spring 2026 launch targeting two billion active devices

Calgary Fashion Tech Startup Prevoir Raises $750K Pre-Seed from AltaML to Scale AI-Powered Trend Prediction Platform

Computer vision platform extracts product attributes and connects them to sales data, helping retailers curate collections and predict trends with $250 monthly subscription model available on Shopify

OpenAI Deploys Age Prediction System in ChatGPT to Automatically Apply Teen Safety Protections Ahead of Adult Mode Launch

AI-powered behavioral analysis estimates user age to restrict sensitive content for minors while company prepares first-quarter 2026 debut of adult content features for verified users

Mila and Inovia Capital Launch $100 Million Venture Scientist Fund to Transform Canadian AI Research Into Commercial Startups

Quebec AI institute partners with Montreal venture firm to address commercialization gap as Canada holds 10% of global AI talent but captures less than 2% of venture capital investment