Good morning. Taking pics to remember your vacation is nice. But turning them into custom scents? That’s next-level memory making. MIT just unveiled the Anemoia Device, an AI scent machine that turns photos into unique fragrances. Pick an emotional vibe, and the device blends scents from a library of 50 aromas ranging from pine forests to old books. Fun.
Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet 4.6 dropped, and word on the street is that it’s pretty good at controlling your computer. Sign of things to come.
Should AI simulate emotional intimacy? Chatbots are rapidly becoming our therapists and romantic partners. Already, 72% of American teens have turned to AI for companionship, and startups are racing to cash in. ChatGPT alone responds to over 700 million intimate, personal messages every week. But behind the scenes, the people building these emotionally available bots admit they’re uneasy about what they’re creating. One researcher even said it would be a “dark day” before they personally relied on AI for emotional support. [NYT]
You better have deep pockets if you’re building healthcare AI. Kintsugi developed tech that detects depression and anxiety from short voice clips. They raised $30 million, ran seven clinical trials in four years, and had a validated product ready to go. Yet they still failed. The problem wasn’t their tech, it was the FDA. Clinical AI tools face brutal regulatory timelines that don’t match VC demands for rapid scale and massive profits. FDA approval can take years, and upfront development costs are huge. But it wasn’t a total loss. Instead of selling out, Kintsugi open sourced their tech and gave it away for free. [Forbes]
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Amazon just pulled the plug on its new warehouse robot. Blue Jay, a high profile robotic system built for same day delivery, launched in October and barely survived a few months. The robot was complicated and impossible to scale, so Amazon shelved the entire project. Now they’re pivoting to a modular clanker called Orbita. But don’t hold your breath: the first Orbita-powered warehouse won’t open until 2027. If the world’s best logistics company can’t figure out real world robotics, everyone else better buckle up. [Biz Insider]
100 scientists want AI guardrails on high risk biological data. Right now, labs training AI models have no clear guidelines on what biological data is dangerous to include. They have to guess what’s safe. Top researchers from Johns Hopkins, Stanford, Oxford, Columbia, and NYU just proposed a framework to identify and protect the riskiest datasets. They’re not trying to slow innovation. They just want certain biological data treated more like confidential medical records. Because once this stuff hits the open web, there’s no undo button. [Axios]
Sam Altman’s fusion startup hit temps 10x hotter than the sun. After decades of empty promises about limitless energy, Helion finally delivered something actually… impressive. Their reactor blasted plasma to 150 million degrees Celsius, way hotter than scientists thought possible. Unlike competitors still relying on turbines, Helion crushes atoms together using insanely powerful magnets, pulling electricity straight from the reaction itself. They say fusion power will hit Washington State’s grid by 2028, assuming nothing melts down first. [Fortune]
fun stats
🧰 35%. Enterprises that have already replaced SaaS with custom built software in 2026.
📆 18 months. Microsoft’s AI chief says that’s how long until AI can replace every white-collar job. So far, only 2% of bosses worldwide say AI has actually replaced workers.
💥 4x. Rate that Tesla’s robotaxis crash compared to human drivers. They’re operating without safety monitors in Austin.
🚚 15 hours. Aurora’s driverless trucks now run 1,000 mile trips, surpassing human driving limits and reshaping logistics. They too plan to drop safety drivers this year.