AI This Week

Apple is preparing a massive upgrade for Siri. The company will reportedly use a custom version of Google’s Gemini AI to drive its new Apple Intelligence system, according to a new report. This partnership will cost Apple around $1 billion annually and gives it access to a powerful 1.2 trillion parameter model for generating summaries and performing planning tasks. The model will run on Apple’s Private Cloud Compute servers, a key detail for privacy. The move comes after Apple delayed its own AI rollout and considered other partners. While Apple continues developing its own technology, this deal highlights the intense competition in the AI space. The new Siri is expected next spring.

A new legal battle is erupting over AI. Amazon has sued Perplexity, demanding the AI startup stop its Comet browser from shopping on its site. The lawsuit alleges Perplexity’s AI agent accesses customer accounts without consent, committing computer fraud and degrading the shopping experience Amazon built. Perplexity responded sharply, accusing Amazon of bullying and trying to stifle innovation that makes shopping easier for customers. This conflict exposes the high-stakes tension between established tech giants and the new wave of autonomous AI agents that act on behalf of users. As this AI browser war escalates, some competitors are embracing similar technology.

Google is studying “Project Suncatcher,” an initiative to move data center workloads off Earth and into orbit. The concept taps abundant solar power and the cold of space to run and cool AI-scale compute. It also promises new capacity as demand for training and inference surges. The plan raises hard questions: launch cost, serviceability, orbital debris, latency, and regulation. It draws clear comparisons to earlier radical infrastructure bets, such as underwater server farms and satellite networks. The idea signals how far cloud providers may go to meet AI’s hunger for energy and chips.

Nvidia and Deutsche Telekom are launching a one-billion-euro industrial artificial intelligence hub in Germany, a significant move in the global AI race. The project represents Europe’s latest bid to make up lost ground against the United States and China. Based in Munich and set to go live in early 2026, the center will offer companies access to powerful AI for processes from design to robotics, all operating on secure IT infrastructure. A key focus is “data sovereignty,” keeping sensitive industrial data secure on the continent. German industrial giants SAP and Siemens are also partners, aiming to enhance their own AI capabilities and client services.

In a stunning breakthrough, artificial intelligence has uncovered 303 new geoglyphs hidden in southern Peru’s desert, doubling the number of known Nazca Lines. An international team from Japan’s Yamagata University and IBM accomplished the feat in just six months, completing work that once took years in a fraction of the time. The ancient figures, dating from 200 B.C. to 650 A.D., depict felines, fish, and human forms. The AI system identified the patterns by analyzing vast amounts of satellite and drone imagery, spotting lines nearly invisible to the human eye. Archaeologists later confirmed each finding on the ground. This technology is accelerating archaeological discovery worldwide.