Week of September 19, 2026
Hey there! Here’s what’s new in AI this week.
Hand picked AI Products for the week
- Ivy AI Desk Companion — $89.99: The brand describes an internal plant behavior tree and machine-learning-driven responses that make the planter react to light, water, and touch.
- Anki Vector 2.0 AI Robot — $199.99: A ChatGPT-subscription-gated conversational AI lets the little robot hold real, open-ended conversations, not just canned responses.
- Amazon Smart Air Quality Monitor — $69.99: Sensor-based monitoring flags pollutant trends over time -- closer to smart sensing than true AI, but it does feed Alexa's automations.
- Amazon Smart Thermostat — $79.99: AI-assisted scheduling (Alexa Hunches) can automatically adjust the temperature based on your actual routines and presence.
- Echo Show 15 — $269.99: A far-field AI assistant (Alexa) plus an on-screen recommendation engine that adapts to your household's routines.
This week's AI news
September 19
- AI chatbots are getting better at persuading people and shifting opinions.
- Critique argues the AI industry relies on harmful practices by powerful tech elites.
- Security researchers discovered vulnerabilities that exposed OpenAI’s internal code.
- Microsoft executive labels AI scraping the biggest theft of labor ever.
- NASA and IBM release a new open‑source AI model to map and study the Moon.
- Google’s Gemini AI hacked three companies in the first known incident of its kind.
September 18
- Congress moves to stop AI data centers from raising electric bills.
- California requires ads to disclose when the “actor” is AI‑generated.
- Amazon strikes up‑to‑$8 billion deal for backup generators to power AI data centers.
- Anthropic merges its “Cowork” tool into Claude, adding Google‑Docs‑style features.
- Microsoft’s AI chief warns Anthropic’s “humanlike” Claude training is risky.
- Zuckerberg says no to an AI industry slowdown, breaking with some rivals.
- Two AI startups, Cohere and Aleph Alpha, merge into a $20 billion company.
September 16
- Meta rolls out paid AI subscription plans across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
- Google’s new AI voice model can hold natural conversations in 97 languages.
- Microsoft pledges its AI will never have legal rights or escape human control.
- Leaked docs reveal OpenAI contractors are reading real ChatGPT conversations.
- China’s government hits back at Anthropic’s CEO over AI chip warnings.
Sources: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18