This Week’s Awesome Tech Stories From Around the Web (Through January 24)
2026 年 1 月 24 日
ROBOTICS
Your First Humanoid Robot Coworker Will Probably Be Chinese
Will Knight | Wired
In addition to Unitree, a staggering 200-plus other Chinese companies are also developing humanoid robots, which recently prompted the Chinese government to warn of overcapacity and unnecessary replication. The US has about 16 prominent firms building humanoids. With stats like that, one can’t help but suspect that the first country to have a million humanoids will be China.
Waymo Continues Robotaxi Ramp up With Miami Service Now Open to Public
Kirsten Korosec | TechCrunch
The company announced that it will initially open its robotaxi service on a rolling basis to nearly 10,000 local residents on its waitlist in Miami. Once accepted, riders will be able to hail a robotaxi within a 60-square-mile service area covering neighborhoods such as the Design District, Wynwood, Brickell, and Coral Gables.
FUTURE
CEOs Say AI Is Making Work More Efficient. Employees Tell a Different Story.
Lindsay Ellis | The Wall Street Journal
A new survey from the AI consulting firm Section of 5,000 white-collar workers reveals a vast gulf between senior executives’ and workers’ actual experiences with generative AI. Two-thirds of non-management staff said they saved less than two hours a week or no time at all using AI. In contrast, more than 40% of executives said the technology saved them more than eight hours of work a week.
BIOTECH
mRNA Cancer Vaccine Shows Protection at 5-Year Follow-Up, Moderna and Merck Say
Beth Mole | Ars Technica
In a small clinical trial, customized mRNA vaccines targeting high-risk skin cancers appeared to reduce the risk of cancer recurrence and death by nearly 50 percent over five years when compared with standard treatment alone.
Some Immune Systems Defeat Cancer. Could That Become a Drug?
Gina Kolata | The New York Times
Dr. Edward Patz, a longtime cancer researcher at Duke University, has been intrigued by cancers that remain harmless and believes they hold important clues for drug development. After years of research, this has resulted in an experimental drug, tested so far only in small numbers of lung cancer patients.
COMPUTING
Not to Be Outdone by OpenAI, Apple Is Reportedly Developing an AI Wearable
Lucas Ropek | TechCrunch
Apple may be developing its own AI wearable device, according to a report published by The Information. The device will be a pin that users can wear on their clothing, equipped with two cameras and three microphones, the report says.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
The Math on AI Agents Doesn’t Add Up
Steven Levy | Wired
Big AI companies promised that 2025 would be “the year of the AI agents.” Instead, it became the year of talking about AI agents and postponing that transformational moment to 2026 or later. But what if the answer to when our lives will be fully automated by generative AI robots that perform our tasks and run the world is, like that New Yorker cartoon, “How about never?”
SPACE
Extreme Closeup of the ‘Eye of God’ Reveals Fiery Pillars in Stunning Detail
Passant Rabie | Gizmodo
The James Webb Space Telescope has peered deep into the Helix Nebula, also known as the “Eye of God,” revealing layers of gas shed by a dying star that will seed future generations of stars and planets. At its center lies a blazing white dwarf—the leftover core of the dying star—releasing an avalanche of material crashing into a colder surrounding shell of gas and dust.
Another Jeff Bezos Company Has Announced Plans to Develop a Megaconstellation
Eric Berger | Ars Technica
Blue Origin, the space company founded by Jeff Bezos, announced plans to develop a new megaconstellation named TeraWave. The network aims to deliver data speeds of up to 6 Tbps anywhere on Earth. It will consist of 5,408 optically interconnected satellites, with the majority in low-Earth orbit and the remainder in medium-Earth orbit.
Mars Once Had a Vast Sea the Size of the Arctic Ocean
Taylor Mitchell Brown | New Scientist
Research suggests that around 3 billion years ago, Mars may have hosted long-lasting bodies of surface water inside Valles Marineris, the largest canyon in the Solar System. Even more exciting, these water bodies may have been connected to a much larger ocean that once covered parts of Mars’ northern lowlands, making it the largest ocean on Mars.
ENERGY
China’s Renewable Energy Revolution Is a Huge Mess That Might Save the World
Jeremy Wallace | Wired
China’s renewable energy transition is far from neat. It is a panorama of coal communities devastated, price wars sweeping across markets, and electrical grids destabilizing as they become more central to the energy system. No single entity—not even a monolithic “China” at the control switch—fully understands how to manage its far-reaching repercussions.
Zanskar Thinks 1 TW of Geothermal Power Is Being Overlooked
Tim De Chant | TechCrunch
Zanskar’s Hoiland says experts have underestimated the number of undiscovered geothermal systems by perhaps an order of magnitude or more. With modern drilling techniques, it’s now possible to extract much more energy from these systems, potentially boosting geothermal power output by an order of magnitude or beyond.