Thursday, February 12, 2026
TL;DR
Today’s briefing covers 464 items from 13 sources. Top stories include: Two more xAI co-founders are among those leaving after the SpaceX merger; Apple’s Siri revamp reportedly delayed… again; Uber Eats launches AI assistant to help with grocery cart creation.
Top Stories
Two more xAI co-founders are among those leaving after the SpaceX merger
The Verge AI
Since the xAI-SpaceX merger announced last week, which combined the two companies (as well as social media platform X) for a reported $1.25 trillion valuation - the biggest merger of all time - a handful of xAI employees and two of its co-founders have abruptly exited the company, penning long depar
Apple’s Siri revamp reportedly delayed… again
TechCrunch AI
While the new Siri was expected to launch with the upcoming iOS 26.4 update in March, now, the changes are expected to roll out more slowly over time, reportedly postponing some features until the May iOS update, or even until the release of iOS 27 in September.
Uber Eats launches AI assistant to help with grocery cart creation
TechCrunch AI
Uber Eats launched a new AI feature, “Cart Assistant,” that can automatically add items to your cart based on text or image prompts.
Elon Musk suggests spate of xAI exits have been push, not pull
TechCrunch AI
At least nine engineers, including two co-founders, have announced their exits from xAI in the past week, fueling online speculation and raising questions about stability at Musk’s AI company amid mounting controversy.
OpenAI researcher quits over ChatGPT ads, warns of “Facebook” path
Ars Technica AI
Zoë Hitzig resigned on the same day OpenAI began testing ads in its chatbot.
Research Corner
News & Analysis
- xAI lays out interplanetary ambitions in public all-hands (TechCrunch AI)
- AI inference startup Modal Labs in talks to raise at $2.5B valuation, sources say (TechCrunch AI)
- Anthropic says it’ll try to keep its data centers from raising electricity costs (The Verge AI)
- Once-hobbled Lumma Stealer is back with lures that are hard to resist (Ars Technica AI)
- Apple keeps hitting bumps with its overhauled Siri (The Verge AI)
- Glean’s fight to own the AI layer inside every company (TechCrunch AI)
- Who will own your company’s AI layer? Glean’s CEO explains (TechCrunch AI)
- I Loved My OpenClaw AI Agent—Until It Turned on Me (Wired AI)
Deep Dive: Today’s AI Landscape
Synthesized from multiple research sources
Key AI announcements around February 12, 2026, highlight agentic AI advancements, enterprise partnerships, and hardware launches, with the most recent being Palladyne AI’s defense contract on February 3.[3]
Recent Launches and Partnerships (Early February 2026)
- Palladyne AI Secures Defense Contract: On February 3, 2026, Palladyne AI announced a major contract for propulsion subsystems in defense applications, marking a significant commercial win.[3]
- Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.6: Launched in early February (covered in the February 6 update), this upgrade features a 1-million token context window, multi-agent teams, and enhanced capabilities for knowledge work like document analysis and financial tasks.[4]
Sources:
In 2025, global VC funding for AI startups reached $270.2 billion, surpassing all other sectors at 52.7% of total $512.6 billion in VC investments, with a 72% year-over-year increase despite fewer overall deals.[1] Major deals included SoftBank’s record $40 billion investment in OpenAI, Thinking Machine Labs’ $2 billion seed round, Meta’s $14.3 billion in Scale AI, and Anthropic’s $13 billion round at $183 billion valuation.[1]
Early 2026 trends show continued AI funding momentum, especially in voice AI, with expectations of 10-25% overall VC growth concentrated in AI, robotics, and defense tech.[2][5] Notable January 2026 voice AI rounds: ElevenLabs’ $500 million Series D at $11 billion valuation, Decagon’s $250 million Series D, Deepgram’s $130 million Series C, and Gradium’s $7
Sources:
This newsletter is automatically generated by PAI using RSS aggregation and AI research tools. Sources include arXiv, HuggingFace, OpenAI, Google AI, MIT News, VentureBeat, and more.
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