GMO AI & Robotics Acquires Various Robotics to Spearhead Humanoid Robot Development in Japan

GMO AI & Robotics Trading Co., Ltd. has acquired all shares of Various Robotics Inc., a developer of advanced robot solutions, as of Monday, December 15, 2025. This strategic move aims to strengthen GMO AIR’s presence in physical AI by uniting some of Japan’s top robotics engineers. The acquisition is set to accelerate the adoption of humanoid robots to address critical social challenges like labor shortages. The companies will jointly develop advanced robot solutions focusing on AI control, manipulation, and autonomous movement. Following the acquisition, Various Robotics will be renamed ‘GMO Various Robotics, Inc.’. The industry has designated 2026 as the ‘Year of Humanoids,’ signaling a significant push to deploy these robots in sectors like factories, logistics, hotels, and hospitals.

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Volkswagen Begins Real-World Autonomous Vehicle Testing in Wolfsburg

The Volkswagen Group has commenced autonomous vehicle testing with its Gen.Urban research vehicle in the city of Wolfsburg. After extensive trials, the Gen.Urban is now capable of driving autonomously in real urban traffic. The project’s primary goal is to understand the passenger experience in a self-driving vehicle that lacks a traditional steering wheel or pedals, which will inform the design of future autonomous models. A dedicated team of designers, human factors specialists, and engineers is collecting data on user behavior and interaction. In the current phase, which involves Volkswagen Group employees, a trained safety driver monitors the vehicle and can intervene with a joystick if necessary. Passengers can customize their in-cabin experience, from temperature to ambient lighting, via a mobile app or in-vehicle controls.

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DuploCloud Unveils AI DevOps Engineers to Automate and Optimize Cloud Infrastructure

DuploCloud has introduced AI DevOps Engineers, a new service designed to automate and execute complex infrastructure management tasks. Unlike traditional AI assistants that only provide recommendations, these AI engineers can actively provision, troubleshoot, and optimize infrastructure within predefined safety limits. This offering aims to help overworked DevOps teams keep pace with software development by handling tasks related to Kubernetes, observability, compliance, and cost optimization. The platform features a conversational interface for teams to manage tickets, initiate deployments, and resolve incidents with the AI’s assistance, blending human oversight with AI-powered execution. DuploCloud’s service integrates with major cloud providers like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud to automate the provisioning of secure and compliant environments.

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Auburn University Scientists Create Groundbreaking Materials for Next-Generation Quantum Computers

A team of scientists at Auburn University has developed a pioneering new class of materials called Surface Immobilized Electrides, which allow for precise control over free electrons. These materials are created by attaching solvated electron precursors to stable surfaces like diamond or silicon carbide, enabling their electronic properties to be fine-tuned for various applications. Depending on the molecular arrangement, the electrons can form isolated ‘islands’ to act as qubits for quantum computing or spread into metallic ‘seas’ for powerful chemical reactions. This innovation has the potential to lead to supercomputers that can learn like humans and more efficient manufacturing processes. The research brings together experts from chemistry, physics, and material engineering to create scalable technologies that could redefine the limits of computation and industrial chemistry.

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Kyndryl Launches Quantum-Safe Assessment to Protect Enterprises from Future Cyber Threats

Kyndryl has launched a new Quantum Safe Assessment service to help businesses prepare for the security threats posed by quantum computing. This service is designed to assist enterprises in evaluating and securing their cryptographic systems against potential future attacks from quantum computers, which are expected to be powerful enough to break current encryption standards. By providing this comprehensive assessment, Kyndryl aims to help organizations smoothly transition to quantum-resistant cryptography and safeguard their sensitive data against emerging threats.

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Mistral AI and All Hands AI Release Devstral, an Open-Source LLM for AI Agent Development

Mistral AI, in collaboration with startup All Hands AI, has released Devstral, an open-source language model specifically designed for developing AI agentic applications. Based on Mistral-Small-3.1, Devstral is a lightweight model with 24 billion parameters, making it efficient enough to run on a single Nvidia RTX 4090 GPU or even a high-end laptop. This release is aimed at simplifying the creation and deployment of AI agents within enterprise environments and marks Mistral AI’s expansion beyond general-purpose language models into specialized, developer-focused tools.

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