Jan 02, 2026

8 Posts

Sharon Zhou is pictured smiling confidently with her hands clasped, reflecting AI’s potential for community-building.
Jan 02, 2026

Chatbots That Build Community by Sharon Zhou: Sharon Zhou of AMD on expanding chat to serve groups and connect us with other people

Next year, I’m excited to see AI break out of 1:1 relationships with each of us. In 2026, AI has the potential to bring people together and unite us with human connection, rather than polarize and isolate us. It’s about time for ChatGPT to enter your group chats.
Pengtao Xie is pictured standing near a chalkboard filled with mathematical notes, addressing a classroom of attentive students.
Jan 02, 2026

Multimodal Models for Biomedicine by Pengtao Xie: Pengtao Xie of UC-San Diego on why medical models need to visualize tiny chemicals and large organs

Over the past few years, we have seen rapid progress in models that jointly reason over text, images, sequences, graphs, and time series. Yet in biomedical settings, these capabilities often remain fragmented, brittle, or difficult to interpret.
Tanmay Gupta is pictured smiling next to a whiteboard filled with mathematical formulas, embodying active AI engagement.
Jan 02, 2026

From Prediction to Action by Tanmay Gupta: Tanmay Gupta of the Allen Institute on building AI for long-horizon tasks

AI research in 2026 should confront a simple but transformative realization: Models that predict are not the same as systems that act. The latter is what we actually need.
Juan M. Lavista Ferres is pictured holding a laptop while students watch a video about AI on a screen, linking education and technology.
Jan 02, 2026

Education That Works With — Not Against — AI by Juan M. Lavista Ferres: Juan M. Lavista Ferres, Chief Data Scientist at Microsoft, on assignments that properly test students’ abilities

A little more than three years ago, OpenAI released ChatGPT, and education changed forever. For students, the ability to generate fluent, credible text on demand in seconds is an incredible new tool.
Adji Bousso Dieng is pictured typing on a laptop in a warmly lit room, focusing on AI-driven scientific work.
Jan 02, 2026

AI for Scientific Discovery by Adji Bousso Dieng: Adji Bousso Dieng, Princeton University Assistant Professor and AI Researcher, on optimizing models for the long tail

In 2026, I hope AI will transition from being a tool for efficiency to a catalyst for scientific discovery.
David Cox is pictured during a discussion in a glass-walled office, aligned with themes of open-source innovation and teamwork.
Jan 02, 2026

Open Source Wins by David Cox: David Cox, VP for AI Models at IBM Research, on the need for open development in AI

My hope is that open AI continues to flourish and ultimately wins.
Andrew Ng is pictured writing in a notebook by a large window, with a garden and pool visible in the background.
Jan 02, 2026

How to Test for Artificial General Intelligence: AGI has become a term of hype, and the traditional Turing Test can’t reliably detect it. How can we evaluate claims of that someone has built artificial general intelligence? Here’s a better test.

Happy 2026! Will this be the year we finally achieve AGI? I’d like to propose a new version of the Turing Test, which I’ll call the Turing-AGI Test, to see if we’ve achieved this.
Andrew Ng is pictured writing in a notebook by a large window, with a garden and pool visible in the background.
Jan 02, 2026

New Year Special! Hopes for 2026 from David Cox, Adji Bousso Dieng, Juan M. Lavista Ferres, Tanmay Gupta, Pengtao Xie, Sharon Zhou

The Batch AI News and Insights: Happy 2026! Will this be the year we finally achieve AGI? I’d like to propose a new version of the Turing Test, which I’ll call the Turing-AGI Test, to see if we’ve achieved this.

Subscribe to The Batch

Stay updated with weekly AI News and Insights delivered to your inbox