Technology News
Latest technology news and updates
Total: 510
Alibaba’s Qwen3.5 Claims Gemini‑3‑Pro Parity at a Fraction of the Cost — A Shift from Scale to Efficiency
Alibaba has open‑sourced Qwen3.5‑Plus, a 397B‑parameter multimodal model the company says matches Gemini 3 Pro’s performance while operating with only ~17B activated parameters and much lower inference costs. The model emphasises architectural efficiency, native multimodal pretraining and agent capabilities, and forms part of a flurry of Chinese model launches that shift competition from raw scale to systems and cost efficiency.
Apple Goes For Volume: iPhone 17e and a $699 MacBook to Lead March Spring Event
Apple’s March 4 spring event will introduce a budget iPhone 17e and a lower‑priced MacBook, both designed to expand Apple’s reach in price‑sensitive markets. Key changes include Dynamic Island on the 17e, A19 silicon and MagSafe for the lower tier, and an A18 Pro‑powered MacBook at an aggressive ~$699 price point.
ByteDance Turns the Spring Festival Gala into an AI Showcase — Seedance2.0, Robots and 4K Streams Take Center Stage
ByteDance provided four technical services to the 2026 Spring Festival Gala — creative assistance from its Doubao model, embodied-intelligence work for robots, the Volcano Engine Ark compute platform for peak-load handling, and speech-recognition subtitles for Douyin live streams. Seedance2.0 was customized for several performances and video-cloud enhancements secured the gala’s 4K/50fps broadcast quality, marking a high-profile demonstration of real-time AI and media infrastructure at national scale.
China’s Spring Gala Turns Into a Showcase for Robots and ‘Hard’ Consumer Tech
China’s 2026 Spring Festival Gala prominently featured humanoid and quadruped robots alongside smart‑home and hard‑tech sponsors, signalling robotics’ entry into mainstream consumer culture. The broadcast amplified recent investment and production gains but also highlighted the sector’s next challenge: converting theatrical demonstrations into affordable, scalable, real‑world applications.
AI Crashes China’s Spring Gala: Billions in Red Packets, Virtual Stages and a Race to Keep Users
China’s Spring Festival Gala has been repurposed into a high‑stakes marketing and technical showcase for AI firms, with Alibaba, ByteDance, Tencent and Baidu spending heavily on sponsorships, hongbao and live technical support. The central question is whether holiday‑driven spikes in downloads and engagement can be converted into lasting user habits and commercial ecosystems.
ByteDance Pulls Doubao’s Live Video Calls — A Pause That Reveals China’s Tightrope on AI Interactivity
ByteDance has temporarily suspended Doubao’s video‑call feature, reflecting concerns about moderation, privacy, and operational costs tied to real‑time generative audiovisual interactions. The pause signals how Chinese tech firms are balancing product innovation with regulatory compliance and reputational risk as they race to match advanced Western AI models.
OpenAI Poaches OpenClaw Founder as It Places a Big Bet on Autonomous AI Agents
OpenAI has hired Peter Steinberger, founder of the open‑source AI agent project OpenClaw, and will place OpenClaw under a foundation supported by OpenAI. The move underscores OpenAI’s bet that multi‑agent, action‑oriented systems are the next major product frontier, while rekindling concerns about whether corporate sponsorship will erode open‑source independence.
Musk Says Starlink Will Soon Operate Beyond Earth — A Step Toward Space-Based Connectivity
Elon Musk announced that Starlink will soon operate beyond Earth, signalling SpaceX’s intention to make its satellite broadband an integral part of lunar and interplanetary missions. Realising that ambition will require technical changes, regulatory coordination and the maturation of SpaceX’s launch capabilities, while raising strategic questions about spectrum, debris and military use.
WeChat Goes Gold for Lunar New Year: AI Songs, Golden Moments and Red‑Envelope Gamification
Tencent has introduced a suite of WeChat features for the Lunar New Year—golden Moments that can drop red envelopes when liked, AI‑generated New Year songs, and customizable red‑packet covers. The updates are designed to boost engagement, encourage payments, and create shareable seasonal content, while raising questions about data use and regulatory attention.
Tencent Turns WeChat ‘Golden Moments’ into a Spring‑Festival Traffic Play — Yuanbao Adds Extra 10k Red‑Packet Prizes
Tencent has enabled a gold‑coloured New Year Moments effect in WeChat that activates when users publish a Yuanbao‑made greeting, and Yuanbao has added extra high‑value red packets as part of a RMB 10 billion Spring Festival campaign. The move highlights an escalating competition among Chinese tech firms to lock users into AI and payments ecosystems through festive incentives, while also exposing how WeChat’s sharing restrictions serve as a gatekeeper for third‑party promotions.
From Gala Acts to Factory Floors: China’s Humanoid Robots Move from Spectacle to Service
During the 2026 Lunar New Year China’s leading robotics firms expanded humanoid robot roles from Spring Festival Gala performances to real‑world service and industrial deployments. Advances in motion, autonomy and multi‑agent coordination pair with early commercial rollouts in retail and manufacturing, signalling a shift from spectacle to practical utility while raising questions about mass production, costs and technological bottlenecks.
OpenAI Recruits Creator of OpenClaw, Vows to Keep Viral Agent Open-Source via New Foundation
OpenAI has hired Peter Steinberger, creator of the widely adopted agent framework OpenClaw, and pledged to place the project into a foundation that will keep it open-source and independent while receiving funding and support. The move is a tactical win for OpenAI but raises questions about governance, security and the balance between openness and centralization as agent platforms mature.