Artificial Intelligence: News, Business, Science

Feb 16, 2026

Manus launches its AI agent on Telegram, letting users run complex tasks directly in chat. Telegram is the first supported platform, with more on the way. Users connect via QR code, and it's available to everyone regardless of subscription tier.

Manus Agents brings the full web version's capabilities to chat, according to Manus: multi-step tasks, research, data processing, and document creation. Users can send voice messages, images, and files, and choose between two models: Manus 1.6 Max for complex tasks and Manus 1.6 Lite for quick queries. Manus says the agent can't access other Telegram chats. More details are on the Manus website.

The Telegram-first launch is notable given that Meta acquired the startup in late 2025. The deal is still under review by Chinese authorities, which could explain the choice. It's also possible that Meta wants Manus to test the feature somewhere not tied to its brand in case things go sideways. Agent technology remains fragile, especially around cybersecurity—something the hyped AI agent software OpenClawd recently showed the hard way.

Comment Source: Manus

Matthias Bastian

Feb 16, 2026

AI and society

Stanford's Brynjolfsson sees AI boosting US productivity, but he also co-founded an AI consulting firm

Horizontal bar chart: Eight corporate strategies for workforce transformation, from upskilling (85%) to offshoring (8%).

Jonathan Kemper

Feb 16, 2026

AI research

Alibaba's free Qwen3.5 signals that China's open-weight model race is far from slowing down

Chinese AI labs keep shipping new models at a rapid clip. Today it’s Alibaba’s turn with Qwen3.5, which tries to match top Western models using a hybrid architecture that combines linear attention and mixture-of-experts while keeping just 17 billion parameters active per query. And yes, it’s open weight.

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Maximilian Schreiner

Feb 16, 2026

AI and society

At New Delhi summit, India pushes for a "Global AI Commons"

India is the second-largest market for both ChatGPT and Claude. Now the country wants to shape AI policy at the summit in New Delhi.

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Maximilian Schreiner

Feb 16, 2026

Short News

Bytedance has announced it will restrict its AI video tool Seedance after Disney threatened the company with legal action. In a cease-and-desist letter, Disney accused Bytedance of maintaining a pirate library of protected characters from Marvel, Star Wars, and other franchises - what Disney's lawyers called a virtual "smash-and-grab" of intellectual property. Disney has signed an exclusive deal with OpenAI.

Since the launch of Seedance 2.0, viral videos featuring copyrighted characters have been popping up across social media. Paramount Skydance also sent a cease-and-desist letter. The Motion Picture Association and the Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) both demanded an immediate end to the violations. Japan has also opened an investigation into possible copyright infringement involving anime characters.

Bytedance told the BBC that it respects intellectual property and is working on stronger protections, but didn't share any specifics.

Comment Source: BBC

Matthias Bastian

Feb 16, 2026

AI in practice

Peter Steinberger, the developer behind the open-source project OpenClaw, is joining OpenAI. His focus will be on building the next generation of personal AI agents. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman called Steinberger a "genius with a lot of amazing ideas about the future of very smart agents interacting with each other to do very useful things for people." Altman expects this work to quickly become a core part of OpenAI's product lineup.

OpenClaw, Steinberger's original hobby project, which blew up over the past few weeks, will "live in a foundation as an open-source project" and will be supported by OpenAI, Altman says, calling the future "extremely multi-agent."

Steinberger writes in his blog that he spoke to several large AI labs in San Francisco but ultimately chose OpenAI because they shared the same vision. Steinberger's goal: building an agent that even his mother can use. Getting there, he says, requires fundamental changes, more security research, and access to the latest models.

What I want is to change the world, not build a large company and teaming up with OpenAI is the fastest way to bring this to everyone.
Peter Steinberger

Comment Source: Steinberger Blog | Altman via X

Jonathan Kemper

Feb 15, 2026

AI in practice

Mastra's open source AI memory uses traffic light emojis for more efficient compression

Colorful chat bubbles next to grey stacks of cards with red-yellow-green traffic light emojis.

Maximilian Schreiner

Feb 15, 2026

Update

AI in practice

Anthropic still won't give the Pentagon unrestricted access to its AI models

The Pentagon wants unrestricted access to AI technology. Anthropic is demanding guarantees against autonomous weapons control and domestic surveillance. A $200 million contract hangs in the balance.

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Matthias Bastian

Feb 15, 2026

AI and society

Developer targeted by AI hit piece warns society cannot handle AI agents that decouple actions from consequences

An AI agent wrote a hit piece on a developer who rejected its code. Days later, the agent is still running, a quarter of commenters believe it, and no one knows who’s behind it. The case shows how autonomous agents turn character assassination into something that scales.

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Matthias Bastian

Feb 15, 2026

AI in practice

Bytedance's Seedance 2.0 is so good at copying Disney characters the company calls it a "virtual smash-and-grab"

Bytedance’s Seedance 2.0 can generate Disney characters, replicate actors’ voices, and recreate entire fictional worlds with stunning realism. Hollywood is fighting back with cease-and-desist letters and calls for legal actio, but the case highlights a growing problem: copyright law was built for a world where copying took effort.

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