Tesla Gets Rid of Safety Driver, Google SAT Prep, & AI Spotify Playlists.
This Week in AI Newsletter: 1/22/2026
Tesla began fully driverless robotaxi rides in Austin with no safety driver onboard, marking a major milestone for real world autonomous driving. More here.
Waymo officially launched its fully autonomous ride hailing service for public riders in Miami, marking another major milestone for self driving transportation. More here.
Google just launched free, full-length SAT practice exams inside Gemini, built with Princeton Review content and instant feedback for students. More here.
Runway just released Gen-4.5 Image to Video, promising longer, more coherent AI videos with consistent characters and better camera control. More here.
Google hired the CEO and core engineers behind voice AI startup Hume AI to boost Gemini’s voice capabilities. More here.
OpenAI added over $1B in annual recurring revenue in a single month from its API business, per Sam Altman. More here.
AI labs are using classic Pokémon games to test how well new models reason, plan, and pursue long term goals. More here.
Neurophos raised $110M to develop ultra-efficient optical AI chips that promise dramatically faster and lower-power inferencing than today’s GPUs. More here.
Spotify launched AI-powered Prompted Playlists in the US and Canada, letting users create personalized playlists by describing what they want to hear in natural language. More here.
Apple is reportedly planning to turn Siri into a full AI chatbot in iOS 27 as it races to catch up with competitors like ChatGPT. More here.