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Google's parent company hit a major financial milestone on Monday, reaching a $4tn valuation for the first time and surpassing Apple to become the second-most valuable company in the world. Alphabet is the fourth company to hit the $4tn milestone after Nvidia, which later hit $5tn, Microsoft and Apple . The spike in share price comes after Apple announced it had chosen Google's Gemini AI model to power a major overhaul of the iPhone maker's digital assistant Siri, which comes installed in every iPhone. Neither company disclosed how much the deal was worth. "After careful evaluation, we determined that Google's technology provides the most capable foundation for Apple Foundation Models," Apple said in a statement to CNBC . As tech stocks continue a years-long meteoric rise, fears of a bubble in the stock market persist; however, Wall Street's excitement for new avenues of investment in AI does as well.

They're starting to dominate entire sectors of AI and robotics. I decided to go to CES kind of at the last minute. Over the holiday break, contacts from China kept messaging me about their travel plans. After the umpteenth "See you in Vegas?" As a China tech writer based in the US, I have one week a year when my entire beat seems to come to me--no 20-hour flights required. CES, the Consumer Electronics Show, is the world's biggest tech show, where companies launch new gadgets and announce new developments, and it happens every January.

Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday.

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. More and more Alexa users say they're being moved to the new AI-enhanced Alexa automatically, and not everyone is happy about it. Have you been holding off on upgrading to the newer, AI-enhanced version of Alexa? If so, heads up: Amazon has been notifying at least some Alexa users that the Alexa+ update is coming their way, like it or not. "We have exciting news," the emails from Amazon say .

Apple's Siri AI will be powered by Gemini Google's technology provides the most capable foundation for Apple Foundation Models, Apple said in a statement obtained by CNBC. Apple has confirmed reports that it will use Google Gemini's models to help it power the new version of Siri and other generative AI features. "After careful evaluation, we determined that Google's technology provides the most capable foundation for Apple Foundation Models and we're excited about the innovative new experiences it will unlock for our users," Apple said in a statement obtained by . In March 2025, the company said it was delaying a major Siri update until this year, but it appears that Apple is not quite ready to publicly release a more capable version of the voice assistant. In June, it was reported that Apple was considering partnerships with OpenAI and Anthropic for Siri (the voice assistant can currently tap ChatGPT for certain queries as part of Apple Intelligence).

PCWorld reports that Microsoft's Copilot AI holds only 1.1% of the web AI market share, declining from 1.5% over the past year. ChatGPT dominates with 64.5% market share while Google's Gemini has grown to 21.5%, leaving Copilot far behind major competitors.

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We're about to simulate a human brain on a supercomputer The world's most powerful supercomputers can now run simulations of billions of neurons, and researchers hope such models will offer unprecedented insights into how our brains work What would it mean to simulate a human brain? Today's most powerful computing systems now contain enough computational firepower to run simulations of billions of neurons, comparable to the sophistication of real brains. We increasingly understand how these neurons are wired together, too, leading to brain simulations that researchers hope will reveal secrets of brain function that were previously hidden. Researchers have long tried to isolate specific parts of the brain, modelling smaller regions with a computer to explain particular brain functions. But "we have never been able to bring them all together into one place, into one larger brain model where we can check whether these ideas are at all consistent", says Markus Diesmann at the Jülich Research Centre in Germany.

How pilots avoid thunderstorms--and what happens when they can't Most commercial planes get struck by lightning a couple times a year. Despite the fears of nervous fliers, radar, routing, and teamwork keep planes safe during storms. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. In the 2023 movie starring Gerard Butler, a commercial aircraft is caught in a terrible storm. The plane shakes and the lights go out.