AI News - February 2026

An overview of interesting AI News for the Yate and Sodbury U3A's monthly AI News meeting held on February 12th 2026 (meetings are second Thursday of month, 1400-1500, St John's Church Centre, Wickwar Road, Chipping Sodbury, UK - all welcome). Note that this is a summary to act as background as the topics are discussed in detail at the meeting itself. We sometimes have extended meetings where we demonstrate other AI products and services.

The 'Introduction to AI' course we run in Chipping Sodbury now uses these News sessions to replace the original classes 5 and 6 as the topics in them (humanoid robots, self driving cars, ethics, futures) are now 'news' not 'distant futures'.

[1a] Update from Tim Urban

The famous illustration from Tim Urban has been updated to show we have moved into the predicted time of rapid acceleration.

[1b] The AI Tsunami now in view

In February 2026 two of the biggest AI companies, OpenAI and Anthropic, launched the latest versions of the models. These are already contributing significantly to their own development. Many knowledgeable users with early access flagged the significance of the moment. Explaining this to the wider population is harder.

[1c] Matt Shumer article - "Something Big Is Happening"

This month many top AI experts have been writing posts and articles like this one:

"I've spent six years building an AI startup and investing in the space. I live in this world. And I'm writing this for the people in my life who don't... my family, my friends, the people I care about who keep asking me "so what's the deal with AI?" and getting an answer that doesn't do justice to what's actually happening. I keep giving them the polite version. The cocktail-party version. Because the honest version sounds like I've lost my mind. And for a while, I told myself that was a good enough reason to keep what's truly happening to myself. But the gap between what I've been saying and what is actually happening has gotten far too big. The people I care about deserve to hear what is coming, even if it sounds crazy."

(the following para is from later in the article)
"Then, on February 5th, two major AI labs released new models on the same day: GPT-5.3 Codex from OpenAI, and Opus 4.6 from Anthropic (the makers of Claude, one of the main competitors to ChatGPT). And something clicked. Not like a light switch... more like the moment you realize the water has been rising around you and is now at your chest."
link to full Matt Shumer Article

[1d] Elon explains different effect of AI on digital v. physical activities

From an interview on Joe Rogan.


[2a] Tesla Cybercab build up continues

These are the first of the production robotaxis with no steering wheel or pedals.

[2b] Tesla Cybercab presentation Jan 29th 2026

"lowest cost of transportation, even beating public transportation."

[2c] Waymo self driving car in London Feb 2026

Waymo will soon be generally available in London, the UK's first driver free taxi. Sometimes we see video of USA Waymos seemingly stuck at junctions. It was discovered this week that Waymo uses remote humans to aid Waymos when they ask for advice!


[3a] Anthropic's AI Safety Levels and approaching Level 4.

Anthropic recently released Claude 4.6 and made interesting comments on how they had tested for safety, and what they had found. The safety level system is summarised below.
ASL-1. Minimal standards; no special measures needed.
ASL-2. Systems showing early signs of dangerous capabilities (e.g., providing bioweapon instructions).
ASL-3. Systems that significantly increase catastrophic misuse risk over non-AI baselines (e.g. textbooks).
ASL-4. ... escalations in misuse potential or autonomy (e.g., rapid self-replication or extreme deception).


[3b] Anthropic still launched Claude 4.6 though

When AI model safety conflicts with competitive pressures, it is difficult to slow things down even for a company said to give an emphasis on safety from the start.


[4] Moltbook and the unpredictable nature of AI developments

As AI Agents start renting humans and starting religions, who can guess what they will do next. Marc Andreessen gives his take.


[5a] Advertisements come to OpenAI's ChatGPT

With hundreds of millions of free users the temptation was too much. Nobody knows what percentage of users will remain.

[5b] Anthropic tried to score points on the OpenAI ad strategy

Anthropic tried to score points over OpenAI with some very good Superbowl halftime content. Unfortunately most of the audience were not regular users of any AI so the subtle points were lost on them.