AI News - June 2026

An overview of interesting AI News for the Yate and Sodbury U3A's monthly AI News meeting held on June 11th 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] SpaceX goes public - first stop the moon

Probably the most exciting and potentially valuable company to go public ever, so everybody wants to know about its plans. Elon Musk explains here why a Moonbase will be useful

[1b] SpaceX goes public - the formal presentation

Worth a full view if you wish to understand the next few years.

[1c] Starlink helping the third world

Worth noting the immense contribution that Starlink is making across the world already, with much much more to come.


[2a] Anthropic (Claude etc) warn of forthcoming intelligence explosion

Following the non-release of Mythos last month due to its sheer power in breaking into IT systems etc, Anthropic explains what is sees internally and the significance.

[2b] Anthropic gave example of Mythos beating human (IT) researchers

People sometimes suggest that the best combination will be a human paired with a good AI. Anthropic suggest that interim phase may be nearly over.

[2c] Anthropic cofounder Jack Clark explains Recursive Self Improvement

A Brit explains the AI Intelligence explosion to an American audience

[2d] Historian Niall Ferguson explains the historical significance of the moment


[3a] Another Longevity human trial

Old mice are sleepy after drinking alcohol, until given treatment to make their livers younger. This company raised more than USD400 million to progress their trials in humans. AI was a major factor aiding them to advance a solution quickly.

[3b] Very informative interview with NewLimit founder

Explaining the journey from the identification of Yamanaka Factors to real life treatments.


[4] Tesla Self-driving in China

Sit back and enjoy the scenery


[5] Drones on demand

Drones, Starlink communication, solar power and autonomous driving coming together


[6a] Real time motion capture powers dancing robots

Demonstrating how large numbers of robots can be controlled remotely in coordination

[6b] Humanoid robot production in volume has begun

Once you start mass producing humanoid robots there are few limits to the final rate of production.


[8a] Martin Scorsese involved in shaping AI Film

The new AI film companies are being sure to involve the big names from traditional film to add to credibility.

[8b] Grok's AI Video looking powerful

A complete trailer, unofficial I assume, made for the film Iliad (Troy) shows the rapid development of capability.


[14] X dominating online news socials

Despite media attacks, X remains the main sourse of quick news with contrasting viewpoints. It is certainly where major AI related news breaks first.


[15 ...] The Humanoid Robot as child scarer meme

This appears to have started in China when a blue haired humanoid robot, attempting to entertain a crowd, did a martial arts kick that landed by mistake on the head of a watching child.