Meta has obtained the humanoid robotics startup Assured Robot Intelligence (ARI) for an undisclosed amount, according to the social media behemoth.

“We have acquired Assured Robot Intelligence, a pioneering company focused on robotic intelligence that aims to empower robots to comprehend, forecast, and adapt to human actions in intricate and dynamic settings,” a Meta representative informed TechCrunch in a message.

The ARI team, inclusive of its co-founders, will integrate into Meta’s AI division, the Superintelligence Labs research sector. ARI secured an undisclosed seed funding from AI investment firm AIX Ventures.

The startup was developing foundational models for humanoid robots to carry out various physical tasks, including household duties. Co-founder Xiaolong Wang was formerly a researcher at Nvidia and an associate professor at UC San Diego, boasting an array of esteemed accolades. Co-founder Lerrel Pinto, who previously taught at NYU and co-founded the kid-sized humanoid venture Fauna Robotics before it was acquired by Amazon last month, has also received numerous prestigious honors.

ARI will support Meta’s humanoid objectives. “This team, led by Lerrel Pinto and Xiaolong Wang, will contribute significant expertise in how we can shape our models and advance capabilities for robot control and self-learning to whole-body humanoid functionality.”

Meta researchers have dedicated years to developing humanoid robotics technology. A leaked memo from the previous year outlined Meta’s goals to create such a robot, encompassing AI models and hardware targeted at consumers.

Even if Meta never introduces a consumer humanoid product, numerous AI specialists believe that the journey to artificial general intelligence (AGI) — the hypothetical stage at which AI achieves or exceeds human-level intelligence in all aspects — will necessitate training AI models in physical environments, where robots learn through direct interaction rather than solely through data.

The transactions involving ARI and Fauna illustrate a wider industry rush — one where projections vary significantly, from Goldman Sachs’ forecast of $38 billion by 2035 to Morgan Stanley’s estimation of $5 trillion by 2050 — a disparity that highlights both the vast possibilities and the unpredictability surrounding technology that is still establishing itself.

Following agreements with Google, SpaceX, and OpenAI, the U.S. Defense Department announced on Friday that it has reached agreements with Nvidia, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, and Reflection AI, enabling it to utilize their AI technologies and models on its classified networks for “lawful operational use.”

“These partnerships expedite the transition to position the United States military as an AI-first combat force and will enhance our warfighters’ capacity to sustain decision superiority across all warfare domains,” the statement states.

These agreements emerge as the U.S. Department of Defense has hastened its diversification of AI suppliers following its controversial conflict with Anthropic regarding the usage terms of its AI models. The Pentagon sought unrestricted access to Anthropic’s AI resources, while the AI lab maintained that restrictions were necessary to prevent Anthropic’s technology from being employed for domestic mass surveillance and autonomous weaponry.

Currently, the two parties are engaged in legal battles, although Anthropic successfully obtained an injunction in March against the Pentagon’s attempt to label the company as a “supply-chain risk.”

“The Department will persist in developing an architecture that avoids AI vendor lock-in and guarantees long-term adaptability for the Joint Force,” the statement adds. “Access to a varied range of AI capabilities from the robust American technology stack will provide warfighters with the tools necessary to operate confidently and protect the nation against any threats.”

The DOD indicated that the companies’ AI hardware and models will be utilized in Impact Level 6 (IL6) and Impact Level 7 (IL7) settings to “facilitate data synthesis, enhance situational awareness, and support warfighter decision-making.” IL6 and IL7 represent high-security classifications for data and information systems identified as critical to national security, requiring stringent physical protections, access controls, and audits.

The Pentagon reported that over 1.3 million DOD personnel have utilized its secure enterprise platform for generative AI, GenAI.mil, which offers access to large language models (LLMs) and other AI tools within government-sanctioned cloud environments. It is primarily designed to assist with non-classified activities such as research, document preparation, and data analysis. 

Activists have taken credit for disrupting the publicly accessible infrastructure of the widely-used Linux operating system distribution Ubuntu, along with Canonical, the firm that develops and maintains the platform. The assault commenced on Thursday, impacting services essential for Ubuntu users.

“Canonical’s online framework is experiencing a prolonged, international attack and we are striving to resolve the situation. We will share further updates through our official channels as soon as feasible,” the company stated on its website. 

The activists are thought to have executed a distributed denial-of-service, or DDoS, which is a basic yet frequently effective strategy of bombarding a target with excessive traffic until it becomes overwhelmed or crashes. 

Ubuntu developers have been talking about the incident on an unofficial Ubuntu community forum, asserting that the attack impacts Ubuntu’s security API, as well as multiple Ubuntu and Canonical websites. Based on a discussion on a threat intelligence forum, the DDoS assault has also rendered it impossible for users to update or install Ubuntu. TechCrunch confirmed that updates failed to install on a test device operating Ubuntu. 

At the time of this writing, the outage has persisted for approximately 20 hours.

When reached for comment, Canonical representative Lelanie de Roubaix reiterated the information presented on the company’s website.

Activists identifying themselves as The Islamic Cyber Resistance in Iraq 313 Team asserted on their Telegram channel that they are responsible for the DDoS attack.

The attackers claimed to be utilizing Beamed, a DDoS-for-hire platform. Such services, sometimes referred to as booters or stressers, enable anyone to pay for launching DDoS assaults, regardless of their technical expertise or the required infrastructure to inundate targets with fraudulent traffic. The DDoS-for-hire service in this situation purports to support attacks exceeding 3.5 Tbps, which is approximately half the bandwidth of a cyber assault that Cloudflare labeled last year the “largest DDoS attack ever documented.”

For years, agencies like the FBI and Europol have been engaged in a continuous effort to combat these services, dismantling and seizing domains, and occasionally apprehending those behind them.

This story was revised to incorporate Canonical’s response.

Following a barrage of feedback indicating the need for enhancements to its search functionality, Reddit has dedicated resources to its search engine over the past few years, incorporating AI features to assist users in locating desired content. It seems that this investment is finally yielding results: The business has experienced a 30% increase in weekly search utilization year-over-year, as reported by CEO Steve Huffman on Thursday.

Huffman emphasized that search has become a key contributor to both user acquisition and retention on the platform.

“In terms of search, we are witnessing impressive performance. Search DAUs, WAUs, and queries have significantly risen year-on-year. This is a strong factor for retention and DAUs. The search team is, honestly, I believe, doing an outstanding job. If you use Reddit Answers, you can observe better integration within the product,” he stated during the company’s quarterly results conference call.

Earlier this February, the platform began experimenting with product placements through AI-generated search results in the United States.

Huffman mentioned that approximately 40% of discussions on Reddit are of a commercial nature, and 84% of consumers feel more assured in their purchasing decisions after conducting research on Reddit.

The social platform concluded the quarter with over 493 million weekly active unique users (WAUq), marking a 23% rise from the same timeframe last year, along with about 126 million daily active unique users (DAUq), indicating a 17% increase compared to a year prior.

Reddit noted a 7% growth in U.S. visitors, reaching 53.5 million DAUqs, and 73.3 million DAUqs globally, resulting in a 26% increase. The company expressed its ambition to attain a billion daily users worldwide and 100 million daily users in the U.S.

In addition to search, the company noted that its machine translation capability, which now accommodates over 30 languages, has propelled notable user growth in recent quarters.

Reddit reported a revenue of $663 million in Q1 2026, surpassing Wall Street’s prediction of $609.8 million. The company also indicated that it only incurred $1 million in capital expenditures during the quarter.