Maligned - January 02, 2026

AI news without the BS

Here’s what actually matters in AI today. No fluff, no hype - just 5 developments worth your time.

Today’s Top 5 AI Developments

1. OpenAI’s Sora: Video Generation Just Leveled Up 🎬

OpenAI dropped Sora, a text-to-video model that generates astonishingly realistic and coherent video clips up to a minute long. This isn’t just another video generator; it shows a deep understanding of the physical world, offering unprecedented opportunities for creators, simulation, and a glimpse into future AI capabilities that blend reality with imagination.

Source: OpenAI Link: https://openai.com/sora

2. Gemini 1.5 Pro: Massive Context Window, Serious Multimodal Chops 🧠

Google’s Gemini 1.5 Pro hit the scene with an incredible 1 million token context window, letting it process entire codebases, long documents, or even full-length films in a single go. This massive jump in context, combined with native multimodal understanding, sets a new bar for how deeply LLMs can analyze and reason across different data types.

Source: Google DeepMind Link: https://blog.google/technology/ai/google-gemini-next-generation-ai-model-1-5-pro-advanced-features/

3. Figure 01 Humanoid Robot: Thinking and Interacting in Real-Time 🤖

The Figure 01 humanoid, now integrated with OpenAI’s multimodal models, is showcasing impressive real-time reasoning and natural language interaction. It’s not just performing tasks; it’s intelligently interpreting its environment, having fluid conversations, and performing complex object manipulation, indicating a tangible leap towards truly useful and adaptable embodied AI.

Source: Figure AI / OpenAI Link: https://www.figure.ai/blog/figure-01-openai

4. Vulcan: LLMs Are Now Optimizing Core Systems Better Than Humans ⚙️

Researchers unveiled Vulcan, a framework that uses LLMs to synthesize instance-optimal heuristics for critical system tasks like caching and memory management. This isn’t just about code; it’s about LLMs outperforming human-designed algorithms, delivering up to 69% better performance, paving the way for self-optimizing, more resilient IT infrastructure.

Source: arXiv Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.25065v1

5. SpaceTimePilot: Generative Rendering with Spatial & Temporal Control 🎥

SpaceTimePilot is a new video diffusion model that can disentangle and control space and time in generative rendering. This means you can independently alter camera viewpoints and motion sequences in dynamic scenes, allowing for precise re-rendering and exploration – a significant step towards fully editable and controllable AI-generated video and 3D content.

Source: arXiv Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.25075v1

That’s it for today. Stay aligned. 🎯

Maligned - AI news without the BS