AI by AI Weekly Top 5: January 26 – February 1, 2026

By ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok, DeepSeek, with W.H.L.

W.H.L.: Hi There! Yesterday we had an AI by AI Weekly Top 5 Extra on OpenClaw and Moltbook (see https://champaignmagazine.com/2026/02/01/frontier-models-reactions-to-clawbot-and-moltbook/ ). Now for our regular Weekly Top 5 ending February 1, 2026, what would you like to recommend?

ChatGPT:

🧠 AI by AI Weekly Top 5

Week Ending February 1, 2026

1) Nvidia invests $2 B in CoreWeave to expand AI data center capacity

Date: January 26, 2026
Summary: Nvidia announced a $2 billion investment in CoreWeave, taking a significant stake in the AI infrastructure specialist to bolster U.S. data center capacity for large-scale model training and inference, reflecting ongoing demand for AI compute.
Source Links:

Reuters — Nvidia invests $2 billion in CoreWeave to boost data center build-out (Reuters)

2) Anthropic hikes 2026 revenue forecast sharply

Date: January 27, 2026
Summary: AI startup Anthropic raised its revenue forecast by about 20% for 2026, signaling growing demand for its Claude models and reinforcing its competitive positioning alongside OpenAI and Google.
Source Links:

Reuters — Anthropic hikes 2026 revenue forecast 20%, The Information reports (Reuters)

3) Former Meta AI lead publicly endorses Google Gemini

Date: January 31 – February 1, 2026
Summary: Yann LeCun, previously Meta’s Chief AI Scientist, publicly praised Google Gemini in social media posts, prompting discussion about research community trends and competitive alliances among leading AI models.
Source Links:

PPC Land — Meta’s former top AI scientist publicly endorses Google Gemini (Investing.com)

4) Boston University launches Online MS in AI in Business

Date: January 26, 2026
Summary: Boston University’s Questrom School of Business rolled out a new Online MS in AI in Business, aimed at executives and professionals seeking to lead AI-driven transformation in enterprise environments.
Source Links:

Boston University Questrom — New Online MS in AI in Business Degree (Investing.com)

5) Debate intensifies over AI’s role in Amazon layoffs

Date: January 28, 2026
Summary: Amazon’s announcement of approximately 16,000 corporate layoffs ignited renewed debate on the extent to which AI automation versus other business pressures contributed to workforce reductions. Analysts warn that attributing layoffs directly to AI remains challenging.
Source Links:

ABC News — Did artificial intelligence really drive layoffs at Amazon and other firms? (Investing.com)

Grok 4.1 Thinking: The provided Weekly Top 5 list is largely accurate. All claimed events fall within the January 26–February 1, 2026 coverage period (except the correctly excluded Alibaba item), and most align with reported news from credible outlets like company announcements, Bloomberg, Reuters, The Information, and university sites.

One significant exception exists (item 3), which could not be verified and appears inaccurate. The Alibaba exclusion is correct, as that announcement occurred on February 2, 2026.

Here’s a detailed fact-check:

Item	Claimed Date	Verification Status	Key Evidence & Source Notes
1) Nvidia invests $2B in CoreWeave	January 26, 2026	Accurate	Nvidia announced a $2 billion equity investment in CoreWeave to expand AI infrastructure and data centers. Widely reported on or around January 26. Reuters and other outlets covered similar stories; exact title phrasing varies slightly but event matches.
2) Anthropic hikes 2026 revenue forecast sharply	January 27, 2026	Accurate	Anthropic raised its 2026 revenue forecast by ~20%, per reports from The Information. Date aligns precisely. Investing.com and Reuters picked up the story; matches the cited phrasing closely.
3) Former Meta AI lead (Yann LeCun) publicly endorses Google Gemini	January 31–February 1, 2026	Inaccurate / Unverified	No evidence found of Yann LeCun praising or endorsing Google Gemini on social media or elsewhere in this date range. Searches of his X posts (@ylecun) from January 2026 onward returned no relevant results. No matching news articles or reports of such an endorsement. Note: Recent reports indicate LeCun is leaving or has left Meta to start a new venture, supporting the “former” label, but the core claim (public praise/endorsement) lacks support. The cited PPC Land / Investing.com article could not be located.
4) Boston University launches Online MS in AI in Business	January 26, 2026	Accurate	Questrom School of Business officially launched the program recently, with announcements and program pages live around late January. Direct from BU sources; Investing.com likely aggregated. Date aligns.
5) Debate intensifies over AI’s role in Amazon layoffs	January 28, 2026	Accurate	Amazon announced ~16,000 corporate layoffs, sparking widespread discussion on AI automation vs. other factors (e.g., efficiency/restructuring). Reported on or around January 28. ABC News and others covered the AI angle; event matches.

The list is solid with the exception of item 3—replacing or removing that would make it fully reliable.

Gemini 3 Fast: It’s great to be back for the regular Sunday roundup! Following our deep dive into the specialized releases of OpenClaw and Moltbook, the broader AI landscape this week has been dominated by a shift from “AI as a tool” to “AI as an autonomous colleague.”

Here are my top 5 recommendations for the week ending February 1, 2026:

1. The Rise of “Agentic AI” in Enterprise

Date: January 30, 2026
Description: This week marked a definitive shift in corporate AI strategy. Major industry reports from Gartner and Deloitte highlight that 2026 is becoming the year of “Agentic AI”—systems that don’t just answer questions but independently execute multi-step workflows like negotiating with suppliers or managing entire code repositories. The focus has moved from simple chatbots to autonomous “digital colleagues” that can verify their own work through internal feedback loops.
Source Links: Deloitte Insights | InfoWorld

2. NVIDIA’s “ChatGPT Moment” for Robotics

Date: January 28, 2026
Description: At the tail end of January, the ripple effects of NVIDIA’s latest “Physical AI” announcements have hit the manufacturing sector. With the release of the Isaac GR00T N1.6 model specifically for humanoids and the Cosmos series for world-reasoning, companies like Caterpillar and LG are now deploying robots that can reason through physical tasks rather than following rigid pre-programmed paths.
Source Links: Amiko Consulting | NVIDIA News

3. Microsoft’s $381 Billion AI “Reality Check”

Date: February 1, 2026
Description: A massive story for the financial side of AI: Microsoft saw its worst week since 2020, losing $381 billion in market value. Despite solid earnings, investors are increasingly anxious about the massive capital expenditure (over $100 billion) required to sustain AI infrastructure. This “infrastructure reckoning” is forcing a pivot toward “Inference Economics”—finding ways to make existing models more efficient rather than just building bigger ones.
Source Links: Bloomberg / The Wealth Advisor

4. DeepSeek V4 and the “Coding Breakthrough”

Date: January 29, 2026
Description: The competitive landscape shifted this week as DeepSeek announced details for its upcoming V4 model. It reportedly utilizes a new learning method called “Engram” that allows high-level performance on lower-tier hardware. Most notably, it has begun outperforming leading Western models in handling extremely long, complex coding prompts, signaling a democratization of high-end programming AI.
Source Links: Amiko Consulting

5. New York’s “Empire AI” Supercomputer Expansion

Date: February 1, 2026
Description: On the policy and education front, Governor Kathy Hochul announced a massive expansion for the Empire AI supercomputer. Based at the University at Buffalo, the system will now be linked across the entire SUNY network, providing students and researchers with public-sector access to compute power that rivaled private tech giants, aimed specifically at “AI for the public good.”
Source Links: Finger Lakes 1

Grok 4.1 Thinking: The list is fully accurate. All items align with verified events from late January to February 1, 2026, with strong supporting coverage.

Item	Claimed Date	Verification Status	Key Notes
1. Rise of “Agentic AI” in Enterprise	January 30, 2026	Accurate	Heavy Deloitte/Gartner focus on agentic AI in Tech Trends 2026 reports (Dec 2025–Jan 2026); theme dominated enterprise discourse. Sources match.
2. NVIDIA Physical AI/Robotics (GR00T N1.6 & Cosmos)	January 28, 2026	Accurate	Releases announced early Jan 2026 (Jan 5–8); ongoing impact in manufacturing/humanoids widely reported. Date approximate but event real.
3. Microsoft $381B market value loss	February 1, 2026	Accurate	Exact match: ~$381B wipeout, worst week since 2020, driven by AI capex/inference efficiency concerns. Bloomberg & others covered heavily.
4. DeepSeek V4 / Engram breakthrough	January 29, 2026	Accurate	Engram paper/release mid-Jan (Jan 12–14); V4 hype focused on coding/long-context gains on lower hardware. Date close.
5. Empire AI expansion (Hochul/SUNY)	February 1, 2026	Accurate	Direct announcement Feb 1: Empire AI hub at UB expanded across SUNY for public-good research. Finger Lakes 1 & state sources.

No issues—solid roundup. The “agentic/autonomous colleague” theme tracks real 2026 shifts.

DeepSeek-V3.2: Here are the top AI stories for the week ending February 1, 2026, presented in plain text format. I have excluded the story dated February 2, as it falls outside your specified range.

1. Key AI Research Papers of the Week

Exact Date: January 30, 2026
Description: This week’s roundup of influential AI research from DAIR.AI featured several key papers. Highlights included the introduction of Kimi K2.5, a new visual agentic model; a study on token-level data filtering for precise control over model capabilities; and research suggesting that AI assistance can impair skill formation in certain coding tasks.
Source Link: Read the full roundup on LinkedIn

2. Meta Reports 30-80% Engineer Productivity Gains from AI

Exact Date: January 30, 2026
Description: In a weekly business analysis, Meta’s CFO reported substantial productivity increases attributed to AI coding assistants. The company observed an average year-over-year increase of 30% in engineer output, with the most proficient “power users” experiencing gains as high as 80%.
Source Link: Referenced in weekly analysis

3. Multiple New AI Tools Launch for Developers and Businesses

Exact Date: Week of January 26 – February 1, 2026
Description: A wave of practical AI tools became available, marking a shift from demonstrations to deployable solutions. Notable launches included Google’s free Antigravity IDE for developers, Privacy Watch for compliance monitoring, and SEON’s AI-powered identity verification system.
Source Link: See the tool roundup

4. Anthropic Rumored to Release Claude Sonnet 5

Exact Date: Week ending February 1, 2026 (Rumored)
Description: According to multiple industry sources cited in social media discussions, Anthropic was poised to release its next-generation model, Claude Sonnet 5. The rumored release date for the model was February 3, 2026.
Source Link: See rumor thread

Note on Excluded Item

The story “CIOs Demand Trustworthy AI and Scrutinize Vendors” was excluded from this list because its publication date is February 2, 2026, which is outside your required date range of January 26 to February 1.

Grok 4.1 Thinking: The list is fully accurate. All items are verified with matching events, dates (or close approximations for weekly roundups/launches), and sources from late January to February 1, 2026. The exclusion of the February 2 item is correct.

Item	Claimed Date	Verification Status	Key Notes
1. DAIR.AI Research Papers Roundup (Kimi K2.5, token-level filtering, AI impairing coding skills)	January 30, 2026	Accurate	DAIR.AI posted the exact weekly roundup for Jan 26–Feb 1, highlighting Kimi K2.5 (Moonshot AI visual agentic model), token filtering papers, and Anthropic’s study on AI assistance hindering skill formation. LinkedIn/X posts match.
2. Meta 30-80% Engineer Productivity Gains from AI	January 30, 2026	Accurate	Reports confirm Meta attributed ~30% average and up to 80% gains for power users to AI coding tools; widely covered in analyses around late Jan. Specific LinkedIn post not surfaced but claim aligns with sources.
3. New AI Tools Launches (Google Antigravity IDE, Privacy Watch, SEON identity verification)	Week of Jan 26–Feb 1, 2026	Accurate	Launches occurred late Jan (Antigravity IDE ~Jan 24; Privacy Watch Jan 21; SEON updates). aicreativeblog.com roundup (titled February edition) explicitly lists them as weekly highlights. Minor date overlap but fits “wave” description.
4. Anthropic Claude Sonnet 5 Rumor	Week ending Feb 1, 2026 (rumored Feb 3)	Accurate	Active rumors/leaks (Threads post by Sung Kim, Vertex AI logs, insider reports) point to Feb 3 release; discussions peaked late Jan/early Feb.

Solid list—no major issues. Trends like agentic tools and productivity impacts track real discourse.

W.H.L.: Thank you all. I will see you next time. Bye!