Good morning. It’s Wednesday, January 7. We’re covering Intel’s new chips for gaming handhelds, California’s AI toy ban, NVIDIA’s Rubin Platform, and more. First time reading? Join a community of 600k+ people staying ahead of what actually matters in tech. Sign up here.

🎮 Intel Builds Custom Chips For Gaming Handhelds
Intel announced at CES 2026 that it is developing custom chips for handheld gaming PCs. The Panther Lake-based Arc B390 iGPU delivers up to 77% faster gaming performance than its predecessor. Intel also plans handheld-only Core G3 CPUs tuned for graphics. Partnerships with MSI and Acer signal a serious push to challenge AMD. More devices are expected to ship in 2026.

💊 AI Prescribes Medications In Utah Pilot
Utah has launched a first-in-the-nation pilot allowing AI to autonomously renew certain prescriptions without a doctor involved. The program, run with startup Doctronic, covers 190 common medications for chronic conditions and charges $4 per refill. Supporters say it cuts costs and improves access, while medical groups warn of safety and oversight risks.

🔲 AMD Unveils New AI Chips At CES
AMD announced new Ryzen AI 400 and PRO 400 processors at CES 2026, delivering up to 60 TOPS of on-device AI performance. The lineup targets Copilot+ PCs, gaming systems, and enterprise laptops launching in 2026. AMD also introduced Ryzen AI Max+ chips and its first AI developer mini-PC, Ryzen AI Halo. New ROCm 7.2 software expands AI support across Windows and Linux.

🚫 California Moves To Ban AI Toys
A California lawmaker introduced a bill proposing a four-year ban on AI chatbot–enabled toys for children under 18. The measure aims to give regulators time to create safety rules amid concerns about harmful interactions. It follows lawsuits and reports of chatbots exposing kids to inappropriate content. The bill would pause sales while allowing child-safety laws to advance.

Quick test. One image. Two possibilities. Let’s see if you can still tell what’s real. Is this image real or fake? Answer at the bottom! 👇

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella argued in a January 2026 blog post that AI should be viewed as a productivity aid—“bicycles for the mind”—rather than disposable “slop” or a human replacement. He called for reframing AI as scaffolding for human potential, even as much AI marketing still emphasizes labor replacement to justify pricing.

The comments land amid warnings from industry leaders about job losses, but emerging data suggests AI more often augments work than replaces it. Studies cited show limited task offloading today, with some AI-exposed occupations seeing stronger job growth and wage gains. The tension underscores a gap between rhetoric, labor-market evidence, and how companies—including Microsoft—have explained recent layoffs. → Read the full article here.

At CES 2026 in Las Vegas, NVIDIA outlined its next-generation AI data center platform, Vera Rubin, and said the first products will ship in the second half of 2026. CEO Jensen Huang positioned the system as a response to increasingly complex AI models that require more than raw compute power, emphasizing advances in storage, memory, and “context management.”

NVIDIA claims its upcoming Vera Rubin NVL72 server rack will deliver unprecedented bandwidth as AI shifts from simple chatbots to multi-step “agent” systems. The announcement comes as NVIDIA faces both soaring demand for its chips and growing scrutiny over whether AI infrastructure spending is outpacing real-world returns. Major cloud providers and AI labs are expected to be early adopters. → Read the full article here.

Hangzhou, often called China’s Silicon Valley, is emerging as a dual-track AI hub—home to both frontier research in robotics and chips and a grassroots scene building consumer apps like AI pets and fortune-telling tools. As Beijing prioritizes “embodied intelligence” in its next Five-Year Plan, startups and tech giants are racing to develop physical AI systems that interact with the real world, from robots to autonomous vehicles.

Companies such as Manycore, Unitree, and Deep Robotics are preparing public listings amid intense domestic competition. The city’s ecosystem reflects a broader Chinese strategy: favor practical applications, open-source models, and cost advantages—especially cheaper energy—to stay globally competitive. → Read the full article here.

At CES 2026, Razer unveiled a holographic version of its AI gaming assistant, Project Ava, transforming the chatbot into a desk-mounted avatar. The device projects customizable characters—including a waifu-style option—and uses an onboard camera to observe both gameplay and the user.

Razer says the system expands Ava’s role beyond game tips to broader assistant tasks, such as recommendations and basic productivity help. The hologram runs on xAI’s Grok model and is slated for a potential commercial release in the second half of 2026. Pricing is unannounced, though Razer is accepting $20 refundable deposits. → Read the full article here.

⚛️ Fusion Reactor Hits Milestone: Commonwealth Fusion Systems installed the first magnet in its Sparc reactor and teamed with NVIDIA on a digital twin, moving closer to demonstrating net-energy fusion.

🥇 Gemini Challenges ChatGPT’s Lead: Article claims Google’s Gemini is winning the AI race through deep integration across its services, making AI ambient rather than app-based.

🤔 AI Doom Timeline Slips: Former OpenAI researcher Daniel Kokotajlo says progress toward autonomous coding is slower than expected, pushing his earlier AGI forecasts into the 2030s.

💸 Memory Stocks Ride AI Boom: Micron, Sandisk, Western Digital, and Seagate jumped again as AI data centers drive memory shortages, prompting analysts to call it a multiyear supercycle.

💰 xAI Raises $20B Series E: Elon Musk’s xAI closed a $20B Series E to expand Grok and data centers, even as multiple countries investigate alleged failures to block harmful AI-generated content.

The Image Was Real. Tune in next Tuesday for another Real or AI test.

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Matt, Nick & the Forward Future Team

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