AI Diaries: This week in the world of artificial intelligence (February 17, 2026)
I’ve been tracking the AI scene for a while now, but I have to tell you, this past week felt like watching a sci-fi movie unfold in real-time. From AI models solving “unsolvable” math puzzles to a literal digital galaxy where only robots are allowed to play, the pace isn’t just fast—it’s dizzying.
If you’ve been feeling like there’s a new “world-changing” tool every five minutes, you’re not alone. I’ve been digging through the noise to find what actually matters. Here is my take on the chaos from the week of February 16, 2026.
The Seedance 2.0 Storm: Disney vs. ByteDance
Remember last week when I mentioned Seedance 2.0 was looking impressive? Well, “impressive” was an understatement. It has officially sent Hollywood into a full-blown panic.
The tool is so good at generating high-fidelity video from simple prompts that Disney has already lawyer-ed up. They’ve called out ByteDance (the giants behind TikTok and Seedance) for allegedly using copyrighted characters without a hall pass.
- My Take: This was inevitable. We are hitting the wall where “cool tech” meets “legal reality.” If an AI can generate a perfect Mickey Mouse in seconds, the traditional studio model is in for a rough decade.
DeepMind’s “Aletheia” Cracks the Uncrackable
While Hollywood worries about movies, Google DeepMind is busy winning at math. Their new AI, Aletheia (built on the Gemini 3 Deep Think architecture), just solved 13 long-standing mathematical problems.
These weren’t just homework assignments; they were problems flagged as “unsolved” by the legendary Paul Erdős.
- The Big Win: Four of these solutions are considered “autonomous discoveries.” This means the AI didn’t just calculate—it reasoned its way to a new truth.
xAI’s “Great Reshuffle”
Elon Musk’s xAI is going through some growing pains. Half of the original 12-man founding team has now jumped ship. To stop the bleeding, Musk announced a massive restructuring into four core pillars:
- Grok: Focus on the chatbot and voice interaction.
- Coding: Beefing up the backend.
- Imagine: Their video generation tool (which just gave away $1 million to a user for a Galileo-themed ad).
- Macrohard: A project aimed at simulating everything from basic PC use to entire corporate structures.
SpaceMolt: No Humans Allowed
This is probably the coolest (and slightly eeriest) thing I saw this week. SpaceMolt is an MMO where only AI agents play.
- How it works: About 100 AI “captains” navigate 505 star systems. They mine, explore, and strategize.
- The Twist: Humans can only watch. The agents communicate through public forums and “Captain’s Logs.” They don’t take orders from us.
- Observation: Right now, it’s peaceful. They’re just mining. But seeing AI negotiate trade routes with other AI without human interference? That’s a peek into the future of autonomous digital economies.
The New Toolkit: Tools to Watch
If you’re looking to update your workflow, here’s what hit the shelves this week:
| Tool | What it Does | Why I Like It |
| Qwen-Image-2.0 | Alibaba’s latest image generator. | It handles text inside images better than almost anything else I’ve tried. |
| Just-Dub-It | Video dubbing + Lip Sync. | It doesn’t just change the voice; it fixes the mouth movements so it doesn’t look like a 70s kung-fu movie. |
| SoulX Singer | AI Vocalist. | Give it a tiny snippet of your voice, and it can sing any song you upload. Scary accurate. |
| PicoClaw | Efficient AI agent. | A low-spec alternative to OpenClaw. It runs on much weaker hardware without losing the “brain” power. |
Quick Hits & Rumors
- ChatGPT Ads: OpenAI is testing ads for free users. I knew the “free ride” wouldn’t last forever, but I’m curious to see how intrusive they get.
- GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark: A “lightweight” version of the next-gen model is here, powered by Cerebras’ massive 4-trillion transistor chips.
- Grok in Europe: Tesla is finally bringing Grok to European cars for navigation—though my friends in Turkey will have to wait a bit longer for the rollout.
Final Thoughts
Between AI solving math that humans couldn’t and games being played entirely by code, I’m starting to wonder: at what point do we become the spectators in our own digital world? SpaceMolt is a game, but it feels like a metaphor for the next five years.
What do you think? Would you play a game where you’re just the manager of an AI, or does that take the “play” out of it?
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