Ads have officially arrived, at least in my ChatGPT account. They're larger than expected, and often not relevant to the conversation.
https://www.pcmag.com/news/im-seeing-ads-in-chatgpt-openai-broke-its-promise-what-they-look-like
According to proprietary data prepared for ADWEEK by the research firm NewtonX, most organizations report little to no AI-driven headcount reduction. At the same time, a majority of marketers say their day-to-day responsibilities have already shifted, with expectations rising around speed, complexity, and output.
https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/ai-making-marketing-jobs-harder/
Unity is taking a bold step in the push for AI-powered game creation. During a recent earnings call, CEO Matthew Bromberg announced that an upgraded Unity AI will enter beta at the Game Developers Conference in March, promising to let developers generate full casual games from a simple text prompt.
https://www.creativebloq.com/3d/video-game-design/unity-ai-will-let-you-build-entire-games-with-just-words
Meta has announced a major update for its immersive virtual world, Horizon Worlds, on Thursday that will see it leave the metaverse behind. The tech giant said it’s shifting focus for Horizon Worlds to be “almost exclusively mobile” and that it’s “explicitly separating” its Quest VR platform from the virtual world.
https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/20/meta-metaverse-leaves-vr-horizon-worlds-mobile/
With the new tool, you can adjust the site’s layout, its style, or other patterns by issuing commands to the AI assistant, and then see the changes reflected on the site as you work. These instructions don’t have to be precisely tailored prompts, either, the company notes. Instead, you can use more general language, like “make this section feel more modern or spacious,” “change my site’s colors to be brighter and bolder,” or “give me more font options that feel clean and professional.”
https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/17/wordpress-com-adds-an-ai-assistant-that-can-edit-adjust-styles-create-images-and-more/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon
Figma is partnering with Anthropic and launching a feature called “Code to Canvas” that converts code generated in artificial intelligence tools like Claude Code into fully editable designs inside Figma. The move reflects a broader bet that agentic coding tools like Claude Code haven’t eliminated the need for design, and made it more essential. But the risk is that Figma is building a better on-ramp to a highway it no longer controls.
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/17/figma-anthropic-ai-code-designs.html
Handwriting is becoming a lost skill for many Gen Xers like me (as a former news hack. I can scrawl a shopping list in shorthand). But for Younger generations, even typing is in decline, with studies having shown a decline in touch-typing proficiency due to the shift towards touchscreen devices, voice-controlled interfaces and AI. One indie dev was concerned enough to start making a game to help his kids learn to type. It quickly took on a life of its own (and may have created a genre of its own too).
https://www.creativebloq.com/3d/video-game-design/explosive-new-game-aims-to-teach-the-ipad-generation-to-type