AI News Of The Week (13th March, 2026)
TLDR: Key AI Developments This Week
NVIDIA revealed NemoClaw, an open-source enterprise AI agent platform. xAI officially released Grok 4.20 with custom agents and rapid learning. Apple launched iOS 26.4 public beta featuring Gemini-powered Siri capabilities. Google added Computer Use tools to Gemini 3.1 APIs. OpenAI retired GPT-5.1 models. Anthropic opened free tier access to all features, and Microsoft expanded Copilot Cowork rollout.
NVIDIA Reveals NemoClaw: An Open-Source Enterprise AI Agent Platform
On March 9-10, Wired first reported that NVIDIA is preparing to launch NemoClaw, an open-source platform for enterprise AI agents, ahead of its annual GTC developer conference the following week. The chipmaker has been pitching NemoClaw to major tech companies including Salesforce, Cisco, Google, Adobe, and CrowdStrike, though no partnerships have been formally confirmed. Unlike consumer-facing agent tools, NemoClaw is engineered specifically for enterprise security and privacy — it includes multi-layer security safeguards and works regardless of whether a company runs NVIDIA chips, widening its potential adoption. The move positions NVIDIA as a serious software player alongside its hardware dominance, and builds on its existing NeMo and NIM infrastructure ecosystems. CEO Jensen Huang is expected to make NemoClaw one of the headline announcements at GTC, with his keynote scheduled for March 16.
Grok 4.20 Officially Launches with Custom Agents and Rapid Learning Architecture
xAI formally announced Grok 4.20 on March 9, completing its transition from the February 17 public beta to a full product release. The defining architectural shift is a "rapid learning" system that updates the model's capabilities weekly based on real-world usage — a first for any Grok release. Elon Musk introduced Custom AI Agents on March 8, letting users configure up to four distinct agents, each with its own personality and area of focus, running in parallel collaboration. Grok 4.20 also delivers improved engineering reasoning and medical document analysis via photo upload. The model is available now on iOS, Android, and web, accessible via a SuperGrok subscription ($30/month) or X Premium+, by manually selecting "Grok 4.2" from the model menu.
Apple Drops iOS 26.4 Public Beta with First Gemini-Powered Siri Features
Apple released the first public beta of iOS 26.4 this week, marking the long-awaited debut of Gemini-powered Siri features for non-developer testers — nearly two years after the capabilities were first announced at WWDC 2024. The update introduces on-screen awareness, allowing Siri to read and reference content currently displayed on the device, enabling workflows like adding a visible restaurant to a calendar event without copy-pasting. Multi-step task chains allow a single natural language request to trigger up to 10 sequential cross-app actions. Google's Gemini handles the reasoning on Apple's Private Cloud Compute servers, keeping data isolated from Google's infrastructure. The full public release is expected in late March or early April, with more advanced chatbot-style Siri features reserved for iOS 27 in September.
Google Adds Computer Use Tool to Gemini 3.1 Flash and 3.1 Pro Preview APIs
Google's Gemini API changelog confirms that Computer Use tool support launched for both gemini-3-flash-preview and gemini-3-pro-preview models this week, following the March 9 shutdown of the original Gemini 3 Pro Preview. The Computer Use tool lets developers build agents that operate browsers via keyboard and mouse actions — clicking, typing, navigating, and filling forms — using screenshots as visual context. Unlike the earlier Gemini 2.5 Computer Use model (a separate specialized model), Gemini 3.1 Flash has Computer Use built in natively with no separate model required. The tool is available via the Gemini API in Google AI Studio and Vertex AI, and Google has published a reference implementation using Playwright and Browserbase.
OpenAI Retires All GPT-5.1 Models from ChatGPT
As of March 11, OpenAI retired GPT-5.1 Instant, GPT-5.1 Thinking, and GPT-5.1 Pro from ChatGPT, with existing conversations automatically falling back to their GPT-5.3 or 5.4 counterparts. The retirement completes a rapid model lifecycle: GPT-5.1 had shipped in November 2025 and within four months all three of its variants were superseded. OpenAI also updated Microsoft app scopes this week, requiring Entra admins to review and approve new permissions for Outlook Calendar, Outlook Email, SharePoint, and Teams before new users can connect — new write actions remain disabled by default until admins explicitly enable them in workspace settings.
Anthropic Opens Claude Free Tier to All Features as Claude Tops App Store in 50+ Countries
Building on the momentum from its Pentagon stand-off, Anthropic this week extended free-tier access to features previously limited to paid plans — including file creation, connector integrations, skills, and memory from chat history. The move follows Anthropic's March 2 launch of the ChatGPT memory import tool, which lets users migrate conversation context from rival chatbots in a single copy-paste. Claude free active users have grown more than 60% and daily signups have quadrupled since January, Anthropic said. Claude has now hit number one on the App Store free charts in more than 50 countries, displacing ChatGPT from its long-held top spot. Anthropic also confirmed that its $25/$150 per user Team plan now includes bundled access to Claude Code and Cowork with no separate purchase required.
Microsoft Copilot Cowork Begins Broad Enterprise Rollout Powered by Claude
Microsoft began the broad enterprise rollout of Copilot Cowork this week, the outcome-focused AI agent that lets users describe a desired result and have it executed across Outlook, Teams, and Excel with human approval gating. Anthropic's Claude powers the reasoning engine, and Cowork accesses Microsoft 365 apps natively without requiring users to switch surfaces. Early access had been limited since January; this week's expansion opens the product to all Microsoft 365 Business and Enterprise customers in the US and UK. The launch adds another pressure point to enterprise SaaS incumbents: ServiceNow, Salesforce, and Intuit shares have each declined more than 20% since Cowork was first announced, as investors price in AI-driven workflow substitution across standard office functions.
