Plotting a course for NASA’s Perseverance rover, 140 million miles away on Mars, is significantly more difficult than setting a driving route here on Earth, where we can punch an address into Google Maps and be on our way in seconds. The rover’s course is usually plotted by a team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab to account for terrain, obstacles and potential hazards, lest the rover tip over or get damaged. 

For the first time, NASA’s JPL used AI to plot a course for Perseverance, and it seems to have worked out. 

The two demonstrations, which took place on Dec. 8 and 10, were plotted by Anthropic’s Claude AI models and double-checked by JPL to ensure that the AI didn’t accidentally drive the rover into a ditch. Perseverance drove just under 1,500 feet across the two drives with no documented issues. 

NASA took a similar approach with plotting the waypoints as it would with human operators. Claude was fed the same satellite imagery and data from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter that JPL scientists would use, and then asked to plot waypoints that Perseverance could handle safely. 

The resulting path was slightly modified by NASA and then shipped to Perseverance, which then drove the path autonomously. 

«This demonstration shows how far our capabilities have advanced and broadens how we will explore other worlds,» said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman. «Autonomous technologies like this can help missions to operate more efficiently, respond to challenging terrain and increase science return as distance from Earth grows. It’s a strong example of teams applying new technology carefully and responsibly in real operations.»

You can watch the Dec. 10 drive on NASA’s YouTube channel, which has been condensed into a 52-second video.

A more efficient way to do it

While AI is largely known as a provider of slop, which has been blamed for rapidly degrading people’s internet experience, it can be useful in some scientific pursuits. It takes time to parse years of imagery and data, plot the Perseverance waypoints, and then execute them. 

Per NASA, waypoints are usually set no more than 330 feet apart, which means Perseverance is exploring the red planet one football field at a time. Take its epic climb out of the Jezero Crater in 2024. The journey took Perseverance 3.5 months and, all told, the rover climbed a total of 1,640 vertical feet. As of December 2025, the rover has driven a total of just 25 miles in roughly four years.

The goal, according to JPL space roboticist Vandi Verma, is to let Perseverance (and other Mars rovers) travel much farther while «minimizing operator workload.» 

Verma also notes that AI could be used to flag interesting features on the planet, saving the human science teams time by eliminating the need to manually check «huge volumes of rover images.»

«This demonstration shows how far our capabilities have advanced and broadens how we will explore other worlds,» said Isaacman. «Autonomous technologies like this can help missions to operate more efficiently, respond to challenging terrain and increase science return as distance from Earth grows. It’s a strong example of teams applying new technology carefully and responsibly in real operations.»

In the latest chapter of Anthropic’s «We’re not like the other guys» campaign, the AI company is pledging not to introduce advertisements into conversations with its chatbot, Claude. And it’s spending big on Super Bowl ads to make sure you know that fact.

Anthropic’s announcement takes a clear shot at competitor OpenAI. The ChatGPT-maker said a few weeks ago that it would begin testing ads in its products that will be «clearly marked» as sponsored posts. The company also said that ads wouldn’t be served around sensitive or regulated topics, like mental health and politics. 

The news was a stark reversal from previous statements — OpenAI CEO Sam Altman had called ads a «last resort» in 2024.  But it wasn’t entirely unexpected, given the general chaos of the AI industry’s financing.

For a long time, AI startups operated at a loss, spending billions of dollars from venture capitalists and others to build their chatbots without making money. OpenAI and many others now have a complex web of circular deals to keep the lights on, but newer advanced models require more compute, better chips and generally more maintenance and money to keep up. Anthropic certainly isn’t immune to these financial pressures; the company is the the process of securing a new $10 billion funding deal. 

That’s why AI companies are seeking new revenue streams. Hence the ads.

The concern with including ads in chatbots (beyond general irritation) is that it will push products at the expense of helping users. Anthropic wrote, «Users shouldn’t have to second-guess whether an AI is genuinely helping them or subtly steering the conversation towards something monetizable.» 

There’s also the risk that tech companies will prioritize advertising metrics and revenue over safety or user autonomy. OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Anthropic, for its part, has been very outspoken about the risks posed by AI technology, so it’s not surprising to hear the company weigh in on this issue. CEO Dario Amodei has spoken at length about the potential threat that AI systems may pose to humanity. 

But we have a wealth of examples to draw on — streaming services, smart TVs and now chatbots — where tech companies tried and eventually failed to resist the allure of advertiser money. We can never say never. Anthropic didn’t.

In late January, I was among a group of journalists from all around the world packed into the Blizzard Theater in Irvine, California, to watch the 40-minute Overwatch spotlight and hear from Blizzard execs about where the game was going next. I was not prepared for what we saw. Nor were the other journalists, who gasped, laughed and sometimes comically swore as the video showed us what’s coming next for the hero shooter franchise — which turns a decade old later this year.

What stirred up such audible reactions? An ongoing story that’s reflected directly in the game. New subroles with distinct passive abilities. Ten new heroes are coming this year, five of which are arriving next week. One of the later heroes is freaking Jetpack Cat, who was dreamed up in concept art and scrapped before the game was even released. And maybe most surprisingly, dropping the «2» so the game returns to simply being «Overwatch.» 

One of the first questions to that group of execs was about changing the title from Overwatch 2 back to Overwatch — why change, and what does it mean? Johanna Faries, president of Blizzard Entertainment, said the team thought it was the right time for Overwatch to turn the corner in a big way. «It sets us up for a much broader conversation on where the future of this universe [is] and where these characters are going to go.»

Blizzard’s big swing to revitalize Overwatch comes as the game approaches its 10th anniversary in May. Gaming is different in 2026, as newer live-service games can disappear in an instant, and even more tenured franchises like Call of Duty and Battlefield can struggle to retain players. Even Overwatch finally has a major, direct competitor in the team hero shooter genre in Marvel Rivals. So for Blizzard to step up and commit so boldly to this vision is a jolt, a burst of life into a game that has already spent the past couple of years solidifying and expanding its identity with new game modes and features like perks and map voting.

The announcements are both a celebration of the game’s history and a statement that the game is building a bolder future for itself.

Across my own nine-year history playing Overwatch, I’ve experienced its ups and downs, from the heights of queuing with a full six-stack and joining organized team play to the lows of the seemingly interminable double shield meta. And after talking to hero designers, narrative designers, systems designers, artists and voice actors, I left the Blizzard campus reflecting on the idea of playing Overwatch and following its larger story after all these new initiatives launch. One thought stuck with me.

This is how the game was always supposed to feel. 

The emotion of a new cinematic driving the story of Overwatch forward, of puzzling over 10 hero silhouettes and learning that five of them would be ready to play almost immediately… it kindled the same kind of anticipation I had in the movie theater where I first awed over an early Overwatch trailer.

Best of all, fans won’t have to wait for this new era of Overwatch, as its fittingly rebadged Season 1 is launching next week with five heroes up-front and another new hero roughly every other month in each new season. We’ll get two new maps later in the year, alongside the return of postmatch accolades, which updated the old voting cards that let you show some love to players on either team who performed particularly well in a match. 

I got an early look at the journey awaiting Overwatch fans this year during my time at Blizzard. And while I have some lingering questions about how certain elements will play out, here’s why I’m more excited about the game than I’ve ever been.

Overwatch embraces storytelling directly in the game

The world of Overwatch has always felt vibrant and pulsing with lore, but the game has struggled to tell a story outside of an impressionistic narrative you could vaguely piece together between cinematics, comics and occasional in-game events.

Season 1 promises to change that by kicking off the year-long Reign of Talon storyline, beginning with a cinematic that shows major upheaval in the villainous organization and longtime antagonist to Overwatch. The rest of that story will play out over the course of the year, through traditional avenues like hero trailers, short stories and comics, as well as more immersive methods like new voice lines and map changes that reflect story events. 

The Overwatch Spotlight video includes a clip of Talon aircraft assaulting Overwatch’s Gibraltar base, home of operations for genius ape hero Winston. In the media playtest, I fought across a Watchpoint: Gibraltar map that showed the damage of that attack. The bridge outside the starting attacker spawn was partially collapsed, and a flaming beam had crashed down on the airship in the hangar. These map changes breathe life into the larger narrative of a new, more aggressive Talon and make sure players see the consequences of these story beats.

In addition to map changes that illustrate the ongoing story, Overwatch’s narrative and audio designers said that character interactions will also change to reflect the story’s progression, noting an «outrageous amount» of voice lines being added to the game.

Collectively, these changes help bridge the gameplay with the wider world of conflicts and characters that have been the initial point of interest for so many players. 

Five new heroes headline a massive influx over the next year

Overwatch 2 launched with three new heroes and has added another 10 in the three-plus years since then. Now we’re getting 10 heroes in a single year, starting with five who all have connections to existing characters and factions in the game.

• Domina, the new ranged tank and ally of Talon, is the heiress of Vishkar Industries, the same company that damage hero Symmetra works for and that also suppressed and exploited support hero Lucio’s hometown with technology his father had developed. 
• Anran, a new fire-themed damage hero, is the older sister of support hero Wuyang. She wields hand fans that can shoot fire, and is a new Overwatch recruit alongside her brother.
• Emre, a damage hero wielding multiple weapons, is a former Overwatch agent now turned to Talon’s aims. He’s an old friend of damage hero Freja, though the person she found in their recent reunion is very different from the friend she remembers. 
• Mizuki, an offensively focused support hero, is part of the Talon-aligned Hashimoto clan, which has been facing opposition from the support hero Kiriko and her allies in Japan. 
• Jetpack Cat, a cat wearing a jetpack, is based on an early Overwatch hero concept long thought to be scrapped. Overwatch support hero Brigitte builds the kitty a jetpack to let her support allies from the skies by towing teammates and trolling enemies.

Multiple developers reiterated that this superdrop of new heroes wasn’t the result of cutting corners or rushing the process, but instead a benefit of improved tools and systems that have shrunk the design time for new heroes from eight months down to four or five. 

«We still wanted to give the characters the same level of care we give any hero that we build,» the game’s Art Director Dion Rogers said in a panel on the new Reign of Talon story’s art.

In the leadership panel, Keller noted that the team wanted to kick off this year with an update that would feel like an expansion for the game, and the best way to do that for a hero shooter was to give them a bunch of new heroes: «People play this type of game … to learn more about these heroes, pick them up and continuously master them,» he said. Launching five heroes at once gives players that much more to engage with and could substantially shake up the meta of hero picks and team compositions.

Buzzing enthusiasm among developers

There’s plenty more driving my optimism beyond the new narrative focus and influx of new heroes. It’s the vibe of the announcements, the willingness for the game to go big, chase ideas and deliver a uniquely Overwatch experience to players. 

There was palpable excitement among the five groups of Blizzard developers that journalists got to hear from at the Overwatch Spotlight event. In a panel about the game’s narrative, Lead Narrative Designer Miranda Moyer buzzed with enthusiasm, speaking alongside Scott Lawson, the game’s audio and technical director, about planning a year-long story, bringing Talon into the fray and how characters and allegiances might change over the course of that story.

«I think a lot of this new story is predicated on questions that have existed since, y’know, Overwatch was an entity [before eventually being disbanded],» Moyer said. She also noted that while some characters may have felt a little out of the loop of any sort of larger narrative throughout previous years of the game’s story, in the new structure «every single character … is pertinent to the overall plot.»

Developers being excited about their game isn’t surprising, but the degree of enthusiasm was encouraging for a game that suffered a years-long content drought followed by a troubled launch for Overwatch 2, stumbling over gated hero releases and long-announced game features that never saw the light of day. The conversations with devs gave me confidence that there’s a vision and passion for Overwatch that can fuel exciting updates like this for a long time to come.

The question marks amid the coming changes

The promises of ongoing stories and new heroes every season — six per year — are two of the most exciting things the game could announce. That said, some announcements from the spotlight raise more curiosity or concern than confidence. 

A major overhaul of the menus forces us to relearn where things are and how to navigate them. The systems design team asserted that the new layout will add value, minimize interruptions and give players choices in menus, and I’m hopeful that the time spent relearning how to get around is worth the payoff. I like the cleaner look, but it will take some time to see how the new layout really feels.

The team also announced that some heroes, such as Ana and Genji, would be getting their second mythic skins before others received their first. I say this as someone who plays lots of Ana and wasn’t at all excited by her mythic skin, but that feels pretty unfair to the rest of the roster, especially given how many new faces we’re getting this year.

Balancing is the other element that feels like a bigger question mark in 2026. Dropping five heroes simultaneously and adding a new hero every season is going to put a lot more pressure on the team responsible for balance.

I asked Associate Game Director Alec Dawson about the challenge of balancing five new heroes at once. He acknowledged that the team does still want heroes to feel «impactful» at launch, but said they «probably went a bit too far» with recent releases. 

«It’s good to have an impactful launch. It’s not good if your hero is banned in almost every match you’re in,» Dawson said. 

The hero design team told us that they’ll be keeping a close eye on Jetpack Cat, especially given that permanent flight is an entirely new element in the game, and there are very few restrictions on her Lifeline ability that lets you fly allies around the map. Hero designer Scott Kennedy added that the team knows it’s going to be difficult to figure out all at once and that they’ll react quickly if things are out of line.

A new day and a familiar feel for Overwatch

The Spotlight video alone felt like Overwatch returning to the wonder and imagination that powered its 2016 launch. And the experience of talking to a variety of developers — and particularly seeing the seemingly unseverable thread of enthusiasm that connected them — made me as hopeful for the game as I’ve been since I started playing. The promise driving a story forward seems to mirror the team’s own internal hopes for shepherding the game into something bigger and bolder.

In a group interview with global media, I asked the game’s director, Aaron Keller, whether the Spotlight announcements were a commitment to moving the game forward — not just in terms of game mechanics but using it to tell a story beyond just brief snippets we’ve gotten from cinematics and events. He referenced the «amazing, sentimental» character pieces they’ve done so far, but said the team wants the new story to go somewhere. 

«We want to take players on a journey over the course of this year — and over the course of many years,» Keller said. «We want to be doing this for as long as players are going to tune in for it.»