Welcome to The AI Loop #9. The first work week of 2026 is in the books, and it's already clear the pace isn't slowing down. We've got billion-dollar acquisitions, AI entering the doctor's office, and OpenAI continuing its acqui-hire spree. Plus, a quick look back at what our beta contributors built. Let's get into it.

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Perle Labs Update

Beta Season Recap + What's Ahead

The Perle Labs Beta is officially in the books. Here's what the community built:

• 1.7M+ cumulative tasks completed
• 333M+ total points earned across the platform

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A huge thank you to the contributors who showed up early, completed real tasks across text, audio, image, and motion, and helped shape the first working version of Perle Labs.

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As you may have heard, Season 1 is just around the corner. We'll have more to share on that very soon.

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Top AI Stories

Accenture Aquires UK AI Startup Faculty for Over $1 Billion

Accenture has agreed to acquire Faculty, the UK-based AI company known for its work with Vote Leave and the NHS Covid early warning system, in the largest-ever acquisition of a privately held British AI startup. Faculty CEO Marc Warner will take on the role of CTO at Accenture as the consulting giant looks to expand its AI capabilities during a period of disruption in the industry.

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The deal signals how aggressively major consultancies are moving to lock in AI talent and tooling. Faculty has worked with OpenAI, Anthropic, and Mistral, and its product, Faculty Frontier, will now be offered to Accenture's global client base. With revenues quadrupling over four years, the acquisition positions Accenture as a serious player in enterprise AI delivery.

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Source: The Times

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Utah Becomes First U.S. State to Let AI Prescribe Medications

Utah has launched a pilot program allowing an AI system, not a doctor, to autonomously renew certain prescriptions for patients with chronic conditions. The program, run by health-tech startup Doctronic, is limited to 190 commonly prescribed medications and excludes pain management and ADHD drugs.

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It's a high-stakes test of how far AI can go in healthcare. In a 500-case study, Doctronic's AI matched physician treatment plans 99.2 percent of the time. But doctors' groups warn that automating prescriptions could introduce new risks, from missed drug interactions to potential abuse. The FDA has not yet weighed in, leaving the program in a regulatory gray zone as other states watch closely.

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Source: Politico

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OpenAI Acqui-hires Convogo, Its Ninth Acquisition in a Year

OpenAI has acquired the team behind Convogo, a startup that helped executive coaches and HR teams automate leadership assessments using AI. The deal brings the three co-founders into OpenAI's "AI cloud efforts," while Convogo's product will be shut down.

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It's OpenAI's ninth acquisition in 12 months and follows a familiar pattern: bring in talent, fold or wind down the product. As the AI race intensifies, OpenAI is using M&A as a capability accelerator, snapping up teams that have already solved real-world AI deployment problems.

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Source: TechCrunch

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Stay in the Loop

That's a wrap on Edition #9. The year is just getting started, and so are we. There's a lot building behind the scenes at Perle Labs. More updates coming soon!

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In the meantime, follow along with us on X, Discord, and Telegram to stay connected so you don’t miss what’s coming.