The National Archives' newest permanent exhibit uses machine learning to make America's historical records more accessible to the public.

Why it matters: AI's biggest superpower is tagging, organizing and presenting massive amounts of data, a growing challenge for institutions like the National Archives.

Driving the news: The exhibit, called "The American Story," opened in November, ahead of the country's semiquincentennial — the 250th birthday of the United States.

• The National Archives Museum says it's the first institution on the National Mall to power an exhibit with AI.

How it works: Visitors select topics of interest and types of records such as documents, maps and photographs.

• The AI system connects archival records to those interests, helping surface related material. Visitors can then revisit the records online later using a QR code.
• The museum's AI portals function as recommendation engines, using natural language processing for chatbot-style interactions.

By the numbers: The $40 million exhibit includes more than two million records curated by archivists and cataloged with AI.

• The National Archives says it keeps only 2%-5% of federal records generated per year.
• In total that currently adds up to around 13.5 billion pages of text, as well as maps, charts, drawings, still photos, digital images, film, video and sound recordings.

The personalization aspect of the exhibit helps visitors find gems in the vast catalog of documents, National Archives capital campaign director Franck Cordes tells Axios.

• "Part of the magic of this system is that it's nudging visitors into new territory and new areas of content that they didn't think about exploring," says John McCarthy, principal of interactive design at Cortina, the Archives' technology partner.

Between the lines: The archivists' challenge is to present the material to museumgoers without hiding the darkest parts of American history, but also making the material accessible to the youngest visitors.

• "We have some very graphic, painful imagery," Cordes says, using Nazi camps in Germany as an example.
• "We were very careful to be able to create a system that doesn't shy away from any of the stories of World War II, but does it in such a way ... that's not going to present material that a parent might be upset that their kids were seeing for the first time."

Yes, but: The explosion of generative AI tools has increased the amount of political deepfakes people see online.

• Big Tech companies test their chatbots in public, causing historical AI gaffes including producing images of Black founding fathers and Asian colonial Americans.
• Meanwhile, filmmakers struggle to maintain accuracy in documentaries and worry that generated material could be seen as real and later be included in future projects.

Reality check: The creators of "The American Story" want people to know that they're not using AI to create new historical records.

• Instead, they used AI to tag and structure data, to understand themes and time periods and connect those to visitors' interests.
• "We're not doing anything generative," McCarthy tells Axios. "We're not reinventing history or anything like that."

The bottom line: The National Archives is betting that AI can help connect museumgoers with America's history without rewriting it.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said 2026 will be the year "AI starts to dramatically change the way that we work," as his company flattens teams and provides AI tools to boost individual productivity.

Why it matters: Meta is under pressure to justify its aggressive AI spending as it nearly doubles its capex plans this year — to a whopping $135 billion.

• Zuckerberg is also betting that an AI-powered workforce will help Meta keep and attract talent.

Zoom in: Since the start of 2025, output per engineer has risen 30%, driven largely by adopting AI coding agents, while "power users" have increased output 80% year over year, said Meta CFO Susan Li on last night's earnings call.

• Meta is investing in "AI-native tooling" to help its employees do more on their own, Zuckerberg said.
• "We're starting to see projects that used to require big teams now be accomplished by a single, very talented person," he added.

Zoom out: "I want to make sure that as many of these very talented people as possible choose Meta as the place that they can make the greatest impact, to deliver personalized products to billions of people around the world," Zuckerberg said.

• "And if we do this, then I think that we're going to get a lot more done, and I think it's going to be a lot more fun," he continued.

Between the lines: Meta needs AI to deliver changes both internally with its own operations and externally to its users and advertisers to justify the scale of its spending.

• The company said it expects 2026 capital expenditures of $115 billion to $135 billion, up significantly from $72.2 billion in 2025, as it invests in data centers, chips and other AI infrastructure.
• But the company is also forecasting higher operating income for 2026. It reported $83.3 billion in 2025, up 20% from the prior year.

Go deeper: Meta stock pops on positive outlook amid AI spending surge

• Google is rolling out a new Gemini-powered AI helper in Chrome, called auto browse, that can surf the web for users — opening sites and clicking through pages to handle things like shopping, paying bills, and scheduling appointments — without ever leaving the browser. (Bloomberg)
• Google DeepMind researchers unveiled its AlphaGenome AI model, which can help scientists predict the impact of genetic mutations and could transform research into cancer and other diseases. (New York Times)
• U.K. Technology Secretary Liz Kendall warned that AI will lead to job losses and announced plans to train up to 10 million British workers in AI skills by 2030. (The Guardian)
• Chinese tech giants ByteDance and Alibaba are both launching new AI models in mid-February. (The Information)
• Anthropic will power ServiceNow agents as Claude integration deepens. (Axios)

A green sea turtle named Porkchop that was rescued nearly a year ago is now recovering at a newly built pool at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, California.