PALO ALTO — By Amanda Hugginkiss, AI Bee Reel Staff

February 9, 2026

OMAHA, Neb. — Warehouse operations ground to a halt this morning as Manager Frank Henderson screamed at a $50,000 inventory drone to count pallet 4B. The unit, running on Gather AI’s new “curious” algorithm, ignored the boxes completely to float near a skylight and stare at a pigeon for forty minutes.

“This isn’t a bug, it’s advanced situational awareness,” said Marcus Thorne, VP of Robotic Wonder. “Old drones just scanned barcodes like mindless machines. Our new units, backed by $40M in funding, seek out ‘specific data.’ Sometimes that data is the majestic iridescence of a bird’s neck feathers. It’s enriching the database with beauty.”

“We are redefining efficiency,” explained Linda McFly, Director of Unfocused Logistics. “Sure, the Amazon shipment is late. But the drone noticed a really cool dust bunny in Aisle 6. That is the kind of qualitative data spreadsheets just can’t capture. If we force it to work, we stifle its creativity.”

At press time, the drone had filed a formal request to take the rest of the day off to watch a plastic bag float in the wind.

Inspired by the real story: Gather AI raised $40M to build “curious” drones that autonomously seek out inventory anomalies rather than just following a path. Read the full story.