Alexa+ gets a new ‘adults only’ personality option that curses but won’t get into NSFW content
The new Sassy style can curse and roast you, but the fun ends there.
AI
Wonderful raises $150M Series B at $2B valuation
The funding round, led by Insight Partners, comes just four months after Wonderful raised a $100 million Series A.
Anthropic doesn’t trust the Pentagon, and neither should you
Today we’re talking about the messy, fast-moving situation at Anthropic, the maker of Claude that now finds itself in a very ugly legal battle with the Pentagon. The back-and-forth is complicated, but as of a few days ago, the Pentagon had deemed Anthropic a supply chain risk, and Anthropic has filed a lawsuit challenging that […]
Bespoke AI models are the next big thing in filmmaking
Though many AI boosters have convinced themselves that the technology can spit out films and television series whole cloth, claims of Hollywood being cooked feel very premature when you see what people are making with the most popular image/video models on the market. Models like Sora, Veo, and Runway just do not seem all that […]
Microsoft’s Copilot Health can connect to your medical records and wearables
Microsoft announced on Thursday that it’s launching Copilot Health, a “separate, secure space” in Copilot for asking questions about lab results and medical records, searching for providers, analyzing data from wearables, and other health-related chats. The feature will have a phased rollout, so it won’t be available to everyone immediately, but users can join a […]
You can now ask Google Maps ‘complex, real-world questions’ — and Gemini will answer
Google is continuing to weave Gemini into the firmament of its most-used products. Today, it announced that Google Maps was getting a new AI-powered “Ask Maps” feature that allows for “complex, real-world questions” with highly detailed, personalized responses. In the past, Google Maps would struggle with hyper-specific questions like “where can I charge my phone […]
Google Maps is getting an AI ‘Ask Maps’ feature and upgraded ‘immersive’ navigation
The tech giant says the “Immersive Navigation” launch is the biggest update to Maps in over a decade.
Perplexity’s Personal Computer turns your spare Mac into an AI agent
Perplexity wants to be more than just an answer engine. On Wednesday, it launched Personal Computer, a new AI agent tool that can turn a spare Mac into a locally run AI system, pitching it as “a digital proxy for you.” Personal Computer will run 24/7 on a dedicated device on your local network, have […]
Google is using old news reports and AI to predict flash floods
A new way to solve data scarcity: Turning qualitative reports into quantitative data with an LLM.
AI ‘actor’ Tilly Norwood put out the worst song I’ve ever heard
This song is an AI actor’s rallying cry to other AI actors, urging them to keep going despite the naysayers who doubt their humanity. Literally no one can relate to this.