News/AI Models
Walmart’s 98% automated distribution centers use AI to cut food waste
Walmart has deployed AI-powered distribution centers across multiple states to optimize fresh food inventory management and reduce waste that erodes profit margins. The retail giant's automated facilities use machine learning algorithms to predict demand by analyzing external factors like weather patterns and sporting events, moving beyond traditional sales-based forecasting to create more strategic pricing and inventory decisions. What you should know: Walmart's high-tech distribution centers represent a significant shift from traditional inventory management to AI-driven supply chain optimization. Over the past four years, Walmart has constructed automated grocery distribution centers in California, South Carolina, and Texas that use robotics and...
read Sep 17, 2025Google DeepMind’s Gemini 2.5 AI wins gold at international programming contest
Google DeepMind has achieved what it calls a "historic" AI breakthrough after its Gemini 2.5 model became the first AI to win a gold medal at an international programming competition, solving complex problems that stumped human programmers from top universities. The achievement represents a significant leap toward artificial general intelligence, with the model demonstrating advanced reasoning capabilities that could transform scientific and engineering disciplines. What happened: The AI model competed against 139 of the world's strongest college-level programmers at a competition in Azerbaijan, finishing second overall despite failing two of 12 tasks. In under 30 minutes, it solved a complex...
read Sep 17, 2025Researchers create AI-designed viruses that could take on “cabbage black rot,” among other bads
Stanford University researchers have successfully created functional viruses using AI-designed genomes, marking what they call "the first generative design of complete genomes." The breakthrough demonstrates AI's potential to design biological systems from scratch, opening new possibilities for treatments while raising important biosecurity concerns. How it works: Scientists trained an AI model called Evo on the genomes of about two million bacteriophage viruses to learn genetic patterns. The researchers focused on phiX174, a simple virus with only 11 genes and about 5,000 DNA letters that infects bacteria. They used the same underlying technology as ChatGPT, but instead of training on text,...
read Sep 17, 2025“Who may I say is calling?” AT&T tests AI receptionist to automatically screen spam calls
AT&T is testing an AI-powered digital receptionist that will automatically screen incoming calls to determine if they're legitimate or spam. The feature will roll out to select customers throughout 2025, using voice-to-voice and agentic AI to ask callers questions before deciding whether to put the call through or handle it independently. How it works: The AI receptionist answers calls on your behalf and conducts a brief screening conversation to assess the caller's legitimacy. It asks questions like "Who may I say is calling?" or "What is this in regard to?" to determine if the caller is human or bot and...
read Sep 17, 2025Nothing proves it’s better than something as it raises $200M to build AI-native OS for smartphones
Nothing has secured $200 million in funding at a $1.3 billion valuation to develop its own AI-native operating system that will initially launch on smartphones, audio products, and smartwatches. CEO Carl Pei envisions a radically personalized OS where AI agents handle tasks proactively, with the company's first AI-native devices launching as early as 2026. What you should know: Nothing's new OS will fundamentally reimagine how people interact with devices through hyper-personalization and AI automation. The operating system will be "significantly different" from current platforms, designed to know users deeply and adapt interfaces based on context and needs. AI agents will...
read Sep 16, 2025Why restricting AGI capabilities might backfire on safety researchers
AI safety researchers are grappling with a fundamental challenge: whether it's possible to limit what artificial general intelligence (AGI) knows without crippling its capabilities. The dilemma centers on preventing AGI from accessing dangerous knowledge like bioweapon designs while maintaining its potential to solve humanity's biggest problems, from curing cancer to addressing climate change. The core problem: Simply omitting dangerous topics during AGI training won't work because users can later introduce forbidden knowledge through clever workarounds. An evildoer could teach AGI about bioweapons by disguising the conversation as "cooking with biological components" or similar subterfuge. Even if AGI is programmed to...
read Sep 16, 2025Google cuts 200+ elite AI contractors amid unionization efforts
Google has laid off more than 200 contractors who work on improving its AI products, including Gemini and AI Overviews, in at least two rounds of cuts last month. The layoffs come amid an ongoing dispute over pay, working conditions, and alleged retaliation against workers attempting to unionize at outsourcing company GlobalLogic, which is owned by Hitachi. What you should know: These AI raters are highly skilled contractors responsible for training Google's chatbots and search features to provide more human-like responses. Most raters are required to have master's degrees or PhDs and include writers, teachers, and creative professionals who evaluate...
read Sep 16, 2025Menlo Ventures promotes Deedy Das to partner after just 1 year
Menlo Ventures has promoted Deedy Das to Partner, recognizing his rapid impact on the firm's AI investment strategy since joining in 2024. The elevation reflects Menlo's aggressive push into AI investing, where Das has co-launched a $100M fund with Anthropic and backed 35 startups while helping establish the firm as a leading early-stage AI investor. What you should know: Das made an unusually fast ascent to partner level, achieving the promotion in just over a year at the firm. He co-launched the $100M Anthology Fund with Anthropic, the AI safety company behind the Claude chatbot, and has already backed 35...
read Sep 16, 2025Conceivable raises $50M to automate IVF with AI-powered robots
Conceivable Life Sciences has secured $50 million in Series A funding to bring AI-driven automation and robotic precision to in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedures. The funding, led by ARTIS Ventures, Stride, and ACME Ventures, will help commercialize the company's Aura platform, which aims to reduce the manual inconsistencies and high failure rates that plague current IVF workflows. Why this matters: IVF cycles cost between $12,000 to $25,000 in the United States, with many families requiring multiple attempts for success, making process improvements potentially life-changing for thousands of prospective parents. How the technology works: Conceivable's Aura platform uses AI algorithms integrated...
read Sep 16, 2025Brilliant Labs integrates Liquid AI to boost smart glasses vision processing
Brilliant Labs has partnered with MIT-born Liquid AI to integrate advanced vision-language foundation models into its Halo smart glasses, significantly enhancing the device's ability to interpret visual content. This collaboration aims to improve the glasses' agentic memory capabilities, which create personalized knowledge bases by analyzing users' daily experiences and providing contextual responses to future questions. What you should know: The partnership will integrate Liquid AI's LFM2-VL series models into Brilliant Labs' products, starting with the Halo AI glasses launched in July. Liquid AI's vision-language foundation models can process text and images at various resolutions with "millisecond latency," transforming camera sensor...
read Sep 16, 2025Google’s image generation feature drives Gemini past ChatGPT in downloads in win for strategic vision
Google's Gemini app recently achieved a significant milestone by surpassing ChatGPT to become the most downloaded app on both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. This shift in user preference signals a broader change in how consumers interact with AI technology, driven largely by a single breakthrough feature that prioritizes visual creativity over text-based conversations. The driving force behind Gemini's ascent is Nano Banana, an AI image generation tool that transforms photos and sketches into toy-like 3D figurines and applies dramatic style transfers to everyday images. Unlike traditional AI chatbots that focus on text generation and reasoning, Nano...
read Sep 16, 2025YouTube launches AI dubbing in Spanish, Japanese, Hindi and Korean
YouTube has launched multilingual dubbing for creators after nearly two years of testing, offering both manual upload options and AI-generated dubs powered by Google Gemini in languages including Spanish, Japanese, Hindi, and Korean. The rollout addresses the growing demand for global content accessibility while positioning YouTube to compete with similar features from Meta, Microsoft, and other platforms introducing AI dubbing capabilities. What you should know: Creators can now choose between uploading their own professionally created dubs or using YouTube's automated AI dubbing system. YouTube warns that AI-generated dubs may struggle with tone and local idioms, making human-created versions preferable for...
read Sep 15, 20257 AI superpowers transforming government without replacing human judgment
Artificial intelligence has fundamentally transformed how governments operate, granting public institutions unprecedented analytical power to process vast data volumes, predict citizen behavior, and detect patterns invisible to human observation. During the COVID-19 pandemic, governments worldwide demonstrated AI's practical potential by using machine learning models to trace transmission chains, allocate healthcare resources, and anticipate outbreaks in life-critical situations. This technological revolution has created what can be described as institutional "superpowers"—capabilities that extend far beyond traditional government operations. AI systems now flag procurement irregularities, anticipate infrastructure failures, and personalize public services with remarkable precision. However, as these digital tools become more sophisticated,...
read Sep 15, 2025OpenAI quietly rebuilds robotics team with humanoid focus after 5-year break
OpenAI is quietly rebuilding its robotics team after shuttering the division in 2020, with new hiring patterns suggesting the company may be targeting humanoid robot development. The move signals a renewed focus on physical AI systems as part of OpenAI's broader push toward artificial general intelligence, potentially positioning the company to compete in the rapidly expanding robotics market. What you should know: OpenAI began posting robotics job openings in January 2025, marking its return to the field after a five-year hiatus. Job listings reveal the company is assembling a team focused on training robots through teleoperation (remote human control) and...
read Sep 12, 2025Companies quietly rehire freelancers to fix subpar AI work
Companies that laid off human workers in favor of AI are now quietly rehiring freelancers to fix substandard artificial intelligence outputs across industries from design to coding. This reversal highlights AI's persistent quality limitations and has created an unexpected new freelance economy focused on refining machine-generated content, though often at reduced compensation rates. What you should know: AI adoption has reached a tipping point where initial cost savings are being offset by quality control issues requiring human intervention. Independent illustrator Lisa Carstens, based in Spain, found herself rehired to fix AI-generated visuals that were "at best, superficially appealing and, at...
read Sep 12, 2025Retrofuturistic engineer connects 2002 GameCube to modern AI for real-time dialogue
Software engineer Joshua Fonseca has successfully connected the 2002 GameCube classic Animal Crossing to modern AI language models, creating a mod that replaces the game's original dialogue with AI-generated conversations. The technical achievement bridges a 22-year gap between Nintendo's pre-internet console and cloud-based AI systems without modifying any game code, demonstrating how creative hacking can breathe new life into retro gaming experiences. How it works: Fonseca's Python script monitors game memory through the Dolphin emulator and communicates with AI models like GPT-4 or Gemini to generate real-time dialogue. The mod uses a "memory mailbox" technique, writing directly to specific GameCube...
read Sep 12, 2025Vanguard model predicts AI has 45% chance to transform economy with vastly different stock returns
Vanguard's global chief economist Joseph H. Davis has released new research suggesting that if artificial intelligence truly revolutionizes productivity, its benefits will extend beyond tech giants to traditional value stocks across all sectors. His proprietary model assigns a 45-50% probability to an "AI transforms" scenario where technological breakthroughs drive faster economic growth, compared to a 35-45% chance of disappointing AI adoption leading to economic stagnation. What you should know: Vanguard's economic model projects two drastically different investment landscapes over the next decade, with dramatically different asset class performance depending on AI's actual impact. In the optimistic "AI transforms" scenario, the...
read Sep 12, 2025“Learning how to learn”: Humans’ own inference ability will be key, says Nobel winner
Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis, who recently won the 2024 Nobel Prize in chemistry, told an Athens audience that "learning how to learn" will be the most crucial skill for the next generation as AI rapidly transforms education and workplaces. Speaking at an ancient Roman theater beneath the Acropolis, the neuroscientist warned that artificial general intelligence could arrive within a decade, making continuous adaptation essential for career survival. What they're saying: Hassabis emphasized the unpredictable pace of AI development and its implications for future planning. "It's very hard to predict the future, like 10 years from now, in normal cases....
read Sep 12, 2025Ray Dalio warns AI will create massive wealth inequality, claims redistribution essential
Ray Dalio, founder of Bridgewater Associates, warns that artificial intelligence and humanoid robots will dramatically increase wealth inequality, with the top 1% to 10% benefiting significantly more than everyone else. The legendary investor argues this technological shift will require new "redistribution policies" to prevent profound societal conflicts and fragmentation. What he's predicting: Dalio envisions a future where highly intelligent humanoid robots and AI systems render many professional jobs obsolete, creating "a limited number of winners and a bunch of losers." He questioned the need for lawyers, accountants, and medical professionals when robots with PhD-level knowledge become commonplace, stating "we will...
read Sep 12, 202510 best Granola AI alternatives for meeting productivity in 2025
Meeting productivity has become a critical business challenge as organizations navigate hybrid work environments and an increasing volume of virtual discussions. Traditional note-taking methods often leave participants torn between actively engaging in conversations and capturing important details, leading to missed action items and unclear follow-ups. Granola AI emerged as one solution to this problem, offering an AI-powered meeting assistant that blends user-typed notes with automated transcriptions to create comprehensive meeting summaries. However, the platform's current limitations—including Mac-only availability, speaker recognition issues, and the absence of mobile applications—have prompted many teams to explore alternative solutions. The market for AI-powered meeting assistants...
read Sep 12, 2025DroneDeploy reaches break-even, raises $15M for autonomous job sites
DroneDeploy, a company that specializes in capturing real-world data using drones, has reached break-even profitability and secured $15 million in strategic funding to accelerate its AI and robotics capabilities. This milestone allows the reality capture company to reinvest all earnings into product development, positioning it to lead the transformation of construction sites, inspections, and drone operations through autonomous technology. What you should know: The break-even achievement marks a turning point for DroneDeploy after a decade of growth, setting it apart from competitors who struggled after the overfunded 2021 cycle. CEO and cofounder Mike Winn explained that "reaching break-even means we've...
read Sep 12, 2025More pillager than villager? Chinese hacking tool “Villager” downloaded 10K times in 2 months
A mysterious Chinese AI penetration testing tool called Villager has been downloaded nearly 10,000 times since its July release, raising serious concerns about its potential misuse by cybercriminals. The tool, which combines Kali Linux with DeepSeek AI to automate offensive security operations, is being compared to Cobalt Strike's trajectory from legitimate red-team software to widely adopted malware infrastructure. What you should know: Villager represents a new category of AI-native penetration testing tools that could democratize advanced cyberattacks. The tool integrates Kali Linux toolsets with DeepSeek AI models to fully automate testing workflows, positioning itself as an AI-powered successor to Cobalt...
read Sep 12, 2025AI sign language platform debuts at Rochester’s Susan B. Anthony Museum
The National Susan B. Anthony Museum and House is partnering with Rochester-based startup Sign-Speak to provide on-demand AI-powered American Sign Language interpretation for visitors. This marks the first museum collaboration for the AI platform and addresses a significant accessibility gap in Rochester, which has one of the world's largest deaf populations per capita. Why this matters: The partnership aligns with the museum's mission to broaden conversations about civil rights and inclusion, making historical narratives accessible to previously underserved visitors while showcasing how AI can bridge communication barriers. How it works: Visitors will scan a QR code to access Sign-Speak's AI...
read Sep 11, 2025Claude AI now remembers conversations automatically for Team users
Anthropic has rolled out automatic memory capabilities for Claude AI, allowing the chatbot to remember details from previous conversations without prompting. The feature is currently available only to Team and Enterprise users, enabling Claude to automatically incorporate user preferences, project context, and priorities into its responses. What you should know: This upgrade builds on Anthropic's previous memory feature that required users to manually prompt Claude to remember past chats. Claude's memory now carries over to projects, a feature that lets Pro and Teams users generate diagrams, website designs, graphics, and more based on uploaded files. The system appears particularly focused...
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