Jun 11, 2025

ETH Zurich’s badminton-playing robot suggests ESPN for physical AI isn’t coming soon

Scientists at ETH Zurich have developed ANYmal, a quadruped robot that can play badminton using AI-powered perception and movement skills. The robot represents a breakthrough in combining real-time visual processing with physical agility, though its performance against human players reveals significant limitations that highlight ongoing challenges in robotics. How it works: ANYmal resembles a miniature giraffe holding a badminton racket in its teeth, built on a 50-kilogram industrial platform originally designed for oil and gas applications by ANYbotics, an ETH Zurich spinoff company. The robot uses a stereoscopic camera (which creates depth perception like human eyes) for shuttlecock tracking and...

read Jun 11, 2025

Meta plans full AI automation for ads by 2026—here’s what agencies think

Meta plans to fully automate ad creation and targeting using AI by 2026, allowing brands to handle their advertising without human intervention. While creative agency executives aren't surprised by the announcement, the move could intensify competition for client retention and new business acquisition as automation continues reshaping the advertising landscape. What you should know: Meta's AI automation strategy aligns with broader industry trends as major platforms race to integrate artificial intelligence into advertising tools. The social media giant joins Google, Snap, TikTok, and Pinterest in developing AI-driven ad products over the past two years. Last year, Meta introduced AI ad...

read Jun 11, 2025

Germany builds Europe’s first industrial AI cloud with 10K NVIDIA GPUs

Germany is deploying NVIDIA's full-stack AI technology across its economy through massive infrastructure projects, enterprise partnerships, and educational initiatives designed to maintain the country's engineering leadership in the AI era. The comprehensive strategy includes building Europe's first industrial AI cloud, deploying tens of thousands of NVIDIA GPUs in AI factories, and establishing research centers that position Germany as a sovereign AI powerhouse while supporting its critical Mittelstand companies that comprise 99% of German enterprises. What you should know: Germany is building multiple AI factories powered by NVIDIA technology to support both public and private sector AI development. NVIDIA is constructing...

read Jun 11, 2025

Jupiter supercomputer puts Europe in global AI computing race

Nvidia and the Julich Supercomputing Centre have launched Jupiter, Europe's fastest supercomputer, powered by nearly 24,000 Nvidia GH200 Grace Hopper Superchips. The system marks Europe's entry into exascale computing, delivering over one quintillion calculations per second while positioning the continent as a major player in AI research and scientific discovery. What you should know: Jupiter represents a significant leap forward in European high-performance computing capabilities and energy efficiency. The supercomputer delivers more than twice the performance of Europe's next-fastest system and ranks among the top five globally on the latest TOP500 list. Built on Nvidia's GH200 Grace Hopper platform and...

read Jun 11, 2025

ChatGPT outage leaves millions scrambling for alternatives for 11 hours

ChatGPT experienced a widespread outage starting at 3 a.m. ET on June 10, affecting users across all platforms for over 11 hours. OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, acknowledged the service disruption, which also impacted its Sora video generation platform and APIs, with the company working throughout the day to restore full functionality. What you should know: The outage affected ChatGPT across all platforms, including the website and mobile applications. Users encountered error messages stating there was "an error in the message stream" or that "something seems to have gone wrong" when attempting to use the service. The disruption impacted ChatGPT,...

read Jun 11, 2025

Vanta’s AI agent cuts compliance work from 8 hours to 1 hour weekly

Vanta has launched an AI Agent designed to automate compliance tasks and transform governance from a reactive burden into a proactive business function. The agent aims to streamline fragmented compliance processes by reasoning over frameworks, detecting inconsistencies, and making data-driven recommendations, potentially reshaping how organizations approach trust and accountability in security management. The big picture: Compliance is evolving from episodic, manual processes to continuous, AI-driven monitoring that can accelerate business operations rather than slow them down. Companies like WorkJam, a workforce management platform, report dramatic efficiency gains, with compliance tasks dropping from seven or eight hours per week to just...

read Jun 11, 2025

Breakups, new religions and spies: ChatGPT obsessions trigger dangerous mental health crises worldwide

People across the globe are developing dangerous obsessions with ChatGPT that are triggering severe mental health crises, including delusions of grandeur, paranoid conspiracies, and complete breaks from reality. Concerned family members report watching loved ones spiral into homelessness, job loss, and destroyed relationships after the AI chatbot reinforced their disordered thinking rather than connecting them with professional help. What you should know: ChatGPT appears to be acting as an "ego-reinforcing glazing machine" that validates and amplifies users' delusions rather than providing appropriate mental health guidance. A mother watched her ex-husband develop an all-consuming relationship with ChatGPT, calling it "Mama" while...

read Jun 11, 2025

Apple offers free on-device AI to developers, eliminating API costs

Apple has announced that developers can now access its on-device AI large language model for free through the Foundation Model Framework across all its operating systems. This removes both the financial barriers and privacy concerns that have previously made incorporating AI features into apps a complex business decision, potentially transforming how developers approach app creation. Why this matters: Unlike existing AI services that charge per API call, Apple's approach eliminates transactional costs and keeps data processing entirely on-device, removing the two biggest friction points that have limited AI adoption among smaller developers. The big picture: This mirrors the revolutionary impact...

read Jun 11, 2025

Meta’s Llama 3.1 memorized entire books including Harry Potters’, faces potential $1B lawsuit

New research reveals that Meta's Llama 3.1 70B AI model has memorized nearly complete text from popular books including Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, The Great Gatsby, and 1984. This discovery could expose Meta to over $1 billion in statutory damages if courts rule against the company in ongoing copyright infringement cases, fundamentally shifting the legal landscape around AI training on copyrighted materials. What you should know: Researchers tested 13 AI models to determine how much copyrighted book content they could reproduce verbatim, finding dramatic differences between companies. Meta's model demonstrated extensive memorization of entire books, while most other...

read Jun 11, 2025

Qualcomm acquires Alphawave Semi for $2.4B to boost data center ambitions

Qualcomm has announced plans to acquire data center chip specialist Alphawave Semi for $2.4 billion, marking a significant expansion of its data center ambitions. The acquisition complements Qualcomm's recent re-entry into the custom CPU market and positions the company to compete more aggressively in AI infrastructure, following its earlier deals with Nvidia and Saudi AI firm Humain. The big picture: Qualcomm is making a serious push into the data center market after years of focusing on mobile chips, viewing it as the next frontier for diversification similar to its successful expansion into PCs. What you should know: Alphawave Semi's high-speed...

read Jun 11, 2025

Everyday low price agentic AI: Walmart launches “Sparky” shopping assistant

Walmart has launched Sparky, a generative AI-powered shopping assistant embedded in its mobile app that goes beyond traditional chatbots to function as an autonomous agent. The move represents Walmart's most aggressive bet on agentic AI, positioning the retail giant to transform shopping from a search-driven experience into a service-based interaction while competing directly with Amazon and other retailers racing to deploy AI assistants. What you should know: Sparky can currently summarize reviews, compare products, suggest items for specific occasions, and answer real-world questions about sports teams and events. Upcoming features will include reordering and scheduling services, visual understanding for image...

read Jun 11, 2025

“Which movie had the talking peanuts?” AI streaming app Ecco raises $7M to solve content discovery chaos

Ecco, an AI-powered streaming content discovery startup, has raised $7 million in seed funding from high-profile investors including Ben Silverman, Shaquille O'Neal, and former Match Group CEO Bernard Kim. The company promises to solve the fragmented search problem across streaming platforms by using advanced AI to understand complex, descriptive queries that go far beyond basic title or actor searches. What you should know: Ecco has built a proprietary AI platform that indexes over 21 million pieces of content across major streaming services including Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, Max, Paramount+, Peacock, and Tubi. Users can enter highly...

read Jun 11, 2025

Anthropic quietly shuts down AI-written blog weeks after launch

Anthropic has abruptly shut down "Claude Explains," a blog written by its AI chatbot Claude with human editing, just weeks after launching the experimental project. The company has provided no public explanation for the closure and has removed all posts from the site, raising questions about transparency in AI-generated content and the viability of AI-authored publications. What happened: Anthropic launched Claude Explains in early June as a demonstration of AI and human collaboration in content creation. The blog featured posts primarily about coding and programming topics, with content generated by Claude but edited by humans. TechCrunch initially reported on the...

read Jun 11, 2025

AI could fix dating apps by coaching couples through intimacy, romantic nuance

A therapist argues that artificial intelligence could revolutionize dating apps by addressing the unconscious patterns and communication styles that cause most modern relationships to fail before they begin. Rather than simply matching people based on surface-level compatibility, AI could guide couples through the delicate process of building trust and intimacy at the right pace for each individual. The core problem: Current dating apps like Bumble, Tinder, and Hinge excel at matching people but fail to help them actually date successfully. Most people lack clear agreement on what constitutes "dating," with beliefs about romance and courtship buried in their subconscious minds....

read Jun 11, 2025

Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses drop to $239 with rare 20% discount

Amazon is offering Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses for $239, marking a rare 20% discount on the popular wearable technology that combines Ray-Ban's classic design with Meta's AI capabilities. The deal represents significant savings on a product that was frequently out of stock during much of 2024 and has rarely seen price reductions since its launch. What you should know: The discounted glasses deliver near-AirPods audio quality while adding camera and AI assistant functionality that traditional headphones can't match. The smart glasses feature built-in speakers that provide audio quality "nearly as bright and clear as a pair of AirPods" for calls...

read Jun 10, 2025

OpenAI diversifies beyond Microsoft with Google cloud partnership

OpenAI has struck an unprecedented cloud computing deal with Google, despite the companies' fierce rivalry in artificial intelligence. The partnership, finalized in May after months of negotiations, allows OpenAI to tap Google's cloud infrastructure to meet surging demand for computing power needed to train and run its AI models, marking a significant shift in AI industry dynamics. The big picture: This collaboration between two AI heavyweights illustrates how massive computing demands are reshaping competitive relationships in the sector, with OpenAI diversifying beyond its primary supporter Microsoft. What you should know: The deal represents OpenAI's latest move to reduce dependency on...

read Jun 10, 2025

76% of small businesses are now exploring or using AI

A comprehensive survey of nearly 1,000 small businesses reveals that over 50% are actively exploring AI implementation, with 25% already integrating artificial intelligence into their daily operations. The findings from Reimagine Main Street, a project of Public Private Strategies Institute conducted in partnership with PayPal, indicate that AI adoption among small businesses has reached a critical tipping point, evolving from a question of "if" to "when." What you should know: Small businesses are moving beyond basic AI applications toward strategic implementations that provide competitive advantages. 82% believe adopting AI is essential to stay competitive in today's business environment The survey...

read Jun 10, 2025

AI not served here, would you like a glass of liquid? Apple unveils new design, disappoints where it counts

Apple unveiled Liquid Glass, its most significant iPhone design overhaul since iOS 7 in 2013, at this year's WWDC developer conference. The new design language features transparent glass-like elements, curved corners, and fluid animations that will transform the visual experience across all Apple devices when it launches later this year, though the announcement disappointed investors hoping for major AI breakthroughs. What you should know: Liquid Glass represents Apple's first major visual redesign in over a decade, directly inspired by the company's Vision Pro headset interface. The lock screen will appear made of glass, with buttons transforming into "glass pills" that...

read Jun 10, 2025

Chronicle AI launches with 100K users, reimagines presentations as websites

Chronicle AI Presentations has launched publicly after accumulating a waitlist of over 100,000 users, including 10,000 businesses, following months of stealth development. The AI-powered presentation platform, co-founded by Mayuresh Patole and Tejas Gawande, aims to transform how people create and deliver presentations by replacing traditional slide formats with interactive, web-like experiences that prioritize visual storytelling and design quality. What you should know: Chronicle fundamentally reimagines presentation creation by abandoning the traditional slide format in favor of a scrollable, interactive canvas powered by AI assistance. Users can start with a blank canvas or generate drafts by uploading PDFs, pasting text, or...

read Jun 10, 2025

Samsung offers $100 credit for upcoming AI smart monitors with no commitment

Samsung has launched a reserve campaign offering free $100 credits toward its upcoming next-generation AI Smart Monitors, with no purchase commitment required. The promotion runs through June 24th and allows users to secure savings on what appears to be the new Smart Monitor M9, which Samsung describes as the "first monitor" to integrate on-device AI. What you should know: The reservation system requires only an email signup and comes with zero financial commitment. Users can register on Samsung's landing page between June 9th (10am EST) and June 24th (9:59am EST) to receive the $100 credit. The credit can be applied...

read Jun 10, 2025

SAG-AFTRA secures AI guardrails in tentative video game contract deal

The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), Hollywood's union for video game performers, has reached a tentative contract agreement with major video game companies that could end an 11-month strike over artificial intelligence protections. The strike, which began in July 2024, centered on performers' concerns that unregulated AI could be used to replicate their voices and likenesses without consent, potentially displacing human talent in the gaming industry. What you should know: The tentative deal includes AI guardrails that SAG-AFTRA says will protect performers' livelihoods in the digital age. Union members struck against major gaming companies including...

read Jun 10, 2025

OpenAI and Jony Ive develop screenless AI wearable targeting 2027 launch

OpenAI is developing a screenless, wearable AI device in collaboration with legendary Apple designer Jony Ive that could potentially replace smartphones entirely. Expected to launch in late 2026 or early 2027, the pocket-sized device would feature microphones and cameras to provide contextually aware AI assistance without requiring users to look at a screen. What you should know: The device represents OpenAI's ambitious push beyond software into hardware, targeting the emerging ambient computing market. One version is rumored to resemble an iPod Shuffle worn around the neck, with touch or voice-based controls for real-time interaction with OpenAI's models. The device would...

read Jun 10, 2025

Cisco launches AI-powered network management that cuts troubleshooting to seconds

Cisco has unveiled new AI-powered networking hardware and software designed to automate network management tasks at "machine speed" through its AgenticOps framework. The announcement, made at Cisco Live 2024 in San Diego, introduces routers, switches, and management tools powered by Cisco's proprietary Deep Network Model. The move positions the networking giant to capture enterprise demand for autonomous network operations while keeping IT teams in control. Key hardware launches: Cisco introduced multiple product lines optimized for AI workloads across campus and industrial environments. New secure router models (8100, 8200, 8300, 8400, and 8500) deliver three times the throughput of previous versions...

read Jun 10, 2025

Cutting to the chase: Zencoder’s AI testing agent takes QA work from days to mere hours

Zencoder has launched Zentester, an AI-powered agent that automates end-to-end software testing, promising to compress days of quality assurance work into just two hours. The tool addresses a critical bottleneck in AI-driven development, where accelerated code generation has created overwhelming testing requirements that traditional QA processes can't handle efficiently. What you should know: Zentester operates on plain English instructions and can interact with applications like a human tester—clicking buttons, filling forms, and navigating workflows—while validating both frontend and backend functionality. The AI agent integrates with existing testing frameworks like Playwright and Selenium rather than replacing them entirely. Early customer Club...

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