Author: Art Ryan

Legislation introduced Wednesday in Congress would block Chinese artificial intelligence systems from federal agencies as a bipartisan group of lawmakers pledged to ensure that the United States would prevail against China in the global competition over AI. “We are in a new Cold War, and AI is the strategic technology at the center,” said Republican Rep. John Moolenaar of Michigan, chairman of the House Select Committee on China, as he opened a hearing on the matter. “The future balance of power may very well be determined by who leads in AI.” About five months ago, a Chinese technology startup called DeepSeek introduced an AI…

Voice AI company SuperDial announced it received $15 million in new funding, which includes $3 million in venture debt. The company has raised over $20 million in funding. SignalFire led the debt and equity series A round, with participation from Slow Ventures, BoxGroup and Scrub Capital. WHAT IT DOES SuperDial automates phone calls for billing companies and provider organizations using AI agents. The platform handles benefits verification, prior authorization, claims follow-up and credentialing. SuperDial’s customers include revenue cycle management companies and large provider organizations, such as dental service organizations and management services organizations that manage their billing. The company will use the funds to invest…

Nonprofit Creative Commons, which spearheaded the licensing movement that allows creators to share their works while retaining copyright, is now preparing for the AI era. On Wednesday, the organization announced the launch of a new project, CC signals, which will allow dataset holders to detail how their content can or cannot be reused by machines, as in the case of training AI models. The idea is meant to create a balance between the open nature of the internet and the demand for ever more data to fuel AI. As Creative Commons explains in a blog post, the continued data extraction underway could…

Data cybersecurity company Rubrik announced Wednesday its intent to acquire Predibase. Predibase is a venture-backed startup that helps companies train and fine-tune open source AI models to customize them to their needs. Rubrik is the latest company to make an acquisition with the goal of boosting enterprise AI agent adoption. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, though CNBC reported that the deal was between $100 million and $500 million, a sizable range. Rubrik declined to comment on the deal size. Predibase was founded in 2021 by Devvret Rishi, current CEO; Piero Molino, current chief science officer; and Travis Addair, current CTO. The…

Amazon-owned Ring announced on Wednesday that it’s introducing a new AI-powered feature to its doorbells and cameras, which offers users specific text descriptions of current motion activity. Now, when users receive real-time notifications about happenings at their property, the updates will be more descriptive. For instance, “A person is walking up the steps with a black dog,” or “Two individuals are looking into a white car parked in the driveway.” The feature aims to improve upon the vague notifications that were previously available. Users will be able to know exactly what is happening and can quickly decide whether it requires…

Gemini CLI is part of Google’s efforts to get developers using its AI models in their coding workflows. Google now offers an array of AI coding tools, such as Gemini Code Assist and its asynchronous AI coding assistant, Jules. However, Gemini CLI competes directly with other command-line AI tools such as OpenAI’s Codex CLI and Anthropic’s Claude Code — tools that tend to be easier to integrate, faster, and more efficient than other AI coding tools. Since Google launched Gemini 2.5 Pro in April, the company’s AI models have become a favorite among developers. The popularity of Gemini 2.5 Pro has driven usage of third-party AI coding tools, such…

The Lenovo Group (HKSE:0992.HK) has introduced an array of data center systems, software, and services optimized for artificial intelligence workloads as a part of its Hybrid AI Advantage product line. At the heart of the announcements is a compute appliance called the ThinkSystem SR680a V4. Lenovo says it features nearly two dozen processors in an air-cooled chassis and can run inference workloads up to 11 times faster than the company’s previous-generation hardware. Eight of the processors in the SR680a V4 are Nvidia Blackwell B200 AI accelerators while another six of the processors are Intel Xeon 6 CPUs with up to…

Walmart continues its major movement on tech this year, strengthening its workforce with a new suite of AI tools designed to keep associates focused and more efficient, the retailer announced Tuesday. The Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer initially introduced the technology for overnight stocking using an AI-directed workflow tool. Early results indicate that the tools reduce the time team leads spend planning shifts from 90 to 30 minutes. It is now being piloted for other shifts in select locations. Associates also have access to a new real-time translation feature that supports 44 languages, helping facilitate multilingual conversations between associates and customers. The…

A federal judge has sided with Anthropic in a major copyright ruling, declaring that artificial intelligence developers can train on published books without authors’ consent. The decision, filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, sets a precedent that training AI systems on copyrighted works constitutes fair use. Though it doesn’t guarantee other courts will follow, Judge William Alsup’s ruling marks the first of dozens of ongoing copyright lawsuits to give an answer on fair use in the context of generative AI. It’s a question that’s been raised by creatives across various industries for years…

Brainomix and 3DR Labs have entered a strategic partnership on the AI imaging tool Brainomix 360 Stroke. In a statement, the companies said that they will integrate Brainomix 360 Stroke into 3DR’s AI Labs, a vendor-agnostic platform. Brainomix 360 Stroke was recently granted 510(k) clearance by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted 510(k) for a patented feature enabling assessment of ischemic core volume on noncontrast CT scans. The collaboration follows 3DR Labs’ recent launch of its Neurology Center of Excellence, a new division focused on providing specialized postprocessing services for stroke, presurgical planning, and the management of brain…

Google Cloud has donated its Agent2Agent (A2A) protocol to the Linux Foundation, which has now announced a new community-driven project called the Agent2Agent Project. A2A was originally developed by Google Cloud as a protocol specification, SDK, and tooling set that made communication between AI agents possible. The protocol allows AI agents from different vendors to discover each other, share capabilities and context, and securely collaborate on complex tasks. AI agents are AI-powered tools like chatbots, coding aids, autonomous agents, etc. With the AI ecosystem evolving rapidly and more agents sprouting from different sources, the need for interoperability and seamless cross-service…

Startups developing voice AI technology and applications are having their moment. Model builders like ElevenLabs and Cartesia have raised millions of dollars in the last few months. Applications such as AI-powered notetaker Granola and meeting tools Read AI and Fireflies AI have also received investor attention and backing. Continuing the trend, dictation app Wispr Flow announced today that it is raising $30 million in Series A funding from Menlo Ventures with participation from NEA, 8VC, Opal CEO Kenneth Schlenker, Pinterest founder Evan Sharp, Carta CEO Henry Ward, and Lindy CEO Flo Crivelli. Menlo Ventures’ Matt Kraning, who also backed the company as an angel investor, will join its board. To date, the company has raised $56 million.…

Google DeepMind on Tuesday released a new language model called Gemini Robotics On-Device that can run tasks locally on robots without requiring an internet connection. Building on the company’s previous Gemini Robotics model that was released in March, Gemini Robotics On-Device can control a robot’s movements. Developers can control and fine-tune the model to suit various needs using natural language prompts. In benchmarks, Google claims the model performs at a level close to the cloud-based Gemini Robotics model. The company says it outperforms other on-device models in general benchmarks, though it didn’t name those models. In a demo, the company showed…

Google introduced its AI mode, a Q&A-style search tool, to users in India today. The company said that this tool is still in the experimental stage and users will need to opt in to it through Search Labs. Once a user has opted in, they can ask queries in English. Google didn’t specify whether it plans to support local languages or when that might be available. Users can search for answers to complex, multi-part queries such as “My kids are 4 and 7 and have lots of energy. Suggest creative ways to get them active and moving indoors, especially on hot…

Salesforce Agentforce 3 aims to tackle what many businesses have been struggling with: actually seeing what their AI agents are up to. Since its debut back in October 2024, Agentforce has been racking up some wins across a variety of sectors. Engine managed to slash customer case handling times by 15 percent, while 1-800Accountant handed off 70 percent of administrative chat queries to AI during the madness of tax season. But what’s interesting about this upgrade isn’t just the numbers, it’s how Salesforce is addressing the elephant in the room that nobody likes to talk about: businesses are deploying AI…

The latest phase of the mobile OS wars isn’t being fought over app stores or user interfaces – it’s being waged with artificial intelligence. Huawei’s latest salvo comes in the form of HarmonyOS 6, in which AI agents aren’t features but the architecture driving user interactions. The beta release to developers signals a broader industry shift where operating systems transform from passive platforms into what are being framed as intelligent intermediaries that anticipate, learn, and act on behalf of users. The AI-first approach defines the latest release The centrepiece of HarmonyOS 6 lies in its AI agents framework, which lets…

Last year, research from Accenture and Microsoft found that generative AI could contribute between $76 and $108 billion to our economy each year by 2038. And today, new research from Microsoft partner Mandala has unpacked these figures to spell out more clearly just how New Zealand can capitalise on this national opportunity. Realistically, Aotearoa can’t compete on developing major new AI models or a microchip industry with countries and companies that have seemingly bottomless pockets, vast natural resources and bigger populations. But at the same time, comparisons with similar-sized nations like Singapore, Norway, Finland, Estonia and Portugal find us trailing the pack on most measures, from…

As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly integrated into nearly every facet of modern life, the conversation has shifted from what AI can do to how people can thrive alongside it. AI is no longer confined to automating processes or improving efficiency. Increasingly, it is reshaping how people learn, work and collaborate, which raises urgent questions about the future of human roles in an AI-powered world. In particular, how can AI be harnessed to amplify how people think critically, solve complex problems and create with purpose? These questions took centre stage at this year’s Adult Learning Xchange (ALX2025), the Institute for Adult…

Vultr has closed a $255 million syndicated credit facility including a $35 million uncommitted accordion, in addition to $74 million of recently-closed lease financing, for a total of $329 million of credit financing. The syndicated credit facility was led by J.P. Morgan, Bank of America and Wells Fargo, with additional participation from Citi, Goldman Sachs and KeyBank. Vultr plans to use the additional capital to expand its global footprint of artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing infrastructure to serve its rapidly-growing customer base, further solidifying its leadership position in the independent cloud provider market. “J.P. Morgan is thrilled to support Vultr’s…

Dive Brief: Dive Insight: As CFO for Wiley, Albright is set to receive an annual base salary of $550,000, according to the filing with the SEC. He will also be eligible for an annual incentive opportunity with a target of 100% of his base and will be eligible for annual grants under the company’s long-term incentive program, with a target incentive of 200% of his base salary, the company said. Wiley will also provide compensation and other support for relocation. Albright served in various executive roles during a two-decade span at Xerox, most recently serving as its CFO, Americas…