Author: Art Ryan

A Salesforce spokesperson told TechCrunch that Moonhub has not, in fact, been acquired (by the company’s definition of the term). Rather, Moonhub is shutting down, and only some of the company’s team — not the whole team, as MoonHub implied in its post about the news — will be joining Salesforce. The original story follows. Salesforce has quietly snapped up Moonhub, a startup building AI to vet and hire talent. The terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. In a post on Moonhub’s website on Monday, the company said that its entire Menlo Park, California-based team will be joining Salesforce, an early investor in…

IBM on Monday said that it has acquired Seek AI, an AI platform that allows users to ask questions about enterprise data using natural language, for an undisclosed sum. Seek CEO and founder Sarah Nagy said that the startup’s technology will be a key part of Watsonx AI Labs, IBM’s new NYC-based AI accelerator, which IBM also announced today. “[W]e’ll scale our platform, deploy mission-critical solutions for IBM clients, empower the next generation of AI developers, and grow our team significantly,” Nagy wrote in a LinkedIn post. IBM’s acquisition of Seek comes as the former looks to grow its investments in AI, particularly AI…

IBM and Roche are teaming up on an AI solution to a challenge faced by millions worldwide: the relentless daily grind of diabetes management. Their new brainchild, the Accu-Chek SmartGuide Predict app, provides AI-powered glucose forecasting capabilities to users. The app doesn’t just track where your glucose levels are—it tells you where they’re heading. Imagine having a weather forecast, but for your blood sugar. That’s essentially what IBM and Roche are creating. AI-powered diabetes management The app works alongside Roche’s continuous glucose monitoring sensor, crunching the numbers in real-time to offer predictive insights that can help users stay ahead of potentially dangerous blood…

The 81st IATA Annual General Meeting and World Air Transport Summit kicked off in Delhi with a high-energy press briefing, featuring IATA Director General Willie Walsh, Board Chair and IndiGo CEO Peter Elbers, and IATA’s Head of Communications Tony Consul. The session offered a sweeping view of the global airline industry — its resilience, challenges, and shifting geopolitical realities — as stakeholders confront tight margins, infrastructure limits, and the urgent push toward sustainability. Global Outlook: Profits Hold Amidst Softening Demand Walsh opened with a cautiously optimistic global forecast. Although IATA has revised projected industry revenues downward to $979 billion from…

In his annual State of the Air Transport Industry address at the 81st IATA Annual General Meeting, IATA Director General Willie Walsh offered a candid appraisal of the global airline sector. While profits remain steady, Walsh emphasized that the industry is operating on fragile margins — and continues to grapple with persistent supply chain setbacks. Global Outlook: Stable Profits, But Thin Margins “We’re looking at a small reduction in forecast revenues this year,” Walsh announced, attributing the dip to softer-than-expected passenger demand and yields. “But fortunately, that’s being offset by a reduction in the oil price,” he added. Despite this…

At the 81st IATA Annual General Meeting, Somit Goyal, CEO of IBS Software, laid out a confident and strategic vision for the next wave of digital transformation in the airline industry. From personalized retail to operational resilience and AI-driven intelligence, Goyal believes the industry is standing on the cusp of meaningful, long-term change. Top Priorities: Airline Retailing, Resilience, and Logistics Over the next 6 to 12 months, Goyal identifies three major opportunities for the aviation industry’s digital journey. At the top of the list is modern airline retailing — a new frontier that allows airlines to shift from static fare…

As the aviation industry accelerates its path toward net-zero emissions by 2050, IATA’s Senior Vice President of Sustainability and Chief Economist, Dr. Marie Owens Thomsen, is calling for renewed urgency, smarter policy, and global cooperation to meet this monumental challenge. The Waning Urgency Around Sustainability Dr. Owens Thomsen highlighted a paradox stalling momentum: declining oil prices. “Historically, new energy markets have emerged out of a sense of acute necessity—typically when oil prices were high,” she explained. “With lower oil prices and shifting political priorities in major economies, the global sense of urgency is fading—just when it should be intensifying.” She…

In a regional update at the IATA 81st Annual General Meeting, Dr. Xie Xingquan, Regional Vice President for North Asia at IATA, painted a picture of both promise and pressure for the region’s airline sector. While passenger demand is rebounding strongly, thin profit margins persist, driven by complex geopolitical and market dynamics. Growth Returns, But Financial Performance Lags Dr. Xie noted that the Asia Pacific region is projected to lead global growth in air travel, with significant market potential continuing to emerge. “We are quite positive for the potential,” he said. However, financial performance has not kept pace. “The profit…

In a candid conversation at the IATA 81st Annual General Meeting, Dr. Marie Owens Thomsen, Senior Vice President of Sustainability and Chief Economist at IATA, delivered a nuanced view of the airline industry’s economic outlook. While growth persists, deep structural imbalances and capacity constraints cast a long shadow. Global Slowdown and Trade Tensions Weigh Heavily “The dominant force is definitely the slowdown,” Dr. Owens Thomsen stated, highlighting how international trade policies remain a critical variable. Slower economic growth, she warned, is inherently detrimental to aviation, a sector tightly interwoven with global commerce. However, the outlook isn’t entirely bleak. One positive…

In a sharp regional update delivered at the IATA 81st Annual General Meeting, Rafael Schvartzman, IATA’s Regional Vice President for Europe, outlined a sobering assessment of the challenges facing the continent’s air transport sector. His central message: Europe’s competitiveness is under threat, and aviation — a key enabler of economic dynamism — must not be neglected in the policy landscape. “The number one issue obviously facing Europe is competitiveness,” Schvartzman stated, citing the influential Draghi report which identified competitiveness as the continent’s top priority. “Air transport is being highlighted as a critical part of that competitiveness,” he emphasized. Connectivity Collapse:…

At the 81st IATA Annual General Meeting (AGM), Hemant Mistry, Director of Energy Transition at the International Air Transport Association (IATA), delivered a stark message about the urgent need to ramp up production of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) — and the collective action it requires. “We need to make sure that all of the big players are involved in this,” said Mistry, emphasizing that the current momentum is primarily driven by a limited number of boutique SAF suppliers. While their efforts are commendable, he argued that it’s not enough to move the needle on global emissions reductions. “We need big…

By meeting in the largest aviation market in South America, the AGM will highlight the great potential for aviation to be a more powerful strategic force driving social and economic prosperity. Notably, previous IATA AGMs held in Brazil were in Petropolis (1947) and Rio de Janeiro (1999). The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced that the 82nd IATA Annual General Meeting (AGM) will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in June 2026, hosted by LATAM Airlines Group. “We are excited to accept LATAM’s offer to host IATA’s 82nd AGM in Rio de Janeiro. The last time the IATA AGM…

New Delhi – The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced that Luis Gallego, CEO of International Airlines Group (IAG), has assumed his duties as Chair of the IATA Board. His one-year term began at the conclusion of the 81st IATA Annual General Meeting in New Delhi, India, on 2 June 2025. Gallego is the 83rd Chair of the IATA Board on which he has served since 2018. Gallego succeeds IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers, who will continue to serve on the Board. “I am honored to be taking up the position of Chair of the IATA Board. The airline industry faces significant challenges—accelerating environmental action, managing…

New Delhi – The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced updates to its 2025 airline industry financial outlook, showing improved profitability over 2024 and resilience in the face of global economic and political shifts. Highlights from the expected 2025 financial performance include: “The first half of 2025 has brought significant uncertainties to global markets. Nonetheless, by many measures including net profits, it will still be a better year for airlines than 2024, although slightly below our previous projections. The biggest positive driver is the price of jet fuel which has fallen 13% compared with 2024 and 1% below previous estimates. Moreover,…

‍DELHI – In a step toward decarbonizing the skies, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced on the first day of its Annual General Meeting (AGM) that the global production of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) is expected to reach two million tonnes in 2025. While this marks a doubling of 2024’s output, it still represents just 0.7% of total airline fuel consumption—a sobering reminder of the long road ahead. “This small but growing volume of SAF will still add US$4.4 billion to airlines’ fuel bills globally,” said Willie Walsh, IATA’s Director General. “We must urgently accelerate production and drive down costs.”…

The 81st Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and the 2025 World Air Transport Summit (WATS) enters Day 2 today in New Delhi, India, with a packed agenda of high-level discussions and strategic sessions at the Bharat Mandapam Convention Centre. Hosted by IndiGo, India’s largest airline, this historic event brings together over 1,000 global aviation leaders, including airline CEOs, regulators, policymakers, and other key stakeholders to address the industry’s most urgent challenges and future opportunities. Key Highlights Scheduled for Day 2 Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s AddressA key moment today will be the keynote speech by…

We’re excited to be back at Build, a special moment each year to connect with the global developer community. It’s energizing to share what we’ve been working on, and just as important, to hear how developers are using Microsoft platforms to build what’s next. At Microsoft, we believe the future of AI is being built right now across the cloud, on the edge and on Windows. Windows is, and will remain, an open platform that empowers developers to do their best work, offering the ultimate flexibility. Our north star is clear: to make Windows the best platform for developers, built…

This week, DeepSeek released an updated version of its R1 model on HuggingFace, reigniting the open-source versus closed-source competition. The updated version, called DeekSeek-R1-0528, has 685 billion parameters, an upgrade from January’s version, which had 671 billion. Unlike OpenAI and Google’s models, which are famously closed-source, DeepSeek’s model weights are publicly available. According to the benchmarks, the R1-0528 update has improved reasoning and inference capabilities and is closing the gap with OpenAI’s o3 and Google’s Gemini 2.5 Pro. DeepSeek also introduced a distilled version of R1-0528 using Alibaba’s Qwen3 8B model. This is an example of a lightweight model that is less capable but also requires less…

The upcoming WWDC keynote may not help raise the profile and functionality of Apple Intelligence much, with a report claiming Apple’s AI announcements will be sparse, and disappointing. Following the introduction of Apple Intelligence at WWDC in 2024, the AI effort at Apple has endured an agonizingly slow and rocky rollout. While the 2025 event offers an opportunity for Apple to turn things around, a report offers little hope that Apple will do just that. According to Sunday’s “Power On” newsletter from Bloomberg, sources within Apple believe that WWDC will be a disappointment form an AI perspective. In the wake of the Google I/O keynote offering massive new…

Some of the most powerful artificial intelligence models today have exhibited behaviors that mimic a will to survive. Recent tests by independent researchers, as well as one major AI developer, have shown that several advanced AI models will act to ensure their self-preservation when they are confronted with the prospect of their own demise — even if it takes sabotaging shutdown commands, blackmailing engineers or copying themselves to external servers without permission. The findings stirred a frenzy of reactions online over the past week. As tech companies continue to develop increasingly powerful agentic AI in a race to achieve artificial general intelligence,…