Author: Art Ryan

Popular messaging app WhatsApp on Tuesday unveiled a new technology called Private Processing to enable artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities in a privacy-preserving manner. “Private Processing will allow users to leverage powerful optional AI features – like summarizing unread messages or editing help – while preserving WhatsApp’s core privacy promise,” the Meta-owned service said in a statement shared with The Hacker News. With the introduction of the latest feature, the idea is to facilitate the use of AI features while still keeping users’ messages private. It’s expected to be made available in the coming weeks. The capability, in a nutshell, allows users to…

Credo AI, a global pioneer of the AI governance category and a leading provider of trustworthy AI governance software, today announced a strategic collaboration with IBM to help global enterprises operationalize AI regulatory compliance management at scale. The OEM agreement integrates Credo AI’s Policy Packs as an add-on for IBM watsonx.governance customers–branded by IBM as Compliance Accelerators in the IBM Marketplace. As enterprises scale AI adoption, they often struggle to keep pace with rapidly evolving AI regulatory risks and compliance requirements. Without policy tracking, organizations face stalled innovation, compliance risk exposure, and fragmented AI governance. Credo AI’s Policy Packs deliver…

With artificial intelligence advancing and becoming increasingly autonomous, there is a growing shared responsibility in the way trust is built into the systems that operate AI. Providers are responsible for maintaining a trusted technology platform, while customers are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality and reliability of information within their environment. At the heart of society’s current AI journey lies the concept of agentic AI, where trust is not just a byproduct but a fundamental pillar of development and deployment. Agentic AI relies heavily on data governance and provenance to ensure that its decisions are consistent, reliable, transparent and ethical. As…

The US Justice Department’s proposed fixes for Google’s illegal monopoly in the online search market are more likely to spur competition than the remedies offered by the company, an economist called by antitrust enforcers testified in the government’s landmark trial against the tech giant. The department’s “remedies will have a better chance of restoring competition,” said Tasneem Chipty, an economics expert for the government. “Google’s remedies will tend to preserve Google’s monopoly.” Chipty testified for several hours before Judge Amit Mehta as the DOJ’s final witness before the government rested its case. Mehta ruled last year that the tech giant…

After integrating Meta AI into WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger, Meta is rolling out a stand-alone AI app. Unveiled at Meta’s LlamaCon event on Tuesday, this app allows users to access Meta AI in an app, similar to the ChatGPT app and other AI assistant apps. To win over users, Meta is trying to leverage what makes it different from companies like OpenAI and Anthropic — Meta already has a sense of who you are, what you like, and who you hang out with based on years of data that you’ve likely shared on Facebook or Instagram. Meta’s AI app can differentiate itself…

UPS and Figure AI are reportedly considering a partnership in which the robotics startup’s humanoid robots would perform some tasks in the logistics company’s operations. Discussions between the two companies are ongoing, Bloomberg reported Monday (April 28), citing unnamed sources. UPS said in the report that it wouldn’t discuss potential vendor partners and that it regularly explores a wide range of technologies, including robotics. The functions that would be performed by the robots in a potential partnership is not clear, the report said. The report added that Figure AI posted a video on X in February that showed robots sorting small parcels on a conveyor belt. Figure AI announced…

Samsung Electronics today announced that select Galaxy A series devices will soon support AI assistant activation through the side button, bringing a fan-favorite feature from the Galaxy S series to more users and furthering Samsung’s vision of democratizing the latest AI experiences. With this update,1 users will be able to enjoy smarter AI experiences, including launching Gemini,2 Google’s AI-powered assistant, by simply pressing and holding the side button. Samsung introduced Awesome Intelligence3 on the latest Galaxy A series – Galaxy A56 5G, Galaxy A36 5G and Galaxy A26 5G – including select fan-favorite AI-powered features that open up Galaxy’s incredible mobile AI experiences to…

Duolingo will “gradually stop using contractors to do work that AI can handle,” according to an all-hands email sent by co-founder and CEO Luis von Ahn announcing that the company will be “AI-first.” The email was posted on Duolingo’s LinkedIn account. According to von Ahn, being “AI-first” means the company will “need to rethink much of how we work” and that “making minor tweaks to systems designed for humans won’t get us there.” As part of the shift, the company will roll out “a few constructive constraints,” including the changes to how it works with contractors, looking for AI use in…

Rio de Janeiro, April 29, 2025 — As the second day of Web Summit Rio 2025 unfolds at Riocentro, the atmosphere is charged with enthusiasm and forward-thinking dialogue. With over 34,000 attendees from 110 countries, the event continues to be a melting pot of ideas, innovation, and international collaboration.​ Morning Sessions: AI and the Future of Work The day commenced with a compelling keynote on the transformative power of Artificial Intelligence in the modern workplace. Industry leaders discussed how AI is not only automating tasks but also creating new opportunities for human-AI collaboration, emphasizing the importance of upskilling and continuous…

While companies building artificial intelligence (AI)-powered supercomputers are likely to be able to get the chips and capital they need, they may run into power constraints by 2030, according to research institute Epoch AI. “If the observed trends continue, the leading AI supercomputer in June 2030 will need 2 million AI chips, cost $200 billion and require 9GW of power,” the company said in a paper posted Wednesday (April 23). “Historical AI chip production growth and major capital commitments like the $500 billion Project Stargate suggest the first two requirements can likely be met. However, 9GW of power is the equivalent of nine nuclear reactors, a…

FedEx CEO Raj Subramaniam said Thursday (April 24) that the logistics giant is using advanced data analytics and AI to navigate complex global trade disruptions — the latest of which are U.S. tariffs. “Things are changing by the minute,” Subramaniam said during a fireside chat at the Semafor World Economy Summit 2025 in Washington, D.C. “On the overall demand side, we will manage through. … So far, things are OK, but I can’t tell you what will happen next week.” In March, FedEx cut its full year and revenue outlook for the third consecutive quarter, citing continued weakness and uncertainty in the U.S. industrial economy. A big factor in…

As the digital and physical worlds of commerce continue to intertwine, Amazon and Walmart are reinventing themselves at a blistering pace. What was once a head-to-head contest for online supremacy has now evolved into a complex chess game, with both giants doubling down on logistics, artificial intelligence (AI), physical store innovation and customer experience. Retail Competition and Consumer Behavior Retail isn’t just about selling things anymore. It’s about being indispensable to your customer’s life. That’s the ongoing contest underway between Amazon and Walmart. But while it was once thought that shoppers would pick sides — particularly as it relates to retailer loyalty programs like Amazon Prime or Walmart+ — recent…

Chinese tech company Alibaba on Monday released Qwen 3, a family of AI models the company claims matches and in some cases outperforms the best models available from Google and OpenAI. Most of the models are — or soon will be — available for download under an “open” license from AI dev platform Hugging Face and GitHub. They range in size from 0.6 billion parameters to 235 billion parameters. Parameters roughly correspond to a model’s problem-solving skills, and models with more parameters generally perform better than those with fewer parameters. The rise of China-originated model series like Qwen have increased the pressure on American labs…

Hugging Face, the startup best known for the AI developer platform of the same name, is selling a programmable, 3D-printable robotic arm that can pick up and place objects and perform a few other basic chores. Called the SO-101, the arm is the follow-up to Hugging Face’s previous robotic arm, the SO-100, released last year. The company’s robotics division, LeRobot, partnered with French robotics firm The Robot Studio to debut the SO-100 for around $100 in October. Hugging Face teamed up with The Robot Studio once again for the SO-101, as well as with robotics store WowRobo, IoT hardware supplier Seeed…

OpenAI is updating ChatGPT search, its web search tool in ChatGPT, to give users an improved online shopping experience, the company announced Monday. When ChatGPT users search for products, the chatbot will now offer a few recommendations, present images and reviews for those items, and include direct links to web pages where users can buy the products. OpenAI says users can ask super-specific questions in natural language and receive customized results. To start, OpenAI is experimenting with categories such as fashion, beauty, home goods, and electronics. OpenAI is rolling out the feature in GPT-4o (the default AI model for ChatGPT) on…

News about Android is being relegated to a side show at Google’s annual developer conference, Google I/O, next month. On Monday, the company announced it would share information about the latest updates coming to the Android ecosystem at an upcoming virtual event called “The Android Show: I/O Edition,” airing on May 13. The decision to move the Android portion of Google I/O to its own separate event ahead of the start of I/O suggests this year’s developer conference could be even more AI heavy than usual. AI news and updates were already taking up an increasingly longer portion of the Google I/O…

AI-based coding has exploded in popularity on the promise that it will make developers’ jobs faster and easier. But AI coding has also resulted in something else: a vast increase in lines of code, and thus the likelihood of bugs resulting in crashes or other mishaps. On Monday, an Israeli startup called Lightrun, which has built an observability platform to identify and debug (remediate) code before those problems arise, announced a Series B of $70 million. The funding underscores not just the gap in the market for tools like these, but also Lightrun’s traction in meeting that demand. New backer Accel…

Goodfire raised $50 million in a Series A funding round to support its efforts to help enterprises understand and design artificial intelligence (AI) models. The company will use the new funding to expand its research initiatives and further the development of its flagship interpretability platform, Ember, Goodfire said in an April 17 press release. “Nobody understands the mechanisms by which AI models fail, so no one knows how to fix them,” Goodfire Co-founder and CEO Eric Ho said in the release. “Our vision is to build tools to make neural networks easy to understand, design and fix from the inside out.” Goodfire’s research focuses…

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – April 2025 — In a city famous for its vibrant culture and breathtaking scenery, Web Summit Rio 2025 is setting a new standard for global tech gatherings. Running from April 27 to 30 at the Riocentro Convention Center, the event is bringing together an extraordinary community of over 35,000 tech enthusiasts, 1,400 startups, 500 investors, and 400 world-renowned speakers to celebrate and shape the future of technology. Spotlight on Transformation: AI, Sustainability, and More This year’s Web Summit Rio is buzzing with discussions on some of the most urgent topics in tech and society: Visionaries…

Dubai, UAE – April 2025 — The global spotlight turned to Dubai this week as the Dubai FinTech Summit 2025 unfolded, bringing together industry giants, tech innovators, regulators, and investors from across the world. Hosted under the theme “Shaping the Future of Finance,” the summit served as a critical platform for thought leadership, new partnerships, and groundbreaking solutions driving the evolution of global finance. Key Themes and Highlights With over 8,000 attendees from more than 100 countries, this year’s summit showcased the rapid pace of transformation within the financial ecosystem — fueled by technology, regulation, and the relentless rise of…