Author: Art Ryan

AMD will collaborate with Rapt AI, a GPU workload management software maker, to improve AI model inference and training on AMD’s Instinct processors. On Wednesday, the companies said they will work together to integrate Rapt AI’s workload automation platform with AMD’s Instinct MI300X, MI325X and upcoming MI350 series GPUs. The Rapt AI software will help enterprises with resource allocation and GPU management, and assist them in fixing performance bottlenecks, the companies said. In the future, Rapt AI will also focus on memory utilization. Enterprise IT departments struggle to determine whether data center resources are fully utilized at all times, according to…

It was only a matter of time. Garmin announced today it’s launching Garmin Connect Plus, a premium tier to its app that adds AI-powered insights and a few other expanded features. Existing and new Garmin users will be able to opt in to a free 30-day trial and then choose between a $6.99 monthly or $69.99 annual subscription. All existing health data and features, however, will remain free. “Developing a premium tier enables us to extend our investment in the Garmin Connect platform, both in terms of features that carry additional cost to provide and also in scaling out our…

Enterprise orchestration platform Workato says it has acquired DeepConverse, a support automation provider. The deal, announced Thursday (March 27), will allow Workato to add artificial intelligence (AI)-driven support automation capabilities into new product offerings. Terms of the acquisition were not released. “By bringing the DeepConverse team on board, we are accelerating our mission of creating a world where every connection powers progress,” Vijay Tella, co-founder and CEO of Workato, said in a news release. “Combining DeepConverse’s expertise in Search AI and AI Support Agents with Workato’s leading orchestration capabilities, we plan to offer our customers more powerful, seamless and transformative value.” According to the release, the 8-year-old DeepConverse specializes in customer support automation, helping…

Hello and welcome to Eye on AI. In today’s edition…OpenAI releases a more capable image generator, while Microsoft plants its stake in reasoning agents; Google debuts Gemini 2.5 “thinking” models; Amazon tests AI assistants for health and shopping; Character.AI gives parents a lens into their kid’s time on the platform; and AI companies’ aggressive crawlers overwhelm open-source projects. This week, both OpenAI and its backer (and erstwhile rival…it’s complicated) Microsoft rolled out some of their newest and most powerful AI capabilities into their main platforms. OpenAI debuted a new image generation capability for GPT-4o on its main ChatGPT service, offering…

AI-Media, a global leader in AI-powered language technology and solutions, is set to make a major impact at NAB Show 2025 in Las Vegas. From April 6-9, attendees can visit Booth #W1915 to explore AI-Media’s suite of industry-leading AI solutions and get an exclusive first look at its latest innovation in AI-powered voice translation. The Future of AI Voice Translation – See It First at NAB 2025 AI-Media will release LEXI Voice at NAB Show 2025 – a next-generation AI voice translation technology designed to break language barriers in real time. Built on AI-Media’s flagship LEXI captions – trusted worldwide for their accuracy and…

Dubai, UAE – April 23–24, 2025 – The global AI community is converging in the heart of the UAE for the highly anticipated Dubai AI Festival 2025, hosted at the iconic Madinat Jumeirah, Dubai. Organized by the Dubai AI Campus in partnership with DIFC and the Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy, and Remote Work Applications Office, this event will spotlight the world’s most innovative AI companies and thought leaders. A Showcase of Cutting-Edge AI Innovation The Dubai AI Festival 2025 will bring together a curated lineup of leading AI innovators, each presenting breakthrough technologies and future-ready solutions set to transform industries…

A new vendor survey reports a significant disconnect between major investments in generative AI and the adoption of quality assurance practices within the software development lifecycle (SDLC). The “State of Digital Quality in AI Survey,” released by Boston-based digital quality and crowdsourced testing company Applause, states that considering the rapid, global rise of genAI apps and agentic AI, which enables autonomous decision-making and execution without human intervention, “rigorous crowdtesting throughout the SDLC is critical to mitigating expanding risks associated with the technology.” More than 4,400 independent software developers, QA professionals and consumers worldwide participated in the survey, which explored common…

Yutori, an artificial intelligence (AI) startup founded by Meta veterans, has raised $15 million. The new funding round, announced Thursday (March 27), accompanies the company’s emergence from stealth and will help Yutori develop personalized AI assistants that it says can automate day-to-day tasks. “Today’s frontier AI models enable great chatbots but can’t complete tasks autonomously,” the company said in a news release. “Yutori was founded to build personal AI assistants that are so reliable that they become the primary drivers of action on the web.” According to the release, these assistants will handle things like scheduling and communications as well as authentication and transactions,…

FutureTech isn’t the future anymore. It’s happening now. With advancements in AI, quantum computing, and biotech reshaping industries, investors are looking for the next big opportunity. But where should they focus in 2025? Investing in FutureTech start-ups is more than a financial decision. It’s a strategic move toward shaping the technological landscape of tomorrow. Keeping up with key trends, market shifts, and emerging technologies is essential for making smart investment decisions in this fast-moving sector. Market overview The FutureTech sector is experiencing remarkable growth, with the global IT spending projected to hit $5.1 trillion in 2025, reflecting a 9.3% increase from…

Amazon started the Alexa Fund in 2015 to back early-stage voice startups. With the advent of large language models and Amazon launching Gen AI-powered Alexa+, along with a family of multimodal AI models, the fund now wants to broaden its scope and invest more in AI startups. In a blog post Amazon shared with TechCrunch ahead of publication, Alexa Fund leader Paul Bernard explained that the company now wants to invest in areas including AI-enabled hardware and smart agents. “While the Alexa Fund’s mission has evolved beyond the initial focus on voice technology over the years, the rapid developments in AI present…

Audio startup Krisp on Wednesday said it is launching a new feature that uses AI to change a user’s accent during calls. The company is initially rolling out support for changing Indian English accents to U.S. English. The startup says the accent conversion process preserves the speaker’s voice and only switches phonemes to match American accents. The feature has apparently been tested in enterprise environments, and a beta version is now coming to the Krisp desktop app. Users can turn the feature on any time during or before calls. Arto Minasyan, the company’s co-founder, said the idea for the feature…

Nvidia is looking to get into the server rental market. The semiconductor giant is reportedly nearing a deal to acquire Lepton AI, a company that rents out servers that are powered by Nvidia’s AI chips, according to The Information. Citing unnamed sources, the outlet says the deal deal is worth several hundred million dollars. TechCrunch reached out to Nvidia for more information. Lepton AI was founded two years ago and raised an $11 million seed round in May 2023 from CRV and Fusion Fund. The other big player in the server rental market is Together AI, a startup that has raised…

Akamai (NASDAQ: AKAM), the cybersecurity and cloud computing company that powers and protects business online, today unveiled Akamai Cloud Inference, to usher in a faster, more efficient wave of innovation for organizations looking to turn predictive and large language models (LLMs) into real-world action. Akamai Cloud Inference runs on Akamai Cloud, the world’s most distributed platform, to address escalating limitations of centralized cloud models. “Getting AI data closer to users and devices is hard, and it’s where legacy clouds struggle,” said Adam Karon, Chief Operating Officer and General Manager, Cloud Technology Group at Akamai. “While the heavy lifting of training LLMs will…

The crypto community is buzzing with anticipation as Lightchain AI prepares for its big debut. Once the presale is complete, both Uniswap and Pancakeswap, two of the largest decentralized exchanges, will list Lightchain AI pairs. This marks a significant milestone for the project and provides a promising opportunity for savvy DeFi investors and crypto enthusiasts looking to capitalize on a cutting-edge blockchain solution. If you’re unfamiliar with Lightchain AI or want to learn more about this dual listing and how it impacts potential investments, you’ve come to the right place. Here’s everything you need to know—and why now is the time to join…

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un supervised the test of suicide drones with artificial intelligence (AI) technology and said unmanned control and AI capability must be the top priorities in modern arms development, state media reported on Thursday. Kim also inspected new upgraded reconnaissance drones that are capable of detecting various tactical targets and enemy activities on land and at sea, KCNA state news agency said. “Kim Jong Un said unmanned equipment and artificial intelligence technology must be top priorities in weapons modernisation,” KCNA said. He stressed the importance of promoting a concerted longer-term national programme to be at the…

Latin America has been the cradle of now globally popular literary and musical genres, staple foods like the potato and the inspiration behind the well-known Happy Meal. It could also become the cradle of a new form of AI. A coalition of research institutions is working on what they call LatAmGPT — a tool that can take into account the region’s language variances, cultural experiences and “idiosyncrasies.” The aim is to offer users a more faithful peek into and representation of the Americas and the Caribbean than that of large language models (LLMs) that have mostly come from U.S. or Chinese companies and were largely trained in English. “We want…

Gemini 2.5 is being hailed by Google DeepMind as its “most intelligent AI model” to date. The first model from this latest generation is an experimental version of Gemini 2.5 Pro, which DeepMind says has achieved state-of-the-art results across a wide range of benchmarks. According to Koray Kavukcuoglu, CTO of Google DeepMind, the Gemini 2.5 models are “thinking models”. This signifies their capability to reason through their thoughts before generating a response, leading to enhanced performance and improved accuracy. The capacity for “reasoning” extends beyond mere classification and prediction, Kavukcuoglu explains. It encompasses the system’s ability to analyse information, deduce logical conclusions,…

Over the next decade, advances in artificial intelligence will mean that humans will no longer be needed “for most things” in the world, says Bill Gates. That’s what the Microsoft co-founder and billionaire philanthropist told comedian Jimmy Fallon during an interview on NBC’s “The Tonight Show” in February. At the moment, expertise remains “rare,” Gates explained, pointing to human specialists we still rely on in many fields, including “a great doctor” or “a great teacher.” But “with AI, over the next decade, that will become free, commonplace — great medical advice, great tutoring,” Gates said. In other words, the world is entering…

ITMax System Bhd has been hired by the Pengerang Municipal Council to install a closed-circuit camera system (CCTV) with artificial intelligence (AI) features and establish a smart integrated operations centre in Pengerang. In a filing with Bursa Malaysia, the group said the RM30.24mil contract will commence on March 25, 2025, and run until March 24, 2040. The contract is expected to positively contribute to the company’s earnings and net assets per share throughout its duration, with typical operational risks. Last week, ITMAX announced that its 65%-owned subsidiary, Southmax Sdn Bhd, had been appointed by the Mersing District Council as the smart…

The US Department of Commerce has added 80 entities across multiple countries—including more than 50 from China—to its export blacklist in a sweeping move aimed at limiting Beijing’s access to advanced technologies with potential military applications. Announced on Tuesday by the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), the decision targets organisations involved in artificial intelligence, supercomputing, quantum technologies, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and other sensitive capabilities. The restrictions prohibit American companies from exporting certain US-origin technologies to the named entities without a special licence. The latest update, the first major move of its kind under the Trump administration, follows escalating…