Author: Art Ryan

European tech founders are turning to the U.S. to find funding for artificial intelligence (AI) projects. That’s according to a report Saturday (Oct. 4) from The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), which said this trend is being driven by the heavier upfront costs of AI computing infrastructure and specialist talent. This is worrisome for Europe, the report added, as the region hopes to make a name for itself as a global AI hub rivaling China and the U.S. Although the European venture capital scene has grown in recent years, WSJ said, it still trails the U.S., where AI and machine learning startups raised upwards…

Unlike other sectors where results aren’t always the deciding factor, AI in healthcare scales only on proof. In cancer diagnostics, adoption depends on consistent, concrete results that doctors trust, and insurers are willing to reimburse. Investors and health systems are already pouring billions into AI, but only tools that deliver reliable outcomes in practice will gain traction. As CancerNetwork notes, the most successful models are those that help pathologists with repeatable tasks rather than trying to replace them outright. A recent Scientific Reports study makes the case: a simple decision-tree model classified breast tumors with more than 90 percent accuracy while clearly showing how it…

Venture capital has never been more one-sided. In 2025, investors funneled nearly $193 billion into AI startups, the first time since the dot-com bubble that more than half of global VC dollars went to a single sector, according to PitchBook via Bloomberg. The surge is minting winners at the top while the rest of the startup pipeline grows thin. “You’re in AI, or you’re not. You’re a big firm, or you’re not,” said Kyle Sanford, director of research at PitchBook. His comment captures a venture market increasingly divided between a handful of AI giants and everyone else. The leaders are pulling in…

After the success of OpenAI’s video editing app Sora, now at the top of the U.S. App Store, Google may be looking to give its Gemini AI app a more visually focused revamp. The company is seemingly experimenting with a new user interface that would shift the app from having a chatbot-style look and feel to one offering a scrollable feed with suggested prompts accompanied by eye-catching photos. The changes were spotted in a recent version of the Gemini Android app by the news site Android Authority but are not yet live to the public. Instead, by looking into the app’s code, a…

OpenAI has acquired Roi, an AI-powered personal finance app. In keeping with a recent trend in the AI industry, only the CEO is making the jump. Chief executive and co-founder Sujith Vishwajith announced the acquisition on Friday, and a source familiar with the matter told TechCrunch he is the only one of Roi’s four-person staff to join OpenAI. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The company will wind down operations and end its service to customers on October 15. The Roi deal marks the latest in a string of acqui-hires from OpenAI this year, including Context.ai, Crossing Minds, and Alex. While it’s not clear whether any of Roi’s technology will transfer over…

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos reportedly said Friday (Oct. 3) that the artificial intelligence boom is an “industrial bubble” rather than a “financial bubble,” meaning that even if the sector’s share prices collapse, the technology’s benefits will remain. Speaking at Italian Tech Week, Bezos pointed to the fiber-optic cable that outlived the dot-com crash and the life-saving drugs that remained after the 1990s biotech bust, the Financial Times reported Friday. “Investors have a hard time in the middle of this excitement distinguishing between the good ideas and the bad ideas,” Bezos said, per the report. “That’s also probably happening today. But it doesn’t mean that anything that’s…

DualEntry emerged from stealth Friday (Oct. 3) and said it raised $90 million in a Series A funding round and a total of $100 million over the last 15 months for its artificial intelligence-native enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. The ERP is built from the ground up with AI and automates 90% of manual tasks for finance teams, the company said in a press release. Designed to scale with businesses from mid-market to initial public offering, DualEntry’s ERP covers the full general ledger, accounts receivable, accounts payable, live bank connections, audit controls and more, according to the release. The ERP’s AI features…

Bank of America Securities projects that ChatGPT will handle approximately 20 billion shopping-related messages in 2025, underscoring how deeply artificial intelligence (AI) is integrating into the commerce journey. Last year’s holiday season saw global retail sales surge to $1.2 trillion, including $282 billion in the United States, as AI chatbot and agent engagement jumped 42%. But the same systems fueling that growth are melding discovery and checkout into a single step, widening exposure to fraud, chargebacks and questions of consumer trust. Those pressures will shape this holiday season. From Discovery to Checkout in a Single Step With OpenAI’s Instant Checkout already live, conversational platforms are becoming…

Uber has acquired Segments.ai, a multi-sensor labeling platform for robotics and autonomous driving, the two companies said Thursday (Oct. 2) in separate posts on LinkedIn. In its post, Uber AI Solutions, Uber’s AI data services business, said that the acquisition is part of its commitment to building its lidar and multi-sensor data annotation capabilities. The company said it has been working in this area for nearly a decade to use labels on real-world data to power autonomy, safety and artificial intelligence breakthroughs. “Segments.ai brings solid experience in lidar annotation tools, deep expertise in the domain, and an incredible base of clients,” the post said.…

Generative AI is consuming money and attention at a pace no technology has matched before. Global infrastructure spending reached $235 billion in 2024, with forecasts of $2.8 trillion by 2029. More than 700 million people use ChatGPT each week, making it the fastest adoption curve in history. Yet revenue trails far behind and the economics remain unsettled. Unlike earlier technology waves where scale drove costs down, artificial intelligence grows more expensive the more it is used. That contradiction of extraordinary adoption and extraordinary cost is the paradox shaping today’s AI economy. In an op-ed by the law firm Baker Botts LLP, the authors warned that “the gap between…

Coupa has added four new artificial intelligence agents to its spend management platform. The AI agents are among more than 100 enhancements included in the platform’s latest update, the company said in a Friday (Oct. 3) press release. The new additions include an Analytics Agent that provides richer visualizations and a more interactive way of exploring procurement data; a Bid Evaluation Agent that makes it easier to compare bids and evaluate supplier responses; a Request Creation Agent that turns unstructured attachments on a contract into actionable requisitions; and a Knowledge Agent that accelerates onboarding and complex sourcing events, according to the release.…

Global investment in artificial intelligence (AI) could exceed $2.8 trillion by 2029, according to Citigroup estimates reported by PYMNTS. Most of that money flows through a small group of companies that own the models, the cloud infrastructure, and the data pipelines. That concentration has fueled remarkable progress, but it also raises a question: What if the future of AI were not controlled by a few firms, but spread more widely? That is the idea behind decentralized AI. It is not mainstream yet, more of an experiment, but it is beginning to attract capital and attention. At its core, decentralization means moving…

Dates: October 13–17, 2025Location: Dubai World Trade Centre, Dubai, UAE When the world’s most influential technology event returns to Dubai this October, it won’t just be about product launches and futuristic showcases. GITEX GLOBAL 2025 will bring together a world-class lineup of speakers — ministers, CEOs, scientists, and innovators — who are defining the future of artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, biotech, quantum computing, digital governance, and more. This year’s agenda is packed with insights from over 200 global leaders, offering attendees the rare chance to hear directly from the individuals shaping tomorrow’s digital economy. Key Global Leaders and Policymakers GITEX continues…

Meta is offering companies the chance to use its artificial intelligence (AI) chat tool on their own websites. The Facebook owner on Thursday (Oct. 2) unveiled “Business AI,” an AI assistant designed to help companies offer customers more personalized product recommendations and quicker ways to purchase items through chat conversations. Retailers can employ the tool on Shopify-powered websites and apps such as Instagram and Facebook. “We are going beyond ads and beyond Meta to help businesses drive impact across their customer experiences and customer operations,” Meta’s head of business AI, Clara Shih, told reporters during a press briefing, per CNBC. Shih added that the Business AI digital assistant will be free for…

Germany-based DeepL, which provides an artificial intelligence-powered translation platform, is reportedly considering an initial public offering in the United States. The company has talked with potential advisers and could launch an IPO as soon as next year, seeking a valuation of as much as $5 billion, Bloomberg reported Thursday (Oct. 2), citing unnamed sources. The talks are ongoing and the details could change, according to the report. DeepL did not immediately reply to PYMNTS’ request for comment. The company’s Language AI platform provides translations in both written and spoken formats, is designed with enterprise security in mind, and is used by more than 200,000 businesses,…

Apple is pausing development of its next Vision Pro headset and shifting engineers toward smart glasses, according to Bloomberg. The move reflects the company’s recognition that lightweight eyewear powered by artificial intelligence is emerging as the next competitive arena. Meta’s Ray-Ban Display glasses, introduced this year, have already given consumers a glimpse of what AI wearables can deliver, and Apple is adjusting to keep pace in a market that could one day rival the smartphone. Redirecting the Vision Roadmap Bloomberg reports that Apple has reassigned staff from its planned “N100” Vision Pro successor to work on two glasses projects. One, code-named N50,…

OpenAI has reportedly become the world’s most valuable startup following a share sale. The artificial intelligence (AI) company allowed current and former employees to sell roughly $6.6 billion in shares, the Financial Times (FT) reported Tuesday (Oct. 2), citing a person close to the company. That deal values OpenAI at $500 billion, ahead of SpaceX, which achieved a $400 billion valuation in July. OpenAI had been valued at $300 billion after a $40 billion deal with Japan’s SoftBank in March. Sources told the FT that executives had begun talks with investors about an employee share sale at the much higher valuation a few months later.…

AI agents are fast becoming the new gatekeepers of commerce, shrinking discovery from thousands of listings to a handful of curated options and collapsing checkout into a single click. Google, PayPal and eBay are racing to control that interface, each with a distinct strategy but a common goal: to define how consumers shop in the artificial intelligence (AI) agent era. For merchants, the implications are stark. If they cannot adapt to the way agents filter and transact, they risk vanishing from the shopping journey altogether. The New Shortlist Economy Discovery is no longer about keywords and endless scrolls. In the…

By combining permissioned customer data with artificial intelligence (AI), financial institutions can tailor moments of interaction today and anticipate the needs and products clients will demand tomorrow, in a shift toward “cognitive banking” that builds on trusted relationships. What Cognitive Banking Is Cognitive banking refers to embedding AI-driven inferencing and pattern recognition on top of permissioned data (transactions, financial behaviors, linked accounts) so that banks can shift from reactive servicing to proactive guidance. Rather than waiting for customers to navigate menus or submit queries, cognitive banking systems sense intent, flag opportunities, and offer “next-best actions” — be that a liquidity suggestion, a…

Meta will begin using people’s conversations with its artificial intelligence to create personalized ads and content. The change is set to go into effect Dec. 16, the tech giant announced Wednesday (Oct. 1), with Meta set to begin informing people about the update via notifications and emails next week. “Your interactions with content on Facebook and Instagram have long shaped what appears in your feed,” the company wrote on its blog. “Just like other personalized services, we tailor the ads and content you see based on your activity, ensuring that your experience evolves as your interests change. Many people expect their interactions to make what they see more…