Author: Art Ryan

DeepSeek said its new artificial intelligence model released this week surpasses its flagship R1 tool in some ways. The launch of the V3.1 helps keep the Chinese company in the AI game as it prepares its latest iteration of its flagship model, Bloomberg reported Thursday (Aug. 21). V3.1 returns answers to queries faster and is the first step to creating an AI agent, the company said, per the report. The version has been customized to work with next-generation Chinese-made AI chips. DeepSeek rocked the tech world earlier this year when it debuted R1, showing how Chinese companies could take on high-profile rivals in the United States…

Meta has reportedly paused hiring for artificial intelligence (AI) professionals following a massive recruitment drive. The freeze went into effect last week and is happening amid a wider restructuring of the AI division, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported late Wednesday (Aug. 20), citing sources familiar with the matter. The length of the freeze was not clear, the report added. The news comes at the tail end of a summer that began with reports that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg had personally gotten involved in the company’s AI hiring efforts, offering – in some cases – nine-figure compensation packages. According to the WSJ, a spokesperson…

OpenAI could someday let other businesses tap into data centers needed for artificial intelligence (AI). That’s according to a report Wednesday (Aug. 21) from Bloomberg News, citing an interview with OpenAI Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar. Such a system would be loosely based on Amazon’s practice of renting spare cloud computing capacity to other businesses, Friar said, adding that OpenAI is not “actively looking” at a similar arrangement now as it focuses on boosting computing capacity for its own operations. “I do think about it as a business down the line, for sure,” Friar added. After years of building expertise in designing and establishing data centers,…

Google is replacing its nearly decade-old Google Assistant with a chatbot that is smarter and more intuitive, powered by the company’s most advanced artificial intelligence model, Gemini. Gemini for Home will replace Google Assistant for home devices, with early access beginning in October, wrote Anish Kattukaran, chief product officer at Google Home and Nest, in a Wednesday (Aug. 20) blog post. “You still say ‘Hey Google’ to get started, but your interactions will feel fundamentally new,” the post said. “Gemini will understand the context and get it done, and we’re replacing rigid commands so you can use more nuanced or complex requests, too.” Examples include finding music by description, such as…

Google on Wednesday unveiled new Pixel 10 smartphones that promise more artificial intelligence capabilities, as it seeks to elbow out competition in the emerging AI-assistant market. Comedian Jimmy Fallon hosted a launch event in Brooklyn that blended Google product pitches with stars such as The Jonas Brothers band and Stephen Curry of the Golden Gate Warriors basketball team. “This is exciting,” Fallon, host of NBC’s “The Tonight Show,” said in an opening monologue. “It’s like a Taylor Swift announcement for nerds.” The line-up of new products included a foldable phone, improved Pixel smartwatch, and ear buds all synced to work…

Character.AI is weighing its options between a potential sale or raising new capital, sources told The Information. The maker of artificial intelligence (AI)-powered character chatbots has, in recent weeks, held discussions with possible buyers, bankers and staff. Executives have also talked with investors about raising “a few hundred million dollars at a valuation of more than $1 billion,” according to one person with direct knowledge of the conversations. Founders Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas, both former Google researchers, agreed last September to rejoin the tech giant to work on Gemini. After they left, Character.AI’s employees took over ownership of the now roughly 70-person startup. If…

FieldAI said Wednesday (Aug. 20) that it raised $405 million in two consecutive rounds to accelerate the global adoption of its general-purpose robots. The latest round was oversubscribed as the company gains new and expanded contracts for its general-purpose robotics intelligence, FieldAI said in a Wednesday press release. FieldAI is developing a single software brain that can power a variety of robots, and its robots are currently operating on a day-to-day basis in construction, energy, manufacturing, urban delivery and inspection with companies in Japan, Europe and the United States, according to the release. The company plans to use the new capital to…

Data analytics firm Databricks is reportedly hoping to become a $100 billion company. The business is finalizing a funding round that would give it that valuation, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday (Aug. 19), citing unnamed sources. Venture capital firm Thrive Capital is expected to co-lead the round, with Andreessen Horowitz also planning to invest. Databricks, which provides software that helps businesses analyze datasets, has grown as the artificial intelligence industry has blossomed, the report said. The company was valued at $62 billion following another funding round earlier this year. The company will use its new capital to compete in the race to attract AI talent, CEO Ali Ghodsi said, per the…

Artificial intelligence (AI) cloud startup Lambda said Tuesday (Aug. 19) that it has closed a $275 million senior secured credit facility, led and arranged by JPMorgan. The Nvidia-backed startup said other lenders include Citi, MUFG and Crédit Agricole. It plans to use the financing to build more AI data centers and expand its fleet of GPU servers to meet growing AI demand from enterprises and other customers. Lambda, which describes itself as one of the industry’s only AI-pure infrastructure providers, said the financing reflects lenders’ “confidence” in its growth strategy, market leadership and ability to build AI factories. “This financing strengthens Lambda’s capital structure and supports our long-term vision of becoming…

Vibe coding is the practice of using artificial intelligence (AI) to build applications by describing ideas in plain language. For example, to build an eCommerce landing page, the prompt could be something like this: “Make a Shopify-style landing page for a candle shop. Include a homepage, a product grid with three items, an ‘Add to Cart’ button, and a checkout page that connects to Stripe test mode.” The term vibe coding was coined by OpenAI Co-founder Andrej Karpathy, who described it on X this way: “You fully give in to the vibes, embrace exponentials and forget that the code even exists.” When Justin Jin launched Giggles,…

Fears that the AI industry is overhyped are reportedly helping drive down tech stocks. That’s according to a Financial Times report Wednesday (Aug. 20), which pointed to downturns in the European and Asian markets following declines of big name tech companies such as Nvidia, Arm and Palantir. Helping fuel this drop, the report added, is a new report from MIT which found that most organizations are getting “zero return” on their investments into the generative artificial intelligence (AI) space. “The story is spooking people,” a trader close to a multibillion-dollar US tech fund told the FT. The MIT report found that only 5% of “integrated AI pilots…

Robinhood has announced a new feature for Cortex, its artificial intelligence (AI)-powered investing assistant. Digests, announced Tuesday (Aug. 19), uses generative AI to offer quick reviews of news, analyst reports, technicals and Robinhood’s proprietary data to summarize why a particular stock might be moving “in plain English.” According to the company’s announcement, Digests began rolling out to customers in the U.S. this summer and is now available for users in the U.K. “Digests by Robinhood Cortex is our first AI insight tool—built directly into our app,” said Jordan Sinclair, president at Robinhood U.K. “We believe our U.K. customers—from first-time investors to seasoned traders—will appreciate…

Nvidia is developing a new artificial intelligence chip for China based on its latest Blackwell architecture that will be more powerful than the H20 model it is currently allowed to sell there, two people briefed on the matter said. U.S. President Donald Trump last week opened the door to the possibility of more advanced Nvidia chips being sold in China. But the sources noted U.S. regulatory approval is far from guaranteed amid deep-seated fears in Washington about giving China too much access to U.S. AI technology. The new chip, tentatively known as the B30A, will use a single-die design likely…

MIT researchers used generative artificial intelligence (AI) to create molecules that didn’t exist before to develop promising antibiotics candidates for MRSA, a superbug that has killed millions. MRSA, or Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, is caused by a staph bacteria that has become resistant to most antibiotics, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Harvard Medical School found that “MRSA proves to be especially adept at evading the grasp of antibiotics, becoming a truly dangerous superbug.” Common places to contract MRSA are hospitals, long-term care facilities and communities, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Traditional methods to discover new antibiotics means scientists look through existing chemical databases…

Japanese conglomerate SoftBank is making a $2 billion investment into chipmaker Intel. The companies say the new arrangement, announced Monday (Aug. 18), represents a commitment to investing in advanced technology and semiconductor innovation in the U.S. “Semiconductors are the foundation of every industry,” Masayoshi Son, chairman and CEO of SoftBank, said in a news release. “For more than 50 years, Intel has been a trusted leader in innovation. This strategic investment reflects our belief that advanced semiconductor manufacturing and supply will further expand in the United States, with Intel playing a critical role.” As PYMNTS wrote earlier this year, Intel has been struggling for several years,…

Firecrawl’s co-founder and CEO Caleb Peffer knew the exact moment he found the investor to lead his Series A. He was in a coffee meeting with Nexus Venture Partner’s Abhishek Sharma at the Blue Bottle in San Francisco’s South Park (a favorite VC haunt). While describing the future of the company, he was gesturing so animatedly that his chair tipped over. “I actually fell out of my chair. And Abhishek, as a great investor does, caught the chair and me as I was falling,” Peffer described with a laugh. That felt like a symbol for how the founder/investor relationship is…

Roughly one in three adults in the U.S. regularly gets insufficient sleep, driving demand for tools that can monitor, analyze, and enhance rest. Eight Sleep, founded in 2014, offers AI-powered sleep tech products that promise to transform your bed into a preventive health device. The New York-based startup announced Tuesday that it raised a fresh $100 million round from investors such as HSG, Valor Equity Partners, Founders Fund, Y Combinator, and athletes including Ferrari F1 driver Charles Leclerc, and Zak Brown, who is the CEO of McLaren F1. With this round, Eight Sleep has raised roughly $260 million total, PitchBook estimates. It…

Recent IBM research finds an “AI oversight gap” among organizations that had experienced data breaches. “Consider this: a staggering 97% of breached organizations that experienced an AI-related security incident say they lacked proper AI access controls,” the company said in promoting findings from its Cost of a Data Breach Report. In addition, 63% of the surveyed organizations said they had no artificial intelligence (AI) governance policies in place to manage AI or keep workers from using “shadow AI,” IBM said. The findings were released in late July and flagged Monday (Aug. 18) in a report by CPO Magazine. “This AI oversight gap is carrying heavy financial…

The adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) may go slower than some expect, as was the case with the internet around 2000, but in the meantime AI players are making money, Citi Managing Director Rob Rowe said Monday (Aug. 18). Interviewed by CNBC, Rowe said that the adoption rate of AI may draw comparisons to the early internet but that AI companies are valued fairly well versus growth, their cash flows are very strong, and most of their capital expenditures on AI infrastructure are funded by cash. Asked if he is a fan of comparisons of the current AI situation to the dot-com bubble in 1998 and 1999, Rowe said:…

OpenAI has introduced a subscription ChatGPT plan for users in India priced at under $5. The 399 rupees per month (around $4.60) ChatGPT Go plan was announced Tuesday (Aug. 19), offering access to the artificial intelligence (AI) company’s new GPT‑5 model and other features at a reduced cost. “Making ChatGPT more affordable has been a key ask from users! We’re rolling out Go in India first and will learn from feedback before expanding to other countries,” Nick Turley, who oversees ChatGPT, wrote in a post on X. He said the new plan offers 10 times more message limits, image generations and file uploads, as well as twice…