Author: Art Ryan

The new AI tool could help astronauts diagnose and treat medical issues when far from Earth and beyond the reach of doctors. NASA and Google are collaborating to test an AI-powered medical assistant designed to support astronauts on long-duration missions, where communication delays with Earth make real-time medical consultations impossible. NASA, which is committed to a new era of human spaceflight with its Artemis program, is working with Google to test a proof of concept for a Crew Medical Officer Digital Assistant (CMO‑DA), a type of Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS). The digital assistant would provide medical support to astronauts when…

While Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn was loudly criticized this year after declaring that Duolingo would become an “AI-first company,” he suggested in a new interview the real issue was that he “did not give enough context.” “Internally, this was not controversial,” von Ahn told The New York Times. “Externally, as a publicly traded company some people assume that it’s just for profit. Or that we’re trying to lay off humans. And that was not the intent at all.” On the contrary, von Ahn said the company has “never laid off any full-time employees” and has no intention of doing so. And while…

The publishing industry has warned that books created by artificial intelligence – often imitating autobiographies – are a growing concern, and called on retailers to issue clearer warnings to consumers. Sky News has spent months tracking apparent AI recreations, particularly sports books, that have been sold on Amazon as Kindle e-books, as well as printed versions. Some titles were removed after we informed the e-commerce giant. But we understand there are no immediate plans for Amazon to label content that AI was involved in generating. “AI created books are an increasing problem for us,” Publishers Association chief executive Dan Conway told Sky News.…

Eli Lilly (LLY.N), opens new tab has signed a deal worth $1.3 billion with privately held Superluminal Medicines to discover and develop small-molecule drugs through AI to treat obesity and other cardiometabolic diseases. Lilly currently dominates the obesity treatment market, estimated to be worth $150 billion by the next decade, and is trying to strengthen its foothold in the space through the development of next-generation drugs, acquisitions and partnerships. The deal gives Lilly exclusive rights to develop and commercialize drug candidates discovered using Superluminal’s proprietary AI-driven platform targeting G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCR) – a class of proteins that can influence physiological processes including…

Wall Street’s largest hedge funds, Bridgewater Associates, Tiger Global Management and Discovery Capital, increased their exposure to Big Tech in the second quarter amid a generational boom in the growth of artificial intelligence. During the June quarter, hedge funds cut their exposure to laggards in industries like aerospace and defense, and consumer and retail, as part of a broader move back to momentum investing. It marks a big shift from earlier this year when bets on Big Tech had soured for top money managers due to tariff-fueled volatility in financial markets, with investor concerns around rising inflation and fears of…

A rout in shares of European companies embracing artificial intelligence deepened this week, as powerful new AI models raise questions about whether sectors from software to data analytics could find themselves overtaken by the technology. European software stocks, including Germany’s SAP (SAPG.DE), opens new tab and France’s Dassault Systemes (DAST.PA), opens new tab, tumbled on Tuesday as worries that AI will disrupt the software sector spread through the market. That followed a downgrade to U.S. rival Adobe (ADBE.O), opens new tab on Monday by broker Melius Research. Since mid-July, shares in markets and data group LSEG (LSEG.L), opens new tab, UK software firm Sage (SGE.L), opens new tab,…

NVIDIA this week announced the NVIDIA RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell SFF Edition and NVIDIA RTX PRO 2000 Blackwell GPUs in compact form factors. They include fourth-generation RT Cores and fifth-generation Tensor Cores with lower power in half the size of a traditional GPU, the company said. “The new GPUs are designed to bring next-generation performance to a range of professional workflows, providing incredible speedups for engineering, design, content creation, AI and 3D visualization,” said NVIDIA. Compared with the previous-generation architecture, the RTX PRO 4000 SFF features up to 2.5x higher AI performance, 1.7x higher ray-tracing performance and 1.5x more bandwidth, creating more efficiency with the…

Artificial intelligence is everywhere these days — in your phone, your car, even your washing machine. I saw one just the other day featuring built-in AI. And while that might sound a little over the top, there’s no denying that artificial intelligence has made life easier in a lot of ways. From boosting productivity to unlocking new creative tools, it’s changing how we work and live. The most common version you’ve probably encountered? Generative AI, think chatbots like ChatGPT. But as helpful as this tech can be, it’s not without its problems. If you’ve used Google’s Workspace suite, you may have…

Anthropic has updated the usage policy for its Claude AI chatbot in response to growing concerns about safety. In addition to introducing stricter cybersecurity rules, Anthropic now specifies some of the most dangerous weapons that people should not develop using Claude. Anthropic doesn’t highlight the tweaks made to its weapons policy in the post summarizing its changes, but a comparison between the company’s old usage policy and its new one reveals a notable difference. Though Anthropic previously prohibited the use of Claude to “produce, modify, design, market, or distribute weapons, explosives, dangerous materials or other systems designed to cause harm to or loss of human…

Qatar Airways is aiming to become a world leader in deploying artificial intelligence to revolutionise aviation, through a new deal with global consulting giant Accenture. The partners have announced they are joining forces to create AI Skyways which will “elevate customer experience, optimise operational efficiency, and enhance overall airline group performance”. The partnership, will “further position the multi award-winning airline as a leader in aviation AI and advance technology in the region and beyond,” Qatar said in the announcement. AI Skyways will work to deliver “value-led AI initiatives” across the Qatar Airways Group through its “responsible AI practices, data and…

Toronto’s AI darling, Cohere, officially entered the elite startup ranks with a massive $500 million funding round that pushed it to a $6.8 billion valuation, but the real headline is the company’s blockbuster executive hire. The generative AI startup just poached former Meta AI chief Joelle Pineau as its new chief AI officer, one of the biggest moves in the ongoing AI talent wars. The Financial Post broke the news this week, reporting that Pineau will lead research and product development from Montreal, where Cohere opened its second Canadian office last month. The executive steal from Meta adds to the startup’s buzz The…

The American College of Radiology (ACR) has released a draft practice parameters document on AI in radiology and has opened the comment period for its 2026 Practice Parameters and Technical Standards. The document is designed to provide radiologists, healthcare systems, and industry partners with a national framework for integrating AI into clinical practice. According to the ACR, it addresses the following five key issues: ACR members and Society of Imaging Informatics in Medicine (SIIM) members via staff are strongly encouraged to review the draft and provide feedback by September 26, 2025. Find more information on the ACR website.

While AI might feel ubiquitous, it primarily operates in a tiny fraction of the world’s 7,000 languages, leaving a huge portion of the global population behind. NVIDIA aims to fix this glaring blind spot, particularly within Europe. The company has just released a powerful new set of open-source tools aimed at giving developers the power to build high-quality speech AI for 25 different European languages. This includes major languages, but more importantly, it offers a lifeline to those often overlooked by big tech, such as Croatian, Estonian, and Maltese. The goal is to let developers create the kind of voice-powered tools many of us…

The rush to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into enterprise operations is colliding with a complex and sometimes underestimated reality: Deploying AI at scale can be pricey, and the true cost can extend far beyond the per-million-token rates on vendor websites. According to recent PYMNTS Intelligence data, the cost of deploying AI is the second biggest drawback of generative AI adoption, with 46.7% citing it as a concern, following only integration complexity. On paper, the cost of using today’s generative models is falling based on what AI companies are charging. For example, OpenAI’s GPT-4 with an 8K context window had cost $30 per million…

Apple is preparing an AI comeback anchored by a tabletop robot, a lifelike reboot of Siri and a new smart speaker with a display, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the plans. The centerpiece is a desk-side companion robot targeted for 2027 that can swivel to follow users, run FaceTime and act as a proactive, day-long assistant. A lower-cost smart display aimed at home control is slated for as soon as next year, alongside battery-powered home-security cameras that would automate household functions and tie users more tightly to Apple’s ecosystem. The report said Apple shares rose after the news and noted the…

EBay unveiled more seller tools and an open banking-powered financing solution for sellers. The new tools for U.S. sellers include an artificial intelligence assistant for messaging that uses information in the seller’s listing description and order details to draft suggested replies to buyers’ questions about items or shipping, and an Inventory Mapping API that uses AI to generate optimized title and descriptions for the seller’s items, the company said in a Tuesday (Aug. 12) press release. Other new tools include an Offers in Messaging feature that lets buyers and sellers negotiate offers within the messaging thread; a “Your cost” field in the…

In addition, through Google’s AI for Education Accelerator, students at the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University will gain free access to AI certifications and training programs. Google is investing $9 billion to build new data centers and expand AI infrastructure in Oklahoma, a move the company says will create jobs, train a new electrical workforce, and solidify the region’s role in the US race for technological dominance. According to the tech giant, the investment will bolster the talent pipeline needed for its advancing AI and cloud ambitions. The multi-year initiative includes the construction of new data centers, alongside…

Beyond consumer spending trends and tariffs, earnings season also has shed light on how artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping the financial services landscape, with both established banks and FinTech platforms leveraging advanced algorithms to fine-tune and fortify their operation. The companies featured below are by no means exhaustive, but offer a sampling of AI’s diverse applications. Fortifying Against Fraud The battle against financial crime is increasingly waged with AI, as institutions deploy models to detect and prevent fraudulent activities. Visa reported its value-added services revenue grew by 26% in constant dollars in its fiscal third quarter 2025, and that segment’s growth has been…

Artificial intelligence (AI) startup Create has raised $8.5 million to scale its flagship product, Anything, an AI coding agent that can produce mobile and web apps ready for app stores. The Series A funding round was led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with participation from Shopify founder Tobi Lütke and other angel investors, following a $3 million pre-seed round, Create said in a Thursday (Aug. 14) press release emailed to PYMNTS. The raise comes on the heels of the tool’s public debut on Aug. 7, which generated 3.2 million views in 72 hours and added more than 30,000 new users, pushing Create’s total registered base to 500,000. Paid subscriptions tripled overnight, and the…

Oracle customers will be able to access Google’s Gemini artificial intelligence (AI) models through the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) Generative AI service. The offering will results from an expanded partnership between Oracle and Google Cloud, the companies said in a Thursday (Aug. 14) press release. The lineup of Google’s Gemini models available in the Oracle environment will begin with Gemini 2.5 and is expected to expand to include the entire range of Gemini models, according to the release. With this collaboration, Oracle customers will be able to access the models to build AI agents for tasks like multimodal understanding, advanced coding and software development, productivity and workflow automation,…