Tech

Companies' new budget-friendly approach to AI could create a corporate caste system

Companies want to cut down on their AI spending. Doing so means making some hard choices that risk creating internal issues.

Jedify raises $24M to help companies arm AI agents with context on their business

The funding round was led by Norwest, with participation S Capital VC, Cerca Partners, and Oceans Ventures. Snowflake Ventures also participated as a strategic investor.

McDonald’s latest AI drive-thru test will let customers ask, “Can I get my usual?”

Five restaurant locations are piloting the new ArchIQ tech, which puts a chatbot at the drive-thru that appears to identify repeat customers, according to a demo shown at McDonald’s Worldwide Convention last week. The demo also shows the chatbot taking an order in Spanish and “remembering” that a customer doesn’t like cheese on their quarter-pounder.

Google is liable for its AI Overviews, German court rules

A German court has ruled that Google is directly liable for false claims its AI Overviews make, treating the AI-written summaries as Google’s own speech rather than ordinary search results. It is one of the first rulings to test who is responsible when a generative-AI system gets it wrong, and the answer it gives is blunt: the company that built it.

What smart people are saying about the 2 most controversial parts of Anthropic's new models

Anthropic says Mythos won't help users build competing AI models. Critics said the move quietly degrades responses and limits competition.

Decart's new world model can simulate hours of photorealistic driving — with some caveats

Decart is launching Oasis 3, a real-time world model that generates photorealistic driving environments for autonomous vehicle testing, now available via API for developers to build on.

Grab my Ultimate Guide to Codex and catch up to the 1 in 1,600 people using it every week (mostly no code!))

The Ultimate Guide to Codex. Go from “I should really learn this” to a working setup in a weekend, with the model wired into your actual files and pages instead of sitting in a chat tab. Every page is a copy-paste prompt, most needing zero code.

The startups trying to save you from sky-high AI bills are getting showered with cash

Venture funds boost AI routing startups like OpenRouter and Concentrate AI as they help companies avoid token panic.

Consumer AI has a cost crisis. This AI voice startup is trying to help.

Kylan Gibbs, CEO of Inworld, tackles AI model costs threatening startups. Inworld slashes prices to help consumer AI applications' profitability.

OpenAI backs Poetic to automate underwriting and compliance

Poetic, an AI startup that has been operating in stealth, has emerged with $50M in funding and a $500M valuation to automate some of finance’s most sensitive back-office work, from insurance underwriting to compliance and fraud checks. Its backers include OpenAI, Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, and Kleiner Perkins.

Tech Nation: AI Accounts for a Third of the UK Tech Ecosystem

The AI sector in the UK has surged to US$512bn, capturing 32% of the nation's US$1.6tn tech valuation and attracting record venture capital.

Two rival grocery delivery founders land Nvidia's backing with a bet on math

Corca, a startup by Oleg Shevlyagin and Anton Gladkoborodov, raises $7.8M from Nvidia and other investors to innovate math workspaces with AI tools.