Global AI Picks — Top Tech Media Coverage

NEA’s Tiffany Luck says enterprises are still figuring out their AI ROI

Tokenmaxxing was the hottest trend in Silicon Valley earlier this year, with CEOs encouraging employees to push AI usage as far as it would go. Then the bill came due. Uber reportedly blew through its annual AI budget in a few months, some companies cut Claude licenses for parts of their org, and Meta killed its internal leaderboard.  This tension between […]

TC

After unveiling ridiculously expensive AR glasses, Snap’s stock takes a dive

Snap's long-awaited smart glasses debut hasn't exactly done wonders for the company's stock.

TC

Roelof Botha joins SpaceX’s board of directors

The former Sequoia Capital leader is filling an "existing vacancy" on SpaceX's board, days after the company went public in the largest IPO ever.

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NEA’s Tiffany Luck on AI IPOs, personal agents, and the ROI reckoning

Tokenmaxxing was the hottest trend in Silicon Valley earlier this year, with CEOs encouraging employees to push AI usage as far as it would go. Then the bill came due. Uber reportedly blew through its annual AI budget in a few months, some companies cut Claude licenses for parts of their org, and Meta killed its internal leaderboard.  This tension between […]

TC

Social media’s next evolution: user-controlled algorithms

Social media feeds are becoming more customizable as platforms like Threads, Instagram, and TikTok introduce tools that let users directly influence the algorithms powering their recommendations.

WD

Operating a Humanoid With Your Body Is a Hot Job in China’s Hardware Capital

In Shenzhen, workers at IO-AI Tech control humanoid robots using a VR rig reminiscent of Ready Player One.

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Anthropic becomes first AI startup to join the Frontier carbon removal coalition

Anthropic has joined the Frontier coalition, which received another $915M in pledges to fund carbon removal projects.

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World leaders want American AI. They just don’t want America to be able to turn it off.

French President Macron and Indian PM Modi raised alarms at the G7 summit that the U.S. could cut off access to American AI overnight — a fear the Anthropic blackout just made real.

ARS

AI coding agents taught robots how to install GPUs and cut zip-ties

NVIDIA’s self-improvement program for robots enlists teams of AI coding agents.

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Google bets on Gemini to reinvent the smart home speaker

Google is betting generative AI can breathe new life into the smart speaker. The company's new $99.99 Google Home Speaker replaces the rigid commands of the Google Assistant era with more conversational Gemini interactions.

WD

The White House Wants Anthropic to Block All Jailbreaks. That May Not Be Possible

Trump administration officials tell WIRED that if Anthropic wants to rerelease Fable 5, it will need to ensure the model's guardrails can't be circumvented. Security experts say that can't be done.

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Only 16 percent of Americans think AI will have a positive impact on society, a new study shows

Although Wall Street loves AI, every day Americans are significantly less optimistic about the industry, a new report from Pew Research shows.

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World model maker Odyssey nabs $1.45B valuation backed by Amazon and other big names

World models are the next big thing in AI beyond LLMs and, with this round, Odyssey has cemented itself as one of the startups to watch.

ARS

"Dangerous" AI models are coming no matter what

AI models with advanced hacking capabilities will soon be the norm.

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Pramaana Labs raises $27M seed round from Khosla Ventures to bring formal verification to AI

Pramaana will focus on highly sensitive verticals like law, drug discovery, and tax preparation — where errors can be costly and reliability is at a premium.

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Collecting robot training data is dirty, unglamorous work. Some AI labs are already paying XDOF to do it.

If physical AI is going to match the accomplishments of LLMs, there's a data problem that needs to be solved.

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The slowtech revolution is here to kill your phone addiction and rescue your attention span

“People just really want to take back control of their time, their lives, their attention... They’re down for whatever helps them do that.”

ARS

Ten months later, the $100 Google Home Speaker is finally available for preorder

Google's new smart speaker is more about Gemini than audio quality.

MIT

The Download: a reality check for geoengineering and the science of interoception

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. Hacking the atmosphere: geoengineering gets a reality check Solar geoengineering, the controversial idea that we could deliberately intervene in the climate system to counteract global warming, is moving beyond computer simulations…

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Canadian pension giant joins race to fund India’s AI-fueled data center boom

The Canadian pension giant will acquire an 8.2% stake in CtrlS, a tech giant that operates more than 15 data centers across India.