SAP’s cloud is still booming, and that was enough to calm the AI-doom fears
SAP’s cloud is still booming, and that was enough to calm the AI-doom fears

SAP gave investors the number they wanted. Europe’s biggest software company said cloud revenue grew 22% to €6.28 billion in the second quarter, beating forecasts, SAP announced. Its cloud backlog, a measure of future sales, jumped 26%. The stock rose …

Amazon just shut its AGI Lab, and quit a race it never led
Amazon just shut its AGI Lab, and quit a race it never led

Amazon is retreating from the race to build the smartest AI. This week it closed its AGI Lab, a San Francisco team working on artificial general intelligence, The Information reported. The move was part of layoffs across Amazon’s AGI unit, Reuters firs…

Stripe wants to own the toll booth between AI models, for ~$10bn
Stripe wants to own the toll booth between AI models, for ~$10bn

Stripe wants a foothold in AI, and it is willing to pay dearly for it. The payments company is in talks to buy OpenRouter for about $10 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported. That is a staggering price for a startup valued at just $1.3 billion in M…

World Foundation raises $52 million in token sale as proof-of-human demand accelerates
World Foundation raises $52 million in token sale as proof-of-human demand accelerates

World Foundation has raised $52 million through a locked token sale to expand the reach of World ID, its iris-scan-based system for proving someone is a real human online. Pantera Capital led the initial close, joined by Bain Capital Crypto, Eightco Ho…

The AI giants just broke with OpenAI and Anthropic on open weights
The AI giants just broke with OpenAI and Anthropic on open weights

The AI industry just picked a side, in public. On Friday, 25 companies and groups published an open letter, “Open Weights and American AI Leadership”, urging Washington not to crack down on open-weight AI, Business Insider reported. The names are heavy…

OpenAI wants your medical records, and says its AI is ‘better than clinician level’
OpenAI wants your medical records, and says its AI is ‘better than clinician level’

OpenAI wants to be in the room for your next diagnosis. On Thursday it began rolling out ChatGPT Health to every logged-in US adult. The chatbot can now connect to your Apple Health data and medical records, the company said. It can then draw on them i…

Meta launches a standalone Seller app for Facebook Marketplace with AI-powered listings
Meta launches a standalone Seller app for Facebook Marketplace with AI-powered listings

Meta has launched Seller, a standalone app built for people who sell regularly on Facebook Marketplace, giving them dedicated tools for managing listings, communicating with buyers, and tracking sales performance in a single place. The free app is avai…

Claude’s new voice mode isn’t chasing natural. It’s chasing your to-do list.
Claude’s new voice mode isn’t chasing natural. It’s chasing your to-do list.

Anthropic wants you to talk to Claude, and then watch it act. On Thursday it upgraded Claude’s voice mode to run on its most capable models, Opus and Sonnet, the company announced. Voice mode launched last year, and until now it ran only on Haiku, Anth…

Patreon cut 20% of its staff. Its CEO insists AI isn’t replacing them.
Patreon cut 20% of its staff. Its CEO insists AI isn’t replacing them.

Patreon is cutting a fifth of its staff. Its founder wants you to know it is not because of AI. On Thursday the creator-payments company laid off 93 people, about 20% of its workforce, as 404 Media first reported. Chief executive Jack Conte called the …