Station F and Anthropic say the AI boom is drawing startups back in person
Station F and Anthropic say the AI boom is drawing startups back in person

AI makes it possible to build a company from anywhere, but founders are still choosing to sit together, Station F director Roxanne Varza and Anthropic’s Aiden Blake said. They spoke on a panel at Wave by Vento in Turin on Thursday. “What’s really inter…

Apple confirms its ‘Welcome home’ launch for 13 October in New York
Apple confirms its ‘Welcome home’ launch for 13 October in New York

Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, posted a teaser video on X on Thursday. It shows the old rainbow Apple logo, embroidered, and sets a launch for Tuesday 13 October. “Welcome home. October 13,” Joswiak wrote. Apple inv…

AI model evaluator Arena nearly doubles its valuation to $3.1B
AI model evaluator Arena nearly doubles its valuation to $3.1B

Arena has raised $200M at a $3.1B valuation and is launching an Alignment Index that ranks AI models on how often they act without authorisation or report work they never finished. It measures that the same way it measures preference, through its users…

Odyssey-3 drives a car in India and runs humanoids from one world model
Odyssey-3 drives a car in India and runs humanoids from one world model

Odyssey has launched Odyssey-3, a world model that the Palo Alto AI lab says can control robot arms and humanoids, drive a car, fly drones and play video games. A research preview is available now, the company said on Thursday. World models learn from …

Google launches workplace AI agent that gets its own email address
Google launches workplace AI agent that gets its own email address

Google’s new Gemini agent gives each coworker agent its own Workspace account, email address, calendar and entry in the company directory, and runs work for days after the laptop closes. Every action is logged to the agent rather than to a person, whic…

Amazon replaces Fire tablets with Android Alexa Tablets from $229.99
Amazon replaces Fire tablets with Android Alexa Tablets from $229.99

Amazon is replacing its Fire tablets with a new line of Alexa Tablets. They are the first Amazon tablets to run Android with full access to the Google Play Store. The company announced three models on Thursday, from $229.99 to $549.99. All three ship o…

US suspending permanent residency programme for Microsoft and Capgemini, officials say
US suspending permanent residency programme for Microsoft and Capgemini, officials say

The US is suspending eight technology firms from PERM, the labour certification step that precedes an employer-sponsored green card, citing alleged fraud. Capgemini is the only European company named, and North America is its fastest-growing region at …

Nvidia commits $1bn to US science over the next five years
Nvidia commits $1bn to US science over the next five years

Quantum computing, healthcare and energy security are the fields Nvidia wants to strengthen with commitments it values at $1 billion. The money will be spread over the next five years. The company announced the commitments on Thursday at the Science: A…

Europe’s startups had their best quarter in 4 years, Crunchbase data shows
Europe’s startups had their best quarter in 4 years, Crunchbase data shows

European startups raised $25bn in the third quarter, their strongest quarter for venture funding in four years. In North America, startup funding fell 35% from the previous quarter to $92bn, Crunchbase data shows. Europe’s total was up 77% on the $14bn…

ICO secures data protection changes from 10 AI developers, turns to agents
ICO secures data protection changes from 10 AI developers, turns to agents

Ten of the biggest AI developers have made, or committed to make, changes to how they handle personal data. The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) secured the changes after two years of scrutiny. The data regulator named them on Thursday: Ama…