Sierra’s Brett Taylor says the days of clicking buttons are over
Brett Taylor, co-founder and CEO of Sierra, a startup that develops customer service AI agents for enterprises, believes the way humans and software interact will change in the near future. Last month, Sierra released Ghostwriter, an agent designed to build other agents. The startup aims to replace traditional click-based web applications with natural language using […]
The founder helped build SpaceX’s most powerful rocket engine. He is currently building an “orbital fighter”
Jeff Thornburg helped turn a government research project into SpaceX’s most powerful rocket engine. Now he’s trying to do the same with his startup, Portal Space Systems. NASA is turning a shelved idea into a powerful propulsion force for the next generation of spacecraft. The portal, founded in 2021, on Thursday announced a $50 million […]
Collide Capital raises $95 million to back fintech, future of work startups
Collide Capital, founded by Brian Hollins and Aaron Samuels, announced Thursday the closing of its $95 million Fund II. Founded in 2021, the company supports early-stage companies in fintech, supply chain, and the future of work. Since closing its first $66 million Fund I in 2022, it has supported 75 companies. Hollins said it took […]
Waymo robotaxis track potholes and share that data with Waze users
Two Alphabet companies are teaming up to discover potholes and share them with cities. Waymo and Waze on Thursday announced a data-sharing pilot program that brings together pothole data collected by robotaxis into the free Waze platform designed for cities. As the program expands, that data will be accessible in any city or state in […]
Poke makes using AI agents as easy as sending a text
To us, Poke is OpenClaw, an idea from a new startup that offers an AI agent that can be accessed via iMessage, SMS, Telegram, and, in some markets, WhatsApp. Poke, an AI agent, was made publicly available in March, giving consumers access to a personal assistant that can perform actions on their behalf through a […]
Canva strengthens AI and marketing automation with acquisitions of Sim Theory and Ortto
Canva on Wednesday announced a dual acquisition of Sim Theory, an AI collaboration and agent management platform, and Ortto, a customer data and marketing automation provider. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Canva says the acquisition is part of its continued investments in AI and marketing infrastructure. Both companies were founded by Chris […]
AWS Boss Explains Why Investing Billions in Both Anthropic and OpenAI Is Okay to Conflict
AWS CEO Matt Garman said Amazon’s recent $50 billion investment in OpenAI, after years of partnership including an $8 billion investment in Anthropic, is the kind of conflict of interest the cloud giant is used to dealing with. Garman has worked at Amazon since interning at business school in 2005, before launching AWS in 2006, […]
Amazon to end support for older Kindle devices
Amazon is preparing to end support for Kindle devices released before 2012. This means disconnecting your device from the Kindle Store and effectively preventing it from loading new content. The company has set the deadline for May 20, 2026. Amazon sent an email to customers this week announcing that it would no longer support the […]
Meta debuts Muse Spark model with “complete overhaul” of AI
Meta released an AI model called Muse Spark on Wednesday. This represents a “first step” toward a “thorough overhaul of the system.” [its] AI initiatives. ” Muse Spark is the first model from Meta Superintelligence Labs. Meta Superintelligence Labs was founded last year after CEO Mark Zuckerberg was frustrated with the progress of Meta and […]
Hacking group targeting Android devices and iCloud backups arrested
Security researchers announced that they have identified a hacking group targeting journalists, activists, and government officials in the Middle East and North Africa. The hacker used a phishing attack to access the target’s iCloud backups and messaging accounts on Signal, and introduced Android spyware that could take over the target’s device. This hacking campaign highlights […]