The ai models & agents stories our desk judged worth your time, written so anyone can follow them.
Mark Cuban says many towns are signing weak data center contracts. If one is proposed near you, the fine print can decide your noise, water and power costs.
Read more: Mark Cuban says towns are signing bad data center dealsElevenLabs says its in-house chat helpers answer 5,000 questions and open 150 tickets a month, a small model for any team buried in routine requests.
Read more: ElevenLabs says its AI helpers save staff 1,200 hours every monthA marketplace software company says AI assistants may soon search, compare and buy for shoppers, so stores need product details that software can read.
Read more: Retailers get ready for shopping done by AI assistantsMollie now lets business owners create payment links and manage subscriptions by typing to Claude or ChatGPT, with human approval before money moves.
Read more: Mollie lets you run payments by chatting with Claude or ChatGPTServal, a startup that uses AI to handle workplace IT requests, tripled its value to $3 billion in under a year. Here is what it does and why it matters.
Read more: Serval, a startup that automates company IT help, hits $3 billion valueCircana, a firm that tracks what shoppers buy, has hired AI company Ode to speed up how it makes market reports for clients.
Read more: Market research firm Circana hires Ode to bring AI into its workA new daily ranking of AI-built games finds Claude Opus behind 54% of new games, while OpenAI-based games earn up to 58% more likes per play.
Read more: AI-made games: Claude builds the most, OpenAI wins more player likesA new comparison tests Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT and Claude over 30 days and 5 years. Here is what it means if you plan to pay for an AI assistant.
Read more: Copilot, ChatGPT and Claude compared over 30 days and 5 yearsZoho is adding AI agents to Zoho Campaigns, its business email tool. Price and timing are unknown, so owners should wait for details before planning around it.
Read more: Zoho adds AI helpers that can run email campaigns for youBen Tossell, who writes the AI newsletter Ben's Bites, felt stuck for 10 months and is now trying a 30-day reset with fewer tools and no AI summaries.
Read more: A top AI newsletter writer says chasing every new tool left him stuckAnthropic says about 20% of its shares will go to the public good, but it has not said how much reaches charities, when, or who decides.
Read more: Anthropic promises 20% of its shares to charity, but details are vagueIsland, a business browser maker, launched a version for AI agents that applies company security rules to what the agents see, change and delete.
Read more: Island launches a secure web browser built for AI agents at workFoundation Mortgage has launched AskClara, an AI chat tool for brokers that handles loans for borrowers who do not fit standard rules. A 'no' is not final.
Read more: A mortgage lender launches an AI chat tool for the brokers it works withElavon's CEO says banks should go slow on AI shopping agents to avoid repeating 25 years of fraud mistakes, and he says the bank-backed Paze wallet is ready to pilot.
Read more: A big bank's payments chief wants AI shopping agents to slow downA Bloomberg Technology session says AI that takes action will need a 'self-driving' network, so businesses should check their setup before they adopt it.
Read more: Companies Want AI That Acts on Its Own, and Their Networks Must Keep UpMistral has released its biggest AI model for anyone to download. It is fast, cheap for its class and strong at coding, but Chinese models still score higher overall.
Read more: Mistral's free AI model codes well and runs cheap, but China still leadsThe head of the CFTC says markets for AI computing costs may be coming, and that rules for AI trading software are still unsettled. Here is what that could mean.
Read more: US trading regulator eyes futures contracts for AI computing costsShopify's Shop Pay wallet now works inside AI assistants like Copilot and Muse, and the company added a free fraud and dispute tool for merchants.
Read more: Shopify lets AI shopping assistants pay for items at its storesNielsenIQ, a shopper-tracking firm, and Google are partnering on AI that can find and buy products. Sellers should watch how their listings read.
Read more: NielsenIQ and Google team up on AI that shops for youDeepSeek, a Chinese AI company, raised nearly $16 billion this month from big Chinese tech firms and state-backed institutions, a sign of deep support behind it.
Read more: DeepSeek raises nearly $16 billion from Chinese tech and state backersA University of Kentucky administrator won a religious exemption from using AI at work as a Humanist, and his case could matter for any worker whose boss pushes AI.
Read more: A man with no god got a religious exemption from using AI at workLovable, a tool that builds software from plain-language instructions, opened a London office with 70 people, a sign that these tools are well funded and growing fast.
Read more: Lovable opens a London office with 70 staff and plans 100 by year-endA startup says top AI tools pass only about half of its cloud operations tests, and it plans to sell agents trained to do better in early 2027.
Read more: Startup trains AI helpers to run company servers without breaking themOpenAI's Dot assistant can now text you first with updates and alerts, but only for Pro users in the US. Messages pass through a third party, so keep private details out.
Read more: OpenAI's Dot assistant can now text you, but only in the US
