The ai models & agents stories our desk judged worth your time, written so anyone can follow them.
PayPal says it is working with Meta and others so AI assistants can pay with PayPal, while pay later volume grew 25% and the company cut over 2,000 jobs.
Read more: PayPal Preps for AI Shopping Agents as Pay Later Use Jumps 25%A former DeepMind researcher is building a startup around AI that keeps a checkable record of what it knows. So far it is only a plan on paper.
Read more: Ex-DeepMind researcher wants AI that checks its facts before answeringInTake, an AI receptionist for independent salons, is offering a free first month to its first 100 businesses. The service is hosted in the EU.
Read more: AI receptionist for small salons offers first month free to 100 shopsOpenAI is giving ChatGPT a visual redesign with buttons, a built-in calculator and adjustable graphs, aimed at making it easier for newcomers to use.
Read more: ChatGPT is getting buttons, graphs and a calculator, not just textApple's iOS 27 promises a more capable Siri and a faster phone for iPhone 11 and newer. It also raises a question about what Siri can see.
Read more: iOS 27 brings a smarter Siri and faster iPhones this fallChatGPT now draws cartoons instead of photo-style images for some election scenes, so fake voting photos are harder to pass off as real before November 3.
Read more: ChatGPT now turns some election images into cartoonsCustom ChatGPT assistants are being retired Dec. 11. If your work depends on one, it could stop working unless you move it first.
Read more: Custom ChatGPT assistants retire Dec. 11: what to do nowA British member of parliament says Grok and X let fake sexual images of her spread, and she is suing xAI. The case could shape what protection ordinary people get.
Read more: UK lawmaker sues Musk's xAI over fake sexual images of herSince October 9, free Gemini accounts get only one model. Here is what you lose, what you keep, and who actually needs the $20 Pro plan.
Read more: Google's free Gemini now gets one basic model; Pro costs $20 a monthHackers say they have posted data from GMO Internet's Onamae cloud desktop service, used by traders. Customers are being told to reset passwords.
Read more: Hackers post data allegedly stolen from Japanese web giant GMOApple is putting an AI assistant in Pages, Keynote and Numbers, which could speed up reports, pitch decks and spreadsheets for everyday users.
Read more: Apple adds an AI helper to Pages, Keynote and NumbersSalesforce added tools to Agent Fabric that test AI agents in live use and pull them offline when answers slip, plus spending caps to stop surprise bills.
Read more: Salesforce adds tools to catch AI agents that quietly give wrong answersOpera One now lets websites and extensions use AI that runs on your own computer, including Apple's built-in model on Macs, with no account or subscription.
Read more: Opera's browser can now run AI on your own Mac, no account neededApple's new 24-inch iMac uses an M6 chip, starts at $1,499 and ships November 6. Apple says it is up to 18x faster than the most popular Intel-based iMac.
Read more: Apple's new iMac gets a faster M6 chip and starts at $1,499Apple's new 14-inch MacBook Pro with the M6 chip costs $1,999 and ships November 6, which gives anyone planning a laptop purchase a price and a date.
Read more: Apple's new 14-inch MacBook Pro with M6 chip starts at $1,999Adclear, a company that checks ads against advertising rules, has built a tool that works inside Claude and ChatGPT. Details are still thin.
Read more: Adclear lets Claude and ChatGPT check your ads against the rulesA Common Sense Media report says ChatGPT's teen mode sent parents no alerts during long talks about self-harm. OpenAI disputes the testing.
Read more: Report says ChatGPT's teen mode fails to protect kids in crisisVisa says AI agents can now pay approved business invoices in live pilots, and new spending controls could help businesses cut fraud risk.
Read more: Visa is testing AI helpers that pay business invoices for youLumion says its AI agents answer calls and texts after hours and revive old leads. One career school reports 16 enrollments, but that is one customer's result.
Read more: Lumion's AI Agents Answer Customer Calls and Texts After HoursGoogle Cloud is building its Gemini voice assistant to finish tasks, not just answer questions. Businesses that handle many phone calls are the main target.
Read more: Google's Gemini voice assistant is being built to take action, not just talkSalesCloser says its AI sales agent can now reply to WhatsApp leads in seconds, any hour, and pass the chat to a person when asked.
Read more: An AI assistant can now answer your WhatsApp sales messagesMediaPost reports shoppers are warming up to AI assistants that buy for them, starting with small purchases. Here is what to check before you try one.
Read more: Shoppers are letting AI assistants buy small items for themAttackers are using AI to copy login pages so well that even experienced users miss them, and some copies can get around one-time codes too.
Read more: AI is making fake login pages harder to spot, and they can beat codesAxios and Every are making news for AI agents, the assistants that read for you. Here is what that could mean for how you get news and what you pay for.
Read more: Some news outlets now write for AI assistants instead of people
