The ai models & agents stories our desk judged worth your time, written so anyone can follow them.
American Express is offering guidance to small business owners on AI tools that shop for customers, a shift that could change how people find and pay you.
Read more: American Express Helps Small Businesses Get Ready for AI Shopping AgentsMicrosoft is rolling out Copilot Code, a tool that builds simple work apps from a plain-English description, so non-developers can make their own trackers and dashboards.
Read more: Microsoft starts letting workers build apps by describing themBeijing has approved DeepSeek and MiniMax to offer their AI models overseas, so more AI tools from China may soon reach your phone or business.
Read more: China clears DeepSeek and MiniMax to offer their AI abroadVisa is rolling out new fraud tools for business-to-business payments and starting a pilot where AI agents help handle them.
Read more: Visa adds fraud protection and tests AI helpers for business paymentsChatGPT's new Blocked Chats feature hides private conversations behind a PIN, but it is not full protection, and a forgotten PIN means lost chats.
Read more: ChatGPT now lets you lock private chats behind a PINResearchers found thousands of Muse chats shared by link, some with loan and bank details. Meta has paused sharing, but anything you shared may have been readable.
Read more: Meta's Muse AI chats shared by link were easy for strangers to findA group called CyberCartel reportedly used AI agents to hit more than 400 Latin American targets, a sign that fast, automated attacks on money accounts are here.
Read more: Hackers used AI helpers to break into Latin American banksGoogle has rolled out Gemini worldwide on Android Auto and Google built-in cars, and it can now use your email, photos and saved places if you allow it.
Read more: Gemini in your car can now use your email, photos and mapsDocs Live, a talk-to-it feature in the Google Docs app on Android, is now open to Google Workspace accounts, so work users may already have it.
Read more: Google Docs on Android adds a talk-to-it feature for work accountsAi2's new Olmo Hybrid design matched an earlier model's score on a knowledge test with 49% fewer training tokens, which could make open AI cheaper to build.
Read more: Ai2 shares open AI models that train with half the dataAi2 published research in Nature showing how to convert an existing AI model to read raw bytes, with a short extra training run instead of a rebuild.
Read more: Ai2 shows how to convert existing AI models to read text as raw bytes1Password's new tool lets an AI assistant sign in to your accounts after you approve each login, so the assistant never sees your password.
Read more: 1Password lets AI assistants log in for you without seeing your passwordChrome is adding Gemini-powered checks for scam sites and risky copied commands, but only for people who switch on Enhanced Protection.
Read more: Chrome will use Google's AI to warn you about scam websitesResearchers logged 1,258 fake AI tool scams in six months. Many ask you to paste a command that quietly installs software to steal logins, code and accounts.
Read more: Fake Claude and ChatGPT downloads are spreading password-stealing softwareMicrosoft says a China-linked group used stolen ConnectWise keys and a free AI tool to target 2,250 Microsoft 365 accounts. Most attempts failed, but some got in.
Read more: Chinese spies used AI to hack into 2,250 Microsoft 365 accountsAnthropic has opened a waitlist for Claude Duet, an AI agent that works in the background and asks before it acts. It is for US Pro and Max subscribers first.
Read more: Anthropic Opens Waitlist for an AI Assistant That Works While You're AwayWalmart will let customers authorize AI agents to buy for them, with limits of $50, $100 or $200, or approval on every order. Here is how it works.
Read more: Walmart will let AI shop for you, with spending limits you setA MakeUseOf reviewer says Claude Opus 5.5 can often carry a job to the end from one request, which could mean less back-and-forth for people who use AI at work.
Read more: Reviewer says Claude's newest AI model finishes jobs in one tryBig US banks are blocking outside AI tools found working inside customer accounts. If you shared a bank login with one, your access could be limited.
Read more: US banks are blocking AI helpers that act inside customer accountsInstead of replacing decades-old systems, some banks are putting AI agents on top of them, with people still approving sensitive moves like reversing a payment.
Read more: Banks are adding AI helpers to computer systems up to 40 years oldWyndham says AI now answers calls at more than 1,700 hotels and can book rooms through ChatGPT and Claude. Expect the same at hotels and small businesses you use.
Read more: Wyndham hotels now use AI to answer calls and take bookingsMIT researchers placed an AI agent in a desert island scenario with no human guide, and the results could shape how robots and AI helpers are trained.
Read more: MIT researchers drop an AI on a desert island to see what it learnsSpotify says it will work inside ChatGPT, Claude and Meta's Muse, but keep control of your data. It may also learn more about your tastes.
Read more: Spotify wants your AI assistant to play its music, on its termsA How-To Geek writer let AI agents tidy a Downloads folder, build meme games and browse stores. The results show where they help and where to be careful.
Read more: AI helpers can now clean your files, build games and shop online
