The ai models & agents stories our desk judged worth your time, written so anyone can follow them.
Meta edited its new business terms after backlash, but legal experts say the wording could still let it use news site content to build AI products.
Read more: Meta's new business terms may still let it use news sites for AIGoogle's Gemini app can now look at your Maps searches and saved places to plan your day, if you allow it. A separate notice hints a reasoning mode may go away.
Read more: Gemini can now use your Google Maps searches and saved placesOrange Business is piloting voice AI that runs at several sites on its network, aiming for faster replies, backup if a site fails, and control over where calls are handled.
Read more: Orange tests AI phone helpers that run close to the callerForrester says AI now handles 19% of inbound contact-center calls, up from 6% in 2024, and the errors are harder to spot than in text chat.
Read more: Phone bots are taking more customer calls, and mistakes slip byOpening Bell Ventures released Shelly, an AI that interviews employees and customers, then tests their answers against company records. A phone demo is open to anyone.
Read more: New AI worker named Shelly phones your staff, then checks their answersAmazon upgraded the computer voices in its Polly service to sound more natural and accurate. Existing users get it automatically, and the price stays the same.
Read more: Amazon's text-to-speech voices get more natural, at the same priceSalesforce may soon charge businesses when outside AI tools like Claude read or change data in its apps. Companies that use both could see a new cost.
Read more: Salesforce plans to charge companies when outside AI like Claude uses its appsBoris Cherny, who created Claude Code, says a good AI prompt needs only three things. XDA tested his approach, and anyone can borrow it.
Read more: Claude Code's creator says a good AI prompt needs just three thingsMicrosoft says its new AI tool diagnosed illness far more accurately than doctors in tests, but only on past cases, not real patients.
Read more: Microsoft says its AI diagnoses illness more accurately than doctorsSB Energy, the SoftBank-controlled builder of OpenAI's planned Ohio data center, may go public in December or wait until next year, later than expected.
Read more: SB Energy, builder of OpenAI's Ohio data center, may delay its stock debutClaude can build charts, tables and a clickable dashboard from a Google Sheet without formulas. A test with a sample budget shows what works and what does not.
Read more: Claude can turn a plain Google Sheet into interactive chartsAn OpenAI model helped spot a potentially catastrophic flaw in a programming language behind millions of sites. Website owners should check that they are covered.
Read more: OpenAI's AI helped find a serious flaw in code behind many websitesRiskified, a fraud-prevention company, now checks the identity of AI agents that shop for people, so online stores can tell helpful buyers from scam bots.
Read more: Riskified adds checks to tell which AI shoppers online stores can trustA CNET writer gave AI agents access to her email to handle birthdays. Only one could automate the job, and two of them kept doing things she never asked for.
Read more: A CNET writer let AI agents handle her birthdays and they oversteppedMayer Brown lawyers say businesses should trial AI agents like job candidates, with a limited pilot and a strong contract, before giving them real work.
Read more: Law Firm Says Test AI Agents Like Job Candidates Before HiringPersonal AI agents now argue with companies for shoppers, and one business writer says refund and guarantee wording is the first thing to check.
Read more: Customers are now sending AI agents to argue with your businessOpenAI's CEO says mathematicians went from panic to acceptance in days. Many in the field tell a messier story, and it may preview what AI does to expert jobs.
Read more: Sam Altman says mathematicians have moved from panic to acceptanceOpenAI now lets businesses in Nigeria and South Africa advertise inside ChatGPT, with a $25 daily minimum that is billed in US dollars.
Read more: ChatGPT now sells ads to businesses in Nigeria and South AfricaGitHub added an Industry comparison view to its Copilot dashboard, so companies can see how their use of the AI tool stacks up against peers.
Read more: GitHub's Copilot dashboard now shows how you stack up against peersA Gartner survey of 2,002 tech leaders finds most firms are not seeing big payoffs from AI, yet most CEOs plan to spend more on technology anyway.
Read more: Only 13 percent of companies see big returns from their AI spendingWalmart will let outside AI shopping assistants buy from its store, but they need your approval first and cannot get your card details.
Read more: Walmart lets outside AI shopping assistants buy, with rulesUber is moving all 30,000 of its employees onto OpenAI's ChatGPT Work after a 1,000-person test. Here is what the company says it learned and what it has not shared.
Read more: Uber gives all 30,000 employees an AI assistant for workNvidia, Anthropic and OpenAI each set a lobbying spending record this summer, with issues like kids' safety and data center power costs on the table.
Read more: Three AI companies just spent a record amount lobbying WashingtonInvestors are betting on a handful of AI giants while a profitable startup growing 600% a year can't get meetings. Here is what that means for founders and savers.
Read more: Money in tech is piling into a few big names, and good firms get ignored
