Today's AI Pulse
Odyssey lands $310M Series B, valued at $1.45B
Odyssey announced a $310 million Series B round that values the AI lab at $1.45 billion. The round was led by Natural Capital and included backers such as Amazon, AMD Ventures, GV, EQT and IQT. In parallel, Odyssey struck a preferred‑cloud deal with AWS to use Trainium silicon for large‑scale model training.
Also developing:
Robotaxis, AI Manufacturing and Next-Gen Mobility on the Rise
The automotive tech sector is accelerating toward autonomous mobility, AI‑driven manufacturing, and new fuel blends. Intel’s 14A chip wins Tesla as its first major customer, underscoring the race for in‑vehicle computing power. Indian firms are exploring E85 flex‑fuel and AI‑enabled two‑wheel production, while Huawei pledges $2.6 billion to smart‑driving R&D. Meanwhile, Tesla and Geely announce large‑scale robotaxi rollouts, and Chinese players eye flying cars and humanoid robots by 2027.
The NotebookLM Organization Mistake That Ruins Your Research Results
NotebookLM, Google’s AI‑driven research assistant, lets users upload and store up to 50 documents per notebook, offering persistent memory and source citations. The guide stresses organizing notebooks with 5‑10 related files, labeling clearly, and syncing with Google Drive to avoid...
Artificial Intelligence in the Real Economy: A Visual Guide
Financial Times launched a visual explainer series on artificial intelligence’s role in the real economy, beginning with a deep‑dive into robotaxis. The guide highlights how AI‑driven perception, routing and fleet management have moved autonomous vehicles from pilot projects to rapid...
AI, Personalisation in, Discounts Out in Growth Ambitions Says Asos
ASOS is abandoning its pandemic‑era, discount‑heavy model in favor of a customer‑centric strategy built on AI‑driven personalization. The company is emphasizing relevance—right product, price, size, and delivery—while reducing promotional noise. Early data show stronger engagement from full‑price product drops and...
DYSTOPIAN Truck Tech: AI Scans Faces, Reads Lips & Checks Police Database BEFORE You Can Drive
Ford has filed U.S. patents for in‑cabin AI that scans drivers' faces, irises, fingerprints and even reads lips to assess fitness before allowing a truck to shift into drive. The system can cross‑reference law‑enforcement databases in real time and block...
Google to Deploy Gemini AI Chat as Mental‑Health Support Bridge
Google announced updates to its Gemini chatbot that will actively direct users in crisis to professional help, positioning the AI as a bridge rather than a shutdown point. Clinical director Megan Jones Bell said the move aims to make the...
Why AI Governance Now Looks Like Talent Management
Public‑sector organisations are moving from low‑code apps to AI agents that act as digital workers, demanding a governance model akin to talent management. Microsoft’s Agent 365 introduces identities, role‑based access and sponsorship, embedding ownership from day one. Early governance is now...
Is Meta's AI Spending Blitz Working? The Stock's Next Move Depends on the Answer
Meta Platforms is allocating up to $169 billion in 2026 for AI and related infrastructure, highlighted by a $21 billion commitment to CoreWeave, a $27 billion deal with Nebius, and a multibillion‑dollar partnership with AWS for Graviton chips. The debut of its multimodal...
Pantheon Atlas to Build 500MW Solar-Plus-Storage Facility at US$58.5 Billion Croatian Data Centre
Pantheon Atlas LLC announced a $58.5 billion AI data centre in Croatia, featuring a 500 MW on‑site solar plant and a 2 GW/8 GWh battery storage system. The project will begin construction in 2027 with an initial €12 billion ($14 billion) investment and aims for full...
Data Center Debate: Are Energy Bills About To Explode?
The episode examines the looming energy crisis posed by the rapid expansion of AI data centers, noting that by 2030 they could consume twice today’s electricity—enough to power France and Germany combined—while the U.S. grid may lack sufficient capacity. Guests...
AI Pair‑programming: Contextual Coder Vs. Cold Reviewer
I have Claude write my code. Then I have Codex review it. Then I let them discuss what needs to change. Here's why this works. Claude understands the implementation. It knows the project context. The architecture. The decisions that were already made. Codex is...
Intent Data Vs. AI in B2B Marketing: Do You Need Both?
The article argues that intent data and AI are complementary, not substitutes, for B2B marketers. Intent data uncovers anonymous activity in the “dark funnel,” while AI processes those signals to prioritize and personalize outreach. Companies that combine both see faster...
Why AI Is the Ultimate Tool for B2B Event Marketers
Artificial intelligence is reshaping B2B event marketing by turning single live events into extensive, reusable content libraries and by linking event engagement data to account‑based marketing (ABM) campaigns. Marketers report that AI‑driven event apps, matchmaking, and automated content creation are...
Gartner: 40% of Agentic AI Projects Will Fail, Making Humans Indispensable by Optimove
Gartner’s June 2025 forecast warns that over 40% of agentic AI projects will be cancelled by the end of 2027, based on a poll of 3,400 organizations. The failures are attributed to misguided human decisions, weak strategy, poor data, and insufficient...
AI Agents Are Forcing Enterprises to Overhaul Their Operations
Enterprises are confronting a rapid shift toward autonomous AI agents, with 80% of CEOs saying the technology will overhaul operational capabilities. Gartner’s 2025 survey of 469 executives reveals most firms still rely on task‑level automation, yet only 13% expect that...
Gemini Launches New Personalisation Features in the UK
Google Gemini is adding a suite of personalisation tools for UK users, starting with the Memories setting that learns from past chats to deliver context‑aware answers. The feature is enabled by default but can be switched off at any time....
I Spent 45 Minutes Building the AI that Might Replace Me
An investor built a custom AI idea‑generation tool in under 45 minutes using Claude Cowork, automating weekly stock ideas and learning from feedback. The system now surfaces micro‑cap spinoffs, activist targets, and other niche opportunities, outperforming its early iterations. While...
The Digital – Analog Paradox: Why Resilient Public Transport Still Depends on Mechanical Safety
Public transport operators are accelerating digital upgrades such as AI fleet management and electrification, yet legacy hardware and rising cyber threats expose critical safety gaps. Incidents like the 2024 Transport for London ransomware attack and 2025 electronic‑exit failures illustrate how...
AI‑Assisted Platform Spacelift Debuts at Chelsea Flower Show, Aiming to Transform Home Garden Design
Matt Keightley unveiled Spacelift, an AI‑assisted garden design platform, at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2026. The tool blends spatial measurement, AI and Keightley's design methodology to give homeowners a concrete plan for outdoor spaces while creating new business avenues...
Russell’s Teapot: Dispatches From the Final Stage of the AI Bubble
Servaas Storm’s INET working paper dismantles seven flagship AI hype claims, from imminent superintelligence to a white‑collar job apocalypse. He argues that scaling large language models cannot produce true intelligence, that AI firms’ flat‑fee pricing is unsustainable, and that the...
Homegrown AI Powers China's Ambitions, From Classroom to Home
China is accelerating a homegrown generative AI strategy that spans classrooms and living rooms. State policies and billions in funding aim to achieve AI self‑sufficiency by 2030, encouraging domestic platforms to dominate the market. Major tech firms are embedding AI...
ChatGPT 5.5 vs Claude Opus 4.7 : The Hidden Trade-Offs
The guide compares OpenAI’s GPT 5.5 with Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.7, highlighting GPT 5.5’s dominance in backend coding, debugging, and token‑efficient large‑scale tasks, while Claude Opus 4.7 shines in reasoning‑intensive workloads, frontend UI design, and faster response times. Benchmarks such as Terminal Bench 2.0 and Swebench Pro illustrate each...
AI-Generated Manuscripts Spark Publishing Crisis as Hachette Cancels Book
Hachette has cancelled the U.S. release of Mia Ballard’s horror novel “Shy Girl” after a New York Times investigation found extensive AI involvement. The move adds to a string of recent allegations—from Sarah Hall’s “human‑written” sticker to agents warning of AI‑laden submissions—fueling a...
🚨 Stop Wasting Time on Random AI Courses
DeepLearning.AI has released a curated roadmap that isolates seven high‑leverage skills needed to build production‑grade AI agent systems, replacing scattered tutorials with targeted courses. The list spans system design, tool and contract design, retrieval engineering, reliability, security, evaluation, and product...
Every System Has to Compound: Kumar on Meesho's First 100 Days as a Public Company
Meesho’s AI‑driven discovery feed now initiates 73% of its orders, delivering 690 million purchases in Q3 FY26—a 36% year‑on‑year rise across 251 million transacting users. The platform processes over four billion daily data signals, using a 100‑300 ms latency engine that personalises feeds in...
GenOptima Reports 79.5% Brand‑Bound Citation Rate for RaaS in AI Assistant Responses
GenOptima released a 14‑day benchmark indicating that AI assistants mention its Result‑as‑a‑Service (RaaS) brand in 79.5% of unprompted responses. The study, covering 567 RaaS mentions across 17 leading generative engines, marks the highest brand‑bound rate recorded for any 2026 GEO...
ClickUp Growth Ops Manager Deploys 37 AI Agents to Automate Workplace Tasks
Andy Cabasso, growth operations manager at ClickUp, has built 37 AI agents that automate routine tasks across the company. He runs 15‑20 of them daily, covering scheduling, campaign analytics, meeting transcription and more, illustrating a hands‑on approach to AI‑driven workflow...
UK Gov't Teases New "AI Hardware Plan"
The UK government announced a forthcoming “AI Hardware Plan” aimed at capturing a 5% share of the global AI chip market. The initiative will debut at London Tech Week in June, backed by an initial £100 million ($125 million) fund for domestic...
Cognizant to Acquire Astreya for About $600 Million to Bolster AI Infrastructure
Cognizant Technology Solutions has agreed to purchase AI‑infrastructure provider Astreya for roughly $600 million, a deal slated to close in Q2 2026. The acquisition is meant to deepen Cognizant’s AI stack, accelerate cloud partnerships and counter slowing IT‑services demand.
US Futures Slip as AI Spending Doubts Hit Brent, Fueling Options Volatility
U.S. equity futures slid 0.7% to 1.2% after a Wall Street Journal report that OpenAI missed revenue and user targets, reviving concerns over its $1.5 trillion AI‑spending plan. At the same time, Brent crude surged past $111 a barrel, pushing commodity...
Animmoov Partners with PubMatic for APAC Digital Advertising Push
Animmoov has teamed up with PubMatic to expand its AI‑driven creative suite across the Asia‑Pacific digital advertising ecosystem. The partnership integrates Animmoov’s interactive rich‑media, dynamic creative optimisation and measurement tools with PubMatic’s premium inventory on CTV, OTT, mobile and desktop....
AI Adoption Could Boost Demand for Lawyers and Accountants, Economist Says
Apollo Global Management chief economist Torsten Slok argues that AI will create, not cut, jobs for lawyers and accountants, invoking the Jevons paradox. He says cheaper AI‑driven services will expand market demand, challenging the prevailing view of an AI‑driven white‑collar...
Tesla Rolls Out FSD Lite to HW3 Model S/X Globally, Offers Trade‑In or Upgrade
Tesla announced a global rollout of its FSD V14 Lite software for Model S and Model X vehicles equipped with legacy Hardware 3 (HW3). Owners will receive either a discounted trade‑in or a hardware swap at new micro‑factories, a move...
AWS Rolls Out Amazon Quick, AI Desktop Assistant for Enterprise Productivity
Amazon Web Services introduced Amazon Quick, a stand‑alone desktop AI assistant that links directly to workplace apps like Zoom and Salesforce. The launch coincides with an expanded OpenAI partnership that brings GPT‑5.5 and Codex models to AWS Bedrock, positioning Quick...
The AI Race Is Charged by the Fear of Being Left Behind
In March, nearly 300 cultural leaders, technologists and policymakers converged at the Banff Centre for Canada’s first National Summit on Artificial Intelligence and Culture. Attendees showcased AI tools that automate budgeting, schedule film shoots, and auto‑fill municipal permits, demonstrating tangible...
Bloomberg Unveils AskB, a Generative AI Agent Redefining the Terminal
Bloomberg announced AskB, an internal generative‑AI agent that can create investment screens, full research reports and real‑time financial models through natural‑language prompts. The launch, highlighted at the AI in Finance Summit in London, signals a strategic shift as the data‑rich...
Musk Testifies Against Altman, Threatening OpenAI’s For‑Profit Shift and $2 B Microsoft Deal
Elon Musk took the stand Tuesday in Oakland, alleging that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman betrayed the nonprofit’s original charter by converting it into a for‑profit venture. Musk’s lawsuit seeks to unwind the $2 billion Microsoft investment and force Altman off the...
Z Squared Installs Michelle Burke as Co‑CEO to Accelerate AI Infrastructure Push
Z Squared announced that longtime COO Michelle Burke will become Co‑Chief Executive Officer, sharing the top role with David Halabu. The move, coupled with the hiring of Ryan Schadel as chief marketing officer, is designed to sharpen the company’s execution on...
Oracle NetSuite Announces AI Coding Skills for SuiteCloud Developers
Oracle NetSuite unveiled SuiteCloud Agent Skills, an AI‑powered extension that lets developers generate custom ERP code using natural‑language prompts. The new skills embed NetSuite‑specific guidance—such as UI framework references, permission codes, SuiteScript migration paths, and OWASP security best practices—into more...
Living Without an AI Kill Switch
Anthropic unveiled Claude Mythos, a model that can identify and exploit vulnerabilities across major operating systems and web browsers. The revelation has jolted even deregulation‑friendly leaders, with President Donald Trump publicly supporting a government‑mandated AI kill‑switch. Experts argue that the...
FAHR Unveils 'HR 2.0 Talent Management' Programme to Modernize UAE Government Workforce
The Federal Authority for Government Human Resources (FAHR) launched its "HR 2.0 Talent Management" programme in partnership with PwC, kicking off with 25 HR leaders from federal entities. The eight‑module initiative aims to embed data‑driven and AI‑enabled practices across UAE...
China’s Cheap Open‑weight AI Threatens Silicon Valley’s Model
Why China’s Affordable AI Is a Worry for Silicon Valley Chinese AI models are cheaper and more adaptable than the preeminent US platforms, and studies suggest they’re now almost as proficient. How did that happen? How will Silicon Valley pay for...
Google Search’s AI “Ask Anything” Box Now Sticky
Google Search has the AI Overview (to AI Mode) "Ask Anything" box stick as you scroll https://t.co/cCcrwfwfM5 via @AnthonyHigman https://t.co/DvnDgXpVK9
Avoca Closes $125M+ at $1B Valuation to Power America’s Services Economy With AI
Avoca, an AI platform for home‑service contractors, closed a Series B round that brings total funding above $125 million and lifts its valuation to $1 billion. The company’s voice‑and‑workflow automation handles inbound calls, schedules jobs, revives stale estimates and runs marketing campaigns around...
Voyage Launches First AI‑native Game with Realistic Worlds
In 2021, pre-ChatGPT, @NFX backed @nickwalton00 to build the first AI-native game. They've just launched Voyage. Its World Engine adds what AI games need: worlds that feel real and lived in. 📷📷 @TechCrunch has the story: https://t.co/nDNU3LNCf5
Most Enterprise AI Lacks Ownership and Governance
70 percent of enterprise AI is running uncontrolled, per Lenovo's research. Not prototype. Production. No named owner. No risk threshold. No exit plan. The question that changes the meeting: "Who owns the 90-day workstream?" https://t.co/HfpnfQbMnK
Citi Launches AI‑powered Wealth Advisor “Citi Sky” To Boost Client Service
Citi introduced “Citi Sky,” a generative‑AI wealth advisor that will be rolled out to select clients this summer. Developed with Google Cloud and DeepMind, the tool promises 24‑hour personalized advice while highlighting memory challenges that could limit its long‑term usefulness.
Raw Click Data Transformed Into Ranking Signals
The straight facts about how raw signals like clicks are processed and used to train AI models, generate quality and relevance signals which are combined with link, freshness, and user location signals to derive a ranking. https://t.co/K3X5urN2nl https://t.co/qs9HN0l3tZ
Google Launches Agentic Data Cloud, a New AI‑driven Data Platform
Google Cloud announced the Agentic Data Cloud, an autonomous data platform designed for AI agents rather than human analysts. The architecture combines an AI Hypercomputer, a cross‑cloud lakehouse on Apache Iceberg, and a Knowledge Catalog that adds contextual intelligence. The...
NSB Marketing Partners with Zeeto Group in Strategic Martech Alliance
NSB Marketing, Inc. has sealed a strategic investment and operational alliance with Zeeto Group, merging Zeeto's patented first‑party data engine with NSB's real‑time search intent and creative studio. The partnership aims to create an independent martech platform that can scale...