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:
Stellantis and Microsoft Expand AI Collaboration Across Operations
Stellantis and Microsoft have launched a five‑year partnership to co‑develop more than 100 AI initiatives covering customer care, product development and operations, alongside AI‑driven cybersecurity, Azure cloud modernization, and a company‑wide rollout of Copilot tools. The automaker aims to shrink its datacenter footprint by 60% by 2029 while using AI to improve predictive maintenance, manufacturing performance and logistics coordination. The collaboration’s success will hinge on which workflows are automated first and whether measurable gains in uptime, responsiveness and supply‑chain efficiency materialize. Executives see the deal as a test of large‑scale AI transformation in the auto industry.
Hearst Newspapers Expands AI-Powered Tax Tool in Texas After Seeing Strong Conversions
Hearst Newspapers is rolling out its AI‑driven property‑tax protest platform, TX Tax, to six additional Texas counties after a successful pilot with the Houston Chronicle. The pilot generated 52,000 visits, added roughly 500 new newspaper subscribers and emerged as the highest‑converting...
A Professor’s Use Case for AI Generated Papers
A professor at the Social Catalyst Lab demonstrates that AI agents can generate fully fledged empirical papers, from data collection to robustness checks, in minutes. While he bans AI use for student assignments to preserve deep learning, he leverages the...
Announcing Claude Opus 4.7 on Snowflake Cortex AI
Snowflake announced that Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.7 is now available in public preview on Snowflake Cortex AI across the U.S. and EU. The model brings stronger long‑task reasoning, higher‑resolution vision, and adjustable effort controls to Snowflake’s secure AI stack. Customers can...
AI Is a Tool, Not a Shortcut—Be Action‑oriented
I stole this framework, and it has genuinely been one of the most helpful hiring and onboarding guides my team uses. Being AI-first means nothing without solving real business problems. It's not enough to just use AI. I know plenty...
The Rise of AI in Hiring: From Image Upscaling to Smarter Recruitment
The article reviews seven AI‑driven image upscalers that help Midjourney V7 creators turn low‑resolution art into print‑ready files. It highlights each tool’s core features, strengths, and drawbacks, from bulk‑processing web services like Imgupscaler.ai to high‑detail desktop software such as Topaz...
Qwen Image Edit Delivers Precise, User‑Guided AI Editing
Qwen Image Edit: Bringing Precision and Control to AI-Powered Image Editing In this episode of Artificial Intelligence: Papers and Concepts, we explore Qwen Image Edit, a multimodal system designed to make image editing more precise, controllable, and aligned with user intent....
Anthropic Releases Notably Better Coder Opus 4.7 – After Reports of Degraded 4.6 Performance
Anthropic has launched Opus 4.7, a new version of its AI coding model that promises a marked performance rebound after users reported a slowdown in the previous 4.6 release. Early tests show the model delivering higher accuracy and faster response times...
AI‑Driven Scorecard Streamlines Product Research & Validation
I use AI for product research before I use it for anything else. Here's my exact workflow (and prompt) you can use: > Find competitor URLs using a product research tool > Plug them into a deep research prompt on Gemini or ChatGPT >...
AI-Generated Val Kilmer Movie Debuts Trailer, Creators Defend Digital Resurrection of Late Actor
The indie film *As Deep as the Grave* unveiled a trailer at CinemaCon featuring a generative‑AI recreation of the late Val Kilmer as Father Fintan. The filmmakers say they secured consent and compensation from Kilmer’s estate and followed SAG‑AFTRA’s new AI‑performance guidelines....
New AI Model Sparks Fresh Hedonic Treadmill Rush
I am embarrassingly excited about Claude Opus 4.7. We are so spoiled. We get used to these tools, start cursing them for their flaws, and then a new model drops and it feels like a mini holiday. I know in...
Why Generative AI Training Is Becoming the Next Tech Talent Battleground
New research from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York shows that only 39% of U.S. workers used generative AI tools at work in the past year, with adoption heavily skewed toward college‑educated and high‑income employees. While 66% of AI...
Opinion: Schools Need Clear Rules Around AI Deepfakes
Lake Zurich High School disclosed that police are investigating students who used artificial‑intelligence tools to create and share explicit deepfake images of classmates. The incidents, which surfaced in early April, echo similar cases in Pennsylvania and Louisiana where teens faced legal...
Most Philosophers Think AI Could Be Conscious, 11% Remain Agnostic
On AI consciousness: 1. Functionalism is the most popular view of philosophy of mind, which basically says sufficiently complex machines *will* be conscious. 2. Most other views are also compatible with AI consciousness (e.g. identity theory, panpsychism). 3. Eliminativists say humans...
AI’s Future Mirrors Early‑electricity’s Regulated Monopoly Era
In thinking about the right historical analogy for AI, I've become very interested in the early history of electricity in the early 1900s. With early 20th century electricity, you had: - famously feuding private inventors creating/scaling the early technology (Edison, Tesla,...
If You Want Into Anthropic's Claude Club, You May Have to Show ID
Anthropic is rolling out identity verification for select Claude features, using Persona Identities as its vendor. The verification prompts may appear at any time to enforce platform integrity, prevent abuse, and meet legal obligations. Anthropic assures users that identity data...
Open-World Evaluations for Measuring Frontier AI Capabilities
The paper introduces “open‑world evaluations,” a new class of AI testing that places agents in messy, real‑world tasks rather than tidy benchmarks. It surveys ten recent experiments, outlines best practices, and launches the CRUX collaboration of 17 researchers to run...
Schneider Electric Unveils Next Generation Agentic Manufacturing Capabilities with Microsoft Azure AI at Hannover Messe 2026
Schneider Electric announced a next‑generation agentic manufacturing platform built on its EcoStruxure Automation Expert and Microsoft Azure AI at Hannover Messe 2026. The joint solution creates a single, traceable workflow that spans design, simulation, commissioning and operations across cloud and edge environments....
AI Mode Now Shows Sites Side‑by‑side for Seamless Research
Oh boy, I'm not sure publishers will be thrilled with this change -> AI Mode will now open publisher links side by side with AI Mode (versus taking you directly to the publisher website). So both AI Mode and the...
Operators Favor Legacy PMSs Over Risky AI Startups
Appfolio and the other "legacy" PMSs are racing to build AI agents before the new AI-native startups can build their own PMSs. For the record, all the operators I know (from people running 100 units to people running thousands) are rooting...
What Hotels Are Getting Wrong About AI
Richard Valtr, founder of cloud‑based PMS Mews, says most hotels are treating AI as a checkbox exercise, adding chatbots and voice assistants without a cohesive strategy. He argues the industry focuses on yield management—price optimization—while neglecting broader strategy management that...
Canada Opens Applications to Build a Public AI Supercomputer
The Canadian government has launched the AI Sovereign Compute Infrastructure Program (SCIP), allocating roughly $890 million CAD (about $660 million USD) to build a publicly owned, large‑scale AI supercomputer. Applications are open to Canadian non‑profits, post‑secondary institutions, or consortia, with a deadline...
Bridge the Visual Gap: How to Integrate Applitools Autonomous with PractiTest
Applitools Autonomous’s AI visual validation can now be tightly coupled with PractiTest through a serverless bridge built on AWS Lambda and DynamoDB. The integration eliminates data fragmentation, manual status updates, and latency by automatically syncing visual test results and links...
Cohere’s Aidan Gomez Chooses Sovereign AI Over Easy Wins
"We're not looking for the easiest path, we're looking for the right path." NEW: Aidan Gomez is trying to build a different kind of AI company at $6.8B-valued Cohere. On The Upstarts Podcast, Gomez talks about his journey from small-town Ontario to...
OpenAI Launches Safety Fellowship to Fund External AI Research
OpenAI announced a six‑month Safety Fellowship launching in September 2026, aimed at external researchers studying AI risks. The program will fund fellows with stipends, compute access, and technical support to explore robustness, privacy, agentic oversight, and misuse prevention. By extending...
Israel’s Unit 8200 Is an Early Adopter of AI in Warfare
Unit 8200, Israel’s largest intelligence formation with about 5,000 soldiers, handles signals, open‑source, cryptanalysis and cyber‑warfare, and is often likened to the U.S. NSA. Historically it contributed to the Stuxnet virus and the 2024 Hezbollah pager attacks. Since the October 2023...
AI Can Improve Scholarly Writing — If We Use It Right
The article argues that AI, exemplified by Claude, can enhance scholarly writing when used as a thinking partner rather than a substitute for intellect. It highlights how senior researchers leverage AI to sharpen arguments, spot patterns, and iterate drafts, while...
What We Learned From a Failed Nota News Experiment
Last fall, Nota launched an experiment with 11 hyperlocal news sites, using AI‑assisted tools to turn public documents into local stories. Contractors deviated from the approved source list, copying material from other outlets without attribution, a breach the company attributes...
Automate Your Job
The post details how a Portland logistics broker reclaimed 15 hours a week by linking OpenClaw, an open‑source AI agent, with OpenAI’s new Codex desktop app. OpenClaw reads vendor PDFs, extracts tracking data, and hands it to Codex, which updates...
Dig Launches Ask-Dig, a Video-Centric AI Social Search Platform
dig introduced ask-dig, a video‑first AI platform that turns social media into a real‑time answer engine. Users type natural‑language questions and the system scans thousands of social posts, extracting narratives, sentiment and emerging signals. Each response is linked back to...
Moloco Launches AI-Powered Performance CTV for App Marketers
Moloco has introduced Moloco Ads for Performance CTV, extending its AI‑driven advertising technology to connected‑TV inventory. The platform optimizes each impression in real time, targeting specific marketing outcomes while leveraging advertisers' chosen mobile measurement partners for attribution. It promises premium,...
3 Mistakes Superintendents Say They've Made in Rolling Out AI
Superintendents from Rush‑Henrietta, San Diego Unified, and Broward County shared lessons at the ASU+GSV conference about missteps in K‑12 AI rollouts. They highlighted three common errors: assuming every leader was prepared, neglecting labor unions and parents, and spending excessive time...
From Static Snapshots to Dynamic Protein Modeling
AlphaFold solved protein structure prediction. That's a snapshot. But biology isn't static. Proteins flex, shift, and interact across time. Drug targets have multiple conformations. Cells don't act alone. The next hard problem is capturing that motion, and building models that reflect...
AI-Driven Traffic Spikes 393% and Lifts Retailer Revenue
AI traffic to US retailers rose 393% in Q1, and it’s boosting their revenue too https://t.co/4s4yDglDSH
AI at the Core: Trustworthy Intelligence for an Uncertain Hospitality World
Hospitality executives are moving AI from experimental projects to core commercial functions, yet trust remains a major hurdle. IDeaS research shows nearly 80% of hotel groups use AI and 90% plan deeper investment, but only about 1% rely on it...
Preserve Teacher Deep Thinking Amid AI Integration
Deep Work in the Age of AI: The Case for Protecting Teacher Thinking (Part I) 👉🏻 https://t.co/RmlU635BMN #edtech #aiineducation https://t.co/8nH9vZlxzi
Most Users Doubt AI Search, Demand Verifiable Links
https://t.co/pg3z88Zezd Only 15% of people trust AI search platforms, w/ 63% double-checking the results against trusted sources like news websites. They want easy access with clear links so they can verify content, something we're seeing less and less of in AI...
π0.7 Demonstrates Emergent Compositional Generalization via Instructions
We finished evaluating π0.7, our new model at Physical Intelligence. What I'm most excited about with π0.7 is that it's starting to show some surprising emergent compositional generalization, being able to both perform complex tasks and learn new tasks just...
Opus 4.7 Launches on Bedrock; Kiro CLI Integration Pending
Taking a bit of a break today because Opus 4.7 is already available in Amazon Bedrock and hoping it will be in the Kiro CLI today as well (or soon).
Entry-Level IT Jobs Vanish as Automation Takes Over
#CIOChat Q1: Entry-level IT work (troubleshooting, documentation, basic coding, ticket triage) is increasingly handled by copilots and IT automation. Are you already seeing the vanishing talent pyramid in action? What key junior roles are disappearing first in your org? https://t.co/TM6E5WJnrm
Exploring AI's Broad Impact Across Industries Today
Looking forward to a great panel discussion this afternoon with Springer discussing the wide ranging applications of AI across different industries and economic sectors @LehmanPresident @LehmanCollege @silvapuras @CUNY @ny_cpasociety https://t.co/40uh7Gz4ql
Debating Machine Consciousness: Confident Denials Meet Ongoing Philosophy
Amazed at how many people will confidently assert machines will never be conscious. It's maybe the most contested question in all philosophy.
AI Is Not Alien, It's Anti‑Intelligence Opposing Human Thought
Hariri is close, but I think he misses the point by calling AI alien. It's better to think of AI as anti-intelligence--intelligence that is antithetical to human cognition. https://t.co/m1ErdtsBgs
AI Learns Scientific Laws, Not Just Memorized Answers
With Sim2Reason, AI moves closer to how science itself progresses: not by memorizing answers, but by discovering the laws that generate them. 🚀🧠 Read more about the team’s work: https://t.co/CSFqdns1er
Gemini Captures 25% AI Traffic, Validating Google Strategy
🍿 Gemini has now +25% of AI platforms traffic 👇 Google strategy is working well
First Look at My New AI Smart Glasses
I finally got my AI Smart glasses by @Vader_AI_ Check out the unboxing 👀 https://t.co/ldUq81Qk9r
Generative AI Matures Into Six‑Layer Autonomous Agent Stack
The Generative AI ecosystem is evolving into a full tech stack — powering autonomous AI agents. From infrastructure and LLMs to RAG pipelines, agent behaviors and orchestration layers, this framework shows the 6 layers driving next-gen AI systems. Credit: @goyalshalini #AI #GenerativeAI #AgenticAI...
AI Trains Electron Microscope to Match Human Vision
A decade of imaging. Compressed into three months. Here’s how MIT CSAIL & Harvard taught an electron microscope to see like you do: https://t.co/qC3zVck0HF https://t.co/kMTptacRMD
Free AI Prompt Turns Your Data Into Business Lessons
Want my Full Business Reflection Prompt (for free)? This AI prompt pulls from your calendar, Slack, and memory to build a “What Happened” list and then extracts the lessons hiding inside it. Comment the word RECAP below, and I’ll send it over.
Future Is Here: Localizing Products From a Self-Driving Car
It's easy to forget that you're living in the future. But every now and then you see something like this... Responding to a client's complaint by making a major product change (localization) from your phone, talking to your software agent...