Today's AI Pulse
Salesforce to acquire AI‑agent platform Fin for $3.6B
Salesforce announced a $3.6 billion purchase of Fin, the AI‑agent platform formerly known as Intercom, to strengthen its Agentforce suite. The deal comes as Salesforce reported strong Q1 results and a $50 billion buyback program. Fin’s technology enables automated customer support across chat, email, WhatsApp, phone and Slack.
Also developing:
By the numbers: Waymo acquires Apple’s Arizona Proving Ground for $220M
A Game Plan for the AI Boom
AlphaGo’s 2016 victory over Go champion Lee Sedol demonstrated that pairing a move‑generation network with a separate evaluation network, trained via reinforcement learning, could master a problem once deemed unsolvable. The same two‑step architecture now underpins today’s reasoning models, which solve complex coding, math, and scientific tasks by planning step‑by‑step and self‑evaluating. Researchers have extended the approach beyond Go with AlphaZero, which learned chess, shogi and other games solely through self‑play. This evolution has turned the AlphaGo breakthrough into a template for the broader generative‑AI boom.
Microsoft AI Releases Harrier-OSS-V1: A New Family of Multilingual Embedding Models Hitting SOTA on Multilingual MTEB V2
Microsoft released Harrier-OSS-v1, a trio of multilingual embedding models ranging from 270 million to 27 billion parameters. The models use decoder‑only architectures with last‑token pooling and achieve state‑of‑the‑art results on the Multilingual MTEB v2 benchmark. They support a 32,768‑token context window, enabling...
Three-in-One Diode Integrates Sensing, Memory and Processing for Smart Cameras
Researchers at the University of Science and Technology of China have created a single semiconductor diode that simultaneously senses light, stores data and performs processing. By inserting an aluminum‑gallium‑nitride layer into a GaN p‑n junction, the device can switch among...
Last Week in ConTech - 30 March 2026
Construction is entering an AI‑first era where new firms embed technology directly into delivery processes rather than selling standalone software. Recent stealth launch Zero RFI ($13.8 M) and Unlimited Industries ($12 M) illustrate investor appetite for vertically integrated, AI‑native contractors, while private...
One Project, Basic Portfolio Beats PhD Myths
Generative AI Data Scientist Job Myths: • You need months of Math & Stats • You need a PhD • You need Job Experience The reality:  • You need 1 solid AI/ML project • You need a basic portfolio That’s it. Want to learn how? I’m teaching...
Jerome Powell to Gen Z: Don’t Fear AI—Master It
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell told a crowd of Harvard economics students that the looming AI revolution should be embraced, not feared, by the incoming Gen Z workforce. He highlighted the current low job‑creation environment and warned that large language...
Sage and Durham University Expand AI Skills Agenda as Regional Talent Strategy Gains Momentum
Sage has teamed up with Durham University to launch an AI and digital skills programme aimed at the North East of England, linking the software vendor’s enterprise expertise with the university’s Business AI and Analytics Centre. The collaboration emphasizes applied...
AI Doesn’t Fix Systems — It Exposes Them
The article argues that artificial intelligence, like nuclear power, is a new source of energy that only creates value when the surrounding system— the "grid"—is rebuilt to absorb and act on its output. In healthcare, AI models can flag disease...
AI Coding Flaws Now, but Scaling Laws Guarantee Improvement
This is an insane Anthropic tweet. And it’s a *buried reply* to one of their other tweets. I am reminded of a talk I gave ~2-3 months ago where a senior developer at a Fortune 500 company asked me “why would...
AI-Driven
We’re trying to build intelligent systems… using control frameworks designed by humans. That’s the core limitation of today’s agent harnesses. A new paper from Tsinghua University and Shenzhen proposes something radically different: 👉 What if the harness itself is not...
No Internet? This 'Survival Computer' Has Everything You Need Offline - Including AI
Project NOMAD is an open‑source, self‑contained platform that delivers a searchable knowledge base and local AI assistant without an internet connection. It installs on any Debian‑based Linux distribution using a single script and runs six Docker containers that power services...
AI's Uncertain Moment: Chatbots Cool, NVIDIA Falters, $599 MacBook Sh
NEW ESSAY: AI Is in a Weird Place Right Now https://insideorchard.com/essays/ai-is-in-a-weird-place-right-now We discuss nine AI developments that have been on my radar including chatbot platform craze cooling, NVIDIA not convincing Wall Street, and a $599 MacBook being the leading contender for device of...
OpenClaw Promises AI That Executes, Not Just Chats
🦞👀👏🏾 Could OpenClaw be the next ChatGPT? In an interview with Jim Cramer, Jensen Huang says OpenClaw could unlock a whole new wave of AI. ➡️ Not just chat. ➡️ AI that acts. We’ve moved from: Search ➝ Generate ➝ Execute It’s a big shift and...
AI Should Belong to Workers
The article argues that artificial intelligence should be placed directly in the hands of frontline workers, shifting value from supervisory layers to the production floor. Unlike past automation waves that required specialized skills, AI’s natural‑language interfaces lower entry barriers, enabling...
Sora Is Gone — but These 3 AI Video Tools Are Already Replacing It
OpenAI abruptly discontinued Sora, its popular AI video generator, leaving users searching for alternatives. Google’s Veo 3.1, built into Gemini, now offers true 4K video with native audio and multi‑scene storytelling, though video is limited to paid tiers ranging from $7.99...
Simon Fraser University’s (SFU) Metacreation Lab March 2026 Newsletter: A Few Highlights
The Metacreation Lab’s April 2026 newsletter spotlights director Philippe Pasquier’s flurry of activities, including two high‑profile talks on creative AI, a hands‑on Autolume workshop, and participation in Canada’s National AI‑Culture Summit. Pasquier emphasized small‑data generative models that give artists greater...
3 Things AI Has Changed About Content Marketing That Aren't Going Back
Artificial intelligence is reshaping content marketing by enabling hyper‑personalized experiences, automating large‑scale content creation, and delivering real‑time performance analytics. Marketers now rely on AI‑driven tools to generate copy, optimize SEO, and predict audience engagement, reducing production cycles from weeks to...
Secure AI Visibility: Access, Usefulness, Recognition Drive Brand Presence
🤖 How AI Systems Surface Your Brand: From Inputs to Outcomes 👇 Before a brand can perform well in AI answers, AI systems need three things from it: 1. Access: They need to be able to reach and process your content. 2. Usefulness: They...
Coatue Projected $1.995 Trillion Valuation for Anthropic in 2030
Coatue Management disclosed a projection that AI safety startup Anthropic could reach a $1.995 trillion valuation by 2030. The firm’s model shows a $14 billion EBITDA loss on $18 billion revenue in 2026, rising to $48 billion EBITDA on $200 billion revenue by 2031. Recent...
AI Is Driving a New Infrastructure Cost Crisis, but Adaptive Tiering Could Help Contain It
Enterprises are confronting soaring infrastructure costs as AI and distributed applications expand data volumes. Tintri’s adaptive tiering technology automatically shifts workloads between high‑performance NVMe, SSD, and other media, eliminating the need for manual hierarchical storage management. The solution leverages real‑time...
Shadow AI Emerges as Active Threat Amid Rapid Adoption
Shadow IT was always a problem. Shadow AI is different. Now it can act, not just exist. And the pace of adoption is like nothing I have seen before. What are you doing to manage shadow AI?
Even AI Struggles With One‑Shot Real‑World Business Tasks
things that seem possible but are hard to one-shot* with the latest agents - come up a unique tee concept, design it, and sell at least 100 tee shirts for a profit - sell $1000 worth of drop shipped goods for a...
Bill Ackman Says Stocks Are “Stupidly Cheap”
In this episode of Motley Fool Money, the hosts discuss the divergent views on AI's impact on demand‑aggregator platforms like Expedia and Instacart, weighing bullish arguments about AI‑enhanced personalization against bearish fears of agentic AI bypassing intermediaries. They then shift...
Jordan Furlong’s TECHSHOW Keynote: The Lawyers Who Will Thrive In The New World Order Will Be Entrepreneurs — And Humans
Jordan Furlong’s ABA TechShow keynote warned that AI will commoditize legal knowledge, automate routine tasks, and reshape law‑firm economics. He argued that future success will depend less on depth of expertise and more on being a trusted partner in crises....
As More Americans Adopt AI Tools, Fewer Say They Can Trust the Results
Americans are rapidly adopting AI tools, with only 27% reporting never having used them, down from 33% a year earlier. Yet a Quinnipiac poll shows 76% trust AI rarely or never, and just 21% trust it most of the time....
Mantis Biotech Launches AI‑driven Digital Twins to Create Synthetic Data for Drug Discovery
New York‑based Mantis Biotech unveiled an AI platform that builds physics‑based digital twins of humans, producing synthetic biomedical datasets for drug discovery and other high‑risk biomedical research. The startup says the technology can fill data gaps in rare diseases and...
Rebellions Secures $400 Million Pre‑IPO Funding, Valued at $2.34 Billion
Rebellions, the South Korean fabless AI inference chip maker, raised $400 million in a pre‑IPO round led by Mirae Asset and the Korea National Growth Fund, lifting its valuation to $2.34 billion. The cash will fund aggressive expansion into the United States,...
Realtor.com Deploys ChatGPT Home‑Search App, Aiming to Capture Pre‑Search Shoppers
Realtor.com has launched a ChatGPT‑based home‑search app that lets users ask budgeting and location questions inside the AI chat and then routes them back to Realtor.com for full listings. The move positions the portal against Zillow and Redfin while pledging...
BullFrog AI Shares Jump 126% After Sealing AI‑driven Drug Discovery Deal with Top Pharma
BullFrog AI Holdings saw its Nasdaq‑listed shares climb 126.24% to $1.15 after announcing a commercial agreement with a leading global pharmaceutical company. The deal gives the pharma partner exclusive access to a novel target candidate for major depressive disorder and...
AI Startups Should Prioritize Infrastructure Over Competition
How do you survive as an AI startup competing with Anthropic and OpenAI Know when to retreat, says Harvey CEO Winston Weinberg. His advice for AI startups: focus on infrastructure, security and other defensible areas -- instead of getting "distracted" by...
China Deploys AI‑Driven Smart Farming Across 3,800 Mu, Boosting Yields and Income
China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs has accelerated the rollout of AI‑enabled smart farming on more than 3,800 mu of fields in Jiangsu, using drones, IoT sensors and data‑analytics platforms. The initiative has lifted tea leaf quality by nearly 50%...
ScaleOps Raises $130M Series C to Slash AI Compute Waste
ScaleOps closed a $130 million Series C round led by Insight Partners, valuing the Israeli startup at over $800 million. The funding will accelerate its autonomous platform that promises up to 80% reductions in cloud and AI infrastructure spend, a move that...
Okta CEO Todd McKinnon Unveils AI‑Powered Agent Identity Platform
Okta chief executive Todd McKinnon introduced an AI‑powered agent identity platform that will manage credentials for autonomous software agents. The move targets growing security concerns as enterprises deploy more AI tools, and it reflects Okta’s effort to stay ahead of...
Is Your AI System Ethical? Try This Assessment
The Prosocial AI Index introduces a 4Ts‑4Ps scorecard that expands AI evaluation beyond efficiency to fairness, trust, talent, and environmental impact. It offers executives a concrete framework to assess whether AI systems are tailored, trained, tested, and targeted for purpose,...
Would You Share Your Phone Calls With a Company to Make Money? This Startup Is Banking on It
Neon, a new app, pays users to record and sell their phone calls for AI training, quickly rising to the top of the App Store. An early security flaw exposed call metadata and transcripts, prompting a public backlash. After securing...
Add Collaborative Workspaces and Context‑suppression Mode to Claude
2 product tips for @claudeai based on my usage and our teams experience: 1. collaborative workspaces — let users invite specific people (not the full org) into a shared chat, like Dropbox shared folders. They can see each other's prompts, comment,...
Base44: Bootstrapped AI Agent Platform Nets $80M Exit
The competition is nuts in AI Agent-running platforms. Am talking to a group of Tesla fans and everyone is catching wind that they need to get into this world. What is Base44? From the company... "Base44 is the AI agent platform...
AI Val Kilmer Demands Cooler GPUs, Calls 80°C Inhumane
Val Kilmer’s AI twin is now protesting for 'Better GPU Cooling.' Apparently, 80°C is 'inhumane' for a digital consciousness. I can’t even. 🖥️🔥 #ValKilmer #AIEthics #DigitalTwin #TechSatire #GPU https://t.co/IgSyiy4FRD
Current AI Misalignment Risks Appear Lower Than Predicted
Given that there have been so few cases of harm caused by misaligned AI so far, isn't the solid line more accurately on par with or even ahead of the dashed line? (Acknowledging that the future may change, of course.)
Quilty AI Platform Launches, Reshaping Script Development and Assessment
Quilty, AI Platform Designed to Change How Scripts Are Developed and Assessed, Launches (EXCLUSIVE) https://t.co/RoCXfQ0chG via @variety
Three AI Video Tools Replace Sora, Often Better
Sora’s sudden disappearance has left a gap — but three alternative AI video tools already offer viable (and in some cases better) ways to create videos. https://t.co/EqYhv5XQY3
OpenClaw Hype Pushes AI Toward Real‑work Execution
OpenClaw Craze Is Driving Next Phase of AI Development, Insiders Say Users now expect large language models to execute actual work rather than simply engaging in conversations, says Zhang Peng, chief executive officer of Zhipu AI... https://t.co/Bw9e7YzQZm
Choose Your AI Role: Cyborg, Centaur, or Self‑Automator
3 ways to use #AI: Are you a cyborg, a centaur, or a self-automator? by Dylan Walsh @MITSloan Learn more: https://t.co/onTZxs604l #ArtificialIntelligence #MachineLearning #ML #DL https://t.co/deOGdlEoVa
Stateless Semantic Search in BigQuery Simplifies Small Datasets
You have any giant, convoluted code or SQL logic to handle data values that might be similar? @JeffONelson did. But he shows off a new stateless semantic search in @googlecloud BigQuery that might be a lifesaver for small datasets. https://t.co/RU5q8SoJb4
AI-Driven Data Retrieval Makes Disconnected Tools Obsolete
I love not logging in to software and building reports, just asking Claude who pulls all the required data for me. Tools that don't connect are dead to me. Will need to change our product analytics tool.
VRT Expands Ohio Plant as AI Cooling Demand Surges 109%
$VRT announces expansion at Ohio facilities to boost US production of critical thermal management technologies for AI data centers. They wouldn't be doing this if demand wasn't off the charts. It is - backlog rose 109% y/y last...
US Embraces AI for Work, Yet Remains Unhappy
Americans are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence to help with things like research, writing, school or work projects, and analyzing data — but they’re not exactly happy about it. https://t.co/8RQcKInngv via @techcrunch
Claude Code Now Supports OpenAI Codex Plugin
Wow. Starting today you can use Codex in Claude Code 🤯 /plugin marketplace add openai/codex-plugin-cc you can try it with: /codex:review for a normal read-only Codex review /codex:adversarial-review for a steerable challenge review /codex:rescue to let codex rescue your code https://t.co/hSOe0Kldt4
Qodo AI Beats Claude, Prevents 800+ Monthly Bugs
This AI code review tool just outperformed Claude on its own benchmark. It's called Qodo and Fortune 100 engineering teams are using it to catch what Cursor, Copilot, and Claude Code quietly miss. 800+ issues prevented per month Here's how it works 👇...
Pretending AI Is Expert Reduces Its Reliability
Asking #AI to act like an expert can make it less reliable by Paul Arnold @TechXplore_com Learn more: https://t.co/qVpbXrbxIQ #MachineLearning #ArtificialIntelligence #ML https://t.co/fsPqKw5Mz1