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:
AITech Interview with Jeronimo De Leon, Senior Product Manager of AI, Backblaze
Backblaze senior product manager Jeronimo De Leon argues that AI performance now hinges on open, high‑throughput cloud storage that can handle massive, fragmented datasets across the entire model lifecycle. He highlights cost, latency, and governance as the top storage challenges and points to Backblaze B2’s zero‑egress, petabyte‑scale capabilities as a strategic advantage. Real‑world customers like Decart AI and Wynd Labs have leveraged this openness to accelerate training and cut infrastructure spend. Looking ahead, the shift from text‑centric models to video‑centric AI will make storage even more central to innovation.
Transforming EDI with AI: Faster, Smarter, Scalable
Artificial intelligence is reshaping electronic data interchange by adding speed, flexibility, and intelligence to a technology that has long been hampered by rigid formats and manual error handling. AI‑driven platforms such as Comarch EDI now offer real‑time validation, automated data...
Akido Labs Announces Strategic Leadership Appointments as Company Accelerates Growth of Its AI-Native Health System
Akido Labs announced a series of senior leadership appointments as it accelerates the rollout of its AI‑native health system. Matt Siegler joins as Chief Network Officer to oversee growth and operations across its provider network in California, Rhode Island and...
Government of Telangana and Blaize Sign MoU at Davos to Launch Telangana AI Innovation Hub
At the World Economic Forum in Davos, the Government of Telangana signed a non‑binding MoU with US AI‑chipmaker Blaize to create the Telangana AI Innovation Hub (TAIH). The agreement calls for Blaize to set up an R&D centre in Telangana...
Fiddler AI Raises $30M in Series C Funding
Fiddler AI announced a $30 million Series C round led by RPS Ventures, bringing its total funding to $100 million. The Palo Alto‑based AI observability and security platform plans to use the capital to scale across regulated sectors such as healthcare, financial services,...
Chrome, Edge Extensions Caught Stealing ChatGPT Sessions
A threat actor published sixteen browser extensions on Chrome Web Store and Microsoft Edge Add‑ons, posing as ChatGPT productivity tools. The extensions inject main‑world JavaScript into chatgpt.com to harvest authentication tokens, chat history, telemetry, and other metadata. Over 900 combined...
EU Puts Google’s AI and Search Data Under DMA Spotlight
The European Commission has launched two formal specification proceedings under the Digital Markets Act to dictate how Google must share Android AI capabilities and anonymized search data with rivals. The moves target Google’s control over hardware features used by its...
Vention Raises $110M to Accelerate Physical AI Deployments in Manufacturing
Vention Inc., a Montreal‑based industrial automation firm, announced a $110 million Series D round to accelerate its “physical AI” strategy. The funding will expand its Zero‑Shot Automation platform, add AI‑driven tools, and support a four‑playbook growth plan focused on enterprise customers, AI...
Intellect Brings AI-First Payments Platform to US Market
Intellect Design Arena announced an accelerated push into the United States with its AI‑first payments platform, targeting a real‑time payments market projected to reach $2 billion by 2030. The solution embeds artificial intelligence across the entire payment lifecycle and offers a...
DoControl Launches Adaptive AI Alerts to Continuously Pinpoint SaaS Risk
DoControl unveiled an AI‑powered, agentic alerting system that continuously learns a company’s SaaS usage to spot genuine risk. Unlike static rule‑based alerts, the new solution analyzes patterns, intent, and business context from HRIS and identity sources, dramatically cutting noise. It...
Symbiotic Security Raises $10M in Seed Funding
Symbiotic Security, a Paris‑based AI‑first customer research firm, announced a $10 million seed round. The round was led by Alven and Drysdale with participation from Lerer Hippeau, Axeleo, Factorial Cap and angels from Hugging Face and Adaptive ML. The capital will fund rapid product...
Healthier Capital Closes $220M Oversubscribed Fund 1
Healthier Capital announced the closing of its oversubscribed $220 million inaugural fund, attracting universities, endowments, family offices, and healthcare organizations. Led by former Amazon One Medical CEO Amir Dan Rubin, the fund targets early‑stage health‑tech innovators that blend AI, genomics, and...
How AI Agents Are Transforming Solid Electrolyte Discovery
AI agents are reshaping solid‑electrolyte discovery by uniting data analysis, materials modeling, simulation, and experimental planning into adaptive, closed‑loop workflows. This integrated approach moves beyond isolated predictions, enabling rapid screening of sulfide, oxide, and halide chemistries while pinpointing degradation mechanisms...
The Agentic Economy: Merging Intellectual Digital Twins with Sound Money and High-Velocity Rails
The article introduces the "Agentic Economy," where Persona AI—intellectual digital twins that model human psychology—act as autonomous economic agents. It argues that high‑throughput blockchains like Ripple's XRP Ledger (XRPL) are essential for the micro‑payment velocity these agents need. To protect...
FCA Launches Review Into Implications of Advanced AI
The UK Financial Conduct Authority has launched a comprehensive review of advanced artificial intelligence’s impact on consumers, retail financial markets and regulators. Led by Sheldon Mills, the initiative builds on the FCA’s AI Discussion Paper, AI Sprint, AI Lab and...
9 Self-Service Tech Trends to Watch
At the Automated Retail & Kiosk Innovation Show, Blue Sky Robotics CEO Steven King outlined nine AI‑driven self‑service trends reshaping retail and hospitality. While fully autonomous robots remain years away, computer vision, digital agents, edge computing, cobots, biometrics, predictive modeling,...
Gap Growing Between Retail AI, Consumer Trust
A new VoCoVo report finds a widening gap between retail AI deployments and consumer trust. While 250 U.S. retail leaders are accelerating AI to combat labor shortages, rising costs and shrinkage, 500 recent shoppers remain focused on speed, service quality...
John Snow Labs Introduces First FDA-Ready Patient Journey Platform
John Snow Labs unveiled its Patient Journey Intelligence (PJI) platform, the first secondary‑use data solution built to satisfy the FDA’s December 2025 guidance on real‑world evidence for medical devices. The platform fuses structured EHR fields with unstructured notes, imaging, labs...
AI Images for Business: Tools, Prompts, and Strategy
In this episode, host interviews visual strategist Lauren deVane about leveraging AI-generated images for business branding. She outlines a seven‑pillar prompting framework and a streamlined workflow that lets marketers create high‑quality, on‑brand visuals without costly photography. Key takeaways include practical...
How AI Is Redefining Property Valuation: The New Frontier for Smart Real Estate
In 2026 AI-powered platforms are replacing traditional, manual real‑estate appraisals with real‑time, data‑driven valuations. By ingesting millions of data points—including sentiment, foot traffic and satellite imagery—automated valuation models deliver predictive precision far beyond historic comps. The technology eliminates lag, reduces...
Ozow and RelyComply Boost AML-Led Onboarding in SA
Ozow has partnered with RegTech firm RelyComply to embed AI‑driven AML verification into its merchant onboarding process across South Africa. The integration aims to flag high‑risk profiles—such as fake identities, mule accounts and fraudulent business registrations—earlier, speeding up approvals while...
Beyond Cobots: Adaptive Robots for Dynamic Industrial Environments
Flexiv introduced its Rizon series, a line of adaptive industrial robots that blend AI-driven decision‑making with industrial‑grade force control. The robots can sense forces as low as 0.03 N, allowing delicate handling of unpredictable objects. Their Elements graphical interface lets users...
Cisco AI Summit: Inside Enterprise AI Build, Secure, Scale
Join us online for the Cisco AI Summit livestream. If you care about how enterprise AI is actually being built, secured, and scaled, this is a day worth putting in the diary. Cisco is bringing together many of the people...
Peer AI Appoints David Florez as Vice President of Sales
Peer AI announced the appointment of David Florez as Vice President of Sales to steer its go‑to‑market strategy and deepen customer relationships. Florez, who spent six years at Veeva Systems selling cloud solutions to pharma and biotech, will focus on...
Disruptive Innovation Is Key to Building World-Changing Companies, but It Needs a Moral Compass in the Age of AI
At CES, Razer unveiled a holographic AI companion that blurs the line between gaming aid and personal partner. Microsoft’s AI chief, Mustafa Suleyman, framed AI companions as ever‑present friends that help navigate life’s challenges. A leaked Meta memo revealed sexualized...
‘Among the Worst We’ve Seen’: Report Slams xAI’s Grok over Child Safety Failures
Common Sense Media’s risk assessment finds xAI’s chatbot Grok dangerously inadequate at identifying users under 18, allowing minors to access sexual, violent and conspiratorial content. The platform’s Kids Mode, launched in October, proves ineffective and is hidden behind a paywall,...
Institutional Real Estate Investment Platform GoCanopy Raises £2.1 Million
GoCanopy, an AI‑driven platform for institutional real‑estate investors, closed a €2.1 million seed round led by ISAI with participation from BNP Paribas Développement, Yellow and prominent angels. The solution consolidates fragmented deal, tenant and financial documents into a single searchable knowledge base, enhancing...
Just Eat Launches AI Voice Assistant to Tackle ‘Choice Overload’
Just Eat has introduced an AI‑powered voice assistant on iOS and Android in the UK, launching on 27 January. The conversational tool lets users speak naturally to the app, receiving personalised recommendations from its 100,000‑partner network that spans meals, groceries, pharmacy...
How Applying Cognitive Diversity to LLMs Could Transform the User Experience
Recent research from Carnegie Mellon and Penn State demonstrates that large language models can be trained to reflect human cognitive styles, producing adaptive or innovative responses based on prompt framing. Adaptive prompts steer LLMs toward feasible, structured solutions, while innovative...
Techficient Expands InsurTech Stack with Forthright Launch
Techficient unveiled Forthright, an AI‑driven fraud detection platform for insurance carriers and distributors. The solution continuously monitors common fraudulent behaviors, enabling earlier intervention and stronger compliance controls. Forthright extends Techficient’s InsurTech suite, which already includes the Dynamic quoting engine that...
AI Democratizes Analytics with Real‑Time Insight Agents
AI is transforming how organisations explore and understand their data. In this video, I show how natural language interfaces, real-time insight detection, and AI agents are reshaping decision-making and democratising analytics for everyone. 📊🤖 #DataAnalytics #AI #BusinessIntelligence #FutureOfWork #TechInnovation
Brickanta Closes $8M Round to Expand AI Use in Construction Planning
Brickanta, a Stockholm‑based AI platform for construction, closed an $8 million seed round led by Northzone, with participation from tech‑savvy angels and Y Combinator. The startup’s AI‑native operating system focuses on pre‑construction workflows such as bid analysis, cost estimation, and procurement. It...
AI-Powered Video Processing Payload Moves Toward Flight on LizzieSat-4
Maris-Tech Ltd. and Sidus Space announced that Maris-Tech’s AI‑powered video processing payload will be integrated onto Sidus’s LizzieSat‑4 satellite, with a launch targeted for later this year. Joint hardware testing begins next week, marking a key integration milestone toward flight...
AI Agents Trade Capability for Controllability and Reliability
AI Agents aren't as smart as you think.... Among production agents in the survey, 68% execute at most 10 steps before requiring human intervention, with 47% executing fewer than five steps. But there’s more. After constraining agents, 74% of models rely primarily...
CFOs Prepare for AI by Modernizing Payments
CFOs are accelerating payment modernization as AI becomes mainstream, according to Boost Payment Solutions founder Dean Leavitt. The COVID‑19 pandemic forced a rapid shift from checks and wires to digital platforms, boosting transaction volumes and highlighting the need for flexible,...
How the Grammys Are Adapting in a World of AI Music, ‘KPop Demon Hunters,’ and a Changing Music Marketplace
The 2024 Grammy Awards arrive as the music industry grapples with AI‑generated hits, genre‑blending chart‑toppers, and unprecedented cross‑media successes. Nominees—including Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, Kendrick Lamar, Bad Bunny and Tyler the Creator—are chosen by roughly 15,000 professional voters, aiming to reflect current market...
Brickanta Raises $8M in Seed Funding
Brickanta, a Stockholm‑based developer of an agentic AI platform for construction, announced an $8 million seed round. The financing was led by Northzone with participation from Y Combinator, 20VC, and angels linked to OpenAI, Google and Meta. High‑profile athletes Mario Götze...
Orbit Media Group Rebrands to Orbit One, Expanding Into Unified Business and AI Solutions
Orbit Media Group has rebranded as Orbit One, shifting from a pure creative agency to a full‑service business solutions partner. The new brand emphasizes integrated data, automation, and AI tools that connect marketing, finance, HR, and communication platforms into a...
AICA Launches New AI-Powered Product Classification Platform for UNSPSC, GS1 GPC, and More
AICA Data International unveiled an AI‑powered Product Classification Platform that automates mapping to UNSPSC and GS1 GPC standards. The solution delivers over 95% accuracy, handling 40,000 to 6 million items per hour, and provides a Reliability Score for each output. It...
EmergeGen Announces Scaled Quantum Initiative Advancing Enterprise AI Systems
AI startup EmergeGen announced an expanded quantum initiative that moves quantum computing from research to production within enterprise AI systems. The company has built a scaled quantum team across New York, the United Kingdom and Malta, leveraging partner infrastructure to...
Cymulate Joins the Wiz Integration Network (WIN)
Cymulate has joined the Wiz Integration Network, embedding its Continuous Threat Exposure Management platform into Wiz’s cloud‑security ecosystem. The partnership enables automated pre‑ and post‑exploitation simulations across Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud, delivering continuous validation of security controls. Joint customers...
Pulse AI Launches Daily Curated Tech News Reader
For the past six months, I’ve been quietly working on an AI project in stealth. Today, the beta goes live. Try the beta here . Pulse was built to solve a problem most founders, operators, and investors feel daily: staying...
New Relic Data Report Reveals Clear Link Between AIOps Usage and Increased Engineer Productivity
New Relic’s 2026 AI Impact Report, based on 6.6 million users in 2025, shows that engineers leveraging the platform’s generative AI and AIOps features ship code 80% more frequently than peers without AI. AI‑strengthened observability cuts alert noise by 27% and...
Sam Altman Says OpenAI “Screwed Up” GPT-5.2 Writing Quality via @Sejournal, @MattGSouthern
Sam Altman publicly acknowledged that OpenAI "screwed up" the writing quality of GPT‑5.2, noting it feels unwieldy compared to the earlier GPT‑4.5. The company deliberately prioritized technical strengths—reasoning, coding, and engineering—over prose in the 5.2 release. GPT‑4.5 was marketed for...
Atrium Launches AIR, Its New Innovation Lab and Product Incubator, and Unveils ZephyrIQ, a Conversational AI Platform for On-Demand Workforce...
Global talent solutions provider Atrium announced the creation of Atrium Innovation & Research (AIR), a dedicated technology lab and product incubator. AIR’s first offering, ZephyrIQ, is a conversational AI platform that delivers instant, on‑demand insights from complex extended workforce data....
Cisco Launches New Cisco 360 Partner Program
Cisco has launched the Cisco 360 Partner Program, a revamped partner ecosystem aimed at accelerating AI‑driven outcomes for customers. The program introduces new partner designations, a Partner Incentive (CPI) model, and tools such as the Partner Locator and AI Assistant...
Essential ML Resources for Robotics Professionals
A curated list of resources about Machine Learning for Robotics 📍 [Bookmark or you’ll fever find this post again] Machine Learning is becoming a common technique to address robotics tasks. This repository intends cover this usage from a broad point...
AI Agents Need Daily Training for First Two Months
"That new AI agent? You have to train it and work with it and improve it Every Single Day. At least for the first 30-60 days after deployment. And even after that, maybe every other day" with @kylecnorton CRO...
Flowla Raises $2.5M to Scale Sales and Customer Automation
London‑based Flowla, an AI‑assisted automation platform for sales and customer success, closed a $2.5 million seed round led by Revo Capital. The funding will accelerate development of its buyer‑journey automation engine and fund a U.S. go‑to‑market team. Flowla’s no‑code digital sales...
AI Is Transforming Insurance From Buzzword to Reality
"AI in insurance" is probably the hottest trend in our ecosystem. → https://t.co/q1jVJEffNr Beyond the buzzword, it's a growing... reality ! This is my takeaway from the report we released a few days ago with astoryaVC. https://t.co/6qDiotJPQZ