Microsoft is testing a new Edge browser behavior where clicking Outlook email links can automatically open the Copilot side pane alongside the webpage. The feature, spotted in a Windows Canary build, aims to let Copilot summarize or assist with linked content, theoretically boosting productivity. However, it raises strong concerns about intrusiveness, interruptions to workflow, and Microsoft’s history of pushing unwanted Edge and Copilot integrations. Many users already resent aggressive prompts and auto‑enabled features, and this change could deepen that frustration if it ships with limited controls or is enabled by default. The article argues that while AI helpers can be useful, they must remain strictly opt‑in, transparent, and easy to disable to avoid backlash.

Gushwork, a startup previously known for offering offshore human operators to handle back-office tasks for small businesses, is pivoting to an AI-first model that uses agents to find and qualify sales leads. The new platform plugs into LinkedIn, email and CRMs, then autonomously searches for prospects, drafts outreach messages and keeps records updated, reducing the need for manual SDR work. Early customers report higher-quality pipelines and lower acquisition costs, though Gushwork still uses humans in the loop for oversight and edge cases. The company is targeting SMBs and startups that lack large sales teams, positioning itself against traditional lead-gen tools by emphasizing fully managed AI workflows. It is rolling out the product gradually while refining accuracy, compliance and personalization capabilities.

Facing usage of 8 billion tokens per day across 200+ internal AI applications, AT&T reengineered its AI orchestration stack to control costs, improve reliability, and simplify developer access to models. The company centralised model routing, prompt and cost management in a single platform that sits between internal apps and multiple LLM providers, enabling dynamic model selection based on cost, performance and latency. By eliminating redundant infrastructure and optimizing token usage, AT&T reports a 90% reduction in AI inferencing costs. The new orchestration layer also standardizes governance, monitoring, and security, giving teams consistent APIs and tools while allowing the business to scale AI adoption across operations, customer support and other functions without runaway spend or fragmented tech stacks.

Anthropic has acquired Vercept, a startup specializing in developing AI agents capable of operating computers in a human-like manner. Founded by former researchers from Meta and Google, Vercept created advanced technology designed to navigate complex desktop environments and web interfaces autonomously. The acquisition follows a strategic shift after Meta hired one of Vercept’s co-founders, prompting Anthropic to bring the remaining team and their specialized action-model expertise in-house. This move is expected to significantly bolster Anthropic’s "Computer Use" capabilities, a flagship feature of its Claude models. By integrating Vercept’s research, Anthropic aims to improve the reliability and efficiency of AI agents performing enterprise-level workflows. The deal reflects the growing industry-wide competition to master agentic AI and human-computer interaction. While financial terms were not disclosed, the acquisition highlights the high value placed on talent capable of building autonomous digital assistants.

Anthropic has quietly revised its AI safety policy, removing a prior commitment not to develop or deploy AI systems that pose an "extreme" risk to public safety. The company’s earlier safety level framework, which pledged to avoid creating highly dangerous models regardless of competitive pressure, has been softened as the generative AI market intensifies. Critics argue this change reflects growing commercial and investor influence over safety priorities, raising concerns about oversight and governance of increasingly powerful systems. Anthropic maintains that it remains committed to responsible AI and continues to invest in safety research and internal safeguards, but advocates warn that diluting explicit, hard safety guarantees may set a worrying precedent for the broader industry at a time when frontier model risks are escalating and regulatory frameworks are still emerging.

Anthropic has quietly updated its core safety policy, softening earlier commitments that prioritized caution over rapid deployment of AI systems. The company removed language explicitly stating it would delay or avoid launching powerful models that could pose extreme risks, and replaced it with more flexible wording emphasizing case-by-case assessment and mitigation. Critics argue this shift reflects mounting competitive pressure in the AI race with rivals like OpenAI and Google, potentially weakening Anthropic’s original safety-first stance. Supporters inside the industry suggest the change allows the company to remain agile while still claiming to uphold strong safety standards. The policy tweak highlights broader tensions in the AI sector between responsible development, commercial incentives, and the risks associated with increasingly capable models.

LG’s upcoming B5 OLED TV introduces a new generation of more cost-effective W-OLED panels designed to deliver premium performance at a more accessible price point. This new panel technology improves peak brightness and energy efficiency compared to previous B-series models, narrowing the performance gap with the higher-end C-series. During hands-on testing, the display showcased noticeably punchier HDR highlights and improved color volume. However, the 'fine print' reveals that the B5 will still use the mid-tier Alpha 8 AI processor rather than the flagship Alpha 11 found in the G5 and C5 models, and it typically features fewer full-bandwidth HDMI 2.1 ports. Despite these hardware limitations, the B5 represents a significant value proposition by bringing advanced panel materials to a more affordable consumer segment.

AI-powered deepfakes and voice cloning are rapidly becoming a major security threat for businesses, enabling convincing fraud, social engineering, and identity theft at scale. Cybercriminals now use generative AI tools to impersonate executives, bypass traditional verification processes, and manipulate employees into transferring money or sharing sensitive data. The article highlights real-world scams, including deepfake conference calls and cloned CEO voices, and notes that existing security controls are often inadequate against such hyper-realistic deception. Experts recommend stronger employee training, multi-factor and out-of-band verification for financial approvals, and leveraging AI-based detection tools to identify manipulated media. Organizations are urged to update incident response plans, review authentication processes, and treat deepfake-enabled attacks as a core part of modern cyber risk management.

Nvidia posted another record quarter as surging demand for its AI chips drove revenue and profit sharply higher. The company continues to benefit from massive capital spending by cloud providers and enterprises building AI infrastructure, with data center sales remaining the dominant growth engine. Management highlighted strong orders for its latest GPU platforms and networking hardware, and signaled that customer capex on AI will stay elevated as more workloads move to accelerated computing. Nvidia is also investing heavily in next‑generation architectures and software ecosystems to defend its lead in AI, while acknowledging supply constraints and intense competition. The results underscore Nvidia’s central role in the global AI build‑out and reinforce expectations of continued robust growth tied to large‑scale AI deployments.

Gong has unveiled "Mission Andromeda," a suite of AI-driven tools designed to transform sales productivity through advanced automation and intelligence. At its core is a new AI sales coach that provides personalized feedback to representatives by analyzing their interactions and performance in real-time. The company also introduced a dedicated chatbot that assists users with complex revenue-related queries, leveraging historical data to provide actionable insights. A significant highlight is Gong's adoption of Anthropic’s Model Context Protocol (MCP), which enables seamless integration of Gong’s data with third-party AI agents and platforms like Salesforce or HubSpot. This open approach aims to break down data silos, ensuring that enterprise AI models have access to the most accurate sales context. By positioning itself as an open platform, Gong seeks to lead the industry-wide shift toward autonomous, data-informed AI agents.

The upcoming competition between the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra and Apple’s iPhone 17 Pro Max highlights a significant shift toward AI-centric mobile technology expected for late 2025 and early 2026. The iPhone 17 Pro Max is rumored to introduce a massive 6.9-inch display and a boost to 12GB of RAM specifically to support advanced on-device Apple Intelligence features. Samsung’s Galaxy S26 Ultra is anticipated to run on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 processor, focusing on further integrating generative Galaxy AI capabilities into the user experience. Camera hardware remains a primary differentiator, with Apple potentially adopting 48MP sensors for all rear lenses while Samsung continues to refine its high-resolution sensor and zoom technology. Ultimately, the choice between these premium devices will depend on ecosystem loyalty and which brand offers the more seamless integration of artificial intelligence into daily productivity and creativity tasks.

Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy S26 Ultra is rumored to feature a redesigned camera system intended to simplify pro‑level photography for beginners. The phone may integrate improved computational photography, smarter auto modes, and more intuitive controls that help users capture high‑quality images without manually adjusting complex settings. Enhanced hardware like upgraded sensors and lenses is expected to work closely with advanced image processing to handle challenging lighting and motion more reliably. For casual photographers intimidated by traditional cameras or manual modes, the S26 Ultra could offer an accessible way to achieve polished, professional‑looking photos directly from a smartphone, narrowing the gap between amateur and expert results.

Samsung's recent Galaxy Unpacked event showcased a strategic pivot toward "Galaxy AI," embedding machine learning features across its hardware lineup to enhance user experiences. Despite this dominance, the company conspicuously excluded AI mentions from its sustainability presentation, creating a sharp divide between technological ambition and environmental accountability. While celebrating the use of recycled minerals and revamped packaging, Samsung ignored the high energy demands and water consumption necessitated by the massive data centers powering generative AI services. This omission highlights a growing tension in the tech industry: the drive for AI-powered innovation often clashes with carbon neutrality targets. By failing to bridge the gap between AI development and ecological impact, Samsung missed an opportunity to address how its digital future coordinates with the urgent physical realities of global resource preservation and energy efficiency.

Samsung’s Galaxy AI integration across its latest devices aims to revolutionize the smartphone experience, yet many features feel like solutions in search of problems. While tools like Circle to Search and live translation offer genuine utility, others, such as AI-driven writing style suggestions and summarized notes, risk diminishing personal expression and cognitive engagement. The push toward automating creative tasks, like Generative Edit in photos, raises questions about the value of authenticity in digital content. Instead of focusing on everyday actions that users can comfortably perform themselves, technology companies should prioritize AI applications that solve complex problems or significantly improve accessibility. The current industry trajectory suggests an over-reliance on AI that may alienate consumers who prefer a more manual, intentional relationship with their devices and digital interactions.

Swiss sportswear brand On is expanding its automated manufacturing capabilities through the introduction of LightSpray technology. This innovative process utilizes a robotic arm to spray a single continuous filament of thermoplastic onto a mold, creating a lightweight, seamless shoe upper in approximately three minutes. This method significantly reduces waste and carbon emissions compared to traditional footwear manufacturing by eliminating the need for glue and multiple components. By employing highly automated robotic cells, On aims to move production closer to local markets, reducing shipping times and logistics costs. The technology recently debuted with the Cloudboom Strike LS model, highlighting a significant shift toward localized, precision-engineered assembly that streamlines footwear production through advanced robotics and automated engineering.

Alexa Plus is Amazon’s new paid upgrade to its voice assistant, offering more natural, conversational responses and the ability to adjust tone based on user mood, with options like Brief, Chill and Sweet. Running both in the cloud and on Echo devices, it remembers previous context better, can interpret more nuanced or vague requests and supports multi-step commands. In testing, it sounded less robotic, added small talk and occasionally used humor, but sometimes overshared or misunderstood preferences, making interactions feel hit-or-miss. The service also adds new skills, like more personalized recommendations and improved smart home control, and will cost $5.99 per month or $59.99 per year when it launches broadly. Overall, it feels like a significant step toward more human-like AI assistants but still needs refinement.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has dismissed the idea of building data centers in space as “ridiculous,” pushing back on Elon Musk’s enthusiasm for space-based infrastructure such as using SpaceX’s Starlink satellites for AI data needs. Altman argues that the main bottlenecks for AI infrastructure are power generation and cooling on Earth, not access to space, and that proposed orbital data centers would be prohibitively expensive and technically impractical for now. The article frames this as the latest point of tension between Altman and Musk, who have previously clashed over OpenAI’s direction and AI safety, and suggests their rivalry could shape future narratives around how and where large-scale AI compute infrastructure should be built.

Samsung’s Galaxy S26 series is launching with higher prices than the Galaxy S25 line, and while Samsung won’t officially blame memory costs, a severe DRAM supply crunch is the likely cause. Smartphone makers have been squeezed as AI-focused data centers and PCs soak up vast quantities of high‑bandwidth memory and DRAM, pushing component prices up. The S26 range reportedly faces significantly higher bill of materials costs, especially for RAM, at a time when consumers expect more storage and memory for on‑device AI and performance. Samsung is instead pointing to broad factors like innovation and market conditions, but analysts suggest the industry‑wide ‘RAM crisis’ driven by AI infrastructure demand is a key driver behind the price hike.

Samsung has officially unveiled the Galaxy S26 lineup, emphasizing a shift toward premium hardware and advanced artificial intelligence. The new series introduces a specialized "Privacy Display" designed to limit viewing angles for prying eyes while improving power efficiency. Powered by next-generation processors, the devices offer significant speed improvements that come with a higher retail price across all models. The centerpiece of the launch is a deepened partnership with Google, featuring exclusive Gemini AI integration. These features include sophisticated generative tools, real-time context-aware assistance, and enhanced photo editing capabilities exclusive to the S26 series. Samsung claims these AI advancements redefine the mobile experience by moving beyond basic chatbots into proactive system-level integration, aiming to justify the flagship's increased cost through superior productivity and security features.

US District Judge Stephen Breyer dismissed most of Elon Musk’s xAI trade secret allegations against OpenAI, ruling that merely hiring former OpenAI employees is not enough to plausibly claim theft of trade secrets. Under the Defend Trade Secrets Act and California law, plaintiffs must identify specific secrets and show improper acquisition, use, or disclosure—not just overlap in staff. The judge allowed xAI a brief window to amend its complaint with concrete details. Some breach-of-contract claims tied to nondisclosure and non-solicitation provisions may proceed, but broad claims that OpenAI’s success derives from misappropriated xAI secrets were rejected. The ruling underscores California’s strong policy favoring employee mobility and warns companies that speculative, non-specific trade secret accusations will not survive early judicial scrutiny.