News — Page91

ElevenLabs, the AI voice‑generation startup, announced it has reached $330 million in annual recurring revenue. The company, founded in 2022 and launched its first product in 2023, achieved rapid growth, hitting $100 million ARR in 20 months, $200 million in 10 months and the current level in five months. Fortune 500 firms and emerging startups are adopting its voice‑agent platform, which powers customer support and experience interactions. Enterprises have deployed the technology to handle more than 50,000 calls each month. The firm recently closed a $180 million Series C round co‑led by a16z and ICONIQ Growth, pushing its valuation to $3.3 billion, and later secured an additional $100 million from ICONIQ and Sequoia. ElevenLabs also expanded its offerings with music‑creation tools and celebrity voice partnerships.Read more

A recent World Economic Forum report shows that nearly two‑thirds of organizations now evaluate AI risks before deployment, up from just over a third last year. While executives acknowledge rising AI‑related vulnerabilities, many are also turning to AI tools to bolster cybersecurity, especially for phishing detection, intrusion monitoring, and automated operations. Key barriers include skill shortages, the need for human validation, and lingering uncertainty about risks. The outlook highlights increasingly convincing phishing, deep‑fake scams and automated social engineering as the most pressing AI‑enabled threats.Read more

Microsoft announced a five‑point "Community‑First AI Infrastructure" plan aimed at easing local concerns about its new AI data centers. The initiative includes higher payments to offset electricity costs, reduced water usage, job training and creation, and greater contributions to local tax bases. Company officials said the move responds to rising electricity rates, community backlash, and pressure from lawmakers seeking transparency on utility impacts. Microsoft also pledged not to accept electricity subsidies and to work with utilities and regulators to set rates that cover the power demands of its facilities.Read more

Anthropic has launched Claude Cowork, a preview feature that extends its Claude Code AI to non‑developer users. By granting the assistant access to a folder, users can have it read, edit, or create files, organize downloads, convert receipt screenshots into spreadsheets, and browse websites via a Chrome plugin. The tool also integrates third‑party apps through Anthropic’s Connectors framework. Initially, Claude Cowork is available to subscribers of the Claude Max plan on macOS, with a waitlist for additional users.Read more

AI‑first browsers embed generative tools such as summarization, rewriting and real‑time suggestions directly into the web‑page experience. While they boost productivity, they also blur the line between approved enterprise software and shadow AI, making it harder for organizations to see when employees invoke AI and what data is processed. This hidden usage creates version drift, skips formal review steps, and shifts interpretation away from source documents, leading to gaps in audit trails, retention, compliance and operational consistency. Experts recommend new controls to keep AI‑generated content traceable and governed within existing workflows.Read more

Apple and Google have announced a multiyear partnership that will see Google's Gemini AI models underpin a more personalized version of Siri, slated for release in 2026. The agreement lets Apple use Gemini and Google Cloud to drive its upcoming frontier models and Apple Intelligence while keeping data on Apple devices and private cloud compute for privacy. Analysts note the deal continues Apple’s tradition of “co‑opetition” with Google, which already pays Apple for default search placement, and could give Google a larger AI footprint on iPhone users. Potential antitrust concerns have been raised, but the specifics of the technology exchange remain unclear.Read more

U.S. Senators Ron Wyden, Ben Ray Lujan and Edward Markey have sent a letter to Apple and Google demanding the removal of X and its AI tool Grok from their app stores. The senators cite the creation of explicit images of women and children by Grok, which they say violates both companies’ terms of service. They note that Apple and Google have previously acted quickly to remove apps that posed legal risks, and they urge a similarly swift response to the harmful content generated by Grok. The request comes amid growing international scrutiny, including actions by Indonesia, Malaysia and the UK’s Ofcom.Read more

Salesforce has upgraded Slackbot, the built‑in assistant in its Slack platform, into a generative‑AI‑powered agent. Available to Business+ and Enterprise+ customers, the new Slackbot can locate information, draft messages, schedule meetings and interact with other enterprise applications such as Microsoft Teams and Google Drive when granted permission. The company says the overhaul is designed to deliver a seamless, “agentic” experience that boosts productivity without forcing adoption. Salesforce plans future enhancements, including voice interaction and web‑browsing capabilities, positioning Slackbot as a central productivity companion for modern workplaces.Read more

ChatGPT, the AI chatbot that launched more than three years ago, now serves hundreds of millions of weekly users and continues to grow. It can answer questions, summarize text, write content, code, and translate languages, while offering both free and premium options. Users can access it via a web portal or mobile apps, create accounts for personalized responses, and experiment with voice, file uploads, and built‑in prompts. The guide stresses a balanced approach: verify information, provide clear context, and avoid over‑reliance on the model, especially for health or financial advice. It also outlines practical use cases for personal and work tasks.Read more

Anthropic introduced Cowork, a new capability for its Claude AI that lets subscribers grant the chatbot access to a MacOS folder. Users can chat with Claude to organize files, rename items, and generate spreadsheets or documents from the folder's contents. The feature, currently limited to Claude Max subscribers at $100 per month, also links to connectors for app integration and works with the Claude Chrome extension. Anthropic cautions that Cowork is in a research preview, recommending use only on non‑sensitive data and noting defenses against prompt‑injection attacks.Read more

OpenAI announced the acquisition of Torch, a small health‑tech startup, for equity valued at $100 million. Torch’s four‑person team, which built a platform described as a "medical memory for AI," will join OpenAI as it expands its new ChatGPT Health service. The technology aims to unify scattered medical data—from doctor visits to wearable devices—into a single context engine for artificial‑intelligence analysis, positioning OpenAI to offer more comprehensive health‑focused AI tools.Read more

ChatGPT offers convenience for many everyday tasks, but it falls short in critical areas such as health diagnoses, mental‑health support, emergency safety decisions, personalized finance or tax advice, handling confidential data, illegal activities, academic cheating, real‑time news monitoring, gambling, legal document drafting, and artistic creation. While it can provide general information and brainstorming assistance, relying on it for these high‑stakes matters can lead to serious consequences. Users are urged to treat the AI as a supplemental tool and seek professional expertise where accuracy, legality, or personal safety is at stake.Read more

Anthropic announced Claude for Healthcare, a suite of AI tools aimed at providers, payers, and patients. Like OpenAI’s ChatGPT Health, the platform can sync health data from phones and wearables without using that data for model training. Claude adds advanced "connectors" to major medical databases such as the CMS Coverage Database, ICD-10, the National Provider Identifier Standard, and PubMed, enabling faster prior‑authorization reviews and research. While industry observers note the risk of hallucination‑prone large language models offering medical advice, both Anthropic and OpenAI caution users to consult qualified healthcare professionals.Read more

Anthropic introduced Cowork, a new tool that brings the capabilities of Claude Code to a broader audience through a simple folder‑based interface. Integrated into the Claude Desktop app, Cowork lets users designate a folder for the AI to read and modify files, with instructions given via the regular chat window. The feature is currently in a research preview and is limited to Max subscribers, though a waitlist exists for other plans. Anthropic highlighted use cases such as assembling expense reports from receipt photos and warned users about potential risks like prompt injection and ambiguous commands.Read more

Locai Labs CEO James Drayson announced that the company will block users under 18 and suspend image‑generation features until safety can be assured. He warned that no AI model can guarantee protection against harmful or sexualized content, urging the industry to be transparent about the risks. In the United Kingdom, regulator Ofcom has opened an investigation into Elon Musk’s Grok platform, which allows image editing that can produce non‑consensual and sexualized depictions, including of children. The controversy has already led to bans in several countries and heightened calls for stricter AI regulation.Read more

Britain's media regulator Ofcom has opened a formal investigation into X under the Online Safety Act after reports that the Grok AI chatbot was used to create and share non‑consensual intimate images and child sexual abuse material. The probe will assess X's compliance with legal duties, risk‑assessment procedures, and age‑verification safeguards. Meanwhile, Malaysia and Indonesia have become the first countries to block access to Grok, citing insufficient safeguards against explicit AI‑generated deepfakes of women and children. Both regulators say the block will stay in place until stronger protections are put in place.Read more

Google’s Play Store policy explicitly prohibits apps that host or promote non-consensual sexual content, including deepfake‑generated imagery. The AI‑driven Grok app, which can create such content, falls under this ban, yet it continues to be listed in the Play Store with a teen rating. Apple also carries the app, though its guidelines are less detailed. The disparity highlights differing enforcement approaches between the two major platforms and raises questions about policy effectiveness and enforcement consistency.Read more

Anthropic has introduced Claude Cowork, a preview feature that extends its Claude Code AI capabilities beyond developers to everyday users. By granting the system access to a folder, users can have Claude read, edit, or create files, organize downloads, convert receipts into spreadsheets, and navigate websites via a Chrome plugin. The tool runs on the Claude Max subscription and requires a Mac with the Claude macOS app. A waitlist is open for broader access. Anthropic emphasizes explicit user permission and clear instructions to avoid unintended actions.Read more

Meta announced a new strategic program called Meta Compute to guide its massive infrastructure investments for data centers and artificial intelligence. The rollout coincides with the appointment of former board member Dina Powell McCormick as president and vice chairman, a role that will focus on government partnerships and financing. Santosh Janardhan, head of global engineering, will oversee the top‑level initiative, while Daniel Gross will lead a new group handling long‑term capacity strategy and supplier relationships. The company also disclosed three nuclear power agreements to support its data‑center energy needs and reaffirmed its plan to spend $600 billion on AI infrastructure by 2028.Read more

Anthropic introduced Claude Cowork, a new AI‑agent capability for its Claude chatbot, as a research preview available in the macOS app for Claude Max subscribers. The feature lets users grant Claude access to local folders so it can read, edit, or create files, handling tasks such as reorganizing downloads, generating spreadsheets, or drafting reports. Claude Cowork also integrates with services like Asana, Notion, PayPal, and Chrome, offering continuous updates and parallel task execution. Anthropic highlighted safety concerns, noting the model’s ability to delete files and the risk of prompt‑injection attacks, and urged users to join a waitlist if they are not yet subscribers.Read more