AI was supposed to kill the travel agent. Instead it just minted a billion-dollar one.
AI was supposed to kill the travel agent. Instead it just minted a billion-dollar one.

Fora, a platform that lets ordinary people become travel agents and gives travellers a way to find them, has raised a $60m Series D at a $1bn valuation led by Forerunner and Tactile Ventures. It has 15,000+ advisors (97% new to the profession) who have…

Roblox launches Build, a mobile tab that turns text prompts into playable games
Roblox launches Build, a mobile tab that turns text prompts into playable games

Roblox announced Build on Wednesday, a new creation tab inside the Roblox mobile app that lets anyone turn a text prompt into a basic playable game without touching Roblox Studio or writing a line of code. A creator can describe something like a cozy f…

Oracle is one notch above junk after S&P downgrade as AI data-centre spending burns through cash
Oracle is one notch above junk after S&P downgrade as AI data-centre spending burns through cash

S&P downgraded Oracle to BBB- on July 9, placing the company one notch above junk status, as a $250 billion data-centre expansion plan burns through cash faster than revenue can replace it. Oracle is now the second-largest non-financial debt issuer…

Google’s next Gemini Pro is months behind schedule as coding capabilities fall short of internal goals
Google’s next Gemini Pro is months behind schedule as coding capabilities fall short of internal goals

Google is months behind schedule on delivering the next version of its flagship AI model, Gemini Pro, because the technology has fallen short of internal goals in coding, Bloomberg reported on Thursday citing 10 current and former employees. The compan…

The EU is forcing Google to open Android to rival AI and share its search data
The EU is forcing Google to open Android to rival AI and share its search data

Google will have to let rival AI assistants run on Android the way its own Gemini does. It must also hand some of its search data to competitors. The European Commission set out both requirements on Thursday. The two decisions fall under the EU’s Digit…

AI and a brain implant restored a paralysed man’s movement and touch
AI and a brain implant restored a paralysed man’s movement and touch

Researchers have restored hand movement and the sense of touch to a man paralysed from the chest down. The results, published in Nature Medicine, suggest the technology partly rewired his nervous system. The system, called a “double neural bypass,” com…

29 countries sign a treaty to establish the World AI Cooperation Organization
29 countries sign a treaty to establish the World AI Cooperation Organization

Twenty-nine countries signed an agreement on 16 July to establish the World AI Cooperation Organization (WAICO), Reuters reported. China says the intergovernmental body aims to promote international cooperation and global governance in AI. China’s fore…

Google renames NotebookLM to Gemini Notebook and expands code execution to Pro users
Google renames NotebookLM to Gemini Notebook and expands code execution to Pro users

Google is renaming NotebookLM to Gemini Notebook, folding one of its most popular AI products into the Gemini brand while keeping it as a standalone tool. The company said on Thursday that the rebrand reflects how deeply the research assistant has been…

Xpeng’s L03 is the first Chinese EV to put proprietary AI driving chips in a mass-market car
Xpeng’s L03 is the first Chinese EV to put proprietary AI driving chips in a mass-market car

Xpeng debuted the L03 on Wednesday in Munich, launching its most internationally ambitious electric vehicle simultaneously across 65 markets. The coupe-SUV is built around the company’s proprietary Turing AI chips, with every trim shipping at least one…

Fireworks raised $1.5bn on a bet that companies will build AI, not rent it
Fireworks raised $1.5bn on a bet that companies will build AI, not rent it

The AI economy has run on a simple habit: rent a model from a big lab. Fireworks just raised $1.5bn to argue the opposite, that every company will build intelligence of its own. The Series D values the San Mateo startup at $17.5bn, it said. Atreides Ma…