How Tony Sayegh, head of public affairs at a major TikTok investor and an official in the first Trump admin, led the effort to win Trump's support for TikTok (Wall Street Journal)

Artisan, a San Francisco AI startup backed by Y-Combinator, is boldly advertising generative AI technology as a replacement for human employees, with posters proclaiming "Stop Hiring Humans" and highlighting the superiority of AI over human workers. The company's AI agent, Ava, is touted as a cost-effective alternative to human employees, able to participate in meetings, improve performance, and cost 96% less. Despite the controversial campaign, Artisan CEO Jaspar Carmichael-Jack defends the ads as a reflection...

OpenAI's 12 Days of OpenAI day five featured a demo of ChatGPT integration with Apple Intelligence, showcasing how Siri can now provide more natural and context-aware responses using OpenAI's models. Despite a significant outage, the ChatGPT service is back up and running. This collaboration highlights ChatGPT's central role in mainstream tech and Apple's efforts to make its devices more intuitive and creative through AI integration. Full Article

In December 2022, NASA's Orion spacecraft completed the Artemis I mission by splashing down in the Pacific Ocean after a historic flight around the moon, setting the stage for the Artemis program's goal of returning astronauts to the moon and establishing a lunar base. Despite some issues with the heat shield, engineers are working on resolving them as NASA prepares for the Artemis II mission now set for 2026, following the successful test mission of...

Microsoft is testing a new compact view for Copilot in Windows, accessible through the Alt+Space shortcut. The app is now considered "native", not just a PWA, but still relies on the Copilot website. The update allows for a more streamlined view and the potential for future enhancements, currently available to Windows Insiders. Full Article

Apple has released iOS 18.2, iPadOS 18.2, and macOS Sequoia 15.2, introducing new Apple Intelligence features like Image Playground, Genmoji, and ChatGPT integration. Image Playground allows users to create images from prompts or suggestions, focusing on cartoony or stylistic photos. Genmoji lets users generate custom emoji-like stickers, while the Notes app offers an "Image Wand" tool. ChatGPT integration enables text generation and text-to-image capabilities. Other updates include Visual Intelligence, AirTag sharing, daily sudoku puzzles, and...

Startup Embodied, the company behind the $800 companion robot called Moxie for kids aged 5 to 10, is shutting down after a failed funding round. As a result, the robot will soon be bricked, leaving customers without access to its features. This decision comes as a significant setback for the company and its customers who invested in the innovative product. Full Article