Google scuttled OpenAI’s negotiations to purchase AI coding firm Windsurf (formerly Codeium), by agreeing to pay roughly $2.4 billion to license the startup’s core technology, hire co-founder and CEO Varun Mohan and bring a passel of employees with him to Alphabet. The license is non-exclusive and Google is not taking a stake in Windsurf. Days after the Google deal, AI startup Cognition announced it would be acquiring Windsurf (both startups are backed by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund). Mohan, co-founder Douglas Chen and some members of the Windsurf R&D team are moving to Google to work primarily with DeepMind on agentic coding. The $2.4 billion covers licensing fees and compensation. Read more

Meta Platforms has purchased artificial intelligence voice technology startup PlayAI for an undisclosed sum. The entire PlayAI staff will segue to Meta this month, reporting to Johan Schalkwyk, who was recently hired by the social giant from another voice startup, Sesame AI. Co-founded at Y Combinator by Mahmoud Felfel and Hammad Syed, PlayAI launched with a Chrome plugin that delivered audio versions of printed articles, later evolving into a broader AI voice platform. The main product, the Play 3.0 model, supports more than 30 languages and enables the quick creation of voice agents for things like sales and customer support. Read more

Google has added photo-to-video capability to its Gemini AI app. Powered by Veo 3, Google’s latest generative video model, launched in May, Gemini AI can now turn images into 8-second videos complete with AI-generated sound including speech, environmental sounds and background noises. Available now via the Web to anyone with a $20 per month Google AI Pro subscription or those on the $125 per quarter Google AI Ultra plan, the new feature is also being released to mobile users this month for both iOS and Android devices. The videos are finished as 720p resolution MP4 files in 16:9 landscape format. Read more

The European Union has published a General Purpose AI (GPAI) Code of Practice designed to help companies comply with the AI Act, which includes copyright protections and transparency requirements for advanced models. The Code of Practice bans training models on unauthorized materials and says companies must comply with copyright-holder requests to omit work from datasets. Developers are required to provide documentation describing the features of their AI models. The AI Act began taking effect in August 2024 and is being implemented gradually, with key transparency, governance and privacy provisions coming into force next month. Read more

Nvidia-backed startup Perplexity AI is challenging Google with a new AI-powered web browser called Comet that is built on the company’s proprietary AI search engine. The new browser is initially available to those paying $200 per month to subscribe to the Perplexity Max plan and by invitation to those who register online for the company’s waitlist. The browser also comes with Comet Assistant, an agent that automates routine tasks such as summarizing emails and navigating webpages. Comet Assistant can be opened as a sidebar on any webpage to answer questions about the content being presented. Read more