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. Continue reading Cognition Acquires Windsurf Following Google Licensing Deal

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. Continue reading Meta Platforms Acquires Real-Time Voice Tech Startup PlayAI

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. Continue reading Google Offers Gemini AI Subscribers Photo-to-Video Function

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. Continue reading EU Releases AI Practices Code to Help with Legal Compliance

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. Continue reading Perplexity Launches Comet AI Web Browser for Premium Subs

Meta Platforms has joined forces with Zoom on a standalone app for Meta Quest headsets that lets you initiate or take video calls appearing as a virtual avatar. Unlike the Quest app launched by Zoom in 2023, the new app does not restrict use to Meta’s Horizon Workrooms nor require a paid Zoom subscription to facilitate meetings. Meta says that now “any free or paid Zoom license” can set up meetings or simply participate in them using Meta Quest 3, Quest 3S, Quest Pro, and Quest 2 headsets. Available now at the Meta Horizon Store, the Zoom app for Meta Quest lets you join a meeting with total VR immersion or see your surroundings in an augmented reality experience using Passthrough mode. Continue reading Zoom and Meta Unveil Standalone App for Quest VR Meetings

Moonvalley, the AI startup behind Marey, a high-quality video generator trained exclusively on licensed content, has just put the product in general release. The credits-based subscription pricing ranges from $15 to $150 per month. In addition to ethical training on 1080p native video, Marey also takes a non-traditional approach on its user interface, eschewing prompts for what it says is a more creatively intuitive process. “Directors need precise control over every creative decision, plus legal confidence for commercial use. Today we’re delivering both,” says Moonvalley CEO and co-founder Naeem Talukdar. Continue reading Moonvalley’s Production-Tailored AI Marey Publicly Released

The OnePlus summer launch event featured five product launches, led by two Nord 5 series smartphones. The game-focused Nord 5 features a 144Hz OLED display that measures 6.83 inches and has three sensors, including a 50-megapixel selfie camera, all powered by Qualcomm’s tier two Snapdragon 8S Gen 3. Slightly smaller, the budget-built Nord CE5 has a slower MediaTek Dimensity 8350 Apex chipset and lesser specs all around. There are also three new products designed to enhance the OnePlus connected experience, including the OnePlus Watch 3 43mm, OnePlus Buds 4 and the OnePlus Pad Lite. Currently, only the Buds 4 and Watch 3 43mm are planned for release in the U.S. Continue reading OnePlus Reveals New Phones, Watch, Buds, Android Tablet

Underscoring its commitment to smart glasses, Meta Platforms has reportedly invested $3.5 billion in EssilorLuxottica SA, the world’s largest manufacturer of eyewear. The move gives Meta around a three percent stake in the Paris-headquartered firm, and expands an existing relationship for brand deals that resulted in the casual Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses released in 2021 and an athlete-focused Oakley Meta HSTN AI line announced last month. Neither Meta nor EssilorLuxottica has publicly commented on the equity buy-in yet, though it has been reported Meta may increase its stake to five percent. Continue reading Meta Investing $3.5B in Smart Glass Partner EssilorLuxottica

New ultra-slim Galaxy Z Flip7 and Galaxy Z Fold7 smartphones, three new models of smartwatches, and the debut of One UI 8 were among the highlights of Samsung’s summer Galaxy Unpacked event yesterday. The Galaxy Z Fold7 is just 8.9mm thick when folded (and 4.2mm unfolded, less than three pennies stacked) and features a larger main screen than its predecessor at 8 inches (up from 7.6 inches) as well as a bigger 6.5-inch outer display. A big change to the Galaxy Z Flip7 is the fact that its 4.1-inch cover screen extends around the two camera lenses. Meanwhile, Google has introduced AI updates to Android, delivering new Gemini capabilities for Samsung’s mobile lineup. Continue reading Samsung Reveals Galaxy Phones, Watch 8, AI Features, More

Oracle will supply massive compute power to OpenAI as part of a new contract reported at $30 billion annually focused on accelerating Sam Altman’s ambitions for Stargate, the initiative to build U.S. data centers announced in January by President Trump as a matter of national security. OpenAI committed $500 billion over four years to the project. The Oracle deal involves an estimated 4.5 gigawatts of U.S. data center power consumption, equivalent to the power output of four-and-a-half nuclear reactors operating at full capacity — enough to power approximately 3.3 million U.S. households during that time. Continue reading OpenAI Deal with Oracle to Scale Up U.S. Cloud Infrastructure

Apple announced a new 15,000-square-foot Apple Music Los Angeles studio in Culver City will open later this summer. The three-story complex that Apple says is “designed with artists in mind” includes two radio studios with support for immersive Apple Spatial Audio playback, a spatial audio mixing room, an art gallery, a “social media lab” and a 4,000-square-foot soundstage. Commemorating the 10th anniversary of Apple Music, the new structure is situated nearby to the future home of Apple TV+, a 550,000-square-foot building going up where Culver City borders the City of Los Angeles. Continue reading Apple Music Opening Three-Story Creative Hub in Culver City

Netflix is taking steps aimed at upgrading the viewer experience, rolling out AV1 Film Grain Synthesis (FGS) streams to the majority of its subscribers. While FGS has been part of the AV1 standard since the Alliance for Open Media introduced the format in 2018, Netflix began to apply it to a limited number of titles in 2021 and is is now enabling it at scale. The streamer says the open-source FGS compression system “revolutionizes video streaming” and will “preserve the artistic integrity of film grain” — a feature generally considered essential to achieving a cinematic look — while also optimizing data efficiency. Continue reading Netflix Is Implementing AV1 Film Grain Synthesis Tech at Scale

New Jersey-based cloud-computing startup CoreWeave has reached an agreement to acquire crypto miner Core Scientific in a vertical integration move that will see the AI infrastructure provider gain access to more than 1 gigawatt of U.S. data center capacity with an incremental 1 gigawatt of power available for expansion. The all-stock transaction, valued at $9 billion, is expected to close in Q4 pending regulatory approval. According to CoreWeave, the purchase will eliminate some $10 billion in upcoming lease fees, saving around $500 million annually starting in 2027 and helping to “future-proof” the company. Continue reading AI Provider CoreWeave to Acquire Core Scientific for $9 Billion

Grammarly — maker of the popular AI productivity tool — says it will acquire Superhuman, an AI-native email app that helps users save time on electronic communications. The purchase price was not disclosed. The acquisition aims to accelerate Grammarly’s evolution into an all-around AI productivity assistant that does more than improve syntax and offers a full complement of apps and agents. The San Francisco-based company, which launched in 2009, last year acquired Coda and its suite of document and spreadsheet software. Grammarly says it now has “an ‘AI superhighway’ that delivers writing agents to users across more than 500,000 applications and websites.” Continue reading Grammarly to Expand Productivity with Superhuman Purchase