Microsoft is teasing a bespoke AI image generator. The model, called MAI-Image-1, was designed in-house and works using text prompts. It is the third AI model Microsoft has debuted this year, following MAI-Voice-1 and MAI-1-preview, both released in August. The company, which is OpenAI’s largest investor, has been seeking to put some breathing room between itself and the startup to better position the fledgling firm for independence and profitability. And products exclusive to Microsoft surely won’t hurt that company’s bottom line. “We’re creating AI for everyone,” Microsoft says, calling MAI-Image-1 “the next step on our journey.” Read more

Charter Communications, the nation’s largest cable TV operator, is launching the Spectrum App Store for its flagship TV brand. The digital storefront — accessible through the My Spectrum App and on Spectrum.net — will allow Spectrum customers without a traditional TV package to manage and purchase streaming apps à la carte. The move is an effort to appeal to younger audiences, which cable has been losing to streaming standalones like YouTube for the past 10 years. Charter also announced Spectrum is partnering with Apple to present a slate of immersive 2025-26 season L.A. Lakers games on the Apple Vision Pro mixed-reality headset. Read more

YouTube is offering amnesty of sorts, providing those who were kicked off the platform for policy violations a “second chance.” Last week, the Google-owned streamer agreed to pay a $24.5 million settlement to President Donald Trump, who sued over suspension of his YouTube account following the January 2021 U.S. Capitol riots. “We know that our long-held approach of enforcing lifetime terminations can be difficult for creators,” YouTube explained in a blog post highlighting more than $100 billion paid out to creators, artists and media companies through the YouTube Partner Program over the past four years. Read more

Snapchat is developing a virtual 3D world where users can adopt Bitmoji avatars and socialize in an immerse digital environment. Called “Bitmoji Plaza,” the digital town center will live in the web version of the Snapchat app. The move shows Snap Inc. expanding its horizons and potentially setting up for other virtual worlds in preparation for the 2026 release of the company’s consumer AR glasses. While a Bitmoji world is an elementary transition to the metaverse, Snap is also expanding the use of Bitmoji stickers with a new app that lets Android and iOS users add them to messages. Read more

Amazon is updating its AI business toolkit with a new automation subscription designed to speed office work. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is rolling out Quick Suite, an agentic AI application that connects across internal repositories and, via the model context protocol (MCP) to more than 1,000 third-party business apps. The result aims to transform how employees “find insights, conduct deep research, automate tasks, visualize data, and take actions across apps,” according to AWS. “Working with an AI agent is now as simple as chatting with a teammate,” Amazon suggests, explaining that “Quick works to help you go from insight directly to action.” Read more