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

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

Microsoft has entered into a five-year strategic partnership with the Premier League, replacing Oracle as the British football association’s official cloud partner in addition to providing AI services. Premier League mobile and web apps will begin featuring a chatbot powered by Copilot and Microsoft AI, which will also be used for the league’s fantasy games. The Premier League says it has 1.8 billion fans in 189 countries and claims to be “the world’s most-watched football league.” Microsoft will also help modernize the League’s technical infrastructure, both internally and in broadcast operations. Continue reading Microsoft Nets British Premier League as Cloud and AI Client

Google is making it easier to access its Gems customizable Gemini chatbots by bringing them to the side panel in Google Workspace apps, including Google Docs, Slides, Sheets, Drive, and Gmail. The task-specific Gems AI assistants are meant to help with common tasks and eliminate what Google calls “repetitive prompting.” Now they’ll be usable without even prompting Gemini to open. While Google offers pre-made Gems, they can also be customized or individually created to meet specific needs. Both custom and templated Gems can be installed in side panels, leveraging capabilities like @-mentioning or accessing files and folders. Continue reading Google Makes Gems Chatbots Available via Workspace Apps

While Samsung retains its spot as the top U.S. smart TV brand — followed by LG, Vizio and Sony — it was Roku and Amazon Fire TV that saw the greatest growth, according to new data from Hub Entertainment Research. The study found that among the “most-used TV sets” in the U.S., Roku doubled its share to 8 percent since 2024, while Fire TV increased usage to 5 percent. Hub’s Evolution of the TV Set study also found that people are using TV differently as a result of connectivity to the Internet, phones and gaming devices. Meanwhile, Pew Research reports that 83 percent of Americans say they watch streaming services, compared to 36 percent who indicate they subscribe to cable or satellite TV. Continue reading Research Points to Compelling Shifts in TV Viewership Trends

AI startup Runway has a new tool called Game Worlds that lets users generate simple video game worlds using images and text-based prompts. At the moment, Runway Game Worlds can only help generate simple text-based interactive adventures that include pictures, but the company has plans to enable more complex game creation by the end of the year. Runway CEO Cristóbal Valenzuela says the company is interested in partnering with video game companies who are willing to provide game data that can be used to train the company’s models in exchange for generative capabilities. Continue reading Runway AI Intros Game Worlds Generator in Limited Preview

Meta Platforms is expanding AI support for WhatsApp, adding voice calling to customers for enterprise accounts, a feature that’s been available to small businesses for years. “In the coming weeks, larger businesses using the WhatsApp Business Platform will be able to receive a call from a customer when they want to talk to someone live or call a customer directly” on request. Meta announced in Miami at its fourth annual Conversations business messaging conference, saying the move “paves the way for AI-enabled voice support in the future.” The company also added WhatsApp to centralized marketing across Facebook and Instagram. Continue reading Meta Is Increasing WhatsApp Ad Capabilities and AI Support

Cloudflare, which spent the past year introducing tools to help content providers prevent unwanted AI scraping, is launching a marketplace that lets websites charge for the privilege of using a “pay-per-crawl” model. The Internet infrastructure and security company says it is the first to enable blocking AI crawlers by default, providing access only with permission and, if wanted, compensation. As of July 1, AI companies can use Cloudflare’s marketplace to “clearly state their purpose — if their crawlers are used for training, inference, or search — to help website owners decide which crawlers to allow.” Continue reading Cloudflare Pay-per-Crawl Lets Publishers Monetize Scrapes

Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL) is the name of the new AI unit for which Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been aggressively recruiting. The division will be led by Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang, who joined last month after Zuckerberg paid an estimated $15 billion for Scale AI, where Wang was CEO and co-founder. Nat Friedman, who ran GitHub for Microsoft from 2018 to 2021, will “partner with Alex to lead MSL” heading products and applied research, Zuckerberg said in an internal memo. The new group will encompass Meta’s AI foundations, product and FAIR (Fundamental AI Research) teams as well as the lab for next generation models. Continue reading Meta Bows Superintelligence Labs, Continues AI Recruitment

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has released a new multimodal model called Qwen VLo that can understand and generate images. Available for free in preview through Qwen Chat, it can use image or text prompts to generate pictures, and accepts text in multiple languages, including Chinese and English. It can also edit, change backgrounds and switch styles, handling multiple image edits in sequence. An upgrade over January’s Qwen 2.5-VL release, Qwen VLo uses progressive generation, allowing users to see the image creation in progress, and Alibaba says it’s particularly good at making inline adjustments to fine-tune images. Continue reading Alibaba’s Qwen VLo Generative AI Shows Images in Progress

British phone maker Nothing Technology Limited has announced the Phone (3), with a divergent look and major camera upgrades that cater to its young fanbase. At a launch event in London, Nothing CEO Carl Pei said his company, which also makes headphones and earbuds, will go “all-in” marketing its new Android flagship smartphone against premium offerings from Samsung and others. It starts at $800, 25 percent more than the Phone (2), but Pei says there are plenty of upgrades — including four 50MP cameras and a circular mini-LED screen on the back of the device. Roughly the size of a quarter, the secondary screen displays data in a retro-looking dot matrix format called the “Glyph Matrix.” Continue reading Nothing Phone (3) Touts 50MP Cameras, Tiny Second Screen

Google Labs is testing Doppl, an experimental app that uses AI to let you virtually try on clothes. Available on iOS and Android in the U.S., Doppl requires the user to upload a full body photo to which images of outfits can then be applied. It will work with various types of outfit photos, from pictures taken with a smartphone to screen grabs from shopping sites or social media. Doppl can also create AI-generated videos from a static image to give an idea of what the outfit would look like from different angles when worn. While Google hopes Doppl “helps you explore your style in new and exciting ways,” it cautions that the app “is in its early days and it might not always get things right.” Continue reading Google Doppl Lets You Try on Outfits Using Generative Video

YouTube is adding an AI-powered search results carousel that serves up video suggestions and topic descriptions. A search for “best beaches in Hawaii,” for example, could generate a carousel listing video clips and information on an assortment of snorkel spots and volcanic beaches. YouTube Premium subscribers in the U.S. can try the feature now on searches related to shopping, travel or location-based activities. The Google-owned platform is also expanding its test with conversational AI to some non-Premium users in the U.S. Premium members have been using it for search, recommendations and as a study aid. Continue reading YouTube Adds AI Search Results Carousel for Premium Subs

Google is launching Offerwall, which is designed to help publishers monetize by letting them offer their customers options as to how they would like to pay for content. “People might decide to watch a short ad, complete a quick survey or pay in micropayments,” Google explains, adding that “publishers can even add their own options, like newsletter sign-ups.” The choices aim to both empower audiences while supporting publishers to help ensure diverse content remains available to everyone. After testing Offerwall with more than 1,000 publishers, it is now available in Google Ad Manager. Continue reading Google Launches Offerwall Ad Manager to Support Publishers