Alibaba is making AI news again, releasing another Qwen reasoning model, QwQ-32B, which was trained and scaled using reinforcement learning (RL). The Qwen team says it “has the potential to enhance model performance beyond conventional pretraining and post-training methods.” QwQ-32B, a 32 billion parameter model, “achieves performance comparable to DeepSeek-R1, which boasts 671 billion parameters (with 37 billion activated),” Alibaba claims. While parameters refer to the total set of adjustable weights and biases in the model’s neural network, “activated” parameters are a subset used for a specific inference task, like generating a response. Continue reading Alibaba Says Qwen Reasoning Model on Par with DeepSeek

Amazon is ramping up its AI activity, reportedly planning to release its own advanced reasoning model as part of the company’s Nova family. The Nova line was introduced in December at re:Invent and the new addition could debut as early as June. Its reasoning prowess is being compared to the abilities of OpenAI’s o3-mini and DeepSeek-R1. But reports say Amazon is taking the hybrid reasoning approach embraced by Anthropic’s Claude 3.7 Sonnet (Amazon has a 10 percent stake in Anthropic). The e-retail giant is also preparing for an agentic AI push, having established a dedicated unit, reports say. Continue reading Amazon Plans an AI Push with Nova Reasoning Model, Agents

In an expansion of their existing strategic partnership, Salesforce and Google have entered into a seven-year, $2.5 billion deal that will allow Salesforce customers to build Agentforce agents using Gemini and to deploy Salesforce on Google Cloud. The companies plan to more tightly integrate connections between platforms like Salesforce Service Cloud and Google Cloud’s Customer Engagement Suite, as well as Slack and Google Workspace, “empowering AI agents and service representatives with unified data access, streamlined workflows, and advanced AI capabilities, regardless of platform,” the companies said. Continue reading Salesforce Brings Gemini to Agentforce in $2.5B Google Deal

Nvidia delivered stellar earnings again, with profit up 80 percent to $22.09 billion for fiscal Q4, the period that ended January 26, 2025. Record quarterly revenue hit $39.3 billion, a 12 percent uptick from Q3 and a 78 percent increase year-over-year, driven in part by sales of the company’s Blackwell AI chips. The results rebut predictions that the leading-edge chipmaker would suffer due to a recent wave of Chinese AI models created using fewer and largely older chips. That trend rocked Nvidia stock over the past quarter, but the Silicon Valley-based company managed to maintain momentum. Continue reading New Blackwell AI Chip Helps Boost Nvidia to Record Quarter

Anthropic has released a new frontier model, Claude 3.7 Sonnet, described as the industry’s first “hybrid AI reasoning model.” The new Claude is different in that it can both respond to questions in real time or, alternatively, “think” about a problem for a prolonged period of time — basically as long as a user would like. Users can choose between “near-instant responses or extended, step-by-step thinking that is made visible to the user” by selecting the appropriate “reasoning” capability for Claude, Anthropic says. Along with the new model, Anthropic is also debuting a command line tool for agentic coding, Claude Code. Continue reading Anthropic Introduces a New Claude Hybrid Reasoning Model

Barely two weeks after the launch of its OmniHuman-1 AI model, ByteDance has released Goku, a new artificial intelligence designed to create photorealistic video featuring humanoid actors. Goku uses text prompts to create among other things, realistic product videos without the need for human actors. This last is a boon for ByteDance social media unit TikTok. Goku is open source, trained on a large dataset of roughly 36 million video-text pairs and 160 million image-text pairs. Goku’s debut is received as more bad news for OpenAI in the form of added competition, but a positive step for global enterprise. Continue reading ByteDance’s Goku Video Model Is Latest in Chinese AI Streak

“Deep research” is emerging as a model trend, with Perplexity’s Deep Research launching less than three weeks after OpenAI unveiled its own ChatGPT deep research agent, which followed Google’s similar Gemini feature. As its name implies, deep research is a productivity tool, designed to save time by having an AI agent scour materials, compiling data and analysis. Perplexity’s Deep Research “performs dozens of searches, reads hundreds of sources, and reasons through the material to autonomously deliver a comprehensive report,” across topics ranging “from finance and marketing to product research,” the company says. Continue reading Perplexity Deep Research Productivity Tool Offers a Free Tier

Google announced last week that its Gemini AI chatbot now offers the ability to provide responses based on earlier conversations. It can also summarize a previous chat and recall information the user has shared in other threads. “Whether you’re asking a question about something you’ve already discussed, or asking Gemini to summarize a previous conversation, Gemini now uses information from relevant chats to craft a response,” according to Google. The new feature is rolling out via Google’s $20-per-month One AI Premium Plan to start and will be available to Google Workspace Business and Enterprise customers in the coming weeks. Continue reading Gemini Recalls Previous Chats to Provide Helpful Responses

Adobe’s Firefly video is now in public beta as part of Firefly AI, now multi-modal with video, image and vector generation. Available for $10 for Firefly Standard or $30 for Firefly Pro, the Firefly app offers additional tiers for premium video and audio features, offering a degree of customization based on project needs. Adobe continues to position Firefly as “the only generative AI model that is IP-friendly and commercially safe,” offering the option of contractual IP indemnification to protect against infringement lawsuits “in the unlikely event of a claim involving a Firefly output.” Continue reading Adobe Firefly Video Now in Public Beta Starting at $10 Month

Samsung is showing off what it calls the “next generation of commercial displays” at the Integrated Systems Europe 2025 show in Barcelona. Included are a 115-inch, 4K Smart Signage screen designed to deliver “a new level of immersive visuals” and the Samsung Color E-Paper EMDX that goes up to 75 inches at 5K, uses digital ink and operates at 0.00W power when displaying static images. Both devices consume significantly less energy at their height of workload compared to traditional digital displays, a high priority for business customers. Continue reading Samsung Demos 75-Inch E-Paper Display and AI Smart Signs

Adobe has added intelligent contract capabilities to the Acrobat AI Assistant, which can now help interpret agreements for businesses and consumers. Adobe’s smart contract reader can help people understand those lengthy click-to-agree terms of service treatises that precede vendor websites and service agreements. “Customers open billions of contracts in Adobe Acrobat each month and AI can be a game changer in helping simplify their experience,” Adobe Document Cloud SVP Abhigyan Modi said in an announcement. For business users, Acrobat AI Assistant can identify key dates, prepare or review new agreements, and highlight changes. Continue reading Adobe Acrobat AI Assistant Can Now Read, Analyze Contracts

Perplexity joins the list of AI companies launching agents, debuting the Perplexity Assistant for Android. The tool uses reasoning, search, browsers and apps to help mobile users with daily tasks. Concurrently, Perplexity — independently founded in 2022 as a conversational AI search engine — has launched an API called Sonar intended for enterprise and developers who want real-time intelligent search, taking on heavyweights like Google, OpenAI and Anthropic. While to date AI search has largely been limited to answers informed by training data, which freezes their knowledge in time, next-gen tools can pull from the Internet in real time. Continue reading Perplexity Bows Real-Time AI Search Tool, Android Assistant

Just weeks after Nvidia announced the availability of its $249 “compact AI supercomputer,” the Jetson Orin Nano Super Developer Kit for startups and hobbyists, CEO Jensen Huang revealed the company is planning to launch a personal AI supercomputer called Project Digits with a starting price of $3,000. The desktop-sized system features the GB10 Grace Blackwell Superchip, which enables it to handle AI models with up to 200 billion parameters. Nvidia claims there is enough processing power to run high-end AI models (performing up to one quadrillion AI calculations per second) while the compact system can run from a standard power outlet. Continue reading CES: Nvidia Will Launch a $3,000 Personal AI Supercomputer

Play For Dream Technology made a splash at CES 2025 with a new mixed reality headset inspired by the Apple Vision Pro, which the startup described as “the world’s first Android-based spatial computer.” Play For Dream MR has been applauded by some analysts for its user interface, eye tracking, media capture and overall performance. The company, which announced a new strategic partnership with Tobii, is targeting consumers and B2B applications with “customized solutions tailored to meet the diverse needs of various industries,” such as media, entertainment, gaming, medical, healthcare, education, research, automotive and aviation. Continue reading CES: Play For Dream Touts ‘World’s First’ Android MR Headset

Microsoft anticipates spending $80 billion to construct AI data centers in fiscal 2025, which ends in June. More than half of that investment will fund U.S. infrastructure, according to company Vice Chair and President Brad Smith. The move aims to keep Microsoft, which owns a stake in OpenAI, a leader in artificial intelligence, and bolster the nation’s position in the global AI race, which Smith says it currently leads, “thanks to the investment of private capital and innovations by American companies of all sizes, from dynamic startups to well-established enterprises.” Continue reading Microsoft AI Forecast Includes $80B in Data Center Spending