Google is investing $40 billion to build new data centers in Texas through 2027. Google describes the project as focused on “new cloud and AI infrastructure, including new data center campuses in Armstrong and Haskell Counties,” emphasizing their energy efficiency. The investment includes the creation of a $30 million Google-backed Energy Impact Fund, and one of the Haskell County facilities will be built housed adjacent to a new solar and battery storage plant. At a Dallas-area launch event announcing the project, Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai said the initiative will create thousands of new jobs. Continue reading Google Commits $40 Billion for New AI Data Centers in Texas

San Francisco-based AI startup Anthropic, founded in 2021, announced plans to invest $50 billion in U.S. computing infrastructure, starting with the creation of data centers with Fluidstack in Texas and New York (with additional plans for future sites). Fluidstack builds and operates high-performance GPU clusters for researchers and AI teams. The new project with Anthropic is expected to create 800 permanent jobs and about 2,400 construction jobs. Sites are scheduled to come online throughout next year. “These facilities are custom built for Anthropic with a focus on maximizing efficiency for our workloads, enabling continued research and development at the frontier,” according to Anthropic. Continue reading Anthropic Plans to Invest $50 Billion in AI Data Centers in U.S.

California has become the first state in the nation to enact an AI safety law. The Transparency in Frontier Artificial Intelligence Act requires major AI firms to regularly report safety information, keeping government apprised of the guardrails imposed when building models as well as ongoing risks presented. California is home to leading AI companies including OpenAI, Alphabet, Anthropic, Meta Platforms, Nvidia and xAI, which means the law will be something of a national standard, as the rules imposed on those companies will have follow-through effects in all states. The law also bolsters whistle-blower protections for employees of the affected firms. Continue reading California Enacts an AI Law Focused on Frontier Model Safety

New York State Attorney General Letitia James has released proposed rules that would restrict minors from exposure to addictive features on social media pursuant to the Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (SAFE) for Kids Act, signed into state law last year to “protect the mental health of children.” The law, which is expected to take effect sometime next year, requires social media companies that supply addictive content to use an age verification system with results “certified by a verified third-party.” Absent parental consent, platform operators must restrict users under 18 from receiving addictive or algorithmically personalized feeds and nighttime notifications. Continue reading SAFE for Kids Act: NY State Attorney Opens Comment Period

The Browser Company of New York has halted development of its Arc web browser to concentrate its energies on an AI-powered product called Dia, which was first announced late last year. CEO and co-founder Josh Miller says The Browser Company will continue to fix security issues and deliver other critical updates for the Arc product, but no new features will be forthcoming. Dia, now in an alpha testing stage, is “an entirely new environment — built on top of a web browser,” according to the product’s website. Miller says that while “Arc had real momentum,” the current era marks “the arrival of AI browsers.” Continue reading Dia: The Browser Company Is Testing a New AI Environment

IBM plans to invest $150 billion over the next five years to fuel the U.S. economy. Included in the spending plan is more than $30 billion devoted to research and development for mainframe and quantum computers to be manufactured in the U.S. The announcement comes as President Trump is pressing global companies to invest more here, including with trade tariffs that threaten to make products manufactured overseas more expensive to sell at home. IBM CEO Arvind Krishna says the company has “been focused on American jobs and manufacturing since our founding 114 years ago.” Continue reading IBM Unveils 5-Year Plan for $150B in Manufacturing and R&D

Google has acquired Wiz, a multi-cloud security firm that will remain cloud-agnostic under its new ownership. In fact, the ability to expand its customer base to companies that use competing cloud services like AWS or Azure was a key incentive for Google to buy the five-year-old startup, whose mandate is “to help every organization secure everything they build and run in the cloud — any cloud.” Google agreed to pay $32 billion for the New York-based firm, which had annual revenue of $700 million last year and was on track to increase that to $1 billion in 2025. Wiz, which had been considering an IPO, was most recently valued at $12 billion. Continue reading Google Agrees to Buy Cybersecurity Startup Wiz for $32 Billion

The new Netflix Bites restaurant in the Las Vegas MGM Grand Hotel & Casino offers dishes inspired by popular original streaming movies and TV series. As part of the company’s push into more in-person experiences and new marketing opportunities, Netflix Bites Vegas is scheduled to operate for a year, a residency that follows the popular Netflix Bites pop-up restaurant that was open for six weeks in 2023 in Los Angeles. The Las Vegas eatery kicked off with an exclusive preview event featuring stars from some of the company’s shows alongside executives from Netflix and MGM. Continue reading Netflix Opens a New Themed Restaurant in Las Vegas Casino

“AI won’t exist as an app, or a button… it’ll be an entirely new environment built on top of a web browser.” That is the pitch from The Browser Company, the New York-based firm behind the Arc browser that is now developing an AI-first web interface called Dia, expected to debut early next year. Dia aims to leverage AI tools to simplify common Internet tasks. The repertoire is now a familiar one, with things like writing assists and inspirational prompts becoming AI givens in a competitive field where Microsoft Copilot and Google Gemini are already established. The Browser Company is trying to distinguish Dia with a simple, user-friendly interface. Continue reading The Browser Company is Building Dia, an AI-First Web Browser

Amazon Web Services has opened AWS Data Transfer Terminals in Los Angeles and New York. These secure physical locations allow customers to bring their storage devices for fast uploads to the AWS Cloud. The enterprise service can significantly reduce data ingestion time for use cases including uploads of “large datasets from fleets of vehicles collecting data in metro areas for training machine learning models” as well as “digital audio and video files from content creators for media processing workloads” and local government organizations compiling geographical and other smart city data. Continue reading AWS Opens Physical Locations for Fast, Secure Data Uploads

Runway is launching Act-One motion capture system that uses video and voice recordings to map human facial expressions onto characters using the company’s latest model, Gen-3 Alpha. Runway calls it “a significant step forward in using generative models for expressive live action and animated content.” Compared to past facial capture techniques — which typically require complex rigging — Act-One is driven directly and only by the performance of an actor, requiring “no extra equipment,” making it more likely to capture and preserve an authentic, nuanced performance, according to the company. Continue reading Runway’s Act-One Facial Capture Could Be a ‘Game Changer’

In an effort to create a safer environment for teens, social platform Snapchat is providing educators with resources to familiarize them with the app and help them understand how students use it. The company has launched a website called “An Educator’s Guide to Snapchat.” The announcement, timed to the start of the new school year, comes as lawmakers have been pressuring social networks to do more to protect children, with Florida and Indiana going so far as to enact school cell phone bans. Legislators in California and New York have been exploring similar prohibitions. Continue reading Snapchat Puts Focus on Teen Safety Resources for Teachers

New York-based speech synthesis software startup ElevenLabs has launched its latest AI development — Voice Isolator and an API to go with it. Voice Isolator is designed to extract background noise, leaving clear dialogue for film, podcast, and interview post-production. The Voice Isolator API lets developers integrate the new product into third-party applications. To use the technology, content is uploaded and processed by the Voice Isolator model, resulting in what the company claims is speech comparable in quality to that obtained in a recording studio. The app is described as “free, with some limitations.” Continue reading ElevenLabs Voice Isolator Audio Post Tool Released with API

Generative video creation and editing platform Captions has raised $60 million in Series C funding. Founded in 2021 by former Microsoft engineer Gaurav Misra and Goldman Sachs alum Dwight Churchill, the company’s technologies — Lipdub, AI Edit and the 3D avatar app AI Creator — have amassed more than 10 million downloads for mobile, the firm says. The C round brings its total raise to $100 million for a stated market valuation of $500 million. With the new funding, Captions plans to expand its presence in New York City, which is “emerging as the epicenter for AI research,” according to Misra. Continue reading Captions: Generative Video Startup Raises $60 Million in NYC

New York-based AI startup Runway has made its latest frontier model — which creates realistic AI videos from text, image or video prompts — generally available to users willing to upgrade to a paid plan starting at $12 per month for each editor. Introduced several weeks go, Gen-3 Alpha reportedly offers significant improvements over Gen-1 and Gen-2 in areas such as speed, motion, fidelity and consistency. Runway explains it worked with a “team of research scientists, engineers and artists” to develop the upgrades but did not specify where it collected its training data. As the AI video field ramps up, current rivals include Stability AI, OpenAI, Pika and Luma Labs. Continue reading Runway Making Gen-3 Alpha AI Video Model Available to All