Author: GT

An outage on Monday affected web hosting giant Amazon Web Services (AWS), which took out vast swathes of the web, including websites, banks, and some government services. On Monday afternoon, the company offered an update on the cause of the issue and said it was working to restore services. At 6:01 p.m. ET, Amazon said all AWS services had returned to normal operations. In an announcement on the Amazon website, the company shared that the underlying issue was related to DNS resolution. DNS, or Domain Name System, is a system that converts web addresses into IP addresses so that customer…

Africa’s electric mobility story has often been one of promise over progress. Infrastructure is scarce, power grids are unreliable, and most markets still run on cheap imported motorcycles. But Dubai-headquartered Spiro has spent the past two years trying to rewrite that narrative. The company just announced a $100 million investment round led by The Fund for Export Development in Africa (FEDA), the development arm of Afreximbank. The raise marks Africa’s largest-ever EV mobility investment and cements Spiro as the continent’s most aggressive electric motorbike company. Spiro says it plans to deploy more than 100,000 electric bikes across Africa by the…

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaks to members of the media as he arrives at a lodge for the Allen & Co. Sun Valley Conference on July 8, 2025 in Sun Valley, Idaho.Kevin Dietsch | Getty Images News | Getty ImagesOpenAI on Tuesday announced ChatGPT Atlas, a new artificial intelligence-powered web browser.The company said Atlas looks and feels similar to other existing browsers, but its key differentiator is that it’s built around OpenAI’s generative chatbot ChatGPT. This means users will be able to access ChatGPT to create summaries, ask questions and complete tasks as they navigate across any page on the…

Yelp is releasing multiple AI-powered updates Tuesday, including an updated AI assistant that can answer questions about restaurants, bars, local attractions, or retailers. The company is also adding a new feature, allowing users to scan a physical menu to provide information about dishes. Additionally, the company is improving search with support for natural language and voice queries, and highlighting popular offerings on business pages, including auto shops, hair salons, clothing stores, and parks. The company launched an AI-powered assistant last year to help you connect with the right services by describing your problem. Yelp is now using similar technology to…

Packages on a conveyor belt at an Amazon fulfilment center in Dartford, UK, on Monday, July 7, 2025.Jason Alden | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesAmazon on Tuesday launched a new ultrafast delivery service in the United Arab Emirates that can ferry groceries, cosmetics, electronics and other household items to shoppers in 15 minutes or less.The service is called Amazon Now and includes a range of “everyday essentials,” the company said in a release.Amazon said orders can be placed “24/7” and are shipped out via micro-fulfillment centers, or small-format warehouses, located in UAE neighborhoods. Each site’s product selection is tailored “based on…

Airbnb announced new features today that will help users connect with fellow travelers while participating in the same activity. The company is also improving search by suggesting properties that you might have missed due to your filters, and has redesigned the Maps view to let you search for points of interest such as nearby landmarks, attractions, and restaurants. Earlier this year, Airbnb launched Experiences, activities like cooking classes and guided tours that travelers can book and enjoy with other travelers. At the time, the company hinted that the Airbnb app would lean toward fostering connections with fellow travelers. The company…

OpenAI said Tuesday it is introducing its own web browser, Atlas, putting the ChatGPT maker in direct competition with Google as more internet users rely on artificial intelligence to answer their questions.Making itself a gateway to online searches could allow OpenAI, the world’s most valuable startup, to pull in more internet traffic and the revenue that comes from digital advertising.OpenAI has said ChatGPT already has more than 800 million users but many of them get it for free. The San Francisco-based company is losing more money than it makes and has been looking for ways to turn a profit.OpenAI said…

Two years after revamping its developer programs and pricing, X is expanding the closed beta of a pay-per-use plan for its API to more developers. The social network is accepting applications from developers who want to be a part of the program, the company’s developer account wrote in a post on X. “We are expanding a closed beta to both new & power users who want to ship amazing apps on X,” the post read. Announcing our beta launch: X API pay-per-use model.We are expanding a closed beta to both new & power users who want to ship amazing apps…

For CFOs and CIOs under pressure to modernise finance operations, automation – as seen in several generations of RPA (robotic process automation) – isn’t enough. It’s apparent that transparency and explainability matter just as much.Accounting firms and finance functions inside organisations are now turning to AI systems that reason, not just compute. One of the most ambitious examples is Basis, a US-based start-up founded just two years ago that builds AI agents designed to automate structured accounting work, and keep human oversight firmly in the loop.Such systems signal a shift in enterprise automation. Instead of replacing people, AI agents extend…

Dario Amodei, co-founder and CEO of artificial intelligence startup Anthropic.Chesnot | Getty ImagesAnthropic CEO Dario Amodei addressed “inaccurate claims” about the artificial intelligence startup’s policy stances on Tuesday after repeatedly facing criticism from David Sacks, the venture capitalist serving as President Donald Trump’s AI and crypto czar.Amodei said the company is aligned with the Trump administration across “key areas of AI policy,” and that it is interested in working with “anyone serious about getting this right.””I fully believe that Anthropic, the administration, and leaders across the political spectrum want the same thing: to ensure that powerful AI technology benefits the American…