Author: GT

Most U.S. adults say they use artificial intelligence to search for information, but fewer are using it for work, drafting email or shopping.Younger adults are most likely to be leaning into AI, with many using it for brainstorming and work tasks.The new findings from an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll show that 60% of Americans overall — and 74% of those under 30 — use AI to find information at least some of the time.The poll highlights the ubiquity of AI in some areas — as well as its limits in others. Only about 4 in 10…

While the development of increasingly powerful AI models grabs headlines, the big challenge is getting intelligent agents to communicate.Right now, we have all these capable systems, but they’re all speaking different languages. It’s a digital Tower of Babel, and it’s holding back the true potential of what AI can achieve.To move forward, we need a common tongue; a universal translator that will allow these different systems to connect and collaborate. Several contenders have stepped up to the plate, each with their own ideas about how to solve this communication puzzle.Anthropic’s Model Context Protocol, or MCP, is one of the big…

PayPal reported better-than-expected results for the second quarter and raised its full-year guidance for transaction margin dollars and earnings per share. The stock slipped more than 4% following the report.Here’s how the company did compared with Wall Street estimates, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:Earnings per share: $1.40 adjusted vs. $1.30 expectedRevenue: $8.29 billion vs. $8.08 billion expectedSales increased 5% from $7.89 billion a year earlier, as CEO Alex Chriss worked to roll off lower-margin revenue streams.Transaction margin dollars, a key measure of profitability, rose 7% to $3.84 billion, marking the company’s sixth straight quarter of growth.Total payment volume, an…

Google on Monday announced an update to its Chrome web browser that will introduce AI-generated store reviews to U.S. shoppers with the aim of helping to determine the best places to make a purchase. The feature, which will be available by clicking an icon just to the left of the web address in the browser, will display a pop-up that informs consumers about the store’s reputation for things like product quality, shopping, pricing, customer service, and returns. The feature, which is currently available only in English, will generate the summaries based on reviews from partners, including Bazaarvoice, Bizrate Insights, Reputation.com,…

Daniel Liss, co-founder of the social network Dispo and the dating app Teaser AI, is convinced he’s onto the next big thing: steelmaking.  It all started, incongruously, with a few op-eds he wrote for TechCrunch about anti-trust enforcement in social media. The commentaries apparently caught the attention of some folks in Washington, D.C., Liss told TechCrunch, and resulted in him being invited to guest judge a war game capstone exercise in spring 2023 hosted by the National War College. The war game was very au courant, running a scenario in which the U.S. and China fought for supremacy over Taiwan…

The Rebel-Quad is the second-generation product from Rebellions and is made up of four Rebel AI chips. Rebellions, a South Korean firm, is looking to rival companies like Nvidia in AI chips.RebellionsSouth Korean artificial intelligence chip startup Rebellions has raised money from tech giant Samsung and is targeting a funding round of up to $200 million ahead of a public listing, the company’s management told CNBC on Tuesday.Last year, Rebellions merged with another startup in South Korea called Sapeon, creating a firm that is being positioned as one of the country’s promising rivals to Nvidia.Rebellions is currently raising money and…

A report in The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) last week found that prices on Amazon’s low-cost essentials had risen since President Trump announced his plans for massive tariffs on international goods. Amazon responded with a lengthy blog post in response to the article, which describes the WSJ’s reporting as “fundamentally flawed.” WSJ analyzed the prices of 2,500 common Amazon items like cough drops, antibacterial wipes, and chicken broth, determining that the prices of these items increased on average by 5% from Trump’s inauguration on January 20 to July 1. Amazon accused WSJ of “cherry-picking” data and ignoring other factors surrounding…

During the first few months of the new Trump administration, the White House slashed cybersecurity budgets, staff, and initiatives. And some, including cybersecurity experts and legislators, are not happy about it. One of them is Colin Ahern, the chief cyber officer for the state of New York. In a recent interview with TechCrunch, Ahern said that both he and New York Governor Kathy Hochul are worried that the Trump administration’s cuts to cybersecurity are putting the country at risk. “We work with the federal government day in and day out. We need and want the federal government to be effective,”…

Anthropic says its rolling out new weekly rate limits for Claude to curb usage among subscribers who are running its AI coding tool, Claude Code, “continuously in the background, 24/7.” Anthropic says the rate limits also aim to stop a handful of users who are violating Claude’s usage policy by sharing accounts and reselling access to Claude Code. The new rate limits will go into effect August 28 for subscribers to Anthropic’s $20-per-month Pro plan, as well as its $100- and $200-per-month Max plans, the company said Monday in an email to subscribers and a post on X. We’re rolling…

With demand for AI-powered browsers on the rise, Microsoft on Monday launched a new feature in its Edge browser called Copilot Mode, which allows users to browse the web while being assisted by AI. The idea is that the AI can become a helper that can understand what the user is researching, predict what they want to do, and then take action on their behalf. How well it works in practice remains to be seen, but Microsoft notes that Copilot Mode is still considered an experimental feature. It’s also opt-in by default during these tests and is currently free for…