AI & Robotics

Rather than downloading another app, a growing number of agents can simply be texted like an ordinary person. You text it what you need, and it can remember context, connect to the apps and services you already use, and complete tasks on your behalf. That can mean scheduling an appointment, organizing a calendar, researching a trip, sending an email, making a reservation, shopping online, or…

With all the talk about how AI might one day kill us all, it’s easy to forget that AI has already been life-threatening to some, not through bioweapons, but psychologically. For example, Character.AI settled several wrongful death lawsuits earlier this year brought by families of underage users who died by suicide after interactions with its bots. Multiple families have also sued OpenAI over…

The way Rama Afullo tells it, he saw orbital data centers coming. The Kenyan American engineer previously worked in Google’s cloud computing business before a brief stint at SpaceX’s Starlink communications network in 2024. His experiences convinced him that there was untapped potential for computers in space. “When I was at SpaceX, I tried to pitch this internally. They said…

Airbnb is evolving in two directions: On the ground, it wants to compete with hotels by providing myriad services; online, it is using AI and people in its Airbnb network to aid travel discovery. As part of its fall product update, the company is adding services to the app it had launched last year, such as meal delivery, laundry, baby-gear rental, ski and boat rental in limited locations, and…