Slack is transforming its Slackbot into a personalized AI assistant

Slack is testing a major update that turns its Slackbot into a comprehensive AI assistant. The new tool can understand natural language to search for information, summarize conversations across channels, and create project plans. The Verge reports that the goal is a “personalized AI companion,” according to Rob Seaman, Slack’s chief product officer. The assistant …

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Google’s Gemini Enterprise wants to compete for workplace AI market

Google Cloud has introduced Gemini Enterprise, a new AI platform designed to bring artificial intelligence tools to everyday employees across organizations. The company is positioning the platform as what Google Cloud’s CEO Thomas Kurian calls “the new front door for AI in the workplace.” The platform costs $30 per user per month and aims to …

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IBM releases Granite 4.0 language models with new hybrid architecture for efficiency

IBM has announced the launch of Granite 4.0, the next generation of its open-source large language models. The new models feature a hybrid architecture that combines two different AI technologies, Transformer and Mamba, to balance high performance with significantly lower memory requirements and costs. The models are designed for enterprise use, with a strong focus …

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Former OpenAI researchers launch a tool to customize AI models

The startup Thinking Machines Lab has launched its first product, a tool called Tinker designed to simplify the creation of specialized AI models. Will Knight reports for Wired that the company was founded by a prominent group of former OpenAI researchers, including CEO Mira Murati. Tinker automates the process of fine-tuning powerful open source AI …

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Anthropic plans major global expansion in 2026

AI company Anthropic plans to triple its international workforce and expand its applied AI team fivefold next year. The move is a response to soaring global demand for its Claude family of AI models. MacKenzie Sigalos reports for CNBC. According to the company, nearly 80 percent of Claude’s activity now comes from outside the United …

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Alibaba introduces new efficient AI model architecture

Alibaba has launched a new generation of AI models called Qwen3-Next, designed for high performance with low computational cost. Crystal Liu writes for Alibaba that the new architecture uses several innovations to achieve this efficiency. The first model in the series, Qwen3-Next-80B, is now open source. According to the company, this 80-billion-parameter model only activates …

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MIT report: Employees are driving AI adoption with personal tools

A widely misunderstood statistic from a new MIT report suggests corporate artificial intelligence projects are failing, but the study reveals the opposite. Michael Nuñez reports for VentureBeat that a “shadow AI economy” is thriving as employees successfully use personal AI tools for their work, outpacing official corporate initiatives. The study from MIT’s Project NANDA found …

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How companies can see a better return on their AI investments

Colleen Jones reports for Content Science Review that despite the hype around generative AI, most leaders struggle to achieve measurable business benefits. The primary reason is that AI, unlike previous technologies, is uniquely dependent on content for both its input and output. Jones identifies seven key barriers that prevent companies from succeeding with AI. A …

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Stability AI releases enterprise audio model with major speed increase

Stability AI has launched Stable Audio 2.5, a generative audio model built specifically for enterprise use. The company claims a new technique allows the model to produce high-quality audio in just eight computational steps, down from 50. Sean Michael Kerner reports for VentureBeat that this breakthrough can cut production time from weeks to minutes. According …

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AI startup Nous Research releases unrestricted chatbot that outperforms major competitors

Nous Research has quietly launched Hermes 4, a family of AI language models that the company claims matches leading commercial systems while removing most content restrictions. Michael Nuñez reports about the release for VentureBeat. Unlike ChatGPT or Claude, Hermes 4 responds to nearly any request without safety guardrails that have become standard in commercial AI …

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