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‘Surpassing all my expectations’: Midjourney releases first AI video model amid Disney, Universal lawsuit

Popular AI image generation service Midjourney has launched its first AI video generation model V1, marking a pivotal shift for the company from image generation toward full multimedia content creation. Starting today, Midjourney’s nearly 20 million users can animate images via the website, transforming their generated or uploaded stills into 5-second long clips with options for extending the generation longer up to 20 seconds (in 5 second bursts), and guiding them with text. With the launch,

From prompt chaos to clarity: How to build a robust AI orchestration layer

Join the event trusted by enterprise leaders for nearly two decades. VB Transform brings together the people building real enterprise AI strategy. Learn more Editor’s note: Emilia will lead an editorial roundtable on this topic at VB Transform next week. Register today. AI agents seem like an inevitability these days. Most enterprises already use an AI application and may have deployed at least a single-agent system, with plans to pilot workflows with multiple agents. Managing all that sprawl

I'm Talking Back to Google's New Search Live Mode for AI Convos About Big Events

Google's latest AI addition makes Google searches conversational on your phone with Search Live -- and I love being able to interrupt it. While Google's AI Mode search has been available to Google Labs participants for some time, the company rolled out the Search Live function on June 18 for iOS and Android users. You can access it through a new AI Mode icon -- a star above three audio lines. This creates an ongoing conversation with Google's search engine that's significantly different than wh

Midjourney launches its first AI video generation model, V1

Midjourney, one of the most popular AI image generation startups, announced on Wednesday the launch of its much-anticipated AI video generation model, V1. V1 is an image-to-video model, in which users can upload an image — or take an image generated by one of Midjourney’s other models — and V1 will produce a set of four five-second videos based on it. Much like Midjourney’s image models, V1 is only available through Discord, and it’s only available on the web at launch. Introducing our V1 Vide

Multiplier, founded by ex-Stripe exec, nabs $27.5M to fuel AI-powered accounting roll-ups

In late 2022, Noah Pepper, a former Stripe business lead for the Asia Pacific region, founded Multiplier, a startup that aimed to sell software to tax accounts. But soon after ChatGPT was released, he realized that AI can change how professional service firms use technology. “I realized I was barking up the wrong tree by trying to build a SaaS business, and instead I should figure out how to make these people more effective,” he told TechCrunch. The startup acquired Citrine International Tax,

Salesforce hikes Slack prices, adds AI tools for all paid users

What the Bot: Salesforce has decided to increase prices for certain paid Slack plans. The company is attempting to justify the change by stating that all customers will now have access to more AI features. And if you don't want or need AI, well, you'll likely end up paying more anyway. According to a recent announcement from Salesforce, Slack customers will now have to pay more but will receive new AI-based features in return. Paid plans for the service will cost a few dollars more per user, me

Scale AI not 'winding down' following Meta deal, interim CEO tells employees and customers

Scale AI's Interim CEO Jason Droege said in a memo on Wednesday that the artificial intelligence startup is not changing course following Meta's multibillion-dollar investment in the company last week. "Unlike some other recent tech deals you might have heard about in the AI space, this is not a pivot or a winding down," Droege wrote in a post directed at customers, employees and investors. Meta has a 49% stake in Scale after its $14.3 billion investment, though the social media company will n

Elon Musk’s xAI Is Reportedly Burning Through $1 Billion a Month

Elon Musk has promised that his AI business, xAI, will help to revolutionize society. Before it can do that, however, the company is going to need to become fiscally viable—a goal it hasn’t quite met yet. Indeed, at the current moment, the company seems to be burning through cash at a rate that, in any other industry, would be entirely unsustainable. A new report from Bloomberg claims that the AI company expects to spend at least $13 billion this year, which amounts to a little over a billion d

xAI faces legal threat over alleged Colossus data center pollution in Memphis

After thermal imaging appeared to show that xAI lied about suspected pollution at its Colossus supercomputer data center located near predominantly Black communities in Memphis, Tennessee, the NAACP has threatened a lawsuit accusing xAI of violating the Clean Air Act. In a letter sent to xAI on Tuesday, lawyers from the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) notified xAI of the NAACP's intent to sue in 60 days if xAI refuses to meet to discuss the groups' concerns that xAI is not using the re

Amazon Rebuilt Alexa Using a ‘Staggering’ Amount of AI Tools

Daniel Rausch, Amazon’s vice president of Alexa and Echo, is in the midst of a major transition. More than a decade beyond the launch of Amazon’s Alexa, he’s been tasked with creating a new version of the marquee voice assistant, one that’s powered by large language models. As he put it in my interview with him, this new assistant, dubbed Alexa+, is “a complete rebuild of the architecture.” How did his team approach Amazon’s largest ever revamp of its voice assistant? They used AI to build AI,

YouTube is plugging Veo 3 AI videos directly into Shorts

is a news editor covering technology, gaming, and more. He joined The Verge in 2019 after nearly two years at Techmeme. YouTube is bringing its Veo 3 AI video generation model, which my colleague Allison Johnson recently called “a slop monger’s dream,” to YouTube Shorts later this summer, according to a Cannes Lions keynote from YouTube CEO Neal Mohan. Shorts creators can already take advantage of the previous-generation Veo 2 model to generate backgrounds with Dream Screen as well as standalo

OpenAI drops Scale AI as a data provider following Meta deal

OpenAI is phasing out its work with Scale AI and cutting ties with the data provider following Meta’s deal with the startup, an OpenAI spokesperson told Bloomberg on Wednesday. Sarah Friar, the chief financial officer of OpenAI, previously suggested the company would continue its work with Scale AI. Now, it appears OpenAI has changed its tone. OpenAI said it was already winding down its work with Scale AI ahead of Meta’s announcement last week that it was investing billions of dollars in the s

Topics: ai data meta openai scale

Voi CEO says he’s open to acquiring Bolt’s micromobility business

Shared micromobility startup Voi is on the hunt for acquisitions. And on CEO Frederik Hjelm’s wishlist is Bolt, the European mobility super-app best known for ride-hailing. Not that Bolt’s micromobility business is necessarily for sale — despite talk of Voi buying the company’s scooter and bike arm. Bolt declined to comment when TechCrunch reached out. “Bolt is a great company, but they are mainly a ride-hailing company,” Hjelm told TechCrunch on stage at the Micromobility Industries roundtabl

9to5Mac Daily: June 18, 2025 – Apple’s Siri timelines, HomePad rumors

Listen to a recap of the top stories of the day from 9to5Mac. 9to5Mac Daily is available on iTunes and Apple’s Podcasts app, Stitcher, TuneIn, Google Play, or through our dedicated RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players. Sponsored by 9to5Mac Daily Plus: Get ad-free versions of every episode by visiting 9to5mac.com/join. New episodes of 9to5Mac Daily are recorded every weekday. Subscribe to our podcast in Apple Podcast or your favorite podcast player to guarantee new episodes are deliv

Revisiting Minsky's Society of Mind in 2025

A Teenager’s Frustration, a Researcher’s Revelation (Note: this is a deeply nerdy / technical post, with most applicability to folks building AI systems, and of little relevance to most users of AI.) In the late 90s, as a tech-obsessed teenager, I picked up Marvin Minsky’s 1986 book The Society of Mind expecting profound answers about intelligence. It was exciting: Minsky made AI seem so tractable, with beautiful essays arguing that the mind is composed of countless simple “agents” – little pr

Third Time Is the Charm? Trump Plans To Again Extend TikTok Deadline

The clock just never seems to run out for TikTok. President Donald Trump says he'll "probably" extend the deadline yet again for the wildly popular social media app to sell itself or face a federal ban. "We probably have to get China approval. I think we'll get it," Trump said, speaking to the press aboard Air Force One on Tuesday. "I think President Xi will ultimately approve it." Also on Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement that Trump would sign an execu

OpenAI found features in AI models that correspond to different ‘personas’

OpenAI researchers say they’ve discovered hidden features inside AI models that correspond to misaligned “personas,” according to new research published by the company on Wednesday. By looking at an AI model’s internal representations — the numbers that dictate how an AI model responds, which often seem completely incoherent to humans — OpenAI researchers were able to find patterns that lit up when a model misbehaved. The researchers found one such feature that corresponded to toxic behavior i

xAI is facing a lawsuit for operating over 400 MW of gas turbines without permits

The Colossus data center operated by xAI outside of Memphis is facing a lawsuit for operating a fleet of natural gas turbines without permits. “Over the past year, xAI has installed and operated at least 35 combustion turbines and other sources of air pollution at the Colossus site without ever obtaining the necessary preconstruction or operating air permits,” the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) wrote in a letter to xAI. The legal group submitted the letter on behalf of the NAACP. It

Deezer says 70% of AI music streams on its service are fake

In brief: The problem of AI-generated music on streaming platforms being "listened" to by AI is so bad on Deezer, up to seven out of every 10 streams of AI tracks are fraudulent, according to the company. The practice can be a lucrative one: in 2024, a man was arrested over claims that he conned music services out of $12 million using this method. The French streaming giant said that AI-generated music accounts for just 0.5% of streams on the platform. However, its own analysis shows that 70% o

Waymo cars are coming to New York, but with a driver behind the wheel

Residents of New York City will soon start seeing Waymo cars cruising the avenues. But at least for now, a human will be in the driver's seat. Alphabet 's self-driving car unit announced on Wednesday that it plans to drive vehicles manually in New York, marking the first step toward potentially cracking the largest U.S. city. Waymo said it applied for a permit with the New York City Department of Transportation to operate autonomously with a trained specialist behind the wheel in Manhattan. "W

Topics: city new said waymo york

Engineer: With AI, "Anybody Whose Job Is Done on a Computer All Day Is Over... It’s Just a Matter of Time"

You hear two wildly diverging narratives about AI lately. One, emanating mainly from the tech sector, is that AI is not only poised to supersede human intelligence, but is already radically changing the world and workforce. The other is that the tech's mostly a nothingburger, with the boosters from the first narrative forcing its slop into everyone's life, while cutting-edge AI systems remain flawed and unlikely to improve enough to be really useful for much, other than filling the web with spa

Topics: ai job jobs tech work

T-Mobile’s new prepaid plans look great on paper, but is there a catch?

Joe Maring / Android Authority TL;DR T‑Mobile is shaking up its prepaid offerings with three plans, ranging from $40 to $60 per month for one line. The new plans largely look like an upgrade, but there are a few possible catches around prioritization and family discounts. The new plans look similar to what you’ll find from other prepaid plans based on T-Mobile’s network, though whether they are better or not remains unseen until we know a bit more. Earlier this year, T-Mobile unveiled its ne

Google Search’s AI Mode gets chatty with its new Search Live feature

Google TL;DR Google is rolling out a new voice search experience for AI Mode in the Google app for Android and iOS. The new Search Live feature lets you have a natural conversation with Google Search, much like Gemini Live. The feature offers AI-generated audio responses to your queries and lets you ask follow-up questions for additional information. Google previewed a new voice search experience called Search Live at I/O this year. Like Gemini Live, this new feature lets users have a natura

Topics: ai google live new search

ChatGPT can now generate images in WhatsApp

Back in December, OpenAI launched its ChatGPT WhatsApp contact as part of its “12 Days of OpenAI” holiday announcements. And while this version of the chatbot is still more limited than what you get on the web or desktop, it is rolling out a useful new trick: image generation. Yep, people actually do this While the idea of texting ChatGPT over WhatsApp might seem a little odd, several WhatsApp-heavy users I’ve talked to say they love the convenience of having ChatGPT right there, without needi

You can search Google with a new voice experience - and it's pretty cool

Google / Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET The Google Search experience remained relatively unchanged for decades, but the way you browse the web has been reimagined with AI updates such as AI Overviews, AI Mode, Circle to Search, and more. Now, Google is introducing a new way to search -- with your voice. Search Live On Wednesday, Google launched the Search Live with voice input experience in the Google app for both Android and iOS. With this experience, you can have a free-flowing conversation a

8 AI features coming to iOS 26 that actually excite me (and how to try them now)

Apple iOS 26 with Liquid Glass (from the Developer Beta). Jason Hiner/ZDNET Apple Worldwide Developers' Conference (WWDC) was expected to have little AI news -- but Apple proved everyone wrong. Even though Apple has not yet launched the highly anticipated Siri upgrade -- the company said we will hear more about it in the coming year -- when it came to event time last week, Apple unveiled a slew of AI features across its devices and operating systems, including iOS, MacOS, WatchOS, and iPadOS.

Writing documentation for AI: best practices

Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) systems like Kapa rely on your documentation to provide accurate, helpful information. When documentation serves both humans and machines well, it creates a self-reinforcing loop of content quality: clear documentation improves AI answers, and those answers help surface gaps that further improve the docs. This guide provides best practices for creating documentation that works effectively for both human readers and AI/LLM consumption in RAG systems. Many bes

This AI Model Never Stops Learning

Modern large language models (LLMs) might write beautiful sonnets and elegant code, but they lack even a rudimentary ability to learn from experience. Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have now devised a way for LLMs to keep improving by tweaking their own parameters in response to useful new information. The work is a step toward building artificial intelligence models that learn continually—a long-standing goal of the field and something that will be crucial if machi

Topics: ai model models new seal