Epic Games has released a public preview of a rebuilt Epic Games Launcher, saying it was built largely through AI-assisted 'vibe coding' rather than traditional programming. Epic Games Store GM Martin Keely told press the team rewrote the launcher from scratch in a new tech stack, using AI to replicate existing functionality while adding Windows, Mac and upcoming Linux support. Epic and outlet testing found the new launcher starts up a few seconds faster than Steam, though a claimed 0.06-second advantage in restoring from the system tray was negligible.
Epic Games has released a preview build of a new, AI-generated Games Launcher, citing third-party benchmarks showing it cold-starts in 5.47 seconds versus Steam's 10.07 seconds on Windows. The company also touts a revamped interface with title summary pages, custom top bars, library aggregation, and storage/download monitoring tools. Epic says Fortnite will eventually come to Linux through this client once Easy Anti-Cheat is rebuilt and kernel-level agreements are reached with major distros.
Epic Games announced a redesigned Epic Games Store launcher that it says was built using AI-assisted "vibe coding," claiming it launches faster than Steam and offers a less clunky interface than the previous version. The release follows CEO Tim Sweeney's statement that Epic is undergoing a major AI pivot aimed at helping staff "build MORE and BETTER stuff." The update arrives after Epic cut roughly 1,000 jobs in March, reducing headcount by about a quarter.
Epic Games has launched a redesigned version of its game launcher that the company says was built using AI, or "vibe coded." Epic claims the new launcher starts up 46% faster than Steam and offers a 30x faster library, along with new features like dedicated game pages, a unified downloads page, and collections for organizing titles. The launcher is in a preview/open beta phase, with some social and account management features still missing, and Epic advises Unreal developers and competitive Fortnite and Rocket League players to stick with the old version for now.
Epic Games has launched a preview of a redesigned Epic Games Launcher that it says is faster, more responsive, and now supports Linux. The company describes the rebuild as 'vibe coded,' meaning AI agents wrote and reviewed much of the code, according to Martin Keely, Epic's VP and GM of the Epic Games Store and Epic Online Services.
A developer with three years of full-time open-source framework experience published an essay asking whether choice of web framework still matters given the rise of AI-assisted and agentic coding tools. The piece argues that since AI tools can abstract away implementation details, it's worth reconsidering whether new frameworks are even worth building, or whether the industry will simply settle permanently on dominant tools like React.
Software engineer Brandon Thomas, known on Reddit as u/ai_art_is_art, released 13 free, open-source apps through his site ArtCraft that mimic core features of Adobe and Microsoft programs. The apps include PhotoCraft, WordCraft and DeckCraft, built to replace Photoshop, Word and PowerPoint respectively.
Pluto Security, which recently exited stealth, has raised $42 million across a $8.5 million seed round led by TLV Partners and a $34 million Series A led by Jump Capital. CEO Shahar Bahat says the company has surpassed $2 million in annual recurring revenue since starting sales in April, signing more than 30 enterprise customers including Oscar Health, Workato, Sixt, and AlphaSense. The startup's tools give companies visibility and risk analysis into how employees use AI tools, including apps built by non-developers in finance, marketing, and legal departments.
Google announced that users who build apps via prompts in AI Studio can now publish them for use on their own devices through a new 'personal library' in the Play Store, without needing a paid developer account. The feature targets users 18 and older in the US and select markets, and Google says it plans to add secure sharing with friends and family later. To reach a global audience, creators would need to upgrade to a professional developer account and pass standard Play Store safety reviews.
Google announced that Android users can now build apps with AI in Google AI Studio and install them directly on their own device via Google Play, without publishing them to the public store. These private apps won't appear in search or listings and are visible only to their creator, though they must still follow Play's policies. The feature is launching first for users 18 and older in the U.S.
Canadian software engineer and YouTuber Anthony Sistilli built his own automatic license plate reader using a 4K surveillance camera and AI coding tools, configuring it to flag only police cruisers rather than ordinary vehicles. He tested the dashboard-mounted prototype in real traffic, refining it after early lag issues, and detailed the project in a YouTube video. Local police subsequently visited his home in September to question him about the device.
Developer Brandon Thomas, who previously built free alternatives to Adobe Creative Cloud apps using Claude AI, has now created WordCraft, GridCraft, and DeckCraft—open-source replicas of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. The apps are written in Rust with Anthropic's Claude Opus 4.5 and released under MIT or Apache 2.0 licenses, running natively across Windows, macOS, Linux, BSD, and the browser via WebAssembly. WordCraft already supports .docx and other formats with offline spelling and grammar tools, while GridCraft reportedly implements 89% of Excel's ribbon commands and 98% of its worksheet functions.
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