Microsoft’s president responds to the AI backlash with a 3,000-word essay and zero policy changes
Microsoft’s president responds to the AI backlash with a 3,000-word essay and zero policy changes

Microsoft President Brad Smith has responded to the wave of graduating students booing AI at commencement ceremonies with a 3,000-word essay that acknowledges their concerns and offers no concrete changes. Published on Microsoft’s official blog on Tues…

White House offers to trade state AI preemption for federal online safety laws in new deal with Congress
White House offers to trade state AI preemption for federal online safety laws in new deal with Congress

The White House is negotiating with key senators to bundle federal preemption of state AI laws with three online safety bills, Axios reported. Senator Marsha Blackburn is leading the effort to finalise legislative text. The package would block state AI…

OpenAI says China-linked accounts used ChatGPT to fuel opposition to US data centres
OpenAI says China-linked accounts used ChatGPT to fuel opposition to US data centres

OpenAI said a cluster of ChatGPT accounts linked to China attempted to stir up local opposition to US data centres by posing as Americans and posting AI-generated content about rising electricity costs. The company nicknamed the campaign “Data Center B…

Amazon takes on $17.5 billion in new debt as AI spending pushes total borrowing past $225 billion
Amazon takes on $17.5 billion in new debt as AI spending pushes total borrowing past $225 billion

Amazon has agreed to a $17.5 billion delayed-draw term loan led by Citigroup, the latest in a borrowing spree fuelled by its race to build AI infrastructure. The cash is available through the end of September. Each draw has a three-year repayment windo…

Researchers tricked an OpenClaw AI agent into leaking AWS keys and customer data with a phishing email
Researchers tricked an OpenClaw AI agent into leaking AWS keys and customer data with a phishing email

Security researchers at Varonis built an OpenClaw email agent, connected it to a Gmail inbox with fake company data, and then phished it. The agent, dubbed Pinchy, handed over AWS credentials, database connection strings, and a customer export without …

The most AI-obsessed companies spend $7,500 per employee per month. The median spends $11.
The most AI-obsessed companies spend $7,500 per employee per month. The median spends $11.

The top 1% of US companies by AI adoption spend $7,500 per employee per month on AI tools and compute. The median firm spends $11.38. That 680x gap, drawn from the Ramp AI Index, is the clearest picture yet of how unevenly AI spending is distributed ac…

Inside Automat-it’s playbook for scaling AI startups on AWS
Inside Automat-it’s playbook for scaling AI startups on AWS

The AI boom has fundamentally changed how startups think about infrastructure. What was once a relatively straightforward cloud scaling journey has become far more complex, as companies now balance GPU-intensive workloads, rapidly evolving AI models, c…

A German court says Google’s AI Overviews are Google’s own words, and it’s liable when they’re false
A German court says Google’s AI Overviews are Google’s own words, and it’s liable when they’re false

A German court has ruled that Google is directly liable for false claims its AI Overviews make, treating the AI-written summaries as Google’s own speech rather than ordinary search results. It is one of the first rulings to test who is responsible when…

Poetic emerges from stealth with $50M from OpenAI to automate insurance underwriting and compliance
Poetic emerges from stealth with $50M from OpenAI to automate insurance underwriting and compliance

Poetic, an AI startup that has been operating in stealth, has emerged with $50M in funding and a $500M valuation to automate some of finance’s most sensitive back-office work, from insurance underwriting to compliance and fraud checks. Its backers incl…

Hamburg-based €50M AI roll-up fund Generation Tech Partners launches

A new AI roll-up fund is launching in Germany, as investor appetite for trying to yield returns by buying a group of established companies and revamping them with AI continues apace. Generation Tech P…