A $129 AI companion pendant that listens to conversations and offers supportive responses through an app triggers massive backlash as New York City subway riders deface $1 million worth of ads with anti-AI graffiti, sparking heated debate over whether artificial companions combat loneliness or dangerously replace human connection.
AI experts remain divided on whether large language models demonstrate genuine intelligence or merely sophisticated pattern recognition, as these systems successfully tackle complex problems like Math Olympiad questions while working with word-embedded knowledge, though multimodal AI models face greater skepticism due to their pixel-based processing methods.
Researchers discover that AI models dramatically switch between accurate and false responses based solely on how questions are phrased, with 'think step by step' prompts triggering correct factual recall while 'give answer in one word' instructions activate shallow processing circuits that frequently generate hallucinated information.
Maryland Governor Wes Moore partners with AI companies Anthropic and Percepta to deploy chatbots that help residents apply for food aid and Medicaid while streamlining housing development permits, marking a significant government embrace of artificial intelligence to combat poverty and bureaucratic inefficiency.
Snowflake launches search for AI Applied Scientist with salary up to $287,500 to develop code intelligence tools including automated testing, code review assistance, and coding agents that will boost developer productivity for internal teams and customers.
Salesforce acquires one-year-old Israeli AI startup Doti for $100 million, delivering a massive 1,300% return on the company's modest $7 million in funding while strengthening Salesforce's enterprise AI capabilities with Doti's 'Organizational Brain' platform that helps companies access internal knowledge through workplace tools like Slack.
Meta revolutionizes Facebook Marketplace by introducing AI-powered shopping assistance, collaborative buying features that let friends join seller chats together, and social elements like reactions and comments on listings while integrating inventory from eBay and Poshmark.
AI coding startup Cursor raises $2.3 billion at a $29.3 billion valuation, nearly tripling its worth in six months while crossing $1 billion in annualized revenue with backing from major investors including Nvidia and Google.
Elon Musk's AI startup xAI secures $15 billion in funding, reaching a $200 billion valuation, while Musk simultaneously denies the reports as 'false' on X, creating confusion as the company faces criticism over its chatbot spreading misinformation and environmental concerns from energy-intensive data centers.
Baidu unveils ERNIE 5.0 multimodal AI model claiming to outperform GPT-5 and Gemini 2.5 Pro in visual tasks while pricing competitively at $0.85-$3.40 per million tokens as the Chinese tech giant expands globally with AI tools that already power 83% of livestreamers during major shopping events.