NerdNews

OpenAI's Operator tool, an AI agent capable of autonomously handling tasks, may be nearing release. The tool has been spotted in OpenAI's code, with references to 'Toggle Operator' and 'Force Quit Operator' in the ChatGPT client for macOS. Operator is said to be able to perform tasks like writing code and booking travel, but its reliability is still uncertain.

Enterprise VCs are looking to invest in AI companies that offer specific solutions, such as AI agents, reliability and resiliency, and infrastructure for AI adoption. They are interested in companies that can solve unique challenges for enterprises and deliver tangible impact. Areas of interest include AI solutions for specific tasks, vertical and persona-specific workflows, security innovations, and observability and reliability.

Metropolis, an AI-powered parking platform, has acquired Oosto, a computer vision company, for $125 million. The acquisition includes Oosto's IP and team, and will enhance Metropolis's capabilities in computer vision for parking environments. Oosto, formerly known as AnyVision, had raised $380 million from investors but was struggling due to controversy surrounding its surveillance technology.

Microsoft has unveiled improvements to Windows Search, introducing semantic indexing for more accurate results. The new feature is currently available on Copilot+ PCs with a Snapdragon processor and will soon be rolled out to AMD and Intel-based Copilot+ PCs. The improvements allow for more natural language searches and provide results based on related content, but only work with locally stored files.

Microsoft's push for AI-powered PCs with Neural Processing Units (NPUs) has raised questions about Nvidia's role in the market. While Nvidia dominates the datacenter AI market, its GPUs may not be compatible with Microsoft's Copilot+ PC spec, which requires a minimum of 40 TOPS. Nvidia has been working on AI features for PCs, including the RTX AI Toolkit and Nvidia Inference Microservices, but may face competition from NPUs in the future.

Apache Hudi 1.0 is now generally available, offering a transactional data lake platform with support for near real-time analytics. The release introduces new features such as secondary indexing, partial updates, and non-blocking concurrency control, making it a fully-fledged 'Data Lakehouse Management System' (DLMS).

President Trump has revoked a 2023 executive order signed by former President Joe Biden that aimed to reduce AI risks to consumers, workers, and national security. The order required companies to share AI safety test results with the US government before release.

The UK government is unveiling 'Humphrey', an AI assistant to help civil servants with tasks such as reading and summarizing responses to consultations, querying conversations in Parliament, and preparing briefings. The government also plans to use AI to speed up public-facing services and improve data sharing between departments, aiming to save £45 billion annually.

DeepSeek, a Chinese AI lab, has released an open version of its 'reasoning' model, R1, which it claims performs as well as OpenAI's o1 on certain AI benchmarks. R1 is available under an MIT license and contains 671 billion parameters. It can be used commercially without restrictions and is available through DeepSeek's API at prices 90%-95% cheaper than OpenAI's o1.

AWS has announced its support for Apache Iceberg, an open table format, across its analytics, machine learning, and storage stack. This move is seen as a response to customer demand and a way to provide a standardized format for data storage and analysis. Iceberg allows for more efficient and flexible data management, and its adoption by AWS is expected to have a significant impact on the industry. The company's commitment to Iceberg is also seen as a challenge to rival formats, such as Delta Lake.

Microsoft has started distributing Windows 11 24H2 to user devices, which will eventually be automatically updated on eligible machines running Home or Pro versions. The update can be postponed, but it will be installed at some point. This move may cause issues for some users, as there are known problems with the update, including issues with certain games and USB devices.

The banking industry in APAC is thriving, with significant ICT investments in AI. However, the rapid adoption of AI introduces risks such as data sovereignty, privacy, and supply chain security. To mitigate these risks, banks must adopt a comprehensive approach to security, including stringent vetting of open-source components, continuous monitoring of APIs, and proactive threat detection. Collaboration between security and data teams is crucial to integrate security into AI workflows.

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao has pleaded guilty to federal money laundering charges and will step down as CEO. The company will pay a $4.3 billion fine, and Zhao will pay a $50 million fine. The move comes as regulators crack down on the cryptocurrency industry, with Binance accused of failing to prevent money laundering and violating US economic sanctions.

Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of crypto exchange FTX, has been found guilty of wire fraud after scamming customers out of approximately $10 billion. He faces a maximum sentence of 110 years in prison. The verdict came after a brief deliberation in a Manhattan federal court, with the jurors finding Bankman-Fried guilty of all seven charges brought against him.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has sued Coinbase and Binance, two of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges, for selling unregistered securities. The SEC alleges that Coinbase's exchange and staking-as-a-service program sold unregistered securities, while Binance is also accused of market manipulation and fraud. The lawsuits are a significant development in the regulation of the cryptocurrency industry.

The UK government plans to revamp its digital services to save £45bn by using more digital tools and artificial intelligence (AI) to improve the efficiency of the public sector. The new digital strategy aims to transform citizens' experiences of government services, improve productivity, and strengthen the foundations from how data is used. The adoption of digital technologies has the potential to save taxpayers £45bn and make it easier for people to access government services.

Tencent's new AI video generator, HunyuanVideo, can swap faces in videos with high accuracy. A demo video showing Keanu Reeves in a scene from Apple TV's Severance has gone viral, showcasing the technology's potential for VFX work. HunyuanVideo uses video-to-video mapping and has 13 billion parameters, allowing for high physical accuracy and scene consistency.

Coinbase has integrated Apple Pay into its Onramp product, allowing users to purchase cryptocurrency with Apple Pay. This integration enables faster and more convenient crypto purchases, and also allows third-party developers to integrate Apple Pay into their own crypto wallets. Apple's stance on cryptocurrency has been cautious in the past, but this move may indicate a softening of its position.

A network of over 1,140 fake Twitter accounts used ChatGPT to post cryptocurrency-related content, including spammy links. The botnet was discovered by researchers who noticed a pattern in the posts, which often started with the phrase 'as an AI language model.' The accounts were eventually suspended by X after the research was published.

Apple's Mail app on Mac will soon feature Apple Intelligence sorting, categorizing emails into Primary, Transactions, Updates, and Promotions. This feature, already available on iOS, will come to Mac with macOS 15.4, expected in April. The sorting is done automatically and can be turned off if desired.