NerdNews

Microsoft is bringing Anthropic's Claude Sonnet 4 and Claude Opus 4.1 AI models to its Microsoft 365 Copilot, expanding model choice beyond OpenAI. The models will be available in Researcher and Microsoft Copilot Studio, allowing customers to access Anthropic models for deep reasoning, workflow automation, and flexible agentic tasks.

Cohere, an enterprise AI model maker, has raised an additional $100 million, bumping its valuation to $7 billion. The company has also partnered with AMD, allowing its AI models to run on AMD's Instinct GPU. Cohere is marketing itself to enterprises where AI sovereignty is urgent, focusing on local control of data and models.

Google has launched the Data Commons Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server, enabling developers to access real-world statistics using natural language and better train AI systems. The MCP Server makes Google's vast public data trove more accessible to AI, solving common problems of noisy and unverified web data. This move is expected to save companies time and money by providing high-quality datasets for fine-tuning AI systems.

Google launched Mixboard, a public beta AI-powered mood board app that allows users to create boards using text prompts, edit images with Nano Banana, and generate text based on images. The app is available in the US via Google Labs and competes with Pinterest's collage feature.

Google Labs introduces Mixboard, an experimental AI-powered tool for creating design boards. It uses generative AI to build Pinterest-like boards, allowing users to choose from templates or generate ideas using text prompts. Mixboard is powered by Gemini 2.5 Flash and features a Nano Banana image editing model, enabling users to edit boards using natural language and generate new images with AI.

Jon Topper shares 10 common mistakes in building SaaS platforms, including not baking in tenancy, failing to automate tenant provisioning, and delivering unique features to tenants. He provides strategies to mitigate risk and ensure a scalable and profitable business.

Okta is addressing the gap in securing non-human, agentic identities such as AI agents. The company's president and chief operating officer, Eric Kelleher, stated that the deployment of AI agents is outpacing the cyber sector's response, with 91% of organizations having deployed agentic AI but only 10% having proper governance in place. Okta aims to help its customers secure these identities and provide proper governance.

Scott Wu, CEO of Cognition, talks about the future of programming, the role of AI in coding, and how it will change the way engineers work. He believes that AI will take over routine coding tasks, allowing engineers to focus on higher-level tasks. Wu also discusses the differences between Cognition's autonomous coding agent Devin and Claude Code.

The article discusses new features in CSS for 2025, including animate to auto, popovers and invokers, @function, if(), field-sizing, custom selects, text-wrap, linear() easing, shape(), more powerful attr(), and reading flow. These features aim to improve CSS functionality, accessibility, and user experience.

The Python Software Foundation warned users of a new string of phishing attacks using a phony Python Package Index (PyPI) website, asking victims to verify their account or face suspension. The foundation advised anyone who provided their credentials to change their password immediately.

Qualcomm has announced the Snapdragon X2 Elite and Extreme, claiming they are the fastest and most efficient processors for Windows PCs. The chips offer up to 31% faster CPU performance and up to 2.3x the GPU performance per watt. They also feature a new 80 TOPS Hexagon NPU for AI tasks and support for multi-day battery life.

The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 features a 3nm process CPU with two 'prime cores' at 4.6GHz and six 'performance' cores at 3.6GHz. It also has an Adreno GPU with a 1.2GHz clock speed, a 23% jump in performance, and a dedicated memory cache called High Performance Memory. The chip supports mmWave 5G, Wi-Fi 7, and external display support at 4K and 120Hz refresh rates.

Zoox, an Amazon-owned autonomous vehicle company, has asked federal regulators for an exemption to commercially deploy its custom-built robotaxis. The exemption would allow Zoox to launch a commercial robotaxi service, paving the way for the company to offer its autonomous vehicles to the public. The request follows two milestones that put Zoox closer to operating a commercial robotaxi service, including the launch of a free robotaxi service in Las Vegas and an exemption from the NHTSA to demonstrate its custom-built robotaxis on public roads.

Waymo has launched 'Waymo for Business', a service allowing companies to set up accounts for employee access to robotaxis in cities like Los Angeles, Phoenix, and San Francisco. The service enables businesses to subsidize rides or purchase promo codes in bulk, with companies having control over ride programs through a business portal.

NVIDIA, the world's most valuable company, has invested in quantum computing startups Quantinuum, QuEra, and PsiQuantum, valued at over $17 billion. This shift in tone from NVIDIA's CEO, Jensen Huang, indicates a potential new direction for the company. Quantum computing could usher in a new computing paradigm, solving complex equations and simulating quantum mechanical systems, with potential applications in fields like chemistry and materials science.

Google is merging Android and ChromeOS to create a new operating system for computers, set to release next year. The company is working with Qualcomm, which recently announced new PC chips, and plans to bring AI advancements from Android to the laptop form factor.

Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon announced that 6G is expected to arrive in 2028, with pre-commercial devices available in three years. The new technology is predicted to enable faster internet speeds and facilitate the growth of AI, with potential applications in AR glasses, smart devices, and more.

Al Gore's Climate Trace uses AI to track fine particulate pollution from over 660 million sources worldwide, providing data and visualizations to raise awareness about the health effects of air pollution and accelerate the transition to cleaner technologies.

Skild AI's algorithm can control various robotic bodies, adapt to injuries, and learn from experience. It can operate unfamiliar hardware and adapt to serious injuries, such as a four-legged robot continuing to crawl after its legs are hacked off with a chainsaw.

Modular, a startup founded by former Apple luminary Chris Lattner, has raised $250 million to build a unifying software layer for AI hardware, aiming to loosen the software chokehold of companies like Nvidia and AMD. The startup's goal is to create a unified compute platform, allowing developers to easily run their code across different chips.