NerdNews

Microsoft launches Scout, a personal assistant built on the OpenClaw framework, designed to work alongside users with a persistent identity and style, adapting to their needs and providing automated tasks.

OpenAI released new Codex tools for white-collar work, including six plug-ins for specific jobs and a new Sites feature for hosted interactive websites. The company aims to integrate AI into businesses with its new enterprise features and joint venture, the OpenAI Deployment Company.

The article outlines eight levels of AI adoption, from basic chatbot use to full agent orchestration. Each level represents a progression in delegating work to AI and trusting its output, with sample prompts and use cases provided for each level.

Microsoft has announced Project Solara, a platform for AI agents that can power various devices, including smart displays and key badges. The platform is designed to run on multiple form factors and components, and is built on Android using Microsoft's Device Ecosystem Platform (MDEP). It allows for flexible interfaces and the ability to use multiple AI agents, with several companies set to pilot Solara devices in the coming months.

Alphabet, Google's parent company, is raising $80 billion to fund its AI ambitions, including investments in AI compute infrastructure to meet customer demand. This move is part of the ongoing AI arms race, with companies like Anthropic and OpenAI also making significant investments.

Hybrid retrieval combines vector search and BM25 for improved accuracy in RAG pipelines, addressing the limitations of vector search in handling exact-match queries and hybrid queries that require both semantic understanding and exact term matching.

Microsoft Build 2026 kicked off with a keynote presentation introducing developer-focused Windows updates, an OpenClaw-based AI assistant called Scout, the new Majorana 2 quantum computing chip, and a Surface mini PC designed for AI developers. Microsoft also rolled out a new Android-based OS called Project Solara for gadgets that run AI agents.

Google has released the June 2026 Android security patches to address 124 vulnerabilities, including one zero-day flaw exploited in targeted attacks. The high-severity Android Framework vulnerability (CVE-2025-48595) can be exploited by local attackers to gain code execution and escalate privileges on devices running Android 14 or later.

Microsoft's ACS is an open-source standard that allows developers to define policies for AI agents, ensuring they behave as intended across different environments and frameworks. The specification enables granular control over AI agent behavior, including input validation, output classification, and human approval for certain actions.

Anthropic is expanding its Project Glasswing initiative to 150 new organizations across 15+ countries, using its powerful Claude Mythos AI model to identify and fix critical software vulnerabilities. The model has been made available to organizations in industries such as power, water, healthcare, and communications, with the goal of preventing catastrophic attacks that could affect millions of people.

NVIDIA's Isaac Gr00t platform is a humanoid robot reference design that combines a Unitree H2 Plus robot, Sharpa five-fingered hands, and NVIDIA Jetson Thor onboard compute. The platform is designed to help researchers and developers accelerate humanoid development workflows. It features a nearly 6-foot tall humanoid chassis, tactile five-finger hands, and whole-body control with arm torque of up to 120 Newton-meters.

President Trump has signed an executive order creating a voluntary framework for AI companies to share their models with the federal government before release, aiming to promote secure innovation and strengthen cybersecurity. The order directs federal agencies to assess AI models' advanced cyber capabilities and requires the government to prepare cyber defenses, especially for critical infrastructure.

Microsoft has announced its next-generation quantum chip, Majorana 2, which promises to make quantum computing more reliable and accessible. The new chip uses a new material stack, replacing aluminum with lead and updating the semiconductor active region to a combination of indium arsenide and indium arsenide antimonide. This results in qubits that are 1,000 times more reliable, with lifetimes exceeding 20 seconds. Microsoft aims to reach a scalable, practical quantum computer by 2029.

Microsoft announced Project Solara, an OS designed for gadgets that run AI agents. It's built on Android and features a highly flexible platform for agent-first devices. Microsoft demonstrated two concept devices, a desk concept and a badge concept, which can unlock with facial recognition and provide access to AI agents.

Microsoft's Surface RTX Spark Dev Box is a desktop device powered by NVIDIA's RTX Spark chip, designed for sustained AI work like training jobs and model fine-tuning. It features up to 128GB of unified memory, a petaflop of AI computing power, and NVIDIA's RTX Blackwell GPU for gaming performance similar to the RTX 5070.

Nvidia's new RTX Spark laptops, with up to 128GB of memory and 1 petaflop of AI performance, could revolutionize the Windows laptop ecosystem for creatives, but may come at a high price, starting at $2,000-$2,500

Google has introduced a new feature for Android phones to combat phone scams by verifying the caller's identity through a silent confirmation signal, providing an additional layer of security against spoofed calls and scams.

Microsoft's Coreutils project brings Linux command-line utilities to Windows as native applications, making it easier for developers to switch between platforms without changing workflows. The project is based on the open-source uutils project and includes commands like cat, cp, find, grep, and ls.

Layup Parts, a startup founded by ex-Anduril engineer Zack Eakin, has raised $42M in Series A funding to build a platform for ordering custom composite parts, aiming to make it as easy as shopping on Amazon. The company plans to use the funding to grow its team and move into a bigger facility.

Intel is reportedly struggling to supply enough of its new Core and Core Ultra Series 3 processors, due to bottlenecks in the distribution process. The company's decision to stop manufacturing older chips and rely on its 18A process, as well as its dependence on TSMC for additional components, has led to shortages. Major PC brands are affected, and the situation may worsen with the release of Intel's new high-end server chip, Xeon 6+.