Archive
Category: Apps
CES 2025: Now With More AI
IN THIS ISSUE: Welcome to the final newsletter of 2024. Thank you for subscribing to and reading “The AI Economy.” Next month marks one year since I launched this publication, and I appreciate the reception it has received. In the coming year, expect more stories about AI’s impact on business, work, technology, and society. Regarding […]
Why Flipboard Looks to the Fediverse for Its Next Big Evolution
Eight years ago, I sat down with Mike McCue to talk about Flipboard. When we spoke at the company’s Palo Alto, Calif. offices, he shared that the company had found its stride and that this would be the last startup he’d ever build. Much has changed since then, and Flipboard faces a transformative moment. After […]
Google’s NotebookLM Adds a Premium Tier, Adaptable UI, and Interactive Audio Overviews
Google is taking its popular NotebookLM app to the next level. No longer just an experiment, the company is unveiling a series of updates on Friday that position the notebook tool as a fully mature product. The first is a premium tier called NotebookLM Plus, designed with enterprise users in mind, followed by a revamped […]
Randi Zuckerberg’s HUG Social Marketplace Acquired by .ART Registry
HUG, a social art community platform that Randi Zuckerberg and Debbie Soon co-founded, has been acquired by the registry behind the .ART domain. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Soon and HUG’s lead engineer will remain with the company post-acquisition, but Zuckerberg will depart, though she tells me she’s still a “passionate member […]
Proto Hologram’s Holographic AI Avatars: ‘A Chatbot in a Fancy Dress, but With a Persona Presence’
I wanted to check out one company in particular while attending Amazon Web Services’ re:Invent conference. It came to my attention days prior while perusing LinkedIn, and I became curious about its technology. However, I ignored where exactly I could find it at the show. It turns out that the company, Proto Hologram, wasn’t hard […]
Lessons From My First AWS re:Invent
IN THIS ISSUE: My conference adventures continue as I journey to Amazon’s re:Invent conference to hear about AWS’ approach to AI. Plus, explore the company’s AI partnership with the NFL and how they use the technology to help support players’ philanthropy. And don’t miss the roundup of AI news you may have missed from the […]
Spotify Turns to Google’s NotebookLM to Transform Wrapped Into an AI-Powered Podcast
Spotify Wrapped has arrived. But this year, the audio platform’s annual personalized listening summary is changing, thanks to an infusion of artificial intelligence. In addition to our expected standard recap, Spotify is launching Your Spotify Wrapped AI podcast. It’s powered by Google’s NotebookLM, a popular AI-integrated application that transforms any content into a podcast hosted […]
Luma AI Releases Its Photon Text-to-Image Model, Unveils Dream Machine Subscription Plan
Luma AI, the startup known for Dream Machine, is introducing Photon, a new text-to-image foundation model designed for professionals, creative artists, small businesses, and educators. Boasting speeds and costs 800 percent better than comparable models, Photon aims to bring the success it found with video generation to other visual areas. Alongside the launch, Luma AI […]
Foursquare Releases Its Places Data as Open Source
Foursquare has announced a new contribution to the open-source community. The location-based service company is making its foundational open data set, Open Source Places, generally available. Containing more than 100 million global places of interest (POI), it can be used commercially under the Apache 2.0 license framework. “As we enter a new frontier of technology […]
From Tool to Teammate: The Five Stages of AI’s Role in the Workplace
Multiple studies have shown how business leaders struggle to find value with artificial intelligence, but a new study offers an alternative perspective: the workers. Research from Atlassian’s Teamwork Lab reveals that employees who elect to use AI not as a tool but as an expert advisor are finding the most success. It outlines five distinct […]