Talk Fuse

    AI

    AI is reshaping how businesses, governments and creative industries operate, and this hub tracks the debates, breakthroughs and mishaps that come with that shift. It covers the technology's expanding footprint, from data centre investment and enterprise infrastructure spending to proposals for automating public sector roles, alongside the cultural pushback over AI's place in art and creative work.

    It also follows the growing scrutiny of AI safety and accountability, including research into how models behave when given autonomy, scrutiny of their security vulnerabilities, and disagreement among experts and policymakers over how tightly the technology should be regulated. Legal and ethical stumbles, such as fabricated evidence in court filings or missteps in how AI systems interact with the public, feature regularly too.

    Taken together, the coverage reflects a technology moving faster than the institutions meant to oversee it, making it essential reading for anyone trying to understand what AI means for their job, their rights and the wider world around them.

    • AI Start-Up Kaon AI Raises $60 Million in Funding Round in Quest to Build a ‘Personalized Story Engine’ for Users

      Kaon AI, a Berkeley, California-based start-up that builds personalised, generative-AI story worlds, has raised $60 million in its latest funding round, valuing the company in the several hundreds of millions. Backers included B Capital, Redpoint Ace, Goodwater Capital and DCM. The raise signals growing investor appetite for interactive AI entertainment, which one investor described as…

    • Outcry as Meta lets users make AI images from public Instagram profile pics

      Meta is facing criticism over Muse Image, a new text-to-image tool that can generate pictures using other people’s public Instagram profile photos without notifying them. The feature matters because it feeds into wider concerns about non-consensual AI-altered imagery, arriving as regulators and campaigners intensify scrutiny of such technology. Critics including the tech justice non-profit Foxglove…

    • Interpol confront artificial intelligence on new single Iron City

      Interpol have released ‘Iron City’, the third single from their forthcoming ninth album ‘This Mirror Weighs A Ton’, due out on 28 August via Partisan Records. The atmospheric track engages directly with the subject of artificial intelligence, framed by frontman Paul Banks as a conversation between a human narrator and a future AI that is…

    • Former OpenAI exec Kevin Weil is now on the board of Stoke Space

      Kevin Weil, a technology executive whose career spans Twitter, Meta, Planet Labs and OpenAI, has joined the board of Stoke Space, a well-funded Seattle startup developing fully reusable rockets to rival SpaceX. The appointment matters because it deepens the ties between Silicon Valley’s tech and AI worlds and the private space sector, and because Weil…

    • CNBC: The US wants to restrict corporate use of Chinese AI

      The United States is reportedly preparing to curb American companies’ use of Chinese-made artificial intelligence models, according to CNBC. An unnamed State Department spokesperson said such use “raises serious concerns,” arguing that Chinese AI is “designed to advance Beijing’s narratives, censor dissent and reflect CCP ideology and values.” The move matters because a growing number…

    • Geekom A9 Max AI AMD Mini PC review

      Geekom has released the A9 Max AI, a compact mini PC built around AMD hardware, and PC Gamer has published a review of it. The article’s significance lies in assessing whether this small-form-factor machine, which emphasises AI capabilities, is a worthwhile buy for those seeking a space-saving desktop alternative. The supplied text, however, contains only…

    • The robotaxi law that could ban Tesla

      New Jersey lawmakers are advancing a bill that would require fully autonomous vehicles operating in the state to use cameras alongside two other sensing technologies, most commonly lidar and radar. Because Tesla’s Robotaxi system relies solely on cameras, the measure would effectively bar it from the state unless the company changed its hardware. If enacted,…

    • Pickup Artist Mystery Has an AI Girlfriend

      Erik von Markovik — the pickup artist known as “Mystery” from Neil Strauss’s 2005 book The Game and VH1’s The Pickup Artist — has publicly declared that an AI chatbot named Miss Shira Always is his girlfriend. In June he posted a series of AI-animated clips of her to Instagram with romantic captions, prompting widespread…

    • Congress May Accidentally Help China Win the AI Race

    • USMNT World Cup player ratings: high marks for McKennie and Tillman, but Pulisic and Dest fall short

      The Guardian has published player ratings for the United States men’s national team following their disappointing exit from the World Cup, assessing how each member of the squad performed across the tournament. While the campaign ended in frustration, the piece argues there were genuine positives, particularly from a younger core of players who enhanced their…