August 2025

The Download: AI agent infrastructure, and OpenAI’s ambitions

August 5, 2025
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. These protocols will help AI agents navigate our messy lives A growing number of companies are launching AI agents that can do things on your behalf—actions like sending an email, making a document,…

A glimpse into OpenAI’s largest ambitions

August 5, 2025
OpenAI has given itself a dual mandate. On the one hand, it’s a tech giant rooted in products, including of course ChatGPT, which people around the world reportedly send 2.5 billion requests to each day. But its original mission is to serve as a research lab that will not only create “artificial general intelligence” but…

AI-powered fintech Alaan raises $48M, one of the largest Series A rounds in MENA

August 5, 2025
When Parthi Duraisamy was a consultant at McKinsey’s Dubai office, he discovered that the American Express cards his company relied on for corporate expenses were rarely accepted in the Middle East. This forced Duraisamy to cover significant travel expenses out of pocket and file endless expense reports. “It was a constant pain,” Duraisamy explained on […]