a16z leads $21M Series A into AI-native tax compliance software Sphere
Sphere helps automate registration, calculation, filing, and remittance obligations for companies.
The Download: the future of AlphaFold, and chatbot privacy concerns
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. What’s next for AlphaFold: A conversation with a Google DeepMind Nobel laureate In 2017, fresh off a PhD on theoretical chemistry, John Jumper heard rumors that Google DeepMind had moved on from game-playing…
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Networking for AI: Building the foundation for real-time intelligence
The Ryder Cup is an almost-century-old tournament pitting Europe against the United States in an elite showcase of golf skill and strategy. At the 2025 event, nearly a quarter of a million spectators gathered to watch three days of fierce competition on the fairways. From a technology and logistics perspective, pulling off an event of…
Realizing value with AI inference at scale and in production
Training an AI model to predict equipment failures is an engineering achievement. But it’s not until prediction meets action—the moment that model successfully flags a malfunctioning machine—that true business transformation occurs. One technical milestone lives in a proof-of-concept deck; the other meaningfully contributes to the bottom line. Craig Partridge, senior director worldwide of Digital Next…
Google’s new Gemini 3 vibe-codes its responses and comes with its own agent
Google today unveiled Gemini 3, a major upgrade to its flagship multimodal model. The firm says the new model is better at reasoning, has more fluid multimodal capabilities (the ability to work across voice, text or images), and will work like an agent. The previous model, Gemini 2.5, supports multimodal input. Users can feed it…
Home Depot’s Sales Are Down. Weak Housing and Good Weather Get the Blame.
A slower third quarter led the company to trim its outlook for the rest of the year, a bad sign for the overall economy.
How AI Research Labs Became the New High-Stakes Global Arms Race
Abu Dhabi’s new national AI and Robotics Center shows how quickly nations are turning research labs into strategic assets.
Hank Green’s Focus Friend is Google Play’s app of the year
In a year that again saw AI assistants and tools climb the app store charts over and over, it’s interesting to see a timer that helps you disconnect from your tech winning Google’s highest app award.
Google launches Gemini 3 with new coding app and record benchmark scores
Google released Gemini 3, its latest and most advanced foundation model, to be made immediately available through the Gemini app and AI search interface.
Snapchat rolls out ‘Topic Chats’ for public conversations
The social network says the new feature will let users chat about what’s happening in the world and across various communities, from Formula 1 to the reality TV show “Below Deck.”
Physics Wallah enjoys a rosy IPO day, bucking the broader slowdown in Indian edtech
The Indian edtech startup ended its first day as a public company on a high, with its shares closing 44% higher than they were listed for, indicating that the country’s edtech sector may still recover after years of gloom.