That joint venture kicked off about a year and a half ago with a nearly $6 billion investment from Volkswagen. It effectively puts Wassym in charge of the operating system and electrical architecture for every future EV from Volkswagen and its associated brands, including familiar names like Audi, but also new companies like Scout.
REALLY, an MVNO on T-Mobile’s network, announced a new AI-based pilot project. It aims to build an AI assistant trained on your voice to handle trivial calls for you. The company's CEO says the AI clone is not meant to replace you, but to help focus on what's important.
Rivian is rolling out its AI-powered in-vehicle voice assistant with the automaker's latest software update. It will be available to all Rivian Gen 1 and Gen 2 owners paying for the company's Connect+ cellular subscription service, which costs $15 a month or $150 a year, or are in the middle of an active trial. The assistant will also be available on Rivian's upcoming R2 mid-size electric SUV that has recently started production.
Samsung's next flagship devices will offer Perplexity as part of an expansion to support multiple AI agents in Galaxy AI. Perplexity's AI agent will work with apps including Samsung Notes, Clock, Gallery, Reminder and Calendar, according to the announcement. And, some third-party apps will support it, though Samsung hasn't yet said which. The news comes just a few days before Samsung's Galaxy Unpacked event, so we can expect to find out more about that integration and how it fits in with Samsung's revamped Bixby
Mico (short for Microsoft) is the new face of Copilot. Redmond promises it will appear when you use voice commands to invoke the assistant. It's rolling out to users on Thursday and you can get it by clicking the microphone icon on the web version of Copilot ( copilot.microsoft.com). However, at the time of publication, it was not appearing in the Copilot for Windows app for this writer.
A new AI startup pivoted from automating appointment bookings for hair salons to building an AI voice assistant that handles non-emergency calls for 911 call centers - and it just raised a $14 million Series A for its new focus on Wednesday. Max Keenan, the founder of Y Combinator-backed startup Aurelian, decided to pivot the company in response to a call from one of his clients, reports TechCrunch. The client, a hair salon owner, had a problem with a school's carpool lane blocking the salon's parking lot.
A nearby school's carpool line was constantly blocking the parking lot of one of Aurelian's hair salon clients. The salon owner called the city's non-emergency line and was put on hold for 45 minutes before reaching a dispatcher. "She called me into her office afterwards, and was like, 'Max, do you want to help me out?'" Keenan told TechCrunch. When he started to research how municipal non-emergency response call centers work,
