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Google Unveils Open Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) for AI‑Driven Purchases

Google Unveils Open Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) for AI‑Driven Purchases

Google announced an open Agent Payments Protocol, dubbed AP2, to enable AI agents to shop and transact on behalf of users. Backed by dozens of merchants and major financial institutions, the protocol aims for interoperability across AI platforms, payment networks and vendors while maintaining a verifiable transaction trail. Google executives Stavan Parikh and Rao Surapaneni highlighted the commitment to an open, collaborative development process. AP2 introduces a two‑step approval system—intent and cart mandates—to safeguard user intent, and includes provisions for fully automated purchases. Partnerships with crypto firms such as Coinbase, Metamask and the Ethereum Foundation expand the protocol to digital wallets, while industry players like Perplexity, Stripe, Mastercard, American Express and PayPal have shown support.

MicroFactory Unveils Tabletop Robot Factory That Learns by Human Demonstration

MicroFactory Unveils Tabletop Robot Factory That Learns by Human Demonstration

MicroFactory, a San Francisco startup founded by Igor Kulakov and Viktor Petrenko, has introduced a compact, tabletop manufacturing system that fits in a dog‑crate‑sized enclosure. The device houses two robotic arms and can be taught tasks through direct human guidance as well as AI‑driven learning. The founders, drawing on their experience running a lighting‑equipment business, designed the system to simplify precision work such as circuit‑board assembly and cable routing. With hundreds of pre‑orders, a $1.5 million pre‑seed round that values the company at $30 million, and plans to ship units within months, MicroFactory aims to scale production dramatically in its first year.

TikTok Deal Likely Delayed by At Least One Month Amid Ongoing US‑China Talks

TikTok Deal Likely Delayed by At Least One Month Amid Ongoing US‑China Talks

Sources indicate that TikTok’s sale of its U.S. operations will not be completed for at least another month, as negotiations between the United States and China continue. The Treasury Secretary confirmed a framework agreement, while Oracle remains the app’s cloud partner. The deal, which could be finalized within the next 30 to 45 days, may involve a group of investment firms taking control, but details on size and public disclosure remain unclear.

YouTube Rolls Out New AI Tools for Creators

YouTube Rolls Out New AI Tools for Creators

YouTube announced a suite of artificial‑intelligence features aimed at helping creators streamline production and improve performance. The flagship tool, Ask Studio, acts as a conversational analytics assistant that can summarize comments, suggest video ideas, and recommend title or thumbnail tweaks. A new A/B testing capability lets creators test combinations of thumbnails and titles to see which drives more watch time. Additional updates include auto‑dubbing with lip‑sync, a multi‑collaborator workflow for shared videos, and expanded thumbnail testing. Early‑access creators say the tools provide helpful guidance while still relying on their own audience knowledge.

YouTube Introduces AI Tagging and New Shopping Tools for Creators

YouTube Introduces AI Tagging and New Shopping Tools for Creators

YouTube announced a suite of features aimed at turning the platform into a more robust shopping channel. The updates include AI‑powered product tagging that can automatically identify and label items mentioned in videos, brand links embedded in Shorts that direct viewers to product pages, and a system for swapping ad segments so creators can resell sponsorship slots. Testing for these tools is slated to begin early next year, with broader rollouts expected through 2026. Additional experiments will let top viewers purchase exclusive merch from creators, and the platform also hinted at upcoming livestream and AI enhancements for content creators.

Groq Secures $750 Million Funding Round Valuing Company at $6.9 Billion

Groq Secures $750 Million Funding Round Valuing Company at $6.9 Billion

AI chip startup Groq announced a $750 million financing that lifts its post‑money valuation to $6.9 billion. The round, led by Disruptive with participation from BlackRock, Neuberger Berman, Deutsche Telekom Capital Partners and existing backers such as Samsung, Cisco and Altimeter, more than doubles the company’s valuation from a year ago. Groq’s LPUs – marketed as inference engines – are positioned as a non‑GPU alternative for AI workloads, and the firm now claims to power the AI applications of over two million developers.

India Powers Surge in Google’s Nano Banana AI Image Model

India Powers Surge in Google’s Nano Banana AI Image Model

Google’s Nano Banana image‑generation model, officially known as Gemini 2.5 Flash Image, has become the top driver of the Gemini app’s popularity in India. Indian users are employing the AI to create retro Bollywood looks, AI‑saree portraits, city‑scape selfies, miniature figurines and short videos from old family photos. The surge has propelled the Gemini app to the top of both the iOS App Store and Google Play charts in the country, with monthly downloads far outpacing those in the United States. While the model’s adoption is boosting downloads, in‑app spending remains modest, and Google is rolling out watermarks and a hidden SynthID marker to address privacy and misuse concerns.

Meta Launches Ray‑Ban Smart Glasses with Display and Neural Band Controller

Meta Launches Ray‑Ban Smart Glasses with Display and Neural Band Controller

Meta unveiled a new Ray‑Ban branded smart glasses system featuring a built‑in display on the right lens and a wrist‑worn Neural Band that interprets subtle hand gestures. Announced by CEO Mark Zuckerberg at Meta Connect, the product—called Meta Ray‑Ban Display—will be available for purchase within weeks and is positioned as a consumer‑ready step in Meta’s push to bring AI‑powered wearable technology to the market, complementing its existing VR lineup and aiming to broaden user interaction beyond smartphones.

Voice AI Startup Keplar Secures Seed Funding to Transform Market Research

Voice AI Startup Keplar Secures Seed Funding to Transform Market Research

Keplar, a two‑year‑old voice AI startup, announced a $3.4 million seed round led by Kleiner Perkins with participation from SV Angel, Common Metal and South Park Commons. The company’s platform uses conversational AI to conduct customer interviews, delivering insights faster and at lower cost than traditional market‑research firms. Keplar’s technology can automatically generate interview guides, reach out to participants via a voice assistant, and compile results into reports similar to those produced by human-checked research. Early customers include Clorox and Intercom, and the startup joins other AI‑driven research players such as Outset and Listen Labs.

Macroscope Launches AI-Powered Codebase Understanding Engine

Macroscope Launches AI-Powered Codebase Understanding Engine

Former Periscope founders Kayvon Beykpour, Joe Bernstein, and Rob Bishop have introduced Macroscope, an AI-driven platform that helps developers and product leaders understand code changes, spot bugs, and get real‑time product insights. The tool integrates with GitHub, Slack, JIRA and Linear, leveraging large language models to generate summaries and answer natural‑language queries. Priced at $30 per active developer per month, Macroscope is already being used by a range of startups and larger firms. Backed by a Series A round led by Lightspeed, the San Francisco startup aims to reduce engineering overhead and improve productivity.

AI Security Firm Irregular Raises $80 Million in New Funding Round

AI Security Firm Irregular Raises $80 Million in New Funding Round

Irregular, an AI security company formerly known as Pattern Labs, announced an $80 million funding round led by Sequoia Capital and Redpoint Ventures, with participation from Wiz CEO Assaf Rappaport. The capital values the firm at $450 million and will support its work securing frontier AI models, including building simulated environments to test emerging risks. Co‑founders Dan Lahav and Omer Nevo emphasized the growing need for robust defenses as large language models become more capable, citing the company's SOLVE framework and its role in evaluating models like Claude 3.7 Sonnet and OpenAI's upcoming releases.