Bolt and Palantir have partnered to usher in a new era of intelligent ecommerce checkout—one that’s personalized, dynamic and deeply informed by data. Checkout 2.0, a self-learning, self-improving checkout, replaces static, form-based flows with an adaptive, real-time system that responds to each shopper’s unique preferences, behaviors and context. Rather than displaying the same interface to every shopper, Checkout 2.0 delivers personalized flows that evolve with the user—prioritizing preferred payment methods, remembering prior selections and surfacing relevant information at just the right time. Bolt will leverage Palantir’s platform to help scale Checkout 2.0 across enterprise retailers and expand it within Bolt’s recently launched SuperApp—an all-in-one finance and crypto hub that delivers real-time shopper signals. As both platforms evolve, Checkout 2.0 will bring deeper personalization and intelligence to every phase of the buying journey. Through this partnership, Bolt will integrate Palantir’s advanced decisioning engine to dynamically adapt checkout flows and enable smarter, contextually aware logic. Merchants will also benefit from intelligent post-checkout payment routing. Checkout 2.0 will evaluate transaction attributes—such as volume, category or geography—and select the optimal payment gateway to maximize authorization rates and reduce processing costs. This behind-the-scenes intelligence delivers better margins and a smoother experience. Checkout 2.0’s architecture includes: Self-learning shopper profiles that adapt over time based on usage, behavior and purchase history; Dynamic payment method reordering based on shopper preferences and device; Post-checkout routing optimization to improve processing economics in real time; Native crypto payment support.
New Automated Underwriting System (AUS) purpose-built for the Non-QM lending market shifts underwriting decisions to the start of the loan lifecycle by using verified borrower data and aligning directly with investor-specific guidelines
Prudent AI has launched the industry’s first Upfront Automated Underwriting System (AUS) purpose-built for the Non-QM lending market. The new system shifts underwriting decisions to the start of the loan lifecycle by using verified borrower data and aligning directly with investor-specific guidelines, enabling lenders and brokers to scale confidently with fewer exceptions and greater certainty. Prudent AI’s Upfront AUS introduces a fundamental shift: moving critical underwriting logic upstream, where it can deliver the highest impact — enabling faster, cleaner, and more compliant decisions before loans enter underwriting queues. Purpose-Built for Modern Lending Prudent AI’s Upfront AUS: Uses verified income, credit, and asset data at submission; Applies investor-specific guidelines; Assess eligibility and conditions to clear; Offers a dual-phase review: upfront qualification and downstream consistency; Is built from the ground up to support the complexity and flexibility of Non-QM lending. Real Impact for TPOs and Lenders include: TPOs benefit from faster submissions, fewer conditions, and clearer investor alignment; Lenders gain efficiency, reduce rework, and expand underwriting capacity without adding headcount; Operational teams get cleaner data pipelines and scalable exception management.
Uber adds a new type of account with a simpler UI for the elderly with features like ride updates for family members, saved destinations, and the ability to use a family member’s card for payments
Uber revealed a new type of account, called Senior Accounts, for older users that prioritizes a simpler app experience with features like ride updates for family members, saved destinations, and the ability to use a family member’s card for payments. Uber said Senior Accounts present a simpler app experience with larger text and icons, as well as less complex screens. Users can switch this mode on using the accessibility settings in the app. Users in the U.S. can now add older adults to their family account via the “Family” menu under the Accounts tab. Users who manage the family account can add their own payment methods, edit the list of saved destinations, book a ride for older adults, and contact drivers during a ride. People in the family group can also follow senior users’ rides. Uber said senior users can add their Medicare Flex card to pay for eligible medical visits. The company said it plans to make Senior Accounts available worldwide, though it didn’t specify when the feature would roll out to other countries. Uber added teen accounts in a few cities in the U.S. in 2023 and later rolled it out to more regions and countries.
Clearstream partners Azimut to develop DLT-based private funds solution – providing broader access to private market strategies, along with a liquidity option that will allow investors to unlock the illiquidity premium embedded in private asset portfolios
Deutsche Börse’s Clearstream announced a new DLT-based solution for private market funds that it developed in conjunction with asset manager Azimut. It leverages the funds distribution platform, FundsDLT, that Clearstream acquired in late 2023. Azimut was the very first asset manager to use FundsDLT. A key goal of the DLT platform from the beginning was to reduce costs through automation and enable greater transparency. It supports the permissioned sharing of information between the asset manager, distributor and client investor, including regular reporting and asset servicing. Clearstream said it now offers a new account model that supports multiple investor portfolios under a single Clearstream Custody account. For example, this might cater to wealth managers and their clients. This structure “enables Azimut to access anonymized, detailed insights into the portfolios of individual investors.” Giorgio Medda, CEO of Azimut Holding said, “This innovative platform will provide broader access to private market strategies, along with a liquidity option that will allow investors to unlock the illiquidity premium embedded in private asset portfolios.” “By leveraging Azimut’s expertise and our robust technology, we aim to set new standards, while maintaining the highest levels of security, compliance and investor trust,” said Philippe Seyll, CEO of Clearstream Fund Services.
Imandra Universe, a new platform enhances AI assistants like ChatGPT, Claude, and Cursor with advanced logical reasoning capabilities to perform complex reasoning tasks more accurately
Imandra Inc. has launched the Imandra Universe, a new platform that enhances AI assistants like ChatGPT, Claude, and Cursor with advanced logical reasoning capabilities. This platform allows these AI systems to perform complex reasoning tasks more accurately by using Imandra’s symbolic logical reasoning engines. With a quick 10-second setup and an Imandra API key, users can enable their AI to employ this new functionality. The Imandra Universe offers a feature known as Reasoning as a Service®, which integrates into AI systems, allowing them to think more precisely and validate their outputs mathematically. This improvement aims to enhance workflows by enabling AI to delegate challenging tasks effectively to specialized reasoning engines. For example, if Claude is given the job of planning a multi-step event, it often misses important details. However, by utilizing the Imandra Universe, it can delegate the complex aspects of this task, improving its overall performance. In addition to enhancing existing AI assistants, the Imandra Universe positions itself as a tool that could revolutionize how users interact with artificial intelligence, bridging the gap between simple user commands and complex logical tasks. The technology aims to provide real-time support for neuro-symbolic AI, enabling more sophisticated and accurate outputs.
American iPhones maybe targeted in spyware attacks with a pattern of deleting potential evidence, mirroring techniques where attackers ‘clean up’ after themselves
A new report from the team at iVerify warns that a “previously unknown” vulnerability in iOS maybe enabled a highly targeted attack on iPhones in the U.S. as well as Europe. This flaw was not in the core messaging architecture itself, but in its nickname feature. “Any increase in the size of a codebase is going to introduce attack opportunities,” iVerify told. And that’s the case here. When a user updates their profile, “nickname, photo, or wallpaper,” this triggers “a ‘Nickname Update’ on a recipient’s device.” Trivial though it might seem, that nickname update process is a data transmission from one device to another, it’s implicitly trusted data and it’s within the secure enclave. “This vulnerability was present in iOS versions up to 18.1.1 and fixed in iOS 18.3.1.” While there’s no doubting the flaw and the fix, there is no concrete proof it was exploited in the wild. “We analyzed crash data from nearly 50,000 devices,” iVerify says, “and found that the imagent crashes related to Nickname Updates are exceedingly rare, comprising less than 0.001% of all crash logs collected.” But those rare instances appeared only on “devices belonging to individuals likely to be targeted by sophisticated threat actors.” iVerify reports that forensic examination of one affected device “provided evidence suggesting exploitation: several directories related to SMS attachments and message metadata were modified and then emptied just 20 seconds after the imagent crash occurred. This pattern of deleting potential evidence mirrors techniques observed in confirmed spyware attacks where attackers ‘clean up’ after themselves.”
Dots.eco platform enables earning real-world environmental rewards by letting games and apps integrate an API that exposes to over 250 vetted global projects
Dots.eco, a platform for real-world environmental rewards, has emerged as a for-profit company that can help game companies grow their audiences through a common interest in saving the environment. Through the real world rewards program, players can plant trees, protect wildlife, clean oceans, and more, just by reaching milestones, purchasing game items, making website purchases, or completing game missions. The game becomes the conduit for doing good, said Nadav Grosz, CEO of Dots.eco. Dots.eco is a partner in The Playing for the Planet Alliance, an initiative facilitated by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The Dots.eco platform exposes an API to over 250 vetted global environmental projects that are constantly monitored, including by satellite imagery analysis, images from the grounds, and reports, analysed by inhouse AI technology. Dots.eco can integrate naturally with many game themes, as it supports a wide range of animal species, habitats and subjects that are present in almost every game. Games integrate the API, or the Dots.eco Unity SDK, and incentivise in-game milestones, or In-App-Purchases. For example, you will save a sea-turtle, or buy 10ft2 of land for wildlife, protect your game hero animal, for downloading the game, reaching a certain level, buying a skin or removing ads. By integrating into games and other apps, the company is building the world’s largest community of impact makers and collectors and are dedicated to converting daily actions into transformative impact for a sustainable future. Players will be able to contribute to real-world restoration projects by progressing through storylines, completing missions, or making purchases, all seamlessly integrated into each game’s theme and mechanics. Past campaigns using Dots.eco’s platform have boosted revenues by over 10%, increased first-time payers by 20%, and increased session time by 25%, all while earning the highest sentiment scores some studios have seen
Bank of England tests AI to spot real-time payment fraud and uncovered 12% more illicit accounts than they would otherwise have found
The bank of England’s Project Hertha tested the application of modern AI techniques to help spot complex and coordinated criminal activity in payment system data. The experiments were conducted using a state-of-the-art simulated synthetic transaction dataset, developed as part of the project. It includes data for 1.8 million bank accounts and 308 million transactions. The dataset was built by using an advanced AI model trained to simulate realistic transaction patterns. It found that payment system analytics could be a valuable “supplementary tool” to help banks and payment service providers (PSPs) spot suspicious activity. Banks and PSPs participating in the project uncovered 12% more illicit accounts than they would otherwise have found. The experiment also proved particularly valuable for spotting novel financial crime patterns. When trying to spot previously unseen behaviours, it helped achieve a 26% improvement. “The results demonstrate promise but also show there are limits to the application and effectiveness of system analytics,” states the BofE. “It is just one piece of the puzzle. The introduction of a similar solution would also raise complex practical, legal and regulatory issues. Analysing these was beyond the scope of Project Hertha.” The central bank says the results also highlight the importance of labelled training data, robust model feedback loop and explainable AI algorithms to maximise effectiveness.
Clear Capital’s integration lets lenders to initiate appraisal reviews from within the loan file itself and automatically upload completed documentation
Mortgage and valuation technology firm Clear Capital has integrated its automated appraisal review platform, ClearCollateral Review, with ICE Mortgage Technology’s Encompass Partner Connect. The move allows lenders to access appraisal review tools directly within their loan origination systems. Through the integration, lenders can initiate appraisal reviews within the loan file and completed documentation is automatically uploaded to the system. The platform includes several tools designed to support compliance and accuracy: ClearQC, which offers rule sets tailored to underwriting guidelines and regulatory standards’ Condition Model, powered by artificial intelligence, that compares property conditions using appraisal images against appraisers’ own ratings to identify inconsistencies; ClearPhoto, which uses AI to automate the review of photos and sketches; ClearProp, which consolidates property data, comparable sales and historical records for research and verification; Configurable Review Forms, which range from checklists to in-depth analyses, many of which are prefilled with objective data from appraisals. According to Clear Capital, the integration is intended to broaden access to automated appraisal review tools without requiring custom technical configurations, potentially allowing lenders to manage increased loan volume while reducing underwriting risk.
Thread AI’s composable AI infrastructure connects models, data, and automation into adaptable, end-to-end workflows aligned with enterprise-specific needs to rapidly prototype and deploy AI agents
Thread AI, a leader in composable AI infrastructure, has raised $20 million in Series A funding. Despite the rapid adoption of AI, many organizations struggle integrating AI into complex, evolving environments. They often must choose between rigid, pre-built AI tools that don’t fit their workflows, or costly custom solutions requiring extensive engineering. Thread AI addresses this gap with composable infrastructure that connects AI models, data, and automation into adaptable, end-to-end workflows aligned with each organization’s specific needs. Unlike traditional RPA, ETL, or workflow engines that mirror human workflows or require large infrastructure investments, Thread AI’s Lemma platform allows enterprises to rapidly prototype and deploy event-driven, distributed AI workflows and agents. Lemma supports unlimited AI models, APIs, and applications all within a single platform built with enterprise-grade security. This speeds up deployment, reduces operational burden, and simplifies infrastructure, while maintaining governance, observability, and seamless AI model upgrades. As a result, Thread AI equips enterprises with the flexibility to keep up with rapidly changing AI ecosystem, and the cross-functionality to unlock the power of AI across their entire organization. Lemma users report a 70% improvement in process response times, along with significant efficiency gains as AI-powered workflows reduce operational bottlenecks. Early customers have expanded their AI implementations by 250% to 500%, demonstrating Thread AI’s scalability and practical impact.