The trajectory of Gemini points toward an ecosystem where proactive AI quietly coordinates tasks across devices, freeing you to focus on creativity instead of repetitive digital chores. Google reports a million-token context window in Gemini 1.5 Pro, giving the assistant enough memory to hold entire projects during a single conversation. This scale lets you share entire business plans, add supporting files, and receive nuanced guidance without losing conversational context. Gemini with its large context model unlocks richer human-machine interactions. It remembers recent screen activity through Chrome integration, summarising articles and flagging action items while you browse. A multimodal core interprets images, text, and code in one dialogue, enriching every AI recommendation with visual cues. The model links each suggestion to credible sources, fostering confidence and enabling immediate verification. These capabilities show how AI collaboration reduces context switching and sustains focus across complex, multi-step initiatives. Gemini can: Translate multilingual signage with instant overlays and spoken guidance; Diagnose mechanical issues as AI highlights misaligned components and recommends repair steps; Capture design inspiration when AI analyses colours, textures, and forms, storing them in organised mood boards; This immersive bridge between physical and digital spheres demonstrates the versatility of modern AI in augmenting human perception without additional hardware. Gemini tracks task completion rates, learns where delays occur, and refines subsequent suggestions, creating a feedback loop where AI continuously adapts to your evolving goals. An assistant grows more valuable when it adapts to niche workflows, so Google enables a skills marketplace where developers package domain expertise into easily installable conversational extensions. Finance teams may add plugins that analyse ledgers, highlight anomalies, and build executive dashboards through streamlined AI workflows. Health coaches can connect wearable sensors, enabling Gemini to recommend exercise routines aligned with biometric trends. Creative leads embed brand guidelines so the assistant drafts posts, scripts, and imagery consistent with approved styles. Strong partner enrolment through AI Studio and Vertex AI shows accelerating market momentum, keeping the core assistant lean while fostering limitless specialist capabilities.
Microsoft’s new open-source AI model create podcasts and other audio generates four distinct voices for up to 90 minutes; includes research only licensing and watermarking safeguards
Microsoft has released VibeVoice, a new open-source AI model that lets users create podcasts and other audio — a counter to Google’s popular NotebookLM. Microsoft’s text-to-speech model can generate four voices and up to 90 minutes of podcast-quality speech. NotebookLM can do two voices. Additionally, VibeVoice reads and organizes text while NotebookLM ingests documents and turns them into two-person podcasts. Users can also query and get document summaries, according to tech firm Hugging Face. That means VibeVoice doesn’t try to understand the text but rather performs it audibly, ostensibly to replace a recording studio. VibeVoice runs on 1.5 billion parameters, relatively small for a model capable of sustaining dialogue across multiple speakers. It was trained using Alibaba’s open-source Qwen2.5, a large language model that helps orchestrate natural turn-taking and contextually aware speech patterns during dialogues. Microsoft claims this means VibeVoice can produce fluid conversations among four voices and yet maintain each voice’s distinct characteristics, even in longer conversations. Potential research applications of VibeVoice include the following: Prototyping podcasts and training content: Creators could generate mock podcasts, panel discussions or training modules with multiple AI voices. Instead of hiring four voice actors to test dialogue flow, users can create a synthetic version in minutes using text. Accessibility and education: Educational material, textbooks or research papers could be turned into long-form audio with distinct narrators. This could help people who learn better by listening, or make dense material more engaging. Game and media development: Game developers or storytellers could use VibeVoice to prototype dialogue between characters. Because it handles four speakers, you can stage a full in-game conversation without recording sessions.
Phasecraft creates hardware‑agnostic, hybrid quantum‑classical algorithms that make today’s NISQ devices useful for materials, energy and logistics, not just future fault‑tolerant machines
Quantum algorithm company Phasecraft Ltd. has raised $34 million in new funding to accelerate its work to transform quantum computing’s theoretical promise into practical applications. Phasecraft focuses on making quantum computing useful sooner by bridging the gap between today’s noisy, intermediate-scale quantum devices and future large-scale systems. Differing from other firms that rely on the eventual arrival of fault-tolerant quantum computers, Phasecraft says, it’s developing ultra-efficient algorithms that allow current imperfect machines to deliver meaningful results in real-world settings. The company doesn’t focus on one platform or possible solution but instead takes a hardware-agnostic approach. Doing so, it says, delivers compatibility with multiple platforms and maximizes the chances of early commercial adoption. It works across different industries where quantum computing has the potential to deliver a measurable impact, such as materials discovery, chemistry, energy systems and logistics optimization. Phasecraft methodology — pairing quantum devices with classical computing — delivers hybrid solutions that can simulate complex materials, optimize energy grids and even tackle problems in biological research. The algorithms are already showing promise in making material simulations millions of times more efficient, which could accelerate the design of new solar cells, catalysts or medicines. Areas of exploration include drug discovery, where quantum simulations could shorten the process of understanding molecular interactions and energy resilience, where optimized networks could improve efficiency and sustainability.
SlashNext’s SEER uses cloud-hosted virtual browser environments to crawl and interact with suspicious web page URLs and pages at run time
Automated data security company Varonis Systems plans to acquire phishing protection company SlashNext Inc. for a reported $150 million. SlashNext’s technology offers what it calls SEER, for Session Emulation and Environment Reconnaissance. It uses cloud-hosted virtual browser environments to crawl and interact with suspicious web page URLs and pages at run time. The platform can observe multistage phishing flows, hidden redirects, credential-harvesting forms and other deceptive behaviors that static scanning often misses by executing pages inside safe, instrumented environments. The company also delivers protection via multiple enforcement and telemetry points, including real-time blocklists and Domain Name System Response Policy Zone, application programming interface and gateway integrations and threat intelligence feeds that feed Security Orchestration, Automation and Response and threat intelligence platforms. The multichannel delivery allows organizations to automatically stop newly created phishing sites and feed contextual evidence, such as screenshots, indicators and verdicts, into incident response workflows so triage can be faster and more accurate. SlashNext also emphasizes zero-hour detection and the ability to spot sophisticated social engineering, including targeted business email compromise, QR-code and multistep scams, by analyzing visual layout, message tone and behavioral indicators rather than relying solely on fuzzy string matches. With the acquisition Veronis plans to extend its data-centric threat detection capabilities with SlashNexts’ phishing and social engineering detection solutions.
Roblox restricts adult-minor contact by expanding selfie‑based facial age estimation to all users of voice and text chat, pairing it with ID checks and parental consent
Amid lawsuits alleging child safety concerns, online gaming service Roblox is expanding its age-estimation technology to all users and partnering with the International Age Rating Coalition (IARC) to provide age and content ratings for the games and apps on its platform. This involves scanning users’ selfies and analyzing facial features to estimate age. This age-estimation tech is combined with other systems, including ID age verification and verified parental consent, to provide a more accurate measure of a user’s age, Roblox says — especially when compared with simply having kids type in a birth year when they create an account. The company notes that it’s also planning to launch systems that will further limit communications between adults and minors on its platform. Meanwhile, the company’s partnership with IARC will see Roblox replacing its own content and maturity labels with those used by rating agencies worldwide. That means users in the U.S. will see ratings from the ESRB, while other countries will see those used by their own ratings authorities. Players in the Republic of Korea will see ratings from GRAC; players in Germany will see ratings from the USK; and players elsewhere in Europe and the United Kingdom will see ratings from the PEGI, for instance. This system is meant to help parents better understand what sort of games their kids are playing, based on factors that could raise concerns. Among its tools is Roblox Sentinel, an open source AI system designed to detect early signals of child endangerment. The company also offers parental controls, tools to restrict communications, and technology that detects when there are servers where a large number of users are breaking its rules, so it can take them down.
Seturion by Boerse Stuttgart unifies fragmented European tokenized asset settlement; supporting public/private blockchains and central bank money to reduce settlement cost by upto 90%
Boerse Stuttgart is rolling out Seturion, a pan-European, blockchain-based platform for the settlement of tokenized assets, within and across national borders. Available to banks, brokers, trading venues, and tokenization platforms, The German exchange says Seturion will make the settlement of transactions within any asset class significantly faster and more cost-efficient. The modular settlement solution supports tokenized assets on public and private blockchains as well as cash settlement against central bank money and on-chain cash. Successfully tested as part of the ECB blockchain trials with leading European banks, Seturion is already in use at BX Digital, the Finma regulated DLT trading facility in Switzerland. Boerse Stuttgart says all trading venues in Europe can connect to the settlement facility and make it available to market participants via their existing connections. Seturion’s leadership team will be headed by Dr. Lidia Kurt said, “With Seturion, market participants across Europe can tap into new business opportunities around tokenized assets. Our partners benefit from significant cost savings in settlement of up to 90 percent. We have been building our unique infrastructure for several years. With Seturion, we are now leveraging this infrastructure to scale across Europe.”
Amazon targets $488B online grocery market with integrated Prime delivery, leveraging subscription model to increase customer lifetime value and reduce cancellations
By focusing on groceries, Amazon is targeting a high-frequency purchase category that directly enhances the value proposition of its Prime membership. For Prime members, same-day grocery delivery is free on orders over $25, while smaller orders incur a $2.99 fee. (Non-Prime customers pay $12.99.) This pricing model undercuts competitors and is a tangible benefit that could strengthen loyalty among Prime members. In the bigger picture, groceries and everyday essentials are a core focus of Amazon’s strategy, representing a rapidly growing segment of its delivery business. Jamil Ghani, worldwide vice president of Amazon Prime, told that 2 billion of the 9 billion items delivered in 2024 were groceries and everyday essentials, a 50% increase over the previous year. This aggressive growth highlights the strategic importance of high-frequency purchases as a key driver for Prime membership. As Ghani said, “Our store is meant to be the everything and everyday store, and [Amazon’s] everyday essentials and grocery strategy is about really bolstering the credential on the ‘everyday’ part of it.” The underlying logic of Amazon’s Prime membership model has a clear precedent in the retail sector. The rationale is simple: Customers are less likely to cancel their subscriptions as membership value increases across multiple life needs. For Amazon, Prime’s expanding suite of lifestyle services represents a modern digital parallel. Besides free or low-cost grocery delivery, these benefits include streaming on Prime Video, free shipping on books and household goods and even discounts for healthcare. The Prime Rx prescription savings program offers Prime members discounts of up to 80% on generic medications and 40% on brand-name medications when paying without insurance. The RxPass subscription also offers unlimited eligible generic medicines for a flat monthly fee. Each of these retailers has used bundled value not simply as a retention tool, but as a driver of habitual use and increased customer lifetime value. This comes on top of outright savings: Amazon Prime members save an average of more than $500 annually on deliveries alone — another compelling reason to stay on Prime. This strategic bundling makes the Prime ecosystem an integral part of a customer’s life, creating a buffer against cancellation. This enables Amazon to reinforce the value of Prime membership while competing with e-commerce platforms such as Shopify, even at the potential cost of a direct sale on Amazon’s own e-commerce platform. According to Ghani, the service’s subscription revenue significantly contributes to the company’s investment pool to fund benefits. The company believes this reinvestment deepens member engagement across the entire ecosystem.
BBVA chooses Ripple’s Metaco‑born custody to run in‑house, MiCA‑compliant crypto services for retail clients in Spain, starting with bitcoin and ether trading and secure storage
Ripple is expanding its banking partnerships in Europe through a new agreement with BBVA in Spain. The deal will see BBVA integrate Ripple’s digital asset custody technology into its recently launched retail service for trading and holding bitcoin and ether. The move comes as European banks adapt to the Market in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regulation, which sets a framework for offering digital asset services across the EU. “Now that MiCA is established, the region’s banks are emboldened to launch the digital asset offerings that their customers are asking for,” said Cassie Craddock, Ripple’s managing director for Europe. Ripple Custody was born out of the blockchain firm’s acquisition of Swiss crypto custody specialist Metaco, which had signed up BBVA. Francisco Maroto, BBVA’s head of digital assets, said the integration allows the bank to “directly provide an end-to-end custody service” with the security customers expect from a major financial institution. The partnership extends Ripple’s prior work with BBVA, which already uses its custody technology in Switzerland and Turkey. For Ripple, Spain represents another foothold in Europe’s regulated digital asset market. Ripple holds more than 60 regulatory licenses globally. The deal signals a gradual shift in how traditional banks approach crypto. Instead of relying on third-party providers, institutions like BBVA are opting to build in-house services using established infrastructure providers.
As embedded payments commoditize, platforms shift to adjacencies—credit, fraud, liquidity and analytics—to expand ARPU and net revenue retention. Embedded payments is becoming commoditized, forcing firms to rethink how they capture value. The most promising answers to the question of where else platforms can turn to capture margin may lie in the adjacencies, services that are enabled by, but not limited to, payment rails. Each transaction creates a byproduct of data, trust and liquidity that can be harnessed for new, higher-margin offerings. Meanwhile, payments create liquidity flows that can be optimized. Platforms that manage funds in transit can capture spread by offering features like instant payouts, yield-bearing accounts or even cross-border treasury solutions. Perhaps the least glamorous but most sticky adjacency is data. Platforms that can analyze transaction flows to help merchants optimize pricing, forecast demand or identify churn risk can create defensible revenue streams beyond the margin of payment processing itself. Some platforms are becoming financial supermarkets, bundling a full suite of services from payments to lending to insurance. Others are doubling down on vertical specialization, offering tailored financial workflows for industries like healthcare or construction. A third path is infrastructure ownership, where platforms seek to build or control enough of the financial stack to capture margin that would otherwise leak to partners. The companies that could be most likely to sustain superior economics may be those that successfully layer higher-margin financial services onto their payments base. Industry observers have noted talk centered around “ARPU (average revenue per user) expansion through financial services” rather than “payments attach.” The market is shifting from excitement over gross payment volume to scrutiny of net revenue retention driven by adjacencies.
Embedded payments is becoming commoditized, forcing firms to rethink how they capture value. The most promising answers to the question of where else platforms can turn to capture margin may lie in the adjacencies, services that are enabled by, but not limited to, payment rails. Each transaction creates a byproduct of data, trust and liquidity that can be harnessed for new, higher-margin offerings. Meanwhile, payments create liquidity flows that can be optimized. Platforms that manage funds in transit can capture spread by offering features like instant payouts, yield-bearing accounts or even cross-border treasury solutions. Perhaps the least glamorous but most sticky adjacency is data. Platforms that can analyze transaction flows to help merchants optimize pricing, forecast demand or identify churn risk can create defensible revenue streams beyond the margin of payment processing itself. Some platforms are becoming financial supermarkets, bundling a full suite of services from payments to lending to insurance. Others are doubling down on vertical specialization, offering tailored financial workflows for industries like healthcare or construction. A third path is infrastructure ownership, where platforms seek to build or control enough of the financial stack to capture margin that would otherwise leak to partners. The companies that could be most likely to sustain superior economics may be those that successfully layer higher-margin financial services onto their payments base. Industry observers have noted talk centered around “ARPU (average revenue per user) expansion through financial services” rather than “payments attach.” The market is shifting from excitement over gross payment volume to scrutiny of net revenue retention driven by adjacencies.
Koah embeds native, context-aware ads directly inside AI chat flows and personalizes them based on historical conversation data and surfacing at the exact moment of user inquiry
Koah, the monetization platform for Gen AI chat apps, has announced its public launch after operating in stealth since January 2025, with $5+ million in seed funding. Koah is the first advertising platform designed specifically for conversational AI, offering GenAI businesses a powerful way to earn revenue by embedding contextual ads directly inside AI chat conversations. Powered by Forerunner, South Park Commons, and AppLovin cofounder Andrew Karam, Koah solves the gap by embedding native, context-aware ads directly inside AI chat flows. Personalized based on historical conversation data and LLMs, brands can surface their offerings at the exact moment of user inquiry. Koah provides a lightweight SDK that integrates in under a day, allowing developers to access an instant, scalable revenue stream without disrupting user experience. Early Gen AI chat app partners earned an average of $10,000 in their first 30 days with Koah. After six months in the market, Koah reached an audience of over 80 million through the company’s range of consumer AI publishers.