Sources: Schneider Electric is in advanced talks to buy US engineering software firm PTC for ~$20B, its largest acquisition; a deal could come as soon as Monday — Acquisition would be French conglomerate's largest and enhance its products focused on manufacturers
Sources: Apple and Google pitch state bills with self-attested age checks and no private lawsuits; Meta backs ones making app stores, not platforms, verify ages — Google and Apple lobbyists are engaged in a massive effort to press state lawmakers to adopt kids' online safety laws …
Valley National Bancorp agrees to acquire New Jersey-based Bluevine, which provides digital banking and payments services for 175K SMBs in the US, for $340M — The acquisition will give the bank a digital small business platform while accelerating its technology and AI strategy.
Q&A with Brian Chesky on Airbnb's plans for agent-to-agent interactions, why chatbots fail at travel e-commerce, the need for an AI-native OS, and more — Airbnb rolled out its new AI-powered search this week as part of its fall update, a significant step for a company that has been slow and deliberate about AI.
Sources: AI czar Jay Clayton to chair the WH's AI task force, called “Super Intelligence Force”, to pen a report on AI's risks and opportunities within 120 days — The White House group will be led by Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton who will serve as AI czar
David Robinson, ex-OpenAI safety and policy: SV lacks a safety-centric culture; labs must study other fields' safety approaches; time for trial and error's over — What I'm about to tell you has, I realize, become something of a cliché: I resigned this week from OpenAI.
Memo: the US Army is creating an autonomous systems command, after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the Meridian and Agincourt robotic warfare projects — The U.S. Army is creating a new autonomous systems command and appointing an acquisition executive to prioritize buying …