Much like Google, Microsoft is launching its own version of OpenClaw. Microsoft Scout is an always-on assistant that integrates into Microsoft 365 apps like Outlook, OneDrive, and Microsoft Teams, allowing businesses to assign a virtual assistant to employees to help with organizing calendars, expense reporting, email drafts, and much more.
Unlike Copilot that lives inside Microsoft 365 apps, Microsoft Scout can see and do a lot more. "This is a personal assistant, it's the first real personal assistant we've offered customers," explains Omar Shahine, corporate vice president of Microsoft Scout, in an interview with The Verge. "I think it's …
Read the full story at The Verge.
Google is launching a new feature for its Phone app that aims to protect you from AI impersonation scams. Now, when you receive a call from a scammer that appears to be coming from the same number as one of your contacts, Phone by Google will flag the call as suspicious so you can hang up.
In a post explaining the update, Google describes impersonation scams as a growing threat, with the FBI reporting that Americans lost over $893 million to scams using AI in 2025. To carry out the attack, scammers spoof one of your contacts' phone numbers and then use AI-powered tech to make their voice sound like a friend, family member, or authority figu …
Read the full story at The Verge.
As people increasingly refuse to answer calls from unknown numbers, scammers are shifting their tactics by spoofing trusted phone numbers and using AI deepfake technology to sound like authority figures, family members, or employers.
Microsoft just announced "Project Solara," a new OS designed for gadgets that run AI agents, at Build 2026. The company is calling it "a new platform built from the ground up to power agent-driven experiences." It's built on Android, not Windows.
Microsoft demonstrated two concept Project Solara devices at Build today: Desk concept and badge concept. The desk concept is an Amazon Echo Show-like device that unlocks with facial recognition and provides access to AI agents.
The badge concept is a wearable, the type of badge you'd typically use to access a work building. It has a camera and a fingerprint scanner, which can wake an AI agent wi …
Read the full story at The Verge.
Spark is Google’s new agentic answer for everything.
According to every product demo from the last four years, planning a trip is a killer use case for AI. Just tell it where you're going, they all promise, and your chatbot / agent / other buzzword will exhaustively search travel options, read up on all the fun things to do, check all the local hotspots, and offer you a fully fledged itinerary. So far, I've found this to work only in the most generic ways: If you want to do the six most obvious things in any city on planet Earth, AI has you covered, but that's about as far as it goes.
I had a very different experience using Spark, Google's new always-on AI agent. Spark is a hugely ambitious …
Read the full story at The Verge.
Alphabet has announced plans to raise $80 billion through a stock sale to fund AI infrastructure expansion, including a $10 billion tranche sold directly to Berkshire Hathaway. The Google parent said AI demand from enterprises and consumers is currently exceeding available supply, making the capital raise necessary to scale foundational compute capacity. CEO Sundar Pichai […]
One of largest equity fundraisings ever includes $10bn share sale to US investment group Berkshire Hathaway
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Google’s parent company Alphabet has said it plans to raise up to $80bn (£59bn) in equity to fund its vast artificial intelligence infrastructure investments, raising further questions over the economics of the AI boom.
The move, one of the largest equity fundraisings ever globally, includes a $10bn share sale to the US investment group Berkshire Hathaway, which was led until last year by the retired investment guru Warren Buffett for 60 years.
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