🪟 Microsoft juices Windows with new Copilot tricks
Voice wake word is finally in. Say “Hey Copilot” and your PC perks up - plus Copilot Vision is rolling out more widely so it can reason about whatever’s on your screen.
There’s a new (slightly testy) Copilot Actions feature that can book tables or groceries right from the desktop, with tight permissions so it doesn’t go feral. Gaming Copilot lands on Xbox Ally for in-game tips, which… could be handy, or annoying.
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🚗 Uber turns drivers into data-labelers
Uber is piloting “microtasks” in the driver app so couriers and drivers can earn a bit more by recording voice clips, snapping images, or uploading docs that train AI.
It’s a swing at Scale AI and Mechanical Turk, using Uber’s massive workforce as a just-in-time data engine. Pay is tiny per task - which, yes, is the awkward part.
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🏙️ New York outlaws AI rent collusion software
NY just became the first state to ban landlord price-fixing algorithms. Use them to set rents together and the law treats it like colluding - period.
RealPage and similar tools are in the crosshairs. Officials say algorithmic coordination distorted the market during a housing crunch… which tracks, uncomfortably.
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🎧 Spotify teams with big labels on ‘responsible’ AI
Sony, Universal, Warner, Merlin, Believe - all on board as Spotify spins up a generative AI research lab. What products, exactly? Vibes now, details later.
Principles include opt-in for artists and fair pay. Skeptics will note the platform’s messy history with AI slop, but hey, maybe this is a reset.
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🧰 Anthropic adds ‘Skills’ so Claude stops forgetting your job
“Skills” are little folders of instructions, scripts, and resources that Claude can load when relevant - Excel grunt work, brand rules, you name it.
It works across Claude.ai, Claude Code, the API, and the Agent SDK. Early users include Box, Rakuten, Canva. Less prompting, more doing… or so it seems.
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📰 Italian publishers ask watchdog to probe Google’s AI Overviews
FIEG filed a complaint saying AI Overviews kill traffic to news sites - a “traffic killer,” their words - and may breach the EU’s Digital Services Act.
Studies cited claim huge click drops; Google disputes the methods. Italy’s push dovetails with its own fresh AI rules, which is… timely.
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📚 Salesforce hit with author lawsuit over AI training data
Two novelists say Salesforce trained xGen on thousands of books without permission. The suit lands amid a wave of similar copyright fights across AI.
The kicker: plaintiffs quote Marc Benioff’s past digs at “stolen” data. It’s a neat legal judo move, if nothing else.
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