AI News & Funding: ChatGPT Shopping, Figma AI, DeepMind Drug Discovery & More

Major AI Platform Updates

• 🛒 OpenAI is rolling out native shopping in ChatGPT, powered by Shopify, allowing users to browse and purchase products directly within the chatbot interface.
• 📈 ChatGPT's web-powered search feature in Europe grew significantly, nearing the 45 million user threshold that would trigger "very large online platform" status under the EU's Digital Services Act.
• 🎨 Figma is enhancing its platform with AI-assisted design features, enabling users to generate apps from text prompts or uploaded files using Anthropic's Claude Sonnet model, and launched Figma Sites for responsive website creation.
• 🤖 ByteDance's Trae IDE introduced "@Agent," customizable AI coding assistants with rule-based preferences and deeper chat integration, currently free on macOS and Windows.

AI in Industry & Innovation

• 💊 Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis predicts AI could accelerate drug discovery to the point of eliminating diseases within a decade, while cautioning on risks and emphasizing ethical frameworks.
• 🚁 ideaForge Technology deployed thermal-imaging drones for wildlife rescue, successfully locating and relocating a leopard, leading to plans for permanent drone surveillance.
• 📞 Lace AI secured $19 million to use AI for analyzing 100% of incoming calls for home-service companies, identifying missed leads and boosting conversion rates.
• 🚗 Rivian appointed Aidan Gomez, CEO of AI firm Cohere, to its board, aiming to bolster its in-house AI assistant development and software partnership with Volkswagen.

Funding & Hardware Developments

• 💰 Manychat, a messaging automation platform, raised $140 million in Series B funding to deepen AI integration and expand globally, serving 1.5 million businesses.
• 💻 Adaptive Computer raised $7 million in seed funding for its no-code web-app platform, which allows non-programmers to build full-featured software from text prompts.
• 🇨🇳 Huawei plans mass shipments of its Ascend 910C AI chip to Chinese customers, providing a domestic alternative to NVIDIA chips restricted by U.S. export controls.
• 📡 Bharti Airtel and its subsidiary are acquiring 400 MHz of 5G spectrum from Adani Data Networks across six circles to expand urban 5G capacity, pending regulatory clearance.

Ethical Considerations & Future Outlook

• 🎤 Nari Labs released Dia, a 1.6 billion-parameter AI model that generates customizable podcast-style audio clips with voice cloning and nonverbal cues, runnable on consumer PCs.
• 🎭 Character.AI is rolling out AvatarFX for generating animated videos from text prompts and images, including real-person photos, raising deepfake concerns despite company safeguards.
• ⚖️ Perplexity testified in the DOJ's antitrust suit against Google, advocating for open user choice in search defaults rather than breaking up Google.
• ⚠️ The crowdsourced model-comparison platform Chatbot Arena faces scrutiny over unclear metrics and potential marketing misuse, prompting calls for more rigorous benchmarks and ethical safeguards.
• 💡 Entrepreneur Kunal Shaw highlighted that many users, especially in India, use ChatGPT for entertainment, encouraging a focus on practical applications and valuing time.