AI News Brief: AI PR startup Honeyjar uses AI to democratize top-tier PR judgment and experience, especially helping founders who have no idea where to start. The company was co-founded by CEO Michelle Masek and CCO Nadia Jamshidi, who both bring decades of PR experience spanning in-house comms and agency work, with Masek most recently serving as SVP of marketing and communications at Ev Williams’ VC firm Obvious Ventures.
AI news brief: Japanese electronics giant Omron recently announced it will acquire US industrial computer maker OnLogic for about $675 million, with the deal expected to close as early as January next year. OnLogic makes and sells industrial computer equipment used in factory environments. The acquisition is seen as a major step in Omron’s push into physical AI, integrating OnLogic’s industrial computer lineup to strengthen its sales footprint in control equipment and automation across the Americas.
AI news brief: Harvey, a US legal AI startup, plans to open an office in Japan in early 2027, marking its formal entry into the Japanese market. CEO and co-founder Winston Weinberg says the company will target major Japanese law firms and corporate legal departments as its primary customers.
AI news brief: On Monday, Meta launched two new AI models, Muse Wonder and Muse Wonder Full, which the company calls its strongest models yet and a step toward ‘personal superintelligence.’ The new models introduce two capabilities: Active Memory, which carries relevant information across different conversations, and…
AI News Brief: Omron is reportedly planning to acquire US computer maker OnLogic for about 100 billion yen (around $630.5 million), with the deal possibly closing as early as January next year. Nikkei reported the deal on Tuesday. OnLogic is a US company that primarily makes and sells industrial computers for factory environments. The acquisition is seen as part of Omron’s push into physical AI, and gives Omron more room to expand its control equipment sales footprint in the Americas.
AI News Brief: Harvey CEO and co-founder Winston Weinberg says the US legal AI giant plans to enter the Japanese market in early 2027, targeting major Japanese law firms and corporate legal departments. The move is expected to accelerate AI tool adoption among Japan’s legal industry and its corporate clients, while also potentially putting pressure on the current billable hour model…
AI news brief: Before FTX’s bankruptcy, Alameda Research spent over $1 billion to acquire a roughly 20% stake in Genesis Digital Assets, and now these crypto mining assets have been repurposed for AI compute. Investment firm SWI Group announced it completed roughly 800 million euros (about $900 million) in funding to expand its data center and AI compute capacity in Europe and the US, which includes the Genesis Digital Assets mining business once tied to FTX.
AI News Brief: Microsoft President Brad Smith publicly called for AI regulation to happen now in a recent BBC podcast, pointing out that even consumer products like milk and washing machines face more oversight than the companies building AI. He described AI as both a ‘weapon and a tool’ that’s putting global cybersecurity at risk, saying ’the time has come’ to establish global safety rules. Smith specifically named the UK, rather than the US or EU, as best positioned to lead on global AI safety rules.
AI news brief: Voice AI is pulling in massive investment, but industry executives say the category hasn’t had its ChatGPT moment yet. PolyAI CTO Shawn Wen said at HumanX that even though full-duplex models (which can listen and speak at the same time) now exist, voice AI still hasn’t hit a real breakthrough point. He thinks the next key challenge is making model inference dramatically faster.
AI news brief: Amazon recently followed Microsoft’s lead and announced it will no longer require NDAs when negotiating data center construction with local governments. The news appeared in a longer blog post arguing that data centers actually benefit communities. TechCrunch’s Equity podcast hosts Sean O’Kane and Rebecca Bellan discussed the topic with the article’s author.