AI This Week

Anthropic has rolled out a new voice mode for its Claude chatbot apps. The beta feature allows users to have full spoken conversations via Claude. It promises to make interactions more natural when users have busy hands but active minds. The feature supports English and offers five unique voice options that can be switched instantly with text mode. Users receive on-screen highlights along with a transcript and summary after every conversation. The technology is powered by Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet 4 model and counts against regular usage limits. Free users get around 20-30 voice chats per month while paid subscribers access extra Google Workspace integrations. Discussion continues about potential partnerships with Amazon and ElevenLabs.

Fannie Mae has announced a new partnership with Palantir to create a Crime Detection Unit targeting mortgage fraud. The alliance uses advanced artificial intelligence to analyze millions of data sets for suspicious transactions and promises to cut potential fraud losses. Fannie Mae leaders, including Chair William J. Pulte and President Priscilla Almodovar, detailed the plan at a press conference at the company’s D.C. headquarters. The initiative focuses on uncovering irregularities in multifamily loans, where previous fraud forced the GSE to set aside significant funds for credit losses. Palantir’s technology boasts rapid detection capabilities, reducing time from months to seconds. The full story is available at themortgagepoint.com. This move aims to protect the U.S. housing market and secure the future for homebuyers, lenders, and taxpayers.

Microsoft is introducing artificial intelligence enhancements to Paint, Snipping Tool, and Notepad for Windows 11 users. These updates include generative AI features and are rolling out to Windows Insiders on Canary and Dev builds, with some functions limited to Copilot+ PCs. Paint now allows users to design stickers with AI-generated prompts and offers Smart Object Selection for pinpointing elements in images. Snipping Tool upgrades include a “perfect screenshot” feature that edits automatically and a color identification tool providing HEX, RGB, and HSL values. Notepad’s new abilities enable AI-driven text creation and editing through simple menu commands. Together, these updates highlight Microsoft's push to integrate AI into everyday applications.

Cisco's latest research reveals a significant shift in customer service and support interactions. By 2028, agentic AI is expected to handle 68% of these interactions with technology vendors. The study, surveying nearly 8,000 global decision-makers, highlights the growing importance of AI-led customer experiences. Respondents anticipate benefits across the technology lifecycle, including improved IT productivity and cost savings. Despite AI's rise, 96% of customers still value human relationships in B2B tech partnerships. The research emphasizes the need for vendors to accelerate their agentic AI strategies to remain competitive.

Anthropic has launched its latest AI models, Claude Opus 4 and Claude Sonnet 4, showcasing significant advancements in autonomous coding and reasoning capabilities. Claude Opus 4 demonstrated the ability to code independently for nearly seven hours during testing, a substantial improvement over previous iterations. To address potential misuse, particularly in sensitive areas like bioweapons development, Anthropic implemented its AI Safety Level 3 (ASL-3) protocols, incorporating enhanced cybersecurity and prompt classifiers. Both models introduce features such as "thinking summaries" and an "extended thinking" mode, aiming to provide clearer reasoning insights and improved performance. This release positions Anthropic as a formidable competitor in the AI landscape, challenging offerings from OpenAI and Google.

Apple reportedly plans to open its on-device AI models, the core of Apple Intelligence, to third-party developers. This move, initially reported by Bloomberg, would give app creators access to Apple's smaller, local large language models through a software development kit. This new access will allow developers to integrate Apple's AI capabilities directly into their applications, a strategy similar to Google's approach with its Gemini Nano AI APIs for Android. While limited AI tools were previously available, this SDK offers deeper integration. The company is expected to announce this significant development during its Worldwide Developers Conference, starting June 9.

Leading AI companies like OpenAI, Google, and xAI are engaged in an intense competition for elite AI researchers, offering multi-million dollar compensation packages. The scarcity of top talent has led to creative hiring strategies and retention efforts. Some researchers are receiving bonuses of $1-2 million and equity increases of $20 million or more. Companies are also recruiting from diverse fields like theoretical physics and quantum computing. This talent war has intensified following recent high-profile departures from major AI labs.

Meta has postponed the release of its flagship AI model, Behemoth, originally slated for April 2025, now delayed to fall or later. Despite public claims of superiority over rivals, internal assessments reveal performance issues and training challenges. Engineers question whether the model's enhancements over previous versions justify a public launch. This delay raises concerns about Meta's substantial AI investments, with up to $72 billion in capital expenditures planned for the year. Internal tensions have surfaced, with executives reportedly blaming the Llama 4 team and considering management changes. The setback reflects broader industry challenges, as competitors like OpenAI and Anthropic also face delays in launching advanced models. Meta's stock fell 2.4% following the news.

TikTok has released AI Alive, a new tool that animates still photos for TikTok Stories, creating motion-filled video clips. This feature automatically transforms everyday images into dynamic visuals, adding sound and movement for a more engaging user experience. For example, a still photo of a sunset can evolve into a sweeping, cinematic video with atmospheric effects. Beyond its creative potential, the tool emphasizes safety by labeling AI-generated content and embedding metadata for transparency. AI Alive taps into advancing technology to explore new storytelling possibilities while aiming to maintain authenticity.

AI search startup Perplexity has skyrocketed to a $1.04 billion valuation after securing $62.7 million in new funding. The latest round, led by Daniel Gross and joined by investors including Jeff Bezos, Nvidia, and IVP, highlights growing interest in Perplexity’s real-time, answer-focused alternative to Google. With just 40 employees, the company is already generating millions in revenue and attracting 10 million monthly users. Perplexity’s AI offers cited answers with source links, distinguishing it from traditional search engines. The funds will be used to expand product development and scale operations. As the AI arms race intensifies, backers are betting on Perplexity to reshape how people find information online.