
Prentis, a new AI research lab co-founded by serial entrepreneur Ritankar Das and tech heavyweights Reid Hoffman and Mark Pincus, is seeking $100 million in funding at a $1 billion valuation. The startup is developing AI agents to automate office tasks, such as handling insurance claims and customs duty exceptions, and has secured contracts worth up to $50 million. Prentis claims its Hive-32B model outperforms competitors on specific benchmarks but has not verified its results. The company is positioned to compete in a crowded market, with automating office tasks expected to surpass coding as AI's biggest use case.
Microsoft is simplifying Copilot by combining its consumer and business apps, and dropping AI-generated podcasts, Group Chats, Deep Research, and its Mico character.

Nvidia has a plan to make sure its GPUs won't lose value. It wants to convince a new crop of financiers to keep lending for AI buildouts.

The tech giant has considered a nine-figure budget for the payments, according to the WSJ.
