
Sandbar, a startup developing the private voice ring Stream, aims to avoid the AI hardware graveyard by focusing on human-centric design and user-friendliness. The company has raised $36 million in a Series A round, led by Adjacent and Kindred Ventures, and emphasizes that voice wearables must prioritize human control and social acceptability to succeed. Stream is designed as a push-to-talk device, offering a more natural interaction experience compared to always-on systems, and Sandbar's approach is influenced by its experience at CTRL-labs, where it built custom hardware to ensure quality and user experience.
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.
