Financial Times:
Berlin-based Parloa, which develops AI customer service agents for Booking.com and others, raised $350M at a $3B valuation, taking its total raised to $560M+  —  Berlin-founded group raises $350mn as it looks to expand its AI customer service agents  —  Florian Müller in Frankfurt and Melissa Heikkilä in London

The paper clip problem always seemed too absurd to me. Also known as the paper clip maximizer, this is the thought experiment by philosopher Nick Bostrom that imagines how a superintelligent AI with the goal of maximizing paper clip production could end up destroying the world by directing all available resources to making paper clips.  […]

Sharon LaFraniere / New York Times:
Polymarket and Kalshi count Donald Trump Jr. as an adviser, and Trump Media plans to launch Truth Predict, raising ethical questions during Trump's second term  —  Traders in companies with ties to the president's eldest son can bet on the outcome of events the president affects.

OpenAI has launched ChatGPT Translate, a standalone web translation tool that supports over 50 languages and is positioned as a direct competitor to Google Translate. The two services look visually similar: both feature two text boxes - one for typing or pasting the source text and another that displays the translated results - alongside dropdown […]

Sara Ashley O'Brien / Wall Street Journal:
Self-help gurus like Tony Robbins, Gabby Bernstein, and Matthew Hussey are charging up to $99 per month to access AI chatbots that promise personalized advice  —  Self-help gurus like Matthew Hussey and Gabby Bernstein have expanded their empires with AI chatbots promising personalized advice