Google announces collaboration with The Associated Press to develop a real-time information feed for its Gemini chatbot. This partnership joins a growing trend of AI companies forming alliances with news organizations, including OpenAI's deals with major publishers. Despite these partnerships, studies show AI chatbots still struggle with accurate news quotation.

Global smartphone sales grew 4-7% in 2024 after two years of decline, with Apple and Samsung maintaining market leadership. Xiaomi secured third place with 14% market share, showing the strongest growth among major manufacturers. AI features replaced foldable screens as the primary innovation driver, with predictions suggesting 90% of smartphones above $250 will include generative AI by 2028.

A Vellum survey of 1,250 AI developers shows only 25% of enterprises have deployed AI to production, with most still in early development stages. While engineering leads AI projects, involvement spans across leadership, product teams, and design departments. OpenAI remains dominant, but companies increasingly adopt multi-model systems and face challenges with hallucinations and technical expertise.

Maki has secured $28.6M Series A funding led by Blossom Capital for its AI-powered recruitment platform. The company's conversational agents conduct interviews, assess skills, and streamline hiring processes, reducing time-to-hire by 3x. Major clients like H&M and BNP Paribas report improved candidate experiences and reduced bias in recruitment.

Carnegie Mellon researchers launched Rockfish, a startup using generative AI to create synthetic data for enterprise operational workflows. The company has secured $4 million in seed funding led by Emergent Ventures, bringing total funding to $6 million. Rockfish differentiates itself by focusing on continuous operational data generation for financial transactions, cybersecurity, and supply chains.