Industry

Just Like Me, a Southern California–based tech company, now offers users the ability to join video calls with an AI-generated avatar of Jesus Christ, charging $1.99 per minute or offering a $49.99 monthly package. The avatar, inspired by Jonathan Roumie’s portrayal in The Chosen and trained on the King James Bible and sermons, delivers spiritual companionship—though critics question the ethics of monetizing faith.

Tesla has officially taped out its next-generation AI5 inference chip, claiming up to 40× performance gains over AI4. The chip, produced by both TSMC and Samsung, is expected to enter small-scale production in late 2026, with volume ramping in mid‑2027. AI5 will power Tesla’s Full Self‑Driving, Optimus robots, and potentially xAI data centers.

TruGen AI has launched its AI Teammates platform, marking a shift from passive AI assistants to active, human-like collaborators that participate in meetings, execute complex workflows, and build institutional memory over time.

Anthony Pompliano’s ProCap Financial has unveiled a fully AI‑generated podcast aimed at democratizing access to market research for retail investors, marking a notable shift in how financial insights are produced and consumed.

Allbirds, the eco‑friendly shoe brand, has announced a dramatic strategic shift: selling its footwear assets, securing $50 million in convertible financing, and rebranding as NewBird AI to become a GPU‑as‑a‑Service provider.

NVIDIA today introduced AI LaunchPad, a turnkey hybrid‑cloud infrastructure program delivered through Equinix, enabling enterprises to deploy NVIDIA‑powered AI stacks—from training to edge deployment—in minutes.

A generative AI version of the late Val Kilmer will posthumously appear in the indie film “As Deep as the Grave,” with full cooperation from his estate and children, marking one of the boldest uses of AI in filmmaking to date.

Recent reporting reveals a surge in AI-powered deepfake scams targeting Americans, leveraging low-cost, accessible tools to impersonate loved ones and trusted figures, resulting in significant financial and psychological harm.

South Africa’s long-anticipated Draft National AI Policy has formally entered the Cabinet approval process and is expected to be gazetted for a 60‑day public consultation imminently, marking a shift from principle to implementation in AI governance.

Equinix today launched Fabric Intelligence™, an AI-native operational layer that automates and optimizes global network infrastructure to support distributed AI workloads across clouds, data centers, and edge environments.