AI21 Labs Secures $155 Million in Funding to Advance Enterprise Generative AI


Amazon launched an upgraded AI assistant, Alexa+, which is now available in the Amazon Music app for early users. The new version supports conversational music discovery, increasing song exploration rate to three times that of the previous version, and boosting recommended playback by nearly 70%, showcasing the potential of generative AI to reshape music consumption and breaking past limitations of only performing basic commands.
At the Midea Group Visionaries Conference, Steve Zhou, co-founder of Zhiyuan Robots, predicted that artificial intelligence is rapidly moving toward general intelligence (AGI), which may be initially achieved after GPT-6. He reviewed the development of AI over the past decade, from the application of computer vision in 2015 to the emergence of an AGI prototype in 2025, highlighting the rapid progress.
AI technology is developing rapidly, and the gaming industry is undergoing changes. Generative AI brings new opportunities and challenges, and companies such as Microsoft and Amazon are adjusting resources to focus on AI applications. Game developers have different attitudes toward this, and the industry's future remains uncertain.
European AI company Mistral AI launches the full-stack production platform Mistral AI Studio, providing enterprises with secure, transparent, and scalable AI solutions. The platform integrates model deployment, monitoring, and optimization features, and is built on EU-based infrastructure to address data sovereignty and compliance challenges for multinational companies, enabling full-stack observability of AI decision-making.
Artificial intelligence startup Mercor has completed a $350 million funding round, led by Felicis with additional investments from Benchmark. The company was founded by three Thiel Fellows and has shifted its focus from recruitment decisions to hiring skilled talent for training AI models.