📎 Microsoft Debuts Mico AI Avatar
Microsoft introduced Mico, a customizable AI assistant avatar for Copilot, evoking Clippy with a modern twist. It listens, reacts, and shifts colors—and even morphs into Clippy as an Easter egg. Initially voice-only and U.S.-led, Mico reflects Microsoft’s push for more human-like, trustworthy AI.

🎬 Sora Adds Pet Cameos, Editing Tools, Android Coming Soon
Sora, OpenAI’s AI video app, is adding tools to create cameos of pets and objects, basic video editing, and new social features. The updates will roll out in the next few days, with an Android version launching “soon.” Sora has seen ~2M downloads in under a month, despite being invite-only.

🛍️ Amazon’s AI Now Explains Its Picks
Amazon’s new “Help Me Decide” tool uses your browsing and purchase history to suggest products—and explains why they fit your needs. Available now in the U.S., it draws on AI models via AWS to personalize suggestions and boost shopper confidence.

🦾 China Surges Ahead in AI Hardware
At TED AI, Kai-Fu Lee said China is outpacing the U.S. in AI robotics and open-source models, while the U.S. leads in enterprise AI. Chinese firms like Unitree build cheaper, capable robots. VC funding is split: software in the U.S., hardware in China.

A technological triumph for its time. But here’s the wild part: the spacecraft’s guidance computer had less processing power than today’s average smartphone.

Stick around to learn more! 👇

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Cerebras opens the world’s fastest AI data center in Oklahoma—44 exaflops of compute built for speed, efficiency, and resilience, redefining AI infrastructure.

The Recap: Google researchers announced in Nature that their quantum computer ran a new algorithm, called Quantum Echoes, 13,000 times faster than a classical supercomputer on a comparable task. The algorithm is designed to accelerate fields like drug discovery and materials science by simulating complex molecular interactions more efficiently. While still experimental, the result signals meaningful progress toward practical quantum advantage in real-world scientific problems.

Highlights:

Forward Future Takeaways:
Google’s latest milestone pushes quantum computing closer to real-world utility, particularly in simulating quantum systems that underpin drug and materials discovery. While the field remains in early stages, practical speedups in critical scientific methods like NMR could validate the technology’s promise. The next frontier: proving quantum-enabled breakthroughs that are impossible with classical tools alone. → Read the full article here. (Paywall)

Amazon has developed smart glasses for its Delivery Associates (DAs) that overlay real-time navigation, delivery instructions, and hazard alerts directly in their line of sight. Designed with feedback from hundreds of drivers, the glasses reduce reliance on smartphones by enabling hands-free scanning, navigation, and proof-of-delivery capture.

The system uses AI-powered sensing and computer vision to guide drivers from their vans to customers' doorsteps. This innovation is part of Amazon’s broader $1.9 billion investment in its Delivery Service Partner program aimed at enhancing safety, efficiency, and the driver experience. → Read the full paper here.

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🤳 Snapchat Opens AI Lens to All: Snap's “Imagine Lens” now lets U.S. users generate images from text prompts for free, widening access amid rising AI competition from Meta and OpenAI.

💰 Uber Offers AI Tasks to Drivers: Uber will let U.S. drivers earn extra cash between rides by labeling data or recording audio—part of a growing gig economy behind training AI systems.

🛩️ Shield AI Unveils VTOL Stealth Drone: The new X-BAT is a jet-powered, autonomous fighter that takes off vertically, offering multirole flexibility and survivability without runways or tankers.

♻️ Redwood Raises $350M for Battery Recycling: Backed by Eclipse Ventures and NVIDIA, Redwood Materials will scale energy storage and critical material recovery as demand surges from AI and EV sectors.

🤝 Palantir Lands $200M AI Deal with Lumen: Lumen will spend over $200M using Palantir’s AI tools to modernize its network and launch enterprise services, aiming to cut $1B in costs by 2027.

Its Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) ran at an internal 1.024 MHz, roughly a few thousand times slower (by clock rate) than today’s ~2–3.8 GHz phone CPUs. The AGC had about 4 KB of erasable memory and ~70 KB of read-only “core rope” memory—hand-woven by Raytheon specialists nicknamed the “Little Old Ladies.”

Despite its tiny specs, the AGC’s real-time, priority-scheduled software proved remarkably robust: during Apollo 11’s descent, it shed low-priority tasks after 1201/1202 alarms and kept the landing on track. Its techniques helped pioneer modern real-time flight and spacecraft control systems.

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Matthew Berman & The Forward Future Team

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