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Innovation

Robots And AI Are Rewriting The Future Of Surgery

AI-powered surgical robots are transforming healthcare by enhancing precision, speeding training, addressing surgeon shortages, and paving the way toward autonomous surgery.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2025/09/24/robots-and-ai-are-rewriting-the-future-of-surgery/

New AI tool can predict a person’s risk of more than 1,000 diseases

Delphi-2M AI tool models human disease progression at scale & can predict a user’s personal risk of > 1000 diseases a decade in advance.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/sep/17/new-ai-tool-can-predict-a-persons-risk-of-more-than-1000-diseases-say-experts

Technology

Is Your Book in the Anthropic Settlement Class? Find Out and File a Claim

https://authorsguild.org/news/anthropic-settlement-search-works-list-and-file-a-claim/

Microsoft looks to build AI marketplace for publishers

Microsoft is developing a marketplace that would compensate publishers for their content used by AI products.

https://www.axios.com/2025/09/23/microsoft-ai-marketplace-publishers

AI “Actor” Tilly Norwood Is Young, Ambitious—and “the End of the Industry as We Know It”

Production studio Particle6 has introduced an AI-generated “actor” it hopes can rival real-life human movie stars

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/story/ai-actor-tilly-norwood-controversy-hollywood-reacts

OpenAI Launches Video Generator App to Rival TikTok and YouTube

OpenAI is squaring up to TikTok, Google’s YouTube and Meta with a new social-media app for its AI video generator that allows users to create high-definition video clips with audio from text prompts

https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/openai-launches-video-generator-app-to-rival-tiktok-and-youtube-21779c66

Meta to use AI chats to personalize content & ads starting in Dec.

Meta will use info from users’ AI chats to personalize content & ads across Facebook, Instagram, & other apps. Users will be notified of the change but won’t have the option to opt out.

https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/meta-use-ai-chats-personalize-content-ads-december-2025-10-01/

Meta launches ‘Vibes,’ a short-form video feed of AI slop

Meta has launched Vibes, a new feed in the Meta AI app for sharing and creating AI-generated videos

https://techcrunch.com/2025/09/25/meta-launches-vibes-a-short-form-video-feed-of-ai-slop/

Microsoft Photos will soon auto-categorize your pictures

Microsoft is testing an AI feature in Windows 11 Photos that auto-sorts receipts, screenshots, ID documents, and notes into folders.

https://www.theverge.com/news/786837/microsoft-photos-ai-auto-categorize-test

Microsoft is filling Teams with AI agents

Facilitator agents can join meetings to create agendas, take notes, answer questions, and even generate documents and tasks, while channel agents handle project updates and status reports from past conversations.

https://www.theverge.com/news/781278/microsoft-teams-copilot-ai-agents

OpenAI enables shopping directly from ChatGPT

You knew it was coming! Instant Checkout in ChatGPT allows US users to purchase directly from Etsy sellers, w Shopify merchants like Glossier & SKIMS coming soon. Merchants pay a small transaction fee.

https://www.axios.com/2025/09/29/openai-shopping-chatgpt

Why Amazon is extending its logistics muscle to competitors like Shein + Walmart

Amazon’s 3rd-party logistics service will expand to handle orders for Walmart, Shein & Shopify-Amazon’s most formidable competitors, as they all compete for the same merchants

https://www.modernretail.co/operations/marketplace-briefing-why-amazon-is-extending-its-logistics-muscle-to-competitors-like-shein-and-walmart/

Google is starting to launch real-time AI voice search

You can use Search Live to interact with an AI assistant using your voice and your phone’s camera.

https://www.theverge.com/news/784685/google-search-live-ai-voice-search-launch

Google Photos users on Android can edit their photos by talking to or texting the AI

By tapping “Help me edit,” users can request adjustments ranging from simple lighting fixes to removing objects, restoring old photos, or even adding creative AI elements

https://techcrunch.com/2025/09/23/google-photos-users-on-android-can-now-edit-their-photos-by-talking-to-or-texting-the-ai/

Neon, the #2 social app on Apple App Store, pays users to record their phone calls & sells data to AI firms

It promises up to $30/day, but terms grant sweeping rights over users’ recordings and data could be used for fraud/voice impersonation

https://techcrunch.com/2025/09/24/neon-the-no-2-social-app-on-the-apple-app-store-pays-users-to-record-their-phone-calls-and-sells-data-to-ai-firms/

Bain Technology Report 2025

HT @benedictevans AI leaders are extending their edge

https://www.bain.com/insights/topics/technology-report/

The Future of Professional Services: How firms will capture value in the AI agent era 

https://www.cbinsights.com/research/ai-agent-market-map/

Spotify Removes 75 Million “Spammy” Songs, Cracks Down on AI Use by “Bad Actors”

New spam filter detects mass uploads/dupes + adopting an industry standard for AI disclosures in music credits, allowing artists to indicate when + how AI was used in production.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/spotify-new-ai-policies-spam-filter-enforcement-1236379926/

Almost 1/3 of all music uploaded to streaming platform Deezer is AI-generated

> 30K “fully AI-generated tracks” are uploaded each day, up by almost 20% since Jan. Deezer is the only streaming service to explicitly tag AI-generated music.

https://mixmag.net/read/third-all-music-uploaded-deezer-ai-generated-news/

Gemini AI will help you play games on Google Play

It can analyze gameplay & provide tailored hints through voice interaction. The overlay also shows rewards, offers, and achievements, while Google expands Play Games to PC w over 200,000 titles available.

https://www.theverge.com/news/783132/android-gaming-gemini-ai-sidekick

Google DeepMind unveils new robotics AI model that can sort laundry

This is what we were hoping for!

https://www.ft.com/content/7843dfdb-7c60-46e7-a90a-dd54b7703f4a

Humanoid robots are Meta’s next ‘AR-size bet’

HT @benedictevans Meta is investing in humanoid robots, focusing on advanced AI software to power hardware made by others.

https://www.theverge.com/column/786759/humanoid-robots-meta

Publishing & Media

Five Copyright Office Resources You May Not Know Exist

HT @inkbitspixels

https://blogs.loc.gov/copyright/2025/09/five-copyright-office-resources-you-may-not-know-exist/

Yahoo nears deal to sell AOL to Italy’s Bending Spoons for $1.4 billion

https://www.reuters.com/world/yahoo-nears-deal-sell-aol-italys-bending-spoons-14-billion-sources-say-2025-10-01/

A society that stops reading stops thinking

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/10/02/reading-social-media-literacy-society/

PEN America warns of ‘rampant and common’ book bans across US

HT @publishingtrend

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/10/02/pen-america-report-book-bans/86468824007/

Resources & Opportunities

Banned Books, Brave Voices

Across the country, relentless book bans are reshaping classrooms and libraries. Titles exploring race, gender, sexuality, and history are often the first to go, leaving young readers without mirrors to see themselves—or windows into lives unlike their own. What is at stake is more than a bookshelf; it is the shaping of culture, democracy, and the imagination of future generations. Join Women’s Media Group for an urgent panel discussion on the freedom to read. Our expert panel will share insights into the fight against censorship and the power of literature to challenge and connect us. Together, we’ll explore how communities are mobilizing, what’s at stake for the next generation, and how each of us can play a part. Wednesday, October 8, 12:00 p.m. ET. Free for WMG members; Readers of my newsletter can attend at a discounted price of $10 – Pick registration type “WMG Partner” and use the code WMGPARTNERORG.

https://womensmediagroup.org/event-6354601

WMG New Member Social

Join WMG Co-Presidents Jodi Brockington and Jane Wesman for a virtual New Member Social, a fun and informal way for members to connect and get to know each other. You’ll have a chance to tell us about yourself and why you joined WMG, as well as learn about upcoming programs and benefits. Meet the other talented, high-energy women, all ready to assist one another in their professional endeavors, who make WMG such an extraordinary organization. This social is open to WMG members who have joined within the past year—and to other members who want to learn more about what WMG has to offer.

10/8 6-7pm ET virtual FREE, Members Only

https://womensmediagroup.org/event-6340101

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