TechCapsules

Fractile, a UK AI‑chip startup, secured a $720 million Series C led by Thrive Capital, Founders Fund, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Redpoint, with backing from Britain’s Sovereign AI Fund. The investment values the company at over £5 billion ($7 billion). Fractile differentiates itself with a full‑stack approach that combines purpose‑built chips featuring stacked DRAM and a machine‑learning compiler to accelerate large‑language‑model inference. The funding will support the launch of its first chips and systems next year, positioning Fractile among the top‑funded [...]

CD Projekt Red is employing the AI voice‑modulation tool Respeecher to restore Polish voice actor Jacek Rozenek’s Geralt lines for the upcoming Witcher 3 expansion, Songs of the Past. Rozenek suffered a stroke in 2019 that altered his voice, making new recordings incompatible with the original 2014 material. The studio trained Respeecher on Rozenek’s earlier lines, spending dozens of hours refining the model to match his former timbre. Rozenek approved the use, and the company emphasized that AI will [...]

Samsung is reportedly testing a subscription model for its upcoming Galaxy AI suite, which would place features such as Bixby Action, Daily Briefing and Gen Video behind a paywall. The leak emerged early this week and sparked debate among Galaxy owners, many of whom argue that AI tools should be included with the device purchase. While Samsung says core utilities like Now Brief, Browsing Assist and Keyboard enhancements will stay free, users on Reddit expressed confusion about [...]

Google rolled out Gemini Live to Apple CarPlay worldwide, letting drivers start or resume AI‑driven conversations directly from the CarPlay interface. By tapping a new Gemini icon on the display or side rail, users can ask the model to summarize unread Gmail messages, check upcoming Google Calendar events, suggest restaurants, or explain local landmarks. The system syncs chats with the Gemini iPhone app, so conversations can be revisited after parking. Gemini Live supports every language the service offers [...]

Nothing announced a forthcoming screenless AI device, unveiling a teaser on X that shows a curved, metallic gadget with two glowing LEDs and a central red‑circular button. CEO Carl Pei described it as “context doesn’t live in a chat box,” hinting the device will rely on voice interaction rather than a display. The teaser, posted on November 11, suggests the product will launch in December and may connect to a phone via Bluetooth. Nothing has previously prioritized AI over [...]

Google is rolling out a new Google Home update that adds features to Gemini for Home and fixes Nest camera bugs. Gemini now asks clarifying follow‑up questions when multiple devices match a command, shows contextual images on Nest Hub displays, and delivers faster timer, alarm and sleep responses while allowing users to edit voice input before sending. The Google Home app update resolves live‑streaming and stability problems for first‑generation Nest Cam Indoor, Nest Cam Outdoor, wired Nest [...]

Q-CTRL’s Boulder Opal platform has achieved fully autonomous, cold‑start bring‑up and gate calibration on QuantWare’s D‑Line superconducting quantum processors. In a demonstration on a 21‑qubit QuantWare Contralto‑D21 device, the physics‑informed AI state machine tuned five‑qubit feedline blocks from an uncalibrated condition to gate fidelities suitable for operation in under three hours, without any specialist intervention. The system addresses a major scaling bottleneck: dozens of interdependent control parameters—such as TWPA biases, qubit drive frequencies and flux pulses—must be [...]

Google has begun rolling out a new Google Home update that addresses several long‑standing issues and adds new features across its smart‑home ecosystem. The update fixes the “Live View” problem that prevented some Nest Cam devices, including Nest Hello doorbells, from streaming video, and allows users to remove offline, unmigrated cameras from the Home app. On Nest Hub smart displays, visual answers now include relevant images when helpful, enhancing on‑screen information. Early‑access Gemini users receive faster timers, [...]