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Welcome to today’s AI Boost!
We've got some massive AI news today with Microsoft revolutionizing spreadsheets by embedding AI directly into Excel cells, OpenAI pursuing a historic $500 billion valuation through employee stock sales, and major companies launching comprehensive AI-powered productivity platforms. Plus, we're seeing fascinating developments in AI hiring practices and significant organizational changes at tech giants. Here's what's happening in the AI world today.
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1. Microsoft Puts AI Directly Into Excel Cells
Microsoft launched a new COPILOT function that embeds AI directly into Excel cells, letting users analyze data with natural language prompts like =COPILOT("What is the sentiment in cell A2?"). The function can summarize feedback, categorize data, and generate insights that automatically update when underlying data changes. It works with other Excel functions and is rolling out to Beta Channel users with Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses.
2. OpenAI Eyes $500B Stock Sale in Secondary Market
OpenAI is selling around $6 billion in employee stock through a secondary sale that would value the company at $500 billion, jumping from its $300 billion valuation months ago. The shares go to investors including SoftBank and Thrive Capital as OpenAI's revenue hits $13 billion annually and projects $20 billion by year-end. ChatGPT is set to reach 700 million weekly users, up from 500 million in March.
3. Adobe Launches AI-Powered Work Studio
Adobe unveiled Acrobat Studio, combining PDF tools with content creation and personalized AI assistants powered by agentic technology. The platform features PDF Spaces where users bring together documents and web links into conversational hubs to chat with content and generate insights. It includes Adobe Express Premium tools for creating professional content and can be shared with colleagues along with personalized AI assistants.
4. AI Crawler Firecrawl Raises $14.5M, Still Seeking AI Employees
Firecrawl, an open-source web crawler for AI agents, raised $14.5 million led by Nexus Venture Partners with Shopify CEO Tobias Lütke participating. The company serves 350,000 developers and claims profitability, but remains famous for trying to hire AI agents as employees. After offering $15,000 then $1 million for AI agent employees, they're now seeking an AI chief of staff to manage the hiring process.
5. Meta's AI Voice Translation Goes Global
Meta rolled out AI voice translation for Reels globally, allowing creators to translate their voice with optional lip-syncing using generative AI. At launch it only supports English to Spanish translation, restricted to Facebook creators with 1,000+ followers or public Instagram accounts. The tool trains on the original voice to match tone and includes performance tracking by language to help creators expand their audiences.
6. Meta Restructures AI Division Into "Superintelligence Labs"
Meta restructured its AI organization into "Meta Superintelligence Labs" with four new groups, led by Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang who joined as chief AI officer. The centerpiece is TBD Labs focusing on foundation models like Llama, alongside groups for research, product integration, and infrastructure. This marks Meta's fourth AI reorganization as it tries to compete with OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google DeepMind in the race toward superintelligence.
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