2026-08-07
The team behind Paddington 2 could’ve made a Star Wars droid movie
Paul King and Simon Farnaby, the directing and writing team behind Paddington 2, were approached by Lucasfilm to make a Star Wars film. The pair pitched a story centered entirely on a droid, with none of the franchise’s established characters. It did not happen. Farnaby revealed the project in a Variety interview promoting his latest […]<br /> This story continues at The Next Web [...]
2026-08-07
Disney+ and ESPN are testing AI-powered search that lets users describe what they want in plain language
Disney is testing AI-powered search inside both ESPN and Disney+, the company announced on Wednesday. ESPN Search lets a small group of users ask sports questions in natural language and receive answers, stats, related content, and recommendations drawn from decades of ESPN’s articles, videos, research data, and internal knowledge repositories. On Disney+, a separate beta […]<br /> This [...]
2026-08-07
NavVis raised €73.7M to build the spatial data layer that factories need before they can deploy AI
NavVis, a Munich-based spatial twin platform, raised €73.7 million ($85 million) in a Series D round led by US private equity firm The Jordan Company. Existing investors Yttrium, KOZO KEIKAKU ENGINEERING, and Cipio Partners also participated. The company, a 2013 spin-off from the Technical University of Munich, builds photorealistic digital replicas of factories, plants, and […]<br /> Th [...]
2026-08-07
Bill Ackman agrees with Jeff Bezos: the best way to help the world is to build something that works
Bill Ackman has spent close to $1 billion on philanthropy over two decades and concluded that capitalism is better at solving problems. “I’ve spent a fair amount of time on philanthropy, and it’s vastly less efficient at solving problems than capitalism,” the Pershing Square founder told Fortune. “You create far more jobs through capitalism than […]<br /> This story continues at [...]
2026-08-07
Quote of the day by US President Dwight D Eisenhower: 'Public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite' — foreshadowing Silicon Valley's global domination
The internet boom gave rise to a cabal of technology companies that have grown to dominate how much of the world runs [...]
