Personal Tech — Friday, September 25, 2026

Microsoft Copilot overhaul (Sept 25)

• "Code" tool builds apps/dashboards from natural language (same tech as GitHub Copilot), early access end of month
• "Autopilot" always-on agent (Scout revamp from June) with its own company-directory identity and user-controlled permissions, private preview end of month
• Word/Excel/PowerPoint embedded directly in Copilot
• cost-management features for AI usage
• Annie Pearl (CVP Copilot Product) quote on enterprise security/compliance/governance.

Google Project Suncatcher (confirmed Sept 24)

• prototype satellite with Google TPUs launches October 1 aboard SpaceX Falcon 9
• tests launch resilience, radiation tolerance, thermal management
• pitch = orbit as answer to AI data center power problem (grids strained Virginia to Ireland)
• bigger satellite trials in 2027.

Agentic commerce wave (Sept 24)

• AudioEye — AI agents completed 31% of tasks on least-accessible site vs 96% on accessible version
• NielsenIQ Agentic Commerce Tracker — 51% of US consumers used an AI shopping tool in past month (20% product recs, 16% personal assistants), up from 42% in May
• Adobe brings Photoshop/Lightroom/Express/Firefly into Google Gemini, Acrobat into Claude plugin
• Meta AI Charm (palm-sized, Tamagotchi-like, internal 5G, 2-inch screen, shelves by December) + Shopify partnership for agent checkout
• Amazon blocked AI from shopping on its site
• AI topped US app-download rankings.

Funding roundup

• Bessemer Venture Partners closes $5.75B fund (Sept 24, seed-to-growth, Anthropic/Perplexity backer)
• Precision Neuroscience $250M (Sept 25, Neuralink alum, non-penetrating brain-computer interface)
• Numeral $100M (Sept 24, AI sales-tax accountant)
• Mirendil (ex-Anthropic duo) in talks for $5B valuation three months after $1B seed, still no product.

NYC Council AI bills (Sept 25)

• mandatory third-party validation to market/sell/deploy AI in the five boroughs
• kill switches (human override)
• $25,000 fine per offense
• first-in-nation whistleblower cash rewards from collected fines
• Zuckerberg and Altman requested at October 5 hearing
• Altman spoke at UN Security Council AI meeting Sept 23.

Markets

• US equity funds $37.6B net inflow, first in five weeks (LSEG Lipper), largest since June 17
• tech funds $4.89B (biggest since July 29) on AI app-chart momentum
• Nscale IPO filing at ~$30B valuation vs $14.6B March round — $1.02B net loss on $140.6M revenue (six months to June 30)
• 30-year Treasury yield hit 22-year high 5.5016% on Fed tightening expectations.

Rapid-fire

• Xiaomi 18 Pro / Pro Max launched in China (secondary rear displays, Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6, India/global teased)
• Google Chrome student features (Gemini in Chrome works with podcasts/videos/lectures, quiz generation from open tabs)
• Q.ANT launches open-source SDK for photonic computing (Python/C, compute with light).

Listen on Spotify ↗