Should AI Chatbots Age? - DTNSB 5068

Microsoft’s CEO of AI seems to think so. Plus, Meta says no to political ads, and Samsung crushes a source of UI leaks.

Starring Tom Merritt and Huyen Tue Dao

TOM: This is the Daily Tech News for Friday, July 25, 2025. We tell you what you need to know, follow up on the context of those stories and help each other understand.

HUYEN: Today, Microsoft thinks chatbots should be more personal. And age?

I’m Tom Merritt,

I’m Huyen Tue Dao

TOM: Let’s start with what you need to know with the big story.

BIG STORY
SOLO story of the day. Basic details, monitor commentary and sound when possible.

Microsoft’s AI CEO thinks Copilot will age and ‘have a room that it lives in’ | The Verge
Microsoft's AI CEO says Copilot will age with a fixed persona | Windows Central
Copilot Labs: Discover experimental AI initiatives
The Future of Attention, Human Connection & the Internet with Mustafa Suleyman - The Colin and Samir Show | Podcast on Spotify

TOM: Microsoft’s AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman told the Colin & Samir Show this week that his team will launch a virtual character for the Copilot Digital Assistant. Part of that is the new Appearance feature that Microsoft previewed this week to select Copilot Labs users in Canada, the UK and US.

Appearance gives you a marshmallowy blob with a face to chat with. It can respond with expressions and has conversational memory.

This is similar to what Suleyman was working on at Inflection AI before its team joined Microsoft in March last year.

Suleyman said, “Copilot will certainly have a kind of permanent identity, a presence, and it will have a room that it lives in, and it will age. I’m really interested in this idea of digital patina. The things I love in my world are the things that are a little bit worn or rubbed down and have scuff marks. Unfortunately, in the digital world, we don’t have a sense of age.“

Huyen, do you want your chatbots to age?

DISCUSS

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TOM: There’s more we need to know today, let’s get to the briefs.

BRIEFS
3‑9 more solo reads with sound to complete the day in tech news. These are informational with minor commentary. They do not need to include stories that could be done another day in follow ups. Just the essentials of the day Should include sound where possible.

Intel (INTC) earnings report Q2 2025
Intel beats on Q2 revenue, plans to cut 15% of workforce, cancels factory plans
Intel's foundry future depends on securing a customer for next-gen chipmaking tech | Reuters

HUYEN: Intel reported Q2 revenue that beat expectations, and has completed the majority of its planned layoffs, ending the year with 75,000 employees. CEO Lip‑Bu Tan also announced it will cancel factory construction in Germany and Poland, slow down construction of a factory in Ohio, and consolidate testing and assembly operations in Vietnam and Malaysia. As for cutting‑edge chip development, Tan said, "Going forward, our investment in Intel 14A will be based on confirmed customer commitments," and it would consider pausing or canceling 14A if it doesn't get a significant customer for it.

Meta to stop selling political ads in the EU from October | TechCrunch
Ending Political, Electoral and Social Issue Advertising in the EU in Response to Incoming European Regulation

TOM: Last year, the European Commission adopted the Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising law, which requires companies that sell ads to label political advertisements, provide information about who paid for them, information about the election or referendum they are about, how much the ad cost, and what targeting mechanisms were used.

It also requires users to give explicit consent for using personal data to target them with political ads, and forbids using race, ethnicity or political opinion from being used to target.

Meta says the TTPA "places extensive restrictions on ad targeting and delivery, which would restrict how political and social issue advertisers can reach their audiences and lead to people seeing less relevant ads on our platforms." As a result, Meta has joined Google, saying that it will stop selling and, therefore, running political ads in the European Union starting in October.

Google is testing a vibe-coding app called Opal | TechCrunch

HUYEN: Google is testing a Cursor-like coding assistant called Opal. US users can try it in Google Labs. Users can create web apps by using text prompts to describe the app or mix existing apps from a gallery. Once the app is ready, you can use an editor panel to look at which internal prompt dictated each step and edit as necessary. You can also manually add steps. Finally, you can publish the app on the web and share the link with others. You could describe it as a more visual version of Google's AI Studio.

OpenAI prepares GPT‑5 launch for August 2025, sources say
OpenAI’s GPT-5 Shines in Coding Tasks — The Information
Sam Altman on AGI, GPT-5, and what’s next — the OpenAI Podcast Ep. 1 - YouTube

TOM: Axios and The Verge are both reporting that GPT-5 will release in August. On June 18, Sam Altman told Andrew Mayne on the official OpenAI podcast earlier that GPT-5 would come out this summer:

Andrew Mayne: What is the time frame for GPT‑five? When are we gonna see this?
Sam Altman: Probably sometime this summer.

July is almost over, so this seems unsurprising. The Verge's sources say GPT‑5 will launch with mini and nano versions. Whenever it gets here, The Information's sources say GPT‑5 outperforms Claude Sonnet 4 in practical software and engineering tasks.

Apple releases public betas of its new software updates with Liquid Glass | The Verge
Apple releases public preview of iOS 26 for the iPhone
Apple broadens App Store's age rating system | TechCrunch

HUYEN: Here's a bit of Apple news that Tom thought would be funny if one of the cohosts of Android Faithful told you about.

Apple officially released the public betas of iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS Tahoe 26, watchOS 26, and tvOS 26. Public betas can be accessed from the device and don't require you to have a developer's account. Everything gets Liquid Glass. The Mac gets more powerful spotlight and shortcuts. iOS gets a camera redesign and call filtering. And iPadOS gets smarter shortcuts, an improved Files app, and a new windowing system.

Apple also updated its App Store age rating system to add 13+, 16+, and 18+ ratings to the existing 4+ and 9+ ratings and take out the 12+ and 17+ ratings. Developers will also need to answer more age rating questions. Product listings will have more info to help parents decide which apps are appropriate for their children.

Internet Archive is now an official US government document library

TOM: The Internet Archive at Archive.org has been granted US federal depository status, making it part of the 1,100 libraries that provide public access to government documents. Each member of Congress can designate up to two libraries to provide public access to government information like budgets, a code of federal regulations, presidential documents, economic reports, and census data. Archive.org already includes these documents, but this will improve its access.

Google partners with Italy's Energy Dome on zero-emission power supply
Inside Energy Dome’s energy-storage-as-a-service plans | Latitude Media

HUYEN: Another in the parade of tech companies striking deals with energy companies; Italy's Energy Dome company said Friday it will supply carbon-free energy to grids that power Google's operations. Energy Dome makes a battery that can store energy by compressing and liquefying carbon dioxide. It has a commercial plant in Sardinia that will supply energy to France's Engie power utility this year.

Lyft Plans to Launch Benteler Autonomous Shuttles in US in 2026 - Bloomberg

TOM: Lyft will partner with Austria's Benteler group to deploy its Holon autonomous shuttles in the US by the end of next year. Benteler's shuttles do not need steering wheels, pedals, or windshields. They'll be used in conjunction with airports and for city-run transportation routes. Lyft also has a partnership with Max Mobility for autonomous car service in Atlanta, coming later this year. Uber also offers an autonomous ride service with WeRide in Abu Dhabi and Waymo in several US cities.

Samsung puts an end to early One UI leaks - SamMobile
Samsung Pushes for Diverse AI Agents in Galaxy Mobile Devices - Bloomberg
Exynos 2600 Spotted In Latest Benchmark Leak, Revealing A 10-Core Cluster With All Performance Cores, Low Single-Core & Multi-Core Scores Indicate The SoC’s Early Testing Phase

HUYEN: And to balance out the Apple news, here's some Samsung news. Samsung has closed a loophole in developer code that leaked One UI firmware that was in development. Basically, you could access Samsung's internal test servers used to seed software updates and download anything. Which is fine unless you don't want folks to see that stuff. Samsung made a change, and now you can only get the publicly released firmware files, including betas, from those servers.

Some benchmarks spotted Samsung's Exynos 2600, implying it is a 10-core cluster of performance cores. Samsung reportedly began mass production of the mobile chip on a 2nm process in June.

And Samsung's president and chief operating officer of its mobile division says the company is in talks with OpenAI, Perplexity, and others to provide AI services for its Galaxy devices. The idea is to give options beyond Gemini.

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HELPING EACH OTHER UNDERSTAND
This is the mailbag/ special contributions segments. Should be short missives from people with experience. Could be written email or pre-recorded from the person.

HUYEN: We end every episode of DTNS with some shared wisdom. Today Samuel has some thoughts on the recording device from Bee. If you recall, Amazon just agreed to buy the company.

TOM: Samuel writes:

Hey there DTNS crew,

Weighing in with my thoughts on the Bee story. I am an early adopter of the Bee device and have absolutely loved it. As someone with brain damage from epilepsy, it was an amazing tool to help me take notes on everything from college courses to tabletop RPG sessions. I even used it to help me make shownotes for my podcasts. The users expectation was that after we were done testing the device we were probably going to have to start paying a monthly subscription for all the API use and we were willing to do so. Just hope Amazon doesn't kill it off as it will be very difficult for me to replace how useful this thing has been.

Keep up the amazing work!
– Samuel

DISCUSS

HUYEN: What are you thinking about? Got some insight into a story? Share it with us feedback@dailytechnewsshow.com

TOM: Thanks to Samuel for contributing to today’s show. And thank YOU for being along for Daily Tech News Show. You can keep us in business by becoming a patron, atPatreon.com/dtns