🔬 RESEARCH
📄 Source for Google launches Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS models with custom voice creation — blog.google
📄 Source for YouTube announces custom feeds and expanded AI features — blog.youtube
📊 BENCHMARKS & EVALS
- XPRIZE Wildfire teams detected fires in 10 minutes but failed to stop them
XPRIZE Wildfire finalists detected fires within 10 minutes but did not fully extinguish one.- The $11 million competition targeted firefighters and communities needing faster wildfire detection and response.
- Space-based teams had to detect fires across Australia within 10 minutes; autonomous teams had to detect and suppress a high-risk Alaska fire within 10 minutes.
- All three autonomous finalists detected the Alaska fire in under 10 minutes, but none fully extinguished it.
- SIRIUS Wildfire Alliance won $500,000 for detection, while Anduril won $1.2 million for autonomous response; neither grand prize was awarded.
- The trials showed rapid wildfire detection advancing faster than autonomous fire suppression.
💰 BUSINESS & FUNDING
- Enveda raises $311M at $2B valuation for AI drug trials
Enveda raised $311 million to advance AI-discovered drugs into clinical trials.- The funding supports Enveda, an AI biotech developing drugs from plants and microbes.
- Enveda raised a $311 million Series E led by Catalio Capital Management, with Iconiq participating.
- The round values Enveda at $2 billion, double its valuation from 12 months earlier.
- Enveda is testing candidates for severe skin conditions and maintaining weight loss after stopping GLP-1 drugs.
- The financing advances AI-discovered drug candidates into human clinical trials.
Sources 📎 Coverage: techcrunch.com · 👁 via TechCrunch AI