Ever craved an AI chatbot that feels less like a text box and more like a mini-movie playing at your fingertips? If you’re looking for juicy roleplay, uncensored freedom, and video mixed into your chat—you’re in for a treat. I’ve been poking around these tools, asking questions out loud, getting feedback mid-conversation, and sometimes getting

When you sit down with a friend, you don’t have to remind them of your name, your favorite food, or that inside joke from last month. They just know. That’s memory at work. And when a chatbot can pull off the same trick—remembering little details, recalling shared experiences, and weaving them back into your conversations—it

To perform tasks as well as a human, AI agents need context — something that has been lacking in many systems to date, according to Databricks. It hopes to fill that gap with a new acquisition, that of San Francisco-based machine learning startup Tecton. Databricks intends to use Tecton’s technology in its Agent Bricks offering to

AI pipelines are transforming how enterprises handle data, but they’re also prime targets for security risks. In “Designing a metadata-driven ETL framework with Azure ADF,” I showed how metadata can streamline data integration with Azure Data Factory (ADF). With AI now at the forefront, securing these pipelines — data, models and all — is critical.

The newly released Visual Studio Code 1.103, also known as the July 2025 version of Microsoft’s Visual Studio Code editor, adds the ability to configure auto-start behavior for Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers. Announced August 7, VS Code 1.103 can be downloaded for Windows, Linux, and Mac from visualstudio.com. For MCP, a standard protocol that allows

Drawing on key insights from the paper “AI Risk Atlas: Taxonomy and Tools for Navigating AI Risks,” it’s clear the industry faces a crucial challenge. The authors provide a comprehensive framework for understanding, classifying, and mitigating the risks tied to today’s most advanced AI. But while tools and taxonomies are maturing, most enterprises are dangerously

In a recent poll of technology executives, 92% said they expected to increase AI spending over the next year. Half expected more than 50% of their organization’s AI deployments to be autonomous within the next 24 months. These AI investments include machine learning, private large language models, AI agents, and more autonomous agentic AI capabilities.

AI: more production, fewer people… or both? This week: good news about AI. (Really.)   This is the age of AI and as IT leaders pursue digital transformation, they’re having to rethink how they run their departments and invest in technology platforms. No one really knows where this road leads — and one of our

The deal-making US government this month struck deals with Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic for federal workers to access their top generative AI (genAI) models at virtually no cost. Federal agencies will get access to Google Gemini for 47 cents per agency for a year — yes, 47 cents — with access to OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude going for the still-low

“The first thing people should know about me is that I champion gender inclusion,” says Mel Migrino.   It’s a powerful statement, because there are many other things you might want to know about her, from her storied and ultra-successful career as a senior executive, to her faith, her blogging, and even her love of