Good morning. Take a peep at our most recent podcast episode where we dive into ZeroEyes, a company using AI to detect weapons before they are ever discharged.

— The Deep View Crew

In today’s newsletter:

• 🤖 AI for Good: Kurzweil’s robot built to serve people

• 🚗 BMW’s new AI agent transforms supplier decisions and data flow

• 🧠 Google I/O 2025 brings AI to the forefront

🤖 AI for Good: Kurzweil’s robot built to serve people

Beyond Imagination — co-founded by futurist Ray Kurzweil and Harry Kloor — is in talks to raise $100 million from Gauntlet Ventures to scale its humanoid robots. The startup has developed a humanoid robot called Beyond Bot to assist workers in factories, pharmaceutical plants and chip plants. It’s also created an AI operating system called Aura to integrate humans, robots and legacy machines.

Kurzweil — known for predicting AI will surpass human intelligence by 2045 — frames this venture as a step toward solving global labor shortages and even boosting human longevity through smarter systems.

Why it matters: These robots are meant to augment, not replace, human workers in hard-to-fill roles.

• Beyond Bot could support aging populations and ease workforce shortages.

• Aura aims to connect robots and humans across legacy systems.

• The $100 million round would value Beyond Imagination at about $500 million.

• Real-world testing is underway in U.S. factories.

• Investors see it as a way to revitalize U.S. industry.

While tech giants like Tesla and Nvidia are racing to build humanoid robots, Beyond Imagination emphasizes collaboration over replacement, a potentially more ethical path that enhances human labor instead of automating it away. The general sentiment is one of either “AI will replace you” or “someone using AI will replace you”, but there’s a world where AI can augment, not replace.

What comes next: With Gauntlet Ventures set to lead the round, Beyond Imagination is lining up industry partners to deploy its robots at scale. The big challenge will be collecting enough real-world data to match AI’s rapid progress in language — and turning that vision into everyday utility.

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🚗 BMW’s new AI agent transforms supplier decisions and data flow

BMW Group is doubling down on generative AI to streamline its purchasing and supplier network. The automaker’s new multi-agent AI system, dubbed AIconic, is accelerating how procurement teams find information and make decisions, while a dedicated tech hub in Romania spearheads in-house AI innovation.

What happened: BMW rolled out AIconic across its purchasing division as a central AI assistant. The system uses natural language queries and algorithms to sift through procurement data, providing faster, targeted results than legacy tools. It’s part of a suite of GenAI tools BMW introduced in 2024 (including an offer analysis and tender assistant).

• AIconic has quickly gained traction, with 1,800 employees using it for over 10,000 searches so far.

• BMW says the tool has significantly boosted staff efficiency and is now standard in the purchasing department.

The AI agents are evolving from passive search to proactive decision support. BMW plans to “agentize” more processes so the system can monitor supply chain risks, generate reports and even automate some decisions without human prompts.

Development is led by BMW TechWorks Romania, an IT hub in Cluj-Napoca launched with NTT Data in 2024. The company is investing in employee AI training and a clear governance framework to ensure responsible use of these tools. 

Why it matters: Embracing GenAI is a strategic priority for BMW’s purchasing arm. By integrating AI in back-office processes, BMW aims to navigate supply chain challenges faster and gain an efficiency edge.

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• Google is using AI to change the way consumers shop online

• Roughly 70 percent of companies are now using AI for work

• Microsoft-backed Builder.ai continues to tank

• Alation snaps up Numbers Station to boost its AI agents game

• Google backs Warby Parker with $150M for smart glasses project

• NVIDIA: Principal AI and ML Engineer — AI for Networking

• Wells Fargo: Lead AI/ML Engineer

• Otter.ai: AI meeting assistant that records, transcribes and summarizes conversations in real time (a must-have in 2025)

• Descript: Edit podcasts and videos like a doc—with AI that cuts filler words and clones voices

• Tome: For sales professionals, it’s like a trained assistant for prospecting large accounts

🧠 Google I/O 2025 brings AI to the forefront

Google's annual I/O conference made one thing crystal clear yesterday: the company is all-in on "agentic AI." CEO Sundar Pichai unveiled a sweeping plan to transform virtually every Google product into proactive agents that don't just answer questions but actually do things for you.

Here's what happened: Google is embedding its Gemini AI into everything – Search, Chrome and its dedicated Gemini app – turning them into autonomous helpers that can take actions on your behalf.

• In Search, a new "AI Mode" will let you ask for concert tickets or dinner reservations, scan websites, compare options and even autofill forms for you.

• The Gemini app is getting an "Agent Mode" that can navigate other websites to accomplish tasks – like apartment hunting by searching listings, applying filters and scheduling tours.

• Chrome will soon gain the ability to "work across multiple tabs and navigate websites on your behalf," essentially turning your browser into an assistant that browses for you.

• For businesses, Google introduced "Gems" in Workspace – custom AI agents that can handle complex office tasks like triaging support emails or reviewing documents.

All of this is powered by Gemini 2.5 Pro, which Google claims is its "most intelligent" AI yet, featuring a new "Deep Think" mode that boosts accuracy by considering multiple answers before responding.

Google is also going premium with these features. While Gemini chat remains free, the company introduced Google AI Pro at $19.99/month and an even pricier "Ultra" tier for early access to experimental features like Agent Mode.

Why it matters: This is Google's defensive move against Microsoft, OpenAI and startups that have been setting the AI assistant agenda. Google is leveraging its massive ecosystem to keep users locked in its universe rather than losing them to third-party AI tools.

The strategy differs sharply from Microsoft's approach. While Microsoft positions itself as the neutral infrastructure provider for an "open agentic web," Google wants its AI to be your one-stop shop for everything online.

Google can deploy these agents across billions of Android devices and Chrome browsers – something Microsoft or OpenAI can't match. But that also raises thorny questions about Google's already dominant market position and how AI agents might further entrench it.

These announcements come in addition to the announcement of Flow powered by Veo 3 their new product for film/video creation and “Project Mariner” their competitor to OpenAI Operator and Manus.We may dive more into these releases in tomorrow’s edition.

After years of cautious AI incrementalism, Google is saying that if there's going to be a digital super-assistant that knows you and runs your life, it's going to be theirs.

The vision is sharply pragmatic. Rather than chasing hype, Google is weaving AI agents into its empire in ways that make business sense: protecting search traffic, supercharging Workspace to justify price hikes and binding users tighter to its ecosystem.

Will users trust Google's AI to book their weekends or manage their inboxes? That's the trillion-dollar question. Getting a factual answer from AI is one thing; letting it auto-book your flight is another level of intimacy altogether.

There's also the question of what happens to Google's advertising model if an AI agent just gives you an answer or buys a product for you without showing search results? Google's solution seems to be keeping the journey inside its walls – so it can still capture value through subscriptions or commerce commissions.

For now, though, Pichai has placed his bet that the future belongs to AI agents – and Google intends to lead that future, on its own terms.

🤔 Your thought process:

Selected Image 1 (Left):

• “The tiny virtually invisible wisps of fiber on the top of the ball in [this image] (and I couldn't imagine a reasonable prompt for [the other image]).”

• “The black space in the fake lacks details. I cannot imagine what the foreground black strip could be in a real tennis court.”

Selected Image 2 (Right):

• “Knowing very little about tennis, I thought [the other image] had way too much dust even for a clay court. Got me!”

• “I thought the stitching on the [other] image was too narrow.”

💭 A poll before you go

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