Daily Summary

AI Agents Get a $2B Boost & New Open Models

Former Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal's Parallel Web Systems secured $100M for AI search tools, while startup Poolside launches high-performing open-weight models for local coding agents.

• Parallel Web Systems, founded by former Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal and which offers web search tools for AI agents, raised a $100M Series B at a $2B valuation
• US startup Poolside debuts its first open-weight model, Laguna XS.2, a 33B-A3B-parameter MoE model, and Laguna M.1, a proprietary 225B-A23B-parameter MoE model

AWS & OpenAI Launch Tools for Custom Apps & Privacy

Amazon Quick now runs on desktop for custom app building, while OpenAI releases a new open-source model specifically designed to redact private data and protect user privacy.

• AWS launches a desktop app for its Amazon Quick AI assistant, letting users connect their tools and local files to build custom apps, live dashboards, and more
• OpenAI Releases Privacy Filter: A 1.5B-Parameter Open-Source PII Redaction Model with 50M Active Parameters

Major Banks Appoint AI Leaders to Drive Innovation

ANZ becomes the latest major financial institution to hire a dedicated Chief Data and AI Officer, signaling a strategic push to integrate advanced AI capabilities across banking operations.

• ANZ hires first chief data and AI officer