The Deep View: AI classroom use jumps sixfold in two years

Posted on September 12, 2025 by michelleclarke2015
AI classroom use jumps sixfold in two years
AI adoption in American classrooms has exploded from 10% of educators in 2023 to 67% today — a sixfold rise that’s not only changing how teachers work but making them more likely to stay in the profession.
HMH Education’s Educator Confidence Report, which surveyed 1,205 educators between May 6-22, reveals that generative AI is providing an unexpected morale boost for a profession facing widespread burnout and turnover.
The retention impact is significant: while 32% of teachers who don’t use AI are considering leaving the profession within five years, only 21% of teachers who use AI are contemplating an exit. This comes as 16% of all teachers nationally intend to leave their jobs, down from 22% in 2024, but still concerning amid widespread teacher shortages affecting about 1 in 8 teaching positions.
Teachers are embracing AI for practical benefits:
Time savings of 1-5 hours weekly (68% of users)/ Creating differentiated learning opportunities for students. Strengthening student connections through personalized approaches. 79% feel confident using AI in instructionally effective ways
However, concerns about the impact on students remain widespread. The biggest worry among both AI users (45%) and non-users (43%) is student over-dependence on the technology. Plagiarism concerns follow closely, cited by 44% of users and 40% of non-users.
Despite concerns, there’s a broad consensus on responsible use: 87% of all educators agree students must learn to use AI ethically, while 79% believe AI tools should require teacher supervision.
Francie Alexander, HMH’s SVP of Efficacy Research, noted that “teachers are pouring the time they’re getting back right into their students,” creating “more room for those meaningful moments.”
AI is becoming less of a disruptive force and more of a retention tool for educators, potentially helping address chronic teacher shortages by making the profession more manageable and rewarding. With 3/4 districts struggling to fill positions for the 2024-25 school year, any tool that reduces the 11 percentage point gap in departure intentions could prove significant for staffing stability.
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Neuroscience News: Finding direction. Comment: as a person with TBI spatial sense of direction was severely impacted … and 30 years on, I can only move in areas which I frequented TBI, but now even this is fading away

Posted on September 12, 2025 by michelleclarke2015

How the Brain Uses Objects to Find Direction

FeaturedNeuroscience

·September 11, 2025

Summary: Scientists discovered how the brain uses objects to anchor our sense of direction, solving part of the mystery of spatial navigation. Experiments in mice showed that cells in the postsubiculum fired strongly when facing an object, while cells for other directions were suppressed, sharpening orientation.

This mechanism suggests that object recognition is tightly integrated with spatial navigation. The findings could explain why people with Alzheimer’s and related conditions often lose their sense of place and direction.

Key Facts

  • Object Anchors: Postsubiculum cells fire in response to objects, reinforcing direction sense.
  • Dual Systems: Visual and navigation systems interact to guide orientation.
  • Disease Link: Early Alzheimer’s damages orientation regions, leading to disorientation.

Source: McGill University

We take our understanding of where we are for granted, until we lose it. When we get lost in nature or a new city, our eyes and brains kick into gear, seeking familiar objects that tell us where we are.

How our brains distinguish objects from background when finding direction, however, was largely a mystery. A new study provides valuable insight into this process, with possible implications for disorientation-causing conditions such as Alzheimer’s.

The scientists, based at The Neuro (Montreal Neurological Institute-Hospital) of McGill University and the University Medical Center Göttingen, ran an experiment with mice using ultrasound imaging to measure and record brain activity. The mice were shown visual stimuli, either an object or a scrambled image showing no distinct object.

They found a small number of brain areas that fired especially when the mouse looked at objects. These areas were found in a brain region called the postsubiculum which specializes in keeping track of where the animal is facing at any given time. Each direction activates a specific cell in the postsubiculum.

Objects in the mice’s vision increased the firing of the cell responsible for the direction in which the mouse was looking. They also inhibited cells responsible for directions where the mouse was not looking. Together, this activity reinforced the mouse’s perception of where it was relative to the object.

While the postsubiculum was particularly sensitive to the presence of objects in the mouse’s vision, other brain regions were not, suggesting that object recognition is particularly important to the brain’s understanding of where it is and where the animal is looking.

This finding offers clues as to why humans with diseases such as dementia and Alzheimer’s often lose track of where they are. A recent study from Oxford University has shown that the accumulation of tau protein-a hallmark of Alzheimer’s-happens first in the brain regions responsible for spatial orientation.

“A very useful aspect of our study is it presents a very high-level understanding of two systems that interact together-the visual and spatial recognition systems,” says Stuart Trenholm, a researcher at The Neuro and the paper’s co-senior author.

“We have a decent understanding now of how they modulate each other. They are both very high-level brain functions and lot of these neurodegenerative disorders lead to disconnections between these states, so that will be interesting to look into in the future.”

“Our results are incredibly surprising,” says Adrien Peyrache, a researcher at The Neuro and the paper’s co-senior author.

“Nobody would have predicted that object processing would occur in the navigation system and not in the visual cortex. For the first time, we have an inside-the-brain perspective of what an object is, and how we use an object to get a sense of the world around us.”

About this neuroscience and navigation research news

Author: Shawn Hayward
Source: McGill University
Contact: Shawn Hayward – McGill University
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News

Original Research: Closed access.
“Visual objects refine head direction coding” by Adrien Peyrache et al. Science

Abstract

Visual objects refine head direction coding

INTRODUCTION

In our day-to-day life, we use visual objects (e.g., a specific clock tower when walking around town, etc.) as spatial landmarks to help orientate ourselves as we make our way through the world. We can use visual objects as spatial landmarks because our brains dedicate considerable computational power toward parsing the world into objects.

Moreover, our location in the world is processed by specialized cells such as place cells, grid cells, and head direction (HD) cells in the brain’s spatial navigation system. However, much remains unknown about how visual objects modulate tuning properties of the neurons that encode spatial variables, partly because it is unclear how visual objects are processed in the rodent brain, where spatial navigation signals have been most extensively studied.

RATIONALE

To address this gap in knowledge, we reasoned that a brainwide activity screen in mice could identify visual object–preferring areas in an unbiased way. Using electrophysiology, we then characterized the spatial correlates of individual neurons in the areas responding to objects in freely moving mice.

RESULTS

Our brainwide screen based on functional ultrasound imaging revealed that spatial navigation–related areas, not visual cortical areas, tended to show a preference for visual objects. The postsubiculum, a hub of the HD system, exhibited the strongest object preference. In head-fixed conditions, we discovered that HD cells were differentially modulated by visual stimulation based on their preferred firing direction: HD cells pointing toward the visual stimulus were excited, whereas HD cells pointing away from the visual stimulus were inhibited. The same modulation was observed in freely moving conditions, when an object was displayed in the environment.

CONCLUSION

Visual objects refine the population encoding of HD in the postsubiculum by increasing the response of HD cells that code toward the object while simultaneously decreasing the firing rate of HD cells that code directions away from the object. As an analogy, imagine yourself wandering around a city with a compass (which, in our experiments, is the brain’s HD system), and each time you look at a landmark (which, in our experiments, is an image of an object), the compass needle becomes more stable and thus more accurate. Together, these results provide insights into how the brain uses visual landmarks to dynamically enhance the encoding of spatial information about the world.

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GZERO Everything is political Big Oil is getting mad at Trump. Comment: If you have access to Irish Independent archives, I have a paper copy of article by David Horgan dated 11th September 2022. It should be republished and if people have access read it. Ireland is in choppy waters but as we face winter Oil / Gas will be our weakness. “Sleep-walking into an energy crisis worse than the 1970’s”

Posted on September 12, 2025 by michelleclarke2015
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  1. The Debrief

Big oil is getting big mad at Trump

Big oil is getting big mad at Trump

GZERO Staff

Sep 11, 2025

So far, Trump’s approach to energy policy is to maximize US fossil fuel production that keeps the price of gasoline low, and it’s been a winning formula. But in the latest episode of The Debrief, Eurasia Group energy analyst Gregory Brew says the Big Oil honeymoon may be coming to an end.

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Trump is a fan of proclaiming “drill, baby drill,” but the reality on the ground is a bit different from the mantra and could mean trouble for him in next year’s midterm elections. His approach to energy policy is to maximize US fossil fuel production that keeps the price of gasoline low, provides a hedge against inflation, and also boosts us business, particularly US energy exports. So far, drill baby drill has been a winning formula. US oil and gas production are at all time highs. This summer, the US produced more oil than it ever has at more than 13 point a half million barrels a day. Oil companies are strong supporters of President Trump, who has vowed to cut regulation, boost fossil fuel exports, and also throw up roadblocks to renewables like wind and solar. But the honeymoon might be coming to an end and it’s partially Trump’s fault.


First, his sweeping tariffs announced earlier this year, shocked oil markets and sent the price of oil tumbling at the same time. Tariffs on things like imported steel means rising costs for US oil companies. It’s now more expensive to drill a well in the United States than it was a year ago.

Second, Trump is anxious to preserve his relationship with Saudi Arabia, a major oil producer, and also the head of OPEC. As a result, Trump has turned a blind eye to OPEC policy of increasing oil production this year, which has pushed prices down even further.

Low prices. Rising costs means less profits for US oil companies. So why does that matter? Well, less profits means fewer jobs, a slowdown in activity and economic pain in places like North Dakota and Texas Centers of the US oil industry that also happen to be deep red states where Trump generally maintains high levels of support. That means some trouble for Trump moving into next year’s midterm elections by November of 2026. Drill baby drill might seem like a hollow mantra, and that might hurt Trump’s brand where it matters most.

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Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project …

Posted on September 12, 2025 by michelleclarke2015

Jersey Probes Roman Abramovich Over Suspected Money Laundering

News

The investigation dates back to payments Abramovich made in the 1990s to maintain control of a Russian oil company.

September 7, 2025

Jersey authorities are investigating Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich in connection with suspected money laundering, according to court records that show hundreds of millions of dollars moving through Swiss bank accounts.

Details of the ongoing investigation are revealed in a series of Swiss court judgments issued in May, obtained by OCCRP, which also show that Jersey authorities suspect companies “under [his] control” violated economic sanctions. The legal rulings gave Swiss authorities permission to provide banking information to Jersey.

Separately, officials in Cyprus told reporters they passed along information about companies linked to the probe upon request from Jersey authorities.

Kobre & Kim, a law firm representing Abramovich, said its client had not been charged with any crime in Jersey and “denies any allegations of wrongdoing.” The firm declined to answer questions about the contents of the Swiss judgments.

“Our client was not a party to those proceedings and no submissions were made on his behalf,” the firm told OCCRP. “For that reason, he is not in a position to respond.”

Details of Jersey’s investigation, outlined in the Swiss judgments, were first reported by the publication Gotham City in June. 

The Swiss judgments discuss a businessman referred to only as “G,” but they include background information, including business dealings, that enabled reporters to conclusively identify Abramovich. 

The details coincide with Abramovich’s well-publicized $13 billion sale of the Russian oil company, Sibneft, in 2005. The proceeds were paid into accounts of companies controlled by two Jersey-based entities, according to the Swiss judgments.

Prosecutors in Jersey suspect that G made “corruption payments” in the 1990s to maintain control over a Russian company, according to recent Swiss court judgments. Proceeds of the subsequent $13 billion sale of that company were deposited in the bank accounts of companies linked to him, according to the judgments.

Separately, an English High Court judge ruled in 2012 that Abramovich made “substantial cash payments” in the 1990s to obtain indispensable political patronage and influence, a type of support known as “krysha” (or “roof”), allowing him to maintain control of Sibneft.

Lawyers for Abramovich told OCCRP that the English judgment “makes no finding that our client broke any law in respect of his business dealings and there was no suggestion in our client’s defence that his acquisition of the relevant entity was achieved through corruption. Any suggestion to the contrary is misleading, false and defamatory.”

In a request for assistance to Swiss authorities, Jersey prosecutors stated they suspect that “companies indirectly under G’s control” violated Jersey law by carrying out transactions and providing financial services after he was sanctioned there on March 10, 2022.

Along with jurisdictions including the U.K. and European Union, Jersey sanctioned Abramovich for his relationship with the Kremlin following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Jersey sets its own laws, but depends on the U.K. for defense and matters of foreign affairs.

Jersey’s attorney general’s office said it was “not able to comment on live investigations.” The Swiss attorney general’s office confirmed it had executed a request for mutual legal assistance from Jersey, but declined to provide further information.

The Swiss judgments show how federal prosecutors in 2023 and 2024 ordered a Swiss bank to hand over records relating to three companies registered in Cyprus, the British Virgin Islands and Jersey. Each company contested the order in its case, but in May a Swiss criminal court dismissed their appeals. 

Subsequent appeals by the three companies to Switzerland’s Supreme Court were ruled inadmissible.

The law firm MME, which represents the three unnamed companies that contested the release of bank account information, did not respond to a request for comment. 

The Swiss judgments referenced more than 20 firms and five trusts, including several registered in Cyprus.

The Cypriot police press office confirmed that information was provided to Jersey authorities, but added: “No further information can be disclosed at this time since the investigation is ongoing.”

A law enforcement official in Cyprus, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, described the requests by Jersey as “extensive.”

“We provided a lot of material,” the official told CIReN, OCCRP’s Cypriot member center. 

Jersey received information about “opening bank accounts, records of companies from the registrar, and records for trusts from the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission,” the official said.

September 7, 2025

The Swiss Connection 

The investigation also provides a rare insight into the notoriously secretive Swiss banking sector, where clients’ identities are heavily guarded. Under the country’s draconian banking secrecy law, revealing that someone holds an account at a Swiss bank can lead to up to five years in prison.

In the Abramovich case, the companies which held the Swiss accounts contested the decision to pass the requested information to Jersey, Stocks said, but Swiss courts ultimately dismissed their appeals.

Nevertheless, “customers of Swiss banks can continue to rely on Switzerland for a degree of secrecy that doesn’t exist in many other countries,” he added. 

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Charlie Kirk RIP: Speaking at the Oxford Union

Posted on September 11, 2025 by michelleclarke2015
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If the AI Industry Fails, It Could Take the Rest of Us Down With It

Posted on September 11, 2025 by michelleclarke2015
Futurism Logo

Trough Times

Sep 10, 11:12 AM EDTbyJoe Wilkins

If the AI Industry Fails, It Could Take the Rest of Us Down With It

Oh.

/ Future Society/ Ai Bubble/ Ai Hype/ Economy

Getty / Futurism

Image by Getty / Futurism

Don’t let AI critics tell you it’s good for nothing: the amount of money being spent on AI infrastructure is so enormous that it’s literally propping up the US economy.

The drawback, of course, is that if the AI industry fails, it could drag the rest of the economy down with it.

In 2024, the S&P 500 grew by an incredible 24 percent — what the investment firm Charles Schwab understatedly called a “very good year.” Since 2023, nearly half the growth was clustered in just a handful of tech stocks known as the “magnificent seven”: Meta, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Nvidia, Tesla, and Apple.

And as the Atlantic recently noted, the companies most heavily involved in the AI boom have yet to see that success manifest in anywhere except the stock market.

Though Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Tesla are expected to have spent some $560 billion on AI development by the beginning of next year, their collective revenue from AI comes in at a paltry $35 billion. In the first half of 2025, the Atlantic notes, business spending on AI added more to GDP growth in the United States than all consumer spending combined.

This revenue gap is the key crisis facing the tech industry — and the broader economy — in their quest to build an AI future. Thanks to roundly horrible performance in actual workplace environments, revenue remains illusive for the vast majority of AI deployments.

Still, managers across industries are being pressured to show financial gains from the tech, even when the software isn’t delivering. That’s causing companies to do some creative accounting with their staff, laying off workers or slowing down hiring to inflate AI’s numbers.

As the Atlantic highlights, this is leading to the very real possibility of a rupture forming in the broader economy, where companies induce rounds of layoffs to satisfy executives, without anything to show for it in the bottom line.

In other words, we’re barreling toward a future where unemployment could rise while productivity takes a nosedive — dramatically slowing the economy as a result.

That scenario isn’t exactly unprecedented. The computer boom of the 1980s took a similar turn, when early email software prompted executives to lay off secretaries and typists, resulting in specialized white collar workers actually spending more time sending emails than on their typical roles.

“Email was one of those technologies that made us feel more productive but actually did the opposite,” computer scientist Cal Newport told the Atlantic. “I worry we may be headed down the same path with AI.”

There’s just one crucial difference: email isn’t propping up half the stock market.

More on economics: Microloan Apps May Be Poised to Destroy the Economy

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Ian Bremmer: Israel attacks and targets Hamas leadership in Qatar

Posted on September 10, 2025 by michelleclarke2015
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The 200-Year-Old Lie Pushing Us Towards Nuclear War | Dr. Jeffrey Sachs

Posted on September 10, 2025 by michelleclarke2015

Neutrality Studies

Sep 10, 2025 Interviews

While the West decries Russia’s demand for a “sphere of influence,” it ignores its own 200-year-old Monroe Doctrine. Is this hypocrisy pushing us toward a major war? And could the solution be redefining the concept as “spheres of security”? To discuss this and more, today I’m talking again to Professor Jeffrey Sachs, a Professor at Columbia University, advisor to countless governments, and a prolific analyst—I’m absolutely sure you all know him very well. We explore his powerful argument for creating neutral buffer zones between great powers to prevent catastrophe. We also break down the dangerous “with us or against us” logic driving current conflicts, the hypocrisy of US foreign policy, and why understanding history is crucial to our survival in the nuclear age. Links: Jeffrey Sachs’ essay mentioned in the video: https://pascallottaz.substack.com/p/s… Neutrality Studies substack: https://pascallottaz.substack.com

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Neuroscience News: Left or Right? Have you a problem with numbers?

Posted on September 10, 2025 by michelleclarke2015

Left or Right? Brain’s Split Determines How We Map Numbers

FeaturedNeuroscience

·September 9, 2025

Summary: A study in newborn chicks shows that brain lateralisation is essential for the development of a left-to-right mental number line. Chicks with strongly lateralised brains consistently mapped numbers from left to right, while weakly lateralised chicks did not display this pattern.

The findings provide the first direct evidence that lateralisation drives spatial–numerical associations, suggesting our sense of numbers may be biologically grounded rather than purely cultural. This research deepens our understanding of cognitive development and could shed light on why numerical reasoning differs across individuals.

Key Facts

  • Direct Evidence: Brain lateralisation is necessary for left-to-right numerical mapping in chicks.
  • Light Exposure Effect: Embryonic light exposure boosted lateralisation and enhanced numerical–spatial performance.
  • Biological Basis: The study suggests number–space associations are innate, not just culturally learned.

Source: eLife

Lateralisation of the brain – the tendency for the left and right hemispheres to specialise in different functions – underlies the development of a left-to-right mental number line, according to a study in newborn chicks. 

The study, published as a Reviewed Preprint in eLife and appearing today as the final version, is described by the editors as fundamental. They say the evidence presented is compelling and the results will be of interest to researchers studying numerical cognition, brain lateralisation, and cognitive brain development more broadly. 

Many people intuitively think of numbers as arranged along a mental line, either running from left to right, with smaller numbers on the left and larger on the right, or vice versa. This representation – often called the mental number line – is traditionally thought to develop through cultural experience, especially through reading and writing direction.

However, research has shown evidence of a left-to-right mental number line in young infants and animals, challenging this assumption and suggesting that this spatial-numerical association may have biological roots. 

Brain lateralisation, also known as hemispheric specialisation, refers to the idea that the two hemispheres of the brain are functionally different and have specialised roles in various cognitive processes. 

“Embryonic light exposure induces brain lateralisation in domestic chicks, and enhances their spatial-numerical abilities and their tendency to ‘count’ from left to right,” explains lead author Rosa Rugani, a Professor in the Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, Italy.

“Although several models have proposed that the mental number line originates from brain lateralisation, direct evidence has been lacking. Our study provides this evidence, showing that lateralisation is essential for the emergence of left-to-right spatial-numerical associations.”

In domestic chicks, light exposure during embryonic development is known to promote brain lateralisation. Therefore, Rugani and colleagues incubated 100 chick eggs, half exposed to light and half kept in the dark. This produced a group of strongly lateralised chicks, and a group of weakly lateralised chicks. 

After hatching, the chicks were trained to locate food hidden behind the fourth bottle cap in a vertical row of 10 identical caps. Once they had learned this task, the team rotated the array of feeders by 90 degrees so that it was horizontal and tested whether the chicks would search for food in the fourth cap from the left or the right. Both caps constituted a plausible choice, allowing the researchers to observe any natural directional preferences. 

Strongly lateralised chicks showed a clear preference for selecting the fourth cap from the left, suggesting a left-to-right number mapping. In contrast, weakly lateralised chicks showed no consistent directional preference, selecting at random between the two caps.

The researchers then repeated this test while covering either the chicks’ left or right eye. Because each eye primarily sends signals to the opposite hemisphere of the brain, this allowed the team to determine which hemisphere was processing information during the experiment.

When chicks used only their left eye (engaging the right hemisphere), those with strongly lateralised brains again chose the fourth cap from the left more frequently, reinforcing the role of the right hemisphere in integrating spatial and numerical cues. When these same chicks used only their right eye (engaging the left hemisphere) they tended to choose the fourth cap from the right instead.

The weakly lateralised chicks failed to solve the task in both monocular conditions. This suggests that brain lateralisation, established through light exposure during the last days of embryonic development, is essential for integrating spatial and numerical cues, and boosts cognitive performance.

In a follow-up experiment, the researchers tested how the chicks would perform if the spatial cues were made unreliable. They changed the spacing between the caps so that the physical position of the fourth cap varied – meaning the chicks could only rely on ordinal (numerical) information, not spatial layout, to locate the food. Under these conditions, neither strongly nor weakly lateralised chicks showed a directional preference.

“For the first time, we show that brain lateralisation is not just related to the mental number line – it’s necessary for it,” says Rugani.

“This finding brings strong experimental support to the idea that our sense of number and space is biologically grounded, yet shaped by an individual’s interaction with the environment.”

The authors suggest that a natural left-to-right scanning pattern may have evolutionary advantages for chicks. For example, when foraging it may allow them to efficiently locate and quantify food sources without overlooking areas.

“Our work demonstrates that lateralised brain function plays a key role in shaping how animals, possibly including humans, think about numbers,” says senior author Lucia Regolin, a Professor in the Department of General Psychology, University of Padua.

“Understanding the biological basis of numerical thinking may help us identify why certain cognitive abilities emerge when they do in development, and why they might be altered in individuals with atypical brain organisation.

“This research opens the door to further studies on the developmental origins of numerical reasoning, and how early sensory experiences can influence later cognitive outcomes.”

About this numeracy and neuroscience research news

Author: Emily Packer
Source: eLife
Contact: Emily Packer – eLife
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News

Original Research: Open access.
“Prenatal light exposure affects number sense and the mental number line in young domestic chicks” by Rosa Rugani et al. eLife

Abstract

Prenatal light exposure affects number sense and the mental number line in young domestic chicks

Humans order numerosity along a left-to-right mental number line (MNL), traditionally considered culturally rooted. Yet, some species at birth show spatial-numerical associations (SNA), suggesting neural origins.

Various accounts link SNA to brain lateralization but lack evidence. We investigated brain lateralization effects on numerical spatialization in 100 newborn domestic chicks.

In ovo light exposure yielded strongly lateralized brains in half the chicks and weakly lateralized in the other half.

Chicks learned to select the 4th item in a sagittal array. At the test, the array was rotated 90°, with left and right 4th items correct.

Strongly lateralized chicks outperformed weakly lateralized ones when ordinal and spatial cues were reliable (experiment 1), but not with unreliable spatial cues (experiment 2).

Moreover, only strongly lateralized chicks showed left-to-right directionality, suggesting the right hemisphere’s key role in integrating spatial and numerical cues.

We demonstrate that brain lateralization is fundamental for developing a left-to-right oriented SNA.

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The Deep View: AI Assistants: getting smarter

Posted on September 10, 2025 by michelleclarke2015

AI ASSISTANTS New AI assistant offers smarter, proactive messaging  


AI startup Interaction has launched an AI assistant for messaging that integrates directly into iMessage and SMS and it’s set to be a game-changer.

What makes it so impressive is that it can actually anticipate what you need before you even ask.

How? It connects to your email, calendar and files to act on your behalf to draft replies, reschedule meetings, book travel, you name it. 

Poke is a different type of AI assistant. While most operate independently in their own apps and can’t access personal information, they are limited to responding in abstract terms, Interaction said in its announcement. To get them to help, you have to copy and paste the information, which means juggling separate apps to use the feature. They also can’t take action across tools.

Poke is a proactive assistant that streamlines all that, giving the user a single space, where it acts as a conversation in your messaging app looking for actionable items.Interaction said beta users, a few thousand, exchanged more than 750,000 messages with Poke, “demonstrating near-perfect retention.” 

Early adopters seem to love it. Here’s a sample of comments from X on Tuesday:“The prompt engineering on this product is unreal. Most human sounding chat bot I’ve used so far.”“This is too good!”“The tone and cadence from @interaction is what @grok wishes it was.”Because Safety is also a top priority, Poke adheres to recognized industry security standards and certifications.The launch wasn’t the only news from the California-based startup. It also announced a $15 million seed round that was led by General Catalyst, Village Global and Earlybird VC, along with angel investors that include founders and execs from big players like PayPal, Google, Coinbase, Dropbox and Vercel. 
The age of the AI assistant is definitely here and is expanding almost daily. The constant influx of new assistants continues to provide users with a range of options for both personal and business use. The launch of an AI assistant that can jump in and proactively help in the day-to-day is the latest evolution of the integration of AI into messaging tools. While it’s not the first time we’ve seen proactive tools, it is a newer approach to how we interact and get things done, allowing for integration into messaging to help manage tasks from your texts. These tools go beyond just responding to a query; they are designed to act on it, assisting as a personal assistant of the past would. While these types of assistants aren’t entirely new, Google, Microsoft, Tencent and Salesforce, among others, have each developed their own versions, this latest launch introduces a fresh approach. By directly integrating with your personal information, Interaction’s Poke assistant offers a unique and streamlined way to help with both personal and professional productivity, a huge value in today’s hectic world.
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