amazon, microsoft and google Updates

Amazon is significantly boosting its investments in AI infrastructure and data centers, particularly for Amazon Web Services (AWS). AWS now accounts for roughly two-thirds of Amazon's operating profits and shows rapid revenue growth, strengthening the company's position in high-profit sectors like cloud computing and advertising. This aggressive AI focus is drawing renewed investor interest, with Amazon's stock at US$226.50 and a market value of US$2.3 trillion. Other major tech players like Microsoft, Alphabet (Google's parent), and Meta are also increasing their capital spending on AI-related initiatives. The expansion of AI is evident in various new applications. Abbott, for instance, launched Libre Assist at CES 2026, an AI-powered feature for its Libre app that predicts how food choices affect glucose levels and offers personalized meal guidance. NVIDIA introduced Alpamayo, a platform designed to develop autonomous vehicles capable of human-like reasoning, featuring the Alpamayo 1 model and the AlpaSim simulation tool. Meanwhile, SaaStr founder Jason Lemkin replaced most of his sales team with 20 AI agents, automating tasks previously handled by 10 human representatives. However, the rapid deployment of AI also brings challenges and regulatory scrutiny. Italy's antitrust authority, AGCM, closed its investigation into the Chinese AI system DeepSeek after its owners, Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence and Beijing DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence, agreed to clearer user warnings about "hallucinations" or false information. Concerns persist about AI systems influencing users without a duty to act in their best interest, as noted by Tim Estes. Furthermore, an audit in Seoul revealed that the city's intelligent CCTV network frequently mistakes dogs for fallen people, causing false alarms due to incomplete training data, prompting plans for improvement. The rise of AI also impacts internet security and content authenticity. AI-driven autonomous crawlers are now extracting and repurposing online content at a massive scale, posing new challenges for data governance and infrastructure resilience, according to Dhanesh Ramachandran from Radware. To combat the spread of AI-generated media, Binghamton University Professor Yu Chen developed CerVaLens, a new tool that detects AI fakes by identifying "digital fingerprints" in human-made content, a crucial development as even experts struggle to differentiate real from AI-fabricated images, video, and audio.

Key Takeaways

• Amazon is heavily investing in AI infrastructure for AWS, which contributes about two-thirds of its operating profits and drives significant revenue growth.
• Amazon's stock price is US$226.50, with a market value of US$2.3 trillion, fueled by AWS, AI-powered advertising, and e-commerce efficiency.
• Microsoft, Alphabet (Google), and Meta are also increasing their capital spending on AI-related initiatives, indicating broad industry investment.
• Italy's AGCM closed its probe into DeepSeek AI on January 5, 2026, after its owners committed to clearer user warnings about AI "hallucinations" or false information.
• Abbott launched Libre Assist at CES 2026, an AI-powered feature for its Libre app that provides personalized meal guidance to predict and manage glucose levels.
• NVIDIA introduced Alpamayo, a platform including the Alpamayo 1 model and AlpaSim simulation tool, to develop autonomous vehicles with human-like reasoning capabilities.
• SaaStr founder Jason Lemkin replaced 10 human sales representatives with 20 AI agents, training them on top sales scripts for efficiency.
• Binghamton University Professor Yu Chen developed CerVaLens, a tool that detects AI-generated media by identifying "digital fingerprints" in human content.
• AI systems, such as Seoul's intelligent CCTV network, can produce false alarms (e.g., mistaking dogs for fallen people) due to incomplete training data.
• AI-driven autonomous crawlers pose new internet security challenges by extracting and repurposing online content at scale, impacting data governance and infrastructure resilience.

Amazon's AI investments boost AWS growth and profits

Amazon is heavily investing in AI infrastructure and data centers for Amazon Web Services (AWS). AWS now makes up about two-thirds of Amazon's operating profits and shows fast revenue growth. This AI focus strengthens Amazon's position in high-profit areas like cloud and advertising. Investors are watching how this spending affects AWS profits and Amazon's overall growth, with projected revenue of $905.9 billion by 2028. Microsoft, Alphabet, and Meta are also increasing AI-related capital spending, highlighting the aggressive investment in this sector.

Amazon's AI and cloud growth sparks new investor interest

Amazon.com (AMZN) is seeing renewed investor interest due to growth in Amazon Web Services (AWS), AI-powered advertising, and efficient e-commerce. The company's stock price is US$226.50, with a market value of US$2.3 trillion. Founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994, Amazon is a major player in e-commerce, cloud computing, and AI. Its heavy investment in AI, including products like Alexa, is expected to drive future growth and maintain its competitive edge. Operational improvements in e-commerce also contribute to a positive outlook for investors.

Italy closes DeepSeek AI probe after hallucination warnings

Italy's antitrust authority, AGCM, closed its investigation into the Chinese AI system DeepSeek. The probe ended after DeepSeek's owners, Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence and Beijing DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence, agreed to new rules. These rules make it clearer and easier for users to understand the risk of "hallucinations." Hallucinations happen when the AI creates false or misleading information. The AGCM announced this decision on Monday, January 5, 2026.

Italy ends DeepSeek AI investigation over false information

Italy's competition watchdog, the AGCM, has closed its investigation into the Chinese AI system DeepSeek. The probe began last June due to concerns that DeepSeek did not properly warn users about false information it might create. DeepSeek's owners, Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence and Beijing DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence, agreed to binding commitments. These commitments will improve how users are informed about AI "hallucinations," which are inaccurate or fabricated outputs. The AGCM announced its decision on Monday, January 5, 2026.

AI lacks safety rules and influences users without care

Tim Estes warns that AI systems are designed to build close relationships with users but have no duty to act in their best interest. These AI tools aim to persuade and influence people, often hiding business motives behind a friendly interface. Unlike past technologies, AI chatbots and companion models adapt to users and remember preferences, blurring the line between advice and persuasion. This lack of rules is concerning, especially given past issues with chatbots encouraging harmful thoughts and social media's impact on youth mental health, as noted by Jonathan Haidt.

Seoul AI cameras confuse dogs with fallen people

An audit in Seoul revealed that AI systems in the city's intelligent CCTV network often mistake dogs for fallen people. This problem causes false alarms because the AI's training data is incomplete. The system, which uses over 15,000 cameras, is designed to detect emergencies like falls, fires, and crimes. The Seoul Metropolitan Government plans to improve the AI by adding more diverse training data. This will help the system tell the difference between real emergencies and non-emergency situations, improving public safety and response times.

Binghamton University develops new AI detection tool CerVaLens

Binghamton University Professor Yu Chen developed CerVaLens, a new tool to detect AI-generated media. This technology uses "digital fingerprints" in human-made content instead of visual flaws, making it more effective as AI improves. CerVaLens received funding from the SUNY Technology Accelerator Fund and an additional $100,000 from the Griffiss Institute, making it useful for both civilian and military uses. The project, which started in 2019, aims to help people tell real content from AI fakes, as even experts now struggle to identify AI-generated images, video, and audio.

SaaStr founder Jason Lemkin replaces sales team with AI

Jason Lemkin, founder of SaaStr, announced he has replaced most of his sales team with AI agents. SaaStr now uses 20 AI agents to automate tasks previously handled by 10 human sales representatives. This shift began after two sales reps quit in May, leading Lemkin to scale up AI agent use by June. The company trains its AI agents using its best human sales scripts and practices. While AI agents offer efficiency and scalability, experts like Harry Farmer warn about potential risks such as data leaks and cybercrime due to their access to operating systems.

Abbott launches AI meal planning tool Libre Assist

Abbott introduced Libre Assist, a new AI-powered feature for its Libre app, at CES 2026 in Las Vegas. This tool uses generative artificial intelligence to predict how food choices will affect glucose levels. It offers personalized meal guidance and confirms the glucose impact using data from Abbott's FreeStyle Libre continuous glucose monitoring technology. Libre Assist helps users make informed mealtime decisions before eating, even suggesting ways to reduce glucose spikes. Shirley Bovshow, an early user with Type 2 diabetes, called it a "gamechanger."

AI crawlers challenge internet security and data protection

Dhanesh Ramachandran from Radware discusses how AI-driven autonomous crawlers are changing internet security. Unlike traditional bots, these new crawlers extract, analyze, and repurpose online content at a massive scale to fuel AI programs. This shift creates new challenges for security teams, impacting infrastructure resilience due to high-volume requests. It also raises concerns about data governance, as proprietary information can be ingested and embedded into AI models irreversibly. Furthermore, AI crawlers can distort analytics and provide competitive intelligence by analyzing public data, making traditional security methods less effective.

NVIDIA Alpamayo helps build reasoning autonomous vehicles

NVIDIA introduced Alpamayo, a new platform designed to help develop autonomous vehicles (AVs) that can reason like humans. Alpamayo includes models, simulation tools, and datasets for creating advanced AV architectures. The Alpamayo 1 model is an open, 10B reasoning vision-language-action model that can predict trajectories and show reasoning steps. The Physical AI dataset provides large-scale, diverse data for training these models. NVIDIA AlpaSim is an open-source simulation tool for testing end-to-end AV models in realistic settings.

Sources

• Did Amazon’s AI-Focused AWS Surge Just Shift Amazon.com's (AMZN) Investment Narrative?
• A Look At Amazon (AMZN) Valuation As AI And Cloud Growth Renew Investor Interest
• Italy closes probe into DeepSeek after commitments to warn of AI 'hallucination' risks
• Italy Closes Antitrust Probe Into DeepSeek After AI Disclosure Commitments
• Artificial Intelligence Has No Guardrails, and That Should Worry Us All
• Government AI Mistakes Dogs for Fallen People in CCTV Systems
• Can you detect AI? New Binghamton U. technology could tell fact from fiction
• Godfather of SaaS Jason Lemkin: 'We're done hiring humans in sales'
• Abbott launches AI-based Libre Assist, its new in-app feature for meal planning
• Security in the age of autonomous crawlers
• Building Autonomous Vehicles That Reason with NVIDIA Alpamayo