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Business Insider
7 minutes ago
- Business Insider
OpenAI led a funding round for a startup that will put an AI agent inside Microsoft Excel
OpenAI just helped fund an AI tool that could reduce your stress when staring at a huge spreadsheet. A venture fund launched by OpenAI to invest in early-stage tech companies has led a $14 million funding round for Endex, a startup that said it has created an AI agent that will exist in Microsoft Excel and help you process data, handle financial tasks, and write memos. "Finance professionals don't just need search results; they need structured thinking and deep analysis," said Tarun Amasa, CEO of Endex and recipient of the Thiel Fellowship, in a statement. "We envision a future where every firm has access to teams of digital analysts, seamlessly augmenting time-intensive workflows." Based on OpenAI's blog post, Endex is powered by OpenAI's reasoning models. In a video that Amasa posted on X to announce Endex's product launch on Wednesday, a screen displaying the word "Microsoft Excel" was replaced after a screen glitch to display "Endex," followed by a brief demonstration of how the AI agent works by Amasa. In the following posts, Amasa also said his team has spent a large portion of last year in OpenAI's San Francisco office and has offered to send limited early invites to users who comment beneath the posts. Microsoft and OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment on how the AI agent would impact the Excel product. The two companies have both competed and collaborated over the years. Microsoft has invested over $13 billion in OpenAI since 2019 and is considered one of the company's biggest backers. In exchange, Microsoft has access to OpenAI's intellectual property and the right to resell it to customers through Azure's OpenAI service and by building its own products with the technology, including its AI assistant, Copilot. But as OpenAI builds its own service products like ChatGPT Enterprise and developer tools, it has also started to compete directly with its long-time investor. In 2024, Microsoft began to list OpenAI as a competitor in its annual report. "What excites me most about this collaboration is our shared vision for vertical-specific AI," said Amasa. "Our work goes beyond APIs — it's about building the agent-user interfaces that will change how financial analysts do work."
CBS News
7 minutes ago
- CBS News
Butter made from carbon tastes like the real thing, gets backing from Bill Gates
A company in Batavia, Illinois is making butter in a way you've never seen before. No animals, no plants, no oils; this butter is made from carbon. The sustainability-focused approach has the blessing and backing of Bill Gates. It looks, smells and tastes like the butter we all know, but it's made without the farmland, fertilizers or emissions tied to the typical process. This unprecedented process is happening at the facilities of Savor in an industrial park in the suburbs west of Chicago. "So you're using this gas right now to cook your food and we're proposing that we would like to first make your food with— with that gas," said Kathleen Alexander, co-founder and CEO of Savor. The company's pioneering tech uses carbon and hydrogen to make sticks of butter that anyone would recognize. "This is pretty novel, to be able to make food that looks and tastes and feels exactly like dairy butter, but with no agriculture whatsoever," said Jordan Beiden-Charles, food scientist for Savor. And without a long ingredient list the average person can't pronounce. "It's really just our fat, some water, a little bit of lecithin as an emulsifier, and some natural flavor and color," Beiden-Charles said. This is how it works: Fats are made up of carbon and hydrogen chains. The goal is to replicate those chains without animals or plants. And they did it. To put it in simple terms, Savor says they take carbon dioxide from the air and hydrogen from water, heat them up, oxidize them and get a final result that looks like candle wax but is in fact fat molecules like those in beef, cheese or vegetable oils. The entire process releases zero greenhouse gases, uses no farmland to feed cows, and despite its industrial appearance, has a significantly smaller footprint. "In addition to the carbon footprint being much lower for a process like this, right, the land footprint is, like, a thousand times lower than what you need in traditional agriculture," Alexander said. And the most important question: how does it taste? The answer is surprisingly like the butter we know and love. The company also touts that they do not use any palm oil in the butter, and palm oil is a significant contributor to deforestation and climate change. Of the 51 billion tons of greenhouse gases emitted every year, 7% is from the production of fats and oils from animals and plants, which Savor says makes their process the most climate-friendly option. Right now, the company is working directly with restaurants, bakeries and food suppliers. They are releasing chocolates made with their butter in time for the 2025 holiday season. They expect for the average consumer to be able to buy them in the near future. "Savor Butter, in either its current manifestation or with our partners, we expect that to be on the shelves kind of more like around 2027," Alexander said. The teams in Batavia and their home lab base in San Jose, California, are backed by billionaire Gates who wrote in his blog, "The idea of switching to lab-made fats and oils may seem strange at first. But their potential to significantly reduce our carbon footprint is immense." The company believes butter can make a difference. "This is really about how we feed our species and heal our planet at the same time," Alexander said.
New York Times
7 minutes ago
- New York Times
Mindful of painful history, Red Sox make Roman Anthony the one who didn't get away
BOSTON – Roman Anthony hurried through an otherwise empty clubhouse. A custom suit hung in his locker. This wasn't a typical Wednesday for a franchise that's become well aware of the cost that comes with letting homegrown stars get away. Ninety minutes before first pitch – when Anthony is usually just finishing up batting practice – he sat in that navy blue suit between Red Sox CEO Sam Kennedy and chief baseball officer Craig Breslow, the latest recipient of a long-term contract extension in Boston. Anthony signed an eight-year, $130 million deal, the largest for any player on the team with fewer than 150 at-bats. Laden with escalators, a league source said, the deal can reach a total value of $230.2 million. Advertisement 'When the offer came through, it was something that I wanted to move quick on,' Anthony said with teammates, coaches, family, front office members and ownership, including team owner John Henry, packed into the press conference room. 'There was no doubt that this is where I wanted to play baseball for a long time.' The Red Sox were cognizant of their botched negotiations with homegrown players. Not signing Mookie Betts to a long-term deal is something that will hang over the club for years to come. When the opportunity presented itself to secure Anthony at an unusual time in the season, they made it a priority. 'In the past, when we haven't signed homegrown players, it's hurt,' Kennedy said. 'We haven't found a way to a deal. So thanks to the Bres for being so aggressive (on Anthony).' Anthony, 21, has the potential to be the next homegrown franchise cornerstone. He will earn $2 million next season and $29 million in his final year of the deal, with a $30 million team option in 2034, according to a source. He'll earn an extra $1 million this season if he finishes first or second in Rookie of the Year voting. The deal includes escalators for top-10 finishes in MVP voting, including $2 million if he wins. He'll earn an extra $200,000 for any year he's named an All-Star. Anthony would have become a free agent after 2031; now he's secured through at least 2033 and potentially 2034. The Red Sox were the first to reach out to Anthony's camp shortly after the trade deadline, a league source noted. During a quiet period days after the trade deadline, Breslow saw a window to re-engage and jumped at it. Anthony's camp knew his value. The top prospect in baseball has hardly struggled at all since his debut on June 9. His camp knew Rookie of the Year was in play and that he held future All-Star and MVP potential. While the Red Sox had signed Kristian Campbell for six years, $60 million earlier this season and Ceddanne Rafaela for eight years, $50 million last year, Anthony's agents were adamant about a much larger deal. Advertisement Initial contract talks in spring training were exploratory, according to a source, and did not come close to any real negotiations. This second round of talks became serious quickly and Anthony expressed a desire to remain in Boston. 'Back in the spring, I hadn't had any experience playing here yet,' Anthony said. 'I didn't really know what to expect yet. It was just more wanting to be here and getting a feel for the everyday lifestyle here…when I got to experience it, even being just 150 at-bats in, I can tell this is where I want to be. There's no doubt.' In roughly 20 months leading the Red Sox, Breslow has made a priority of securing several players to long-term deals including Rafaela and Brayan Bello last season and Garrett Crochet and Campbell this year. But all of those deals came in spring training or right at the start of the season. Two months after trading Rafael Devers, freeing up $254 million in salary, the Red Sox reinvested some of that money in Anthony. Though Breslow said the moves were 'largely independent,' the signing came on the heels of a trade deadline in which the club didn't take on significant salary. 'I guess the beauty of the trade deadline is that it is a true, rigid deadline,' Breslow said. 'Once it passes, we can comfortably shift our priorities to other things. We wanted to kind of strike up these conversations immediately.' Breslow described a number of 'spirited and passionate' conversations he and the front office had with Anthony's group about the player's potential future earnings, particularly in regards to his current Rookie of the Year status. If Anthony won the award before signing the deal, he would have gained an extra year of service time, allowing him to reach free agency sooner. The Red Sox needed to add a similar provision to the deal. Advertisement 'I think it clearly didn't become this prohibitive element or factor, but it was something that both sides needed to get comfortable with in terms of how we were going to address it,' Breslow said. 'It's real. We can't ignore it. But at the same time, the overriding overarching themes here, where Roman wants to be a Red Sox deep into the future, and we want Roman to be a Red Sox deep into the future.' One close comparison that was likely used in negotiations is Arizona's Corbin Carroll. Carroll signed an eight-year, $111 million deal ahead of the 2023 season, before he went on to win NL Rookie of the Year. Carroll had compiled 1.4 fWAR in 32 games at the time he signed the deal; Anthony had a 1.6 fWAR in 46 games at time of his deal. Less than two months into his major-league career, Anthony hasn't felt overwhelmed. He isn't surprised with how he's performed, carrying a quiet confidence that's neither boastful nor cocky. He knows how good he is; the escalators give him a chance to prove it. 'For me, it was a deal that was obviously more than enough for me and for my family and a place that I want to be,' he said. 'Those escalators just give me a chance to continue to grind every day and help this team win and be the best version of myself that I can be each and every day.' Breslow had high praise for Anthony's impact in a short amount of time on one of the more exciting Red Sox teams in the past few years. 'I think it's special. I think it's remarkable,' he said of Anthony's impact on the team. 'I'm not sure that there's a metric that we should look at uniquely and believe that it perfectly captures the impact that he's had. 'If you look at the success that the team has enjoyed, that kind of lines up almost perfectly with his debut, then you start to see a clearer picture of the impact that he's had.' Now Anthony has a chance to impact the club for the better part of the next decade. (Top photo of Roman Anthony: Brian Fluharty / Getty Images) Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Play today's puzzle
