San Francisco, California – While companies building consumer apps and prosumer tools are investing heavily in personalizing user experiences through product usage data, teams are still manually creating the workflows that deliver those personalized moments. Today, Aampe announced that it has deployed more than 100 million intelligent agents in consumer applications across four continents. Companies that have deployed Aampe agents include some of the leading food delivery and on-demand apps in South and Southeast Asia, top sports and fitness apps in Europe, and major fintech and entertainment apps in the U.S. The agents manage 15-200 billion decisions each week that determine interactions with product interfaces. The company announced $18 million in Series A funding led by Theory Ventures, bringing Aampe's total funding to $27.3 million to accelerate the adoption of its agent infrastructure. Z47 also participated in the round. Conventional approaches to personalizing digital products have relied on humans manually creating rules and segments to determine what users see and when. This approach — unchanged for over a decade — requires teams to manually orchestrate the message or product surface that will best serve the end user’s interests, whether they’re making a purchase, evaluating content options, or trying new features. With consumer preferences rapidly and continually changing, the conventional approach creates a massive human bottleneck and non-scalable operational workload. Aampe's infrastructure takes a fundamentally different approach: deploying a unique AI agent for each user that continuously learns from interactions and intelligently decides what to show, when to show it, and, most importantly, whether to show anything at all. Designed to continuously monitor usage and engagement data, each agent skillfully observes and learns the user's changing preferences. Agents are then responsible for translating inferences into optimal management of the user’s interactions with the product — enabling genuine 1:1 personalization even for products that serve tens of millions or more users daily. "Consumer applications today almost universally look the same to everyone who opens them, with personalization limited to narrow recommendation feeds," said Paul Meinshausen, CEO and co-founder of Aampe. "We’ve designed and developed infrastructure that continuously enables every aspect of an application to adapt to each user's context and preferences. Our mission is to improve the way users experience digital products fundamentally." Founded in 2020 by a trio of scientists, Aampe emerged from a unique combination of expertise. Meinshausen, who previously co-founded PaySense (acquired by Prosus/PayU for $185M), met co-founder Schaun Wheeler in a U.S. Army Intelligence Analysis unit in 2009. Along with Sami Abboud, a former semiconductor engineer and neuroscience PhD, the founding team combines backgrounds in cognitive and behavioral science, engineering, and experimentation. They’ve harnessed their specialized backgrounds to design a new AI architecture for user interaction. Rather than using traditional machine learning or generative AI alone, Aampe's infrastructure leverages a subset of AI called reinforcement learning to enable continuous, parallelized experimentation. Each agent learns and adapts in real-time, helping users manage their attention and make complex choices in a world of material and content abundance. The agents operationalize their decisions by intelligently managing a range of existing product and marketing tools - including data platforms and warehouses, marketing delivery platforms, and product analytics tools, allowing companies to extract more value from their current technology investments. Alexander Beresford, CGO/CMO at Taxfix, says “Customers now expect brands to know what they want and respond instantly - standards have gone up. The future of engagement in owned media lies in AI systems that learn from each customer’s behavior and adapt automatically to deliver personalized experiences. Unlike older systems that follow rigid rules, these AI agents evolve with the customer, keeping every interaction relevant without extra effort from the business. This isn’t just a new trend - it’s where everything is headed. For brands looking to stay competitive, adopting this approach isn’t optional; it’s the difference between sounding irrelevant and sounding like you understand them. Aampe is, for me, a leap in that direction which brings a novel approach to individual customer needs.” “AI agents can make decisions at a scale that is impossible for any human,” said Andy Triedman, Partner at Theory Ventures. “Aampe allows customer engagement teams to craft experiences for their diverse user base versus just one or two flows targeted at the typical person. This new type of infrastructure will be transformational for companies looking to provide personalization driven by data.” Aakash Kumar, Managing Director at Z47, added: “The world of app engagement has not delivered on the promise of deep learning-led personalization. Agentic AI provides the opportunity to break through. Paul and the team at Aampe are shaping the future of agentic infrastructure for user journey personalization, with excellent feedback and adoption from their early customers.” The company's privacy-centric approach, using zero-PII storage practices and anonymized behavioral patterns, has already attracted major consumer businesses across Southeast Asia and North America. The company has already deployed over one hundred million (100,000,000) agents for enterprise customers across 4 continents. As Aampe scales, it plans to double its team by the end of 2025, focusing on helping enterprise customers successfully migrate their workflows and adopt agentic infrastructure into their organizations. Looking ahead, Aampe aims to power the next generation of consumer applications through its easy-to-deploy agentic infrastructure. While their earliest applications focused on on marketing and messaging channels, Aampe has been rapidly extending their agents capabilities to manage the entire user experience—from interface layouts to feature discovery—enabling every interaction to adapt continuously to every user and their preferences at any given point in time.

Stormont minister Maurice Morrow told an official he would not raise the issue with the Northern Ireland Executive, despite similar measures being considered in England and Wales. A file on planning arrangements for the jubilee celebrations reveals a series of civil service correspondences on how Northern Ireland would mark the occasion. It includes a letter sent on January 11 2001 from an official in the Office of the First Minister/Deputy First Minister (OFMDFM) to the Department of Social Development, advising that a committee had been set up in London to consider a programme of celebrations. The correspondence says: “One of the issues the committee is currently considering is the possibility of deregulating liquor licensing laws during the golden jubilee celebrations on the same lines as the arrangements made for the millennium. “It is felt that the golden jubilee bank holiday on Monday 3 June 2002 is likely to be an occasion on which many public houses and similar licensed premises would wish to stay open beyond normal closing time.” The letter said a paper had been prepared on the issue of extending opening hours. It adds: “You will note that paragraph seven of the paper indicates that the devolved administrations ‘would need to consider deregulation separately within their own jurisdictions’. “I thought that you would wish to be aware that this issue is receiving active consideration for England and Wales and to consider whether anything needs to be done for Northern Ireland.” Some months later a “progress report” was sent between officials in OFMDFM, which again raised the issue of licensing laws. It says: “I spoke to Gordon Gibson, DSD, about Terry Smith’s letter of 12 January 2001 about licensing laws: the matter was put to their minister Maurice Morrow (DUP) who indicated that he would not be asking the NIE (Northern Ireland Executive) to approve any change to current licensing laws in NI to allow for either 24 hour opening (as at the millennium) nor a blanket approval for extended opening hours as is being considered in GB. “In both cases, primary legislation would be required here and would necessitate consultation and the minister has ruled out any consultation process.” The correspondence says individual licensees could still apply for an extension to opening hours on an ad hoc basis, adding “there the matter rests”. It goes on: “DSD await further pronouncements from the Home Office and Gibson and I have agreed to notify each other of any developments we become aware of and he will copy me to any (existing) relevant papers. “Ministers may well come under pressure in due course for a relaxation and/or parity with GB.” The document concludes “That’s it so far...making haste slowly?” Emails sent between officials in the department the same month said that lord lieutenants in Northern Ireland had been approached about local events to mark the jubilee. One message says: “Lord lieutenants have not shown any enthusiasm for encouraging GJ celebrations at a local level. “Lady Carswell in particular believes that it would be difficult for LLs to encourage such activities without appearing political.”ATLANTA (AP) — the peanut farmer who tried to restore virtue to the White House after the Watergate scandal and Vietnam War, then rebounded from a landslide defeat to become a global advocate of human rights and democracy, has died. . The Carter Center said the 39th president died Sunday afternoon, , at his home in Plains, Georgia, where he and his wife, who died in November 2023, lived most of their lives. The center said he died peacefully, surrounded by his family. As reaction poured in from around the world, President Joe Biden mourned Carter’s death, saying the world lost an “extraordinary leader, statesman and humanitarian” and he lost a dear friend. Biden cited Carter’s compassion and moral clarity, his work to eradicate disease, forge peace, advance civil and human rights, promote free and fair elections, house the homeless and advocacy for the disadvantaged as an example for others. “To all of the young people in this nation and for anyone in search of what it means to live a life of purpose and meaning – the good life – study Jimmy Carter, a man of principle, faith, and humility,” Biden said in a statement. “He showed that we are a great nation because we are a good people – decent and honorable, courageous and compassionate, humble and strong.” Biden said he is ordering a state funeral for Carter in Washington. A moderate Democrat, as a little-known Georgia governor with a broad grin, effusive Baptist faith and technocratic plans for efficient government. His promise to never deceive the American people resonated after Richard Nixon’s disgrace and U.S. defeat in southeast Asia. “If I ever lie to you, if I ever make a misleading statement, don’t vote for me. I would not deserve to be your president,” Carter said. Carter’s victory over Republican Gerald Ford, whose fortunes fell after pardoning Nixon, came amid Cold War pressures, turbulent oil markets and social upheaval over race, women’s rights and America’s role in the world. His achievements included brokering Mideast peace by keeping Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin at Camp David for 13 days in 1978. But his coalition splintered under double-digit inflation and the 444-day hostage crisis in Iran. His negotiations ultimately brought all the hostages home alive, but in a final insult, Iran didn’t release them until the inauguration of Ronald Reagan, who had trounced him in the 1980 election. Humbled and back home in Georgia, Carter said his faith demanded that he keep doing whatever he could, for as long as he could, to try to make a difference. He and Rosalynn co-founded in 1982 and spent the next 40 years traveling the world as peacemakers, human rights advocates and champions of democracy and public health. Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, Carter helped ease nuclear tensions in North and South Korea, avert a U.S. invasion of Haiti and and Sudan. By 2022, the center had monitored at least 113 elections around the world. Carter was determined to as one of many health initiatives. the Carters built homes with Habitat for Humanity. The common observation that he was better as an ex-president rankled Carter. His allies were pleased that he lived long enough to see biographers and historians and declare it more impactful than many understood at the time. Propelled in 1976 by voters in Iowa and then across the South, Carter ran a no-frills campaign. Americans were captivated by the earnest engineer, and while an election-year Playboy interview drew snickers when he said he “had looked on many women with lust. I’ve committed adultery in my heart many times,” voters tired of political cynicism found it endearing. The first family set an informal tone in the White House, carrying their own luggage, trying to silence the Marine Band’s traditional “Hail to the Chief" and enrolling daughter, Amy, in public schools. Carter was lampooned for wearing a cardigan and urging Americans to turn down their thermostats. But Carter set the stage for an economic revival and sharply reduced America's dependence on foreign oil by deregulating the energy industry along with airlines, trains and trucking. He established the departments of Energy and Education, appointed record numbers of women and nonwhites to federal posts, preserved millions of acres of Alaskan wilderness and pardoned most Vietnam draft evaders. , he ended most support for military dictators and took on bribery by multinational corporations by signing the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. He persuaded the Senate to ratify the Panama Canal treaties and normalized relations with China, an outgrowth of Nixon’s outreach to Beijing. But crippling turns in foreign affairs took their toll. When OPEC hiked crude prices, making drivers line up for gasoline as inflation spiked to 11%, Carter tried to encourage Americans to overcome “a crisis of confidence.” Many voters lost confidence in Carter instead after the infamous address that media dubbed his “malaise" speech, even though he never used that word. After Carter reluctantly agreed to admit the exiled Shah of Iran to the U.S. for medical treatment, the American Embassy in Tehran was overrun in 1979. Negotiations to quickly free the hostages broke down, and then eight Americans died when a top-secret military rescue attempt failed. Carter also had to reverse course on the SALT II nuclear arms treaty after the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979. Though historians would later credit Carter's diplomatic efforts for hastening the end of the Cold war, Republicans labeled his soft power weak. Reagan’s “make America great again” appeals resonated, and he beat Carter in all but six states. Born Oct. 1, 1924, James Earl Carter Jr. in 1946, the year he graduated from the Naval Academy. He brought his young family back to Plains after his father died, abandoning his Navy career, and . Carter reached the state Senate in 1962. After rural white and Black voters elected him governor in 1970, he drew national attention by declaring that “the time for racial discrimination is over.” Carter published more than 30 books and remained influential as his center turned its democracy advocacy onto U.S. politics, monitoring an audit of Georgia’s 2020 presidential election results. After Carter said he felt “perfectly at ease with whatever comes.” “I’ve had a wonderful life,” “I’ve had thousands of friends, I’ve had an exciting, adventurous and gratifying existence.” Sanz is a former Associated Press reporter.CINCINNATI — Here’s a look at whose stock improved or declined after the on Saturday at Paycor Stadium. Surtain vs. Bengals wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase was one of the biggest storylines of the game. The All-Pro cornerback lived up to the moment. Surtain lined up against Chase on 43 coverage snaps, allowing just three catches for 27 yards on six targets, according to NFL’s Next Gen Stats. Chase had six catches for 75 yards on nine targets against everyone else. Surtain also forced wide receiver Tee Higgins to fumble and Denver recovered the ball at its 40-yard line in the fourth quarter. Despite Denver’s second straight loss, Surtain improved his case for Defensive Player of the Year. Denver’s edge rusher inched closer to a career milestone. Cooper recorded 1.5 sacks against Cincinnati. He now has 9.5 on the season and is half a sack away from reaching double figures in that statistical category. Fellow edge rusher Nik Bonitto has already eclipsed that mark, currently sitting with 11.5 sacks. The Broncos have six players with at least five sacks. The second-year running back only needed 14 offensive snaps to make an impact. After McLaughlin missed last week’s game with a quad injury, he was among the bright spots on offense for Denver on Saturday, totaling 10 carries for 69 yards. He had four rushing attempts gain 10-plus yards. The Broncos finished with 123 yards on the ground — the most in a game since Week 9. Denver’s speedy wide receiver had eight catches for 103 yards and two touchdowns, marking the second time in four games he eclipsed 100 yards receiving. Mims generated 41 yards after catch and averaged 4.6 yards of separation. He had six receptions with three-plus yards of separation. It was a pretty rough afternoon for any Broncos cornerback not named Pat Surtain II. McMillian gave up five catches for 66 yards and a touchdown to Higgins in the second quarter. Fifty-nine of McMillian’s yards allowed came from wide receiver Andrei Iosivas, according to Next Gen Stats. McMillian also was penalized twice for illegal contact. Dixon picked the wrong game to have his worst performance of the season. He averaged a season-low 41.5 yards on four punts and failed to pin the ball inside the 20-yard line. Dixon booted two punts near midfield during overtime, which gave quarterback Joe Burrow and Cincinnati’s offense solid field position to work with. The past two games have been rough for Denver’s head coach. Last week, the offense was held to six points in the second half after dropping 21 in the first two quarters vs. the Chargers. In Cincinnati, the Broncos only scored three points in the first half against one of the NFL’s worst defenses. The game was littered with questionable decisions. Instead of running the ball on third-and-short during Denver’s first scoring drive, Bo Nix threw a fade to Courtland Sutton that had no chance. As well as Jaleel McLaughlin played, he had only two carries in the first half. And while after Marvin Mims Jr.’s 25-yard TD, it was an odd time for Payton to stop being aggressive. Joseph’s defense sacked Burrow seven times and it still wasn’t enough. Denver’s defense has been shaky during the back half of the season and it’s concerning. The Broncos have given up an average of 27.3 points and 435.25 yards in the last four games. They have allowed 100-plus rushing yards in three straight games.Jimmy Carter's legacy remembered in Central Illinois and beyond

SEOUL, South Korea , Dec. 26, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- SOLVIT System, a recognized leader in innovative technology, will participate in CES 2025, taking place January 7–10 in Las Vegas . The company's iSARTM (intelligent Search and Rescue) has been honored with the prestigious CES Innovation Award in the "Smart Cities" category. At CES, SOLVIT System will showcase its groundbreaking technology to dramatically reduce search areas for individuals lost in radio shadow zones. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings. Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. Error! There was an error processing your request. Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. Error! There was an error processing your request. Top trending stories from the past week. News, Sports, and more throughout the week. The week's obituaries, delivered to your inbox.

THE National Food Authority (NFA) said that it is ready to release rice in case of emergency during the holidays. "We have instructed our employees in the field to immediately activate our Operation Centers (OpCen) in the areas affected by floods, typhoons, and other emergencies and to open their hotlines to fast-track coordination with our relief institutions. It is the holiday season but our office is always open to respond to the needs of our countrymen. It is part of our service to be ready in times of need," NFA Administrator Larry Lacson said. Register to read this story and more for free . Signing up for an account helps us improve your browsing experience. OR See our subscription options.OTTAWA - TikTok is challenging the federal government’s order to shut down its operations in Canada. The company filed documents in Federal Court in Vancouver last Thursday. In November, Ottawa ordered the dissolution of TikTok’s Canadian business after a national security review of the Chinese company behind the social media platform. That means TikTok must “wind down” its operations in Canada, though the app will continue to be available to Canadians. TikTok is asking the court to overturn the government’s order and to put a pause on the order going into effect while the court hears the case. It is claiming the decision was “unreasonable” and “driven by improper purposes.” This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 10, 2024.