Pope Leo XIV flags AI impact on kids' intellectual and spiritual development

ROME — Pope Leo XIV warned Friday that artificial intelligence could negatively impact the intellectual, neurological and spiritual development of young people as he pressed one of the priorities of his young pontificate.
History's first American pope sent a message to a conference of AI and ethics, part of which was taking place in the Vatican in a sign of the Holy See's concern for the new technologies and what they mean for humanity.

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2 hours ago

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Proptech firms pull in funding to ramp up AI tools

This story was originally published on Facilities Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Facilities Dive newsletter. The proptech sector has been busy this month, led by notable fundraises, products and service announcements — all underpinned by the promise that artificial intelligence will change the way buildings are managed. Three main needs are driving investment in proptech: better building data management, operational efficiencies and tenant experiences, Jason Smith, executive vice president of property management at JLL, said during a Building Engines webinar earlier this year. 'Some of the technologies are so advanced that they'll connect into the building operation systems, which lead to real-time monitoring of energy. They can tell you when to start up your large equipment, leading to cost reductions and other efficiencies for the building team,' Smith said. 'Technology [also] leads to reduced manual tasks, because you can set up automation for emailing, updating tenants on their service request, and ultimately, all this leads to the tenant experience enhancement.' AI in particular is expected to improve underwriting, asset selection and risk modeling for real estate investors, with the most investable proptech companies being those that solve challenges in real estate operations, according to a podcast featuring CBRE Head of Global Digital Partnerships Connor Hall and Fifth Wall CEO Brendan Wallace. Funding provided by commercial service firms is especially notable, as investing in proptech can give them early access to innovations that can help them enhance asset performance, reduce costs and create competitive differentiation, per the report. Here's a look at three proptech companies and how their technology is working to change facilities management. Runwise completed a $55 million series B financing round that it will use to support innovation, expand its team and enter into new core markets, the company announced June 9. The company's smart operating system for buildings is installed in more than 10,000 buildings across the U.S., and it has over 1,000 customers, including real estate owner-operators like Related, MTA, Port Authority, National Grid and Douglas Elliman. The firm's vertically integrated platform combines proprietary hardware, wireless connectivity and cloud-based software to automate and optimize building operations, featuring rapid deployment and a typical payback period under five months, Runwise said. "More than 150 of our buildings have installed Runwise, and in most buildings we have seen up to 30% in energy savings, while making the buildings more comfortable, and easier to manage,' John Skipper, director of energy management at First Service Residential, said in a statement. Since its seed funding round in 2020, Runwise says in its release that it has 'grown over 30X and is on track to nearly double again this year, driven by demand for solutions that deliver tangible ROI, operational simplicity, and environmental impact.' The newest financing round was also twice oversubscribed, 'underscoring investor confidence in Runwise's category-defining approach to making buildings smarter, more efficient, and cost-effective,' it said in the release. Cove, a commercial property management software that aims to unify tenant experience and building operations to connect the entire property ecosystem, announced an investment from Lead Edge Capital in June. The capital, which follows previous funding by Nuveen Real Estate in 2024 and Blackstone Innovations Investments in 2022, comes at a time of major transformation in the commercial real estate industry marked by shifting tenant expectations and rising operational costs, Cove said in a June 2 release. The company says its platform simplifies operations for stakeholders — including property managers, owners and engineers — by consolidating communication, task management and insights into a single interface. This eliminates the need for multiple disconnected tools and supports a range of property types, including office buildings, life science campuses, retail centers, industrial facilities and medical offices, Cove said. MRI Software introduced new AI-enhanced finance and accounting capabilities that will ensure its clients 'remain at the forefront of PropTech innovation,' the company said in a June 2 release. These new capabilities, made possible through the firm's MRI Agora platform, include an agentic AI-based workflow that is expected to shorten the time spent on month-end close processes while ensuring that finance and accounting teams can maintain human oversight and control, MRI Software said. An AI chatbot, Ask Agora, will help users to interact with their real estate data in natural language. The tool features an in-page AI assistant that can provide contextual insights, recommendations and guidance that can boost productivity and drive decision-making, per the release. For example, an operator could use Page Assistance to understand a tenant's outstanding debts and then prompt it to create and send a communication reminding the tenant to pay, MRI Software says. Recommended Reading Vendors streamline integrations as operators seek unified systems: Realcomm IBcon

Yahoo

3 hours ago

• Yahoo

OpenAI's Altman slams Mark Zuckerberg, ignites drama

OpenAI's Altman slams Mark Zuckerberg, ignites drama originally appeared on TheStreet. The race for Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) continues getting spicier. Except it's a lot less like a sprint, but more like a high-stakes soap opera starring the biggest minds in the tech world. 💵💰💰💵 The relentless push spans big-money bets and headline-making hires, all of which are part of a broader play to avoid coming in second. Needless to say, there's plenty on the line here. However, the public mud-slinging between AI leaders, especially over talent, is what's catching everyone off guard. It appears the gloves are off in the AI talent war, and the industry's needle-movers are swinging for the fences. The space is seemingly shifting from hype to execution, and everyone's looking to see who cracks AGI first. AI powerhouse OpenAI's ChatGPT lit the fuse three years ago, when suddenly, AI could chat, code, and riff like a 2023, we saw its models getting smarter, quicker, and more creative, with the likes of Google, Anthropic, and Meta Platforms () joining the race. That ushered in the open-source surge, proving top-tier AI wasn't just at the mercy of Big Tech. Now the focus is on AGI-superintelligent systems that can think, learn, and outsmart humans across the board. To put things in perspective, Superintelligent AI, or AGI, isn't just your regular chatbot. It's a transformative force that may revolutionize everything from drug discovery to enterprise software. For tech giants like Meta Platforms () , this may entail embedding intelligence across their ecosystem. From their ubiquitous social platforms to VR worlds, this could create new revenue streams and defend against disruption. Unsurprisingly, the stakes go way beyond just market share. Governments view AGI as a national security asset. Retaining the industry's cream, coupled with regular breakthroughs on home turf, has become geopolitical. More On Meta Platforms Veteran portfolio manager raises eyebrows with latest Meta Platforms move Google plans major AI shift after Meta's surprising $14 billion move WhatsApp is making a change that users won't like Hence, the victors won't just dominate tech in this ongoing war for AI's future; they could potentially reshape the global economy as we know it. Consequently, a talent war is heating up, and the company that cracks AGI first could dominate the decade. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman didn't hold back. In a podcast hosted by his brother, he revealed that Meta Platforms dangled $100 million signing bonuses to lure OpenAI staff, only to fail. 'None of our best people have decided to take them up on that,' he AI trailblazer framed the offers as mostly desperate and misguided. 'I don't think that's going to set up a great culture,' Altman said, taking a dig at Meta's compensation-first recruiting strategy. He also discussed OpenAI's edge in the fast-evolving race for superintelligence and long-term value. 'People look at the two paths and say…OpenAI has got a really good shot,' he added. Altman believes a great team is built on a collective purpose and the aim to accomplish something revolutionary. He also slammed Meta's AI efforts to date 'have not worked as well as they hoped,' suggesting a lack of an innovative culture might be the chief reason. The remarks came just days after Meta committed $14.3 billion to Scale AI and tapped its CEO, Alexandr Wang, to lead a new superintelligence project. The project aims to achieve AGI, transcending normal human intelligence. Moreover, reports suggest Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg set out to recruit 50 top engineers and researchers to form his dream team. Perhaps a big part of Meta's recent AI push likely stems from its lukewarm reception compared to ChatGPT and DeepMind's models. After shelling out billions on his metaverse vision, Zuckerberg pivoted, chasing the next big thing in AI to stay in the game. If the plan works out, Meta's superintelligence play could reshape it all, covering everything from content to complex tasks to even an advanced version of the metaverse. It's a moonshot move, but one that could pay many dividends down the road. To bring that to life, it's already made some huge moves. Perhaps the biggest is its $14.3 billion bet on leading data labelling and annotation provider Scale AI for roughly 50% of the business. That's Meta's largest deal since its WhatsApp acquisition for $19 billion (the largest in the company's history). Scale AI's 28-year-old spunky CEO, Alexander Wang, will lead the new superintelligence team. Zuckerberg needed a sharp, Altman-style operator to fast-track AGI and win the commercial AI race. Also, it's important to note that Meta's talent hunt didn't stop at OpenAI. Of late, it has gone straight for DeepMind's core, snagging big names like Koray Kavukcuoglu (a key architect at Google). Meta also successfully poached Dr. Jack Rae, a principal researcher known for cutting-edge models from Google DeepMind. Also, it successfully tapped voice AI expert Johan Schalkwyk from startup Sesame Altman slams Mark Zuckerberg, ignites drama first appeared on TheStreet on Jun 18, 2025 This story was originally reported by TheStreet on Jun 18, 2025, where it first appeared. Sign in to access your portfolio

Travel Weekly

3 hours ago

• Travel Weekly

Is AI something we need to embrace ... or survive?

Richard Turen Consider this one in an ongoing series of columns that will eventually be written by AI, I'm sure. I was not anxious to open the door to this subject. Perhaps articles about AI's potential impact on our industry should best be written by those who study and design AI in the tech sector or at universities. Many travel advisors I speak to say they will embrace AI when it can do more. Some think it is a threat in terms of eliminating the need for professional, human advisors. Why, after all, rely on the travel knowledge and experience stored in one single brain when you can more quickly access the collective wisdom of tens of thousands? In our time together, I have not addressed in depth the potential impact of AI. I do not want to try to predict where it/we are headed. I do not want to pretend that I have any scientific expertise in the field. But I thought it might be helpful to devote some space to just talking through some of my observations over the past several years regarding the impact of amateur or, if you prefer, "artificial" intelligence on our industry. I have been keeping files on the progress of AI over the years, knowing I would write about it at some point when I felt I had a handle on the subject. Any objective observer would look back and marvel at the progress that has been made in technology in a few years and, all too often, in just a few months. Should we be worried? Should we be unusually proactive? Or should we do the one thing we as a profession never do: Should we actively communicate to our clients that AI is a potentially destructive way to enable a machine to plan the best moments of one's life? In wondering what the future might hold for our little shops that sell the world, I decided to start with the source: "While AI is gaining ground in the tourism sector, this does not mean that travel agents will disappear. On the contrary, their role is evolving. Rather than focusing on flight and hotel research, they can now focus on their true expertise: advising, guiding and offering unique experiences." That is not an altogether reassuring statement. If we lose the ability to compete with AI in flight planning and accommodations, does that mean that we all need to convert to the highest level of personal FIT planning? And will that be profitable? Do we want to engage in a profession where we are no longer trusted to do 75% of what most of us do for a living? I did not write the statement. Google AI wrote it in response to my question. It is the only part of this column I did not write. And it is interesting in terms of Google AI's confidence that it will soon be taking over several of the most critical functions we fulfill. And there is a question left unanswered: If our "true expertise" is offering "unique experiences," how will we compete with a technology that can scan tens of thousands of unique experiences at any destination in the world within moments.? A comment from respected Stanford professor Fei-Fei Li illustrates the major goal of AI and its immediate focus. She said there was a phrase from the 1970s that AI "is a machine that can make a perfect chess move while the room is on fire." Machines lack contextual understanding. Travel industry skeptics, and I am not one of them, claim that the lack of conceptual understanding is the reason that AI will never replace the home-based IC or the office-based corporate agent. Let's continue this conversation next time -- there may, after all, be a new AI breakthrough to report.