Future of farming? Carbon Robotics lands $70M for AI weed-zapping robots

Seattle startup Carbon Robotics raised a $70 million Series D round to scale its agriculture technology platform that features a weed-zapping AI robot used on farms across the world. The 160-person company is opening a new 24,000 square-foot manufacturing plant in Richland, Wash., and CEO Paul Mikesell hinted at a vision beyond agriculture. Read more.

AI agents are reigniting the competition between Microsoft and Salesforce. 

• Microsoft this morning announced 10 new AI agents for its Dynamics 365 line of business applications — tools that can complete tasks autonomously in areas including sales, service, finance, and supply chain operations. 
• The news comes a few days in advance of the planned general availability of Salesforce’s competing Agentforce autonomous AI technology for sales and service.
• Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has been pointed in his criticism of Microsoft’s Copilot AI technology in recent weeks, saying Microsoft is disappointing its business customers and exposing their data to security risks.
• The new AI agents from both companies reflect broader efforts across the industry to take AI beyond the realm of assistant, giving the technology the ability to also complete assignments and tasks autonomously.

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory researchers are leading an effort to find new ways to accelerate the pace of computational chemistry, by making tools for quantum computing and AI-assisted data analysis available via the cloud. Read more.

Hot Links:

• A recent LinkedIn post criticizing Amazon ’s bureaucracy struck a chord with current and former employees. (Bloomberg) 
• Costco Wholesale ’s monthly Costco Connection magazine is a rare print media success story. (The New York Times)

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