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Big Tech is in damage control mode. According to the Wall Street Journal, companies across the industry are scrambling to soften a mounting public backlash against artificial intelligence, deploying lobbying efforts, PR campaigns, and policy concessions in what the paper describes as a frantic internal push to protect their AI investments.
Shifting gears, Perplexity is expanding again, and this time it's going local. The AI company, which has already moved into search, browsers, and cloud-based agents, is now launching a product called Portable Computer, a local AI agent that runs inference on-device rather than in the cloud, blending both approaches through its hybrid orchestration system.
And on a lighter note, Commodore is back in a way nobody quite expected. The iconic computing brand has teamed up with Cyberpunk two thousand seventy seven to release the Commodore seventy seven, a retro-styled machine that leans hard into the game's neon-soaked aesthetic. It is either a love letter to computing history or a very committed piece of merchandise, and honestly, it might be both.
Keep surfing. Tech Beat out.
