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Salesforce (NYSE: CRM) on Wednesday announced Agentforce 360, a platform designed to connect humans and AI agents in a single trusted system, enabling employees to work smarter, deliver better customer experiences, and operate with unprecedented speed and intelligence. Presented at Dreamforce 2025, Agentforce 360 marks the next step in Salesforce’s vision of the Agentic Enterprise, where AI elevates human potential rather than replacing people. Salesforce has spent the past year proving the model through four major releases and thousands of customer deployments, including using the platform internally. “We’re entering the age of the Agentic Enterprise — where AI elevates human potential like never before,” said Marc Benioff, Chair and CEO, Salesforce. “Agentforce 360 connects humans, agents, and data on one trusted platform, helping every employee and company achieve more.” Over the past 12 months, Salesforce advanced Agentforce through four key releases: in October 2024, it launched Agentforce, the first enterprise AI agent platform; in December 2024, Agentforce 2 introduced an improved Atlas Reasoning Engine for more grounded results; in March 2025, Agentforce 2dx enabled agents to be embedded in any workflow; and in June 2025, Agentforce 3 delivered enhanced interoperability and governance to support enterprise-scale deployments. These developments culminate in Agentforce 360, transforming Salesforce beyond CRM to empower employees, streamline operations, and enable AI agents to collaborate with humans and other agents. Agentforce 360 integrates four core elements of an Agentic Enterprise: the Agentforce 360 Platform, offering enterprise-grade AI agents with a conversational builder, hybrid reasoning, and voice capabilities; Data 360, a unified data layer that provides context and insights using Intelligent Context and Tableau Semantics; Customer 360 Apps, which embed AI into workflows to understand business logic, processes, and customer interactions; and Slack, a conversational interface that connects humans, agents, apps, and data in real time. This integrated system allows businesses to deploy agents grounded in trusted data, collaborating across teams and workflows, and extending functionality via partners across industries. Agentforce 360 is already transforming operations: Reddit reduced support response time from 8.9 to 1.4 minutes, deflecting 46% of cases; Adecco automated 51% of candidate conversations outside working hours; OpenTable resolved 70% of diner and restaurant inquiries autonomously; Engine cut handle time by 15%, saving over $2 million annually; and 1-800Accountant achieved a 90% case deflection rate during tax week. Agentforce 360 includes several key innovations: Agentforce Builder, a conversational development studio for designing agents using natural language; Agentforce Voice, a native voice layer for real-time, integrated conversations; Hybrid Reasoning & Agent Script, which combines deterministic workflows with flexible LLM reasoning; Agentforce Vibes, enabling low-code AI app development; and Observability, providing dashboards to monitor reasoning, accuracy, and compliance. Additional features span Data 360, Customer 360 Apps (Sales, Marketing, Service, Field Service, Revenue Management, Commerce, IT), Slack integrations, and industry-specific solutions. Partner integrations allow companies to use AI models from Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, and others directly within Salesforce and Slack. Agentforce 360 is available globally today, with ongoing innovations in pilot and beta programs.  

Teenagers on Instagram will be restricted to seeing PG-13 content by default and won't be able to change their settings without a parent's permission, Meta announced on Tuesday. This means kids using teen-specific accounts will see photos and videos on Instagram that are similar to what they would see in a PG-13 movie — no sex, drugs or dangerous stunts, among others. “This includes hiding or not recommending posts with strong language, certain risky stunts, and additional content that could encourage potentially harmful behaviors, such as posts showing marijuana paraphernalia,” Meta said in a blog post Tuesday, calling the update the most significant since it introduced teen accounts last year. Anyone under 18 who signs up for Instagram is automatically placed into restrictive teen accounts unless a parent or guardian gives them permission to opt out. The teen accounts are private by default, have usage restrictions on them and already filter out more “sensitive” content — such as those promoting cosmetic procedures. But kids often lie about their ages when they sign up for social media, and while Meta has began using artificial intelligence to find such accounts, the company declined to say how many adult accounts it has determined to be minors since rolling out the feature earlier this year. The company is also adding an even stricter setting that parents can set up for their children. The changes come as the social media giant faces relentless criticism over harms to children. As it seeks to add safeguards for younger users, Meta has already promised it wouldn’t show inappropriate content to teens, such as posts about self-harm, eating disorders or suicide. But this does not always work. A recent report, for instance, found that teen accounts researchers created were recommended age-inappropriate sexual content, including “graphic sexual descriptions, the use of cartoons to describe demeaning sexual acts, and brief displays of nudity.” In addition, Instagram also recommended a “range of self-harm, self-injury, and body image content” on teen accounts that the report says “would be reasonably likely to result in adverse impacts for young people, including teenagers experiencing poor mental health, or self-harm and suicidal ideation and behaviors.” Meta called the report “misleading, dangerously speculative” and that it misrepresents its efforts on teen safety. Josh Golin, the executive director of the nonprofit Fairplay, said he's “very skeptical about how this will be implemented.” “From my perspective, these announcements are about two things. They’re about forestalling legislation that Meta doesn’t want to see, and they’re about reassuring parents who are understandably concerned about what’s happening on Instagram," he said. “Splashy press releases won’t keep kids safe, but real accountability and transparency will," Golin said, adding that passing the federal Kids Online Safety Act would push for this accountability. Ailen Arreaza, executive director of ParentsTogether, was also skeptical. “We’ve heard promises from Meta before, and each time we’ve watched millions be poured into PR campaigns while the actual safety features fall short in testing and implementation. Our children have paid the price for that gap between promise and protection," Arreaza said. “While any acknowledgment of the need for age-appropriate content filtering is a step in the right direction, we need to see more than announcements — we need transparent, independent testing and real accountability.” Meta says the new restrictions go further than its previous safeguards. Teens will no longer be able to follow accounts that regularly share “age-inappropriate content” or if their name or bio contains something that isn't appropriate for teens, such as a link to an OnlyFans account. If teens already follow these accounts, they’ll no longer be able to see or interact with their content, send them messages, or see their comments under anyone’s posts, the company said. The accounts also won’t be able to follow teens, send them private messages or comment on their posts. Meta said it already blocks certain search terms related to sensitive topics such as suicide and eating disorders, but the latest update will expand this to a broader range of terms, such as “alcohol” or “gore” — even if they are misspelled. The PG-13 update will also apply artificial intelligence chats and experiences targeted to teens, Meta said, “meaning AIs should not give age-inappropriate responses that would feel out of place in a PG-13 movie.” The Motion Picture Association, which runs the film rating system that was established nearly 60 years ago, said it was not contacted by Meta prior to its announcement. “We welcome efforts to protect kids from content that may not be appropriate for them, but assertions that Instagram’s new tool will be ‘guided by PG-13 movie ratings’ or have any connection to the film industry’s rating system are inaccurate,” said Charles Rivkin, the chairman and CEO of the association, in a statement. For parents who want an even stricter setting for their kids, Meta is also launching a “limited content” restriction that will block more content and remove teens’ ability to see, leave, or receive comments under posts. To Maurine Molak, the cofounder of Parents for Safe Online Spaces, or ParentsSOS, whose son died by suicide in 2016 after being bullied online, Meta's announcement amounts to what she called a “PR stunt.” “Any time it seems like we’re getting close to federal legislation...that would actually hold them really accountable and create transparency and independent audits and require parental safety tools that work, it seems like they’re always releasing some new safeguard,” Molak said. “I think it's for Congress to see...'hey, we’ve got parents, we got you covered, we’re going to take care of you, we don’t need legislation' and it’s the same thing over and over again.” While some advocates worry that the announcement may give parents a false sense of security about the safety of their kids on Instagram, Desmond Upton Patton, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania who studies social media, AI, empathy and race, said it gives a “timely opening for parents and caregivers to talk directly with teens about their digital lives, how they use these tools, and how to shape safer habits that enable positive use cases.” “I am especially glad to see changes around AI chatbots that make clear they are not human, they do not love you back, and should be engaged with that understanding,” he said. "It is a meaningful step toward a more joyful social media experience for teens.”  

Meta has removed a Facebook page used to track the presence of immigration agents at the request of the Department of Justice, the company confirmed on Tuesday. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a post on X that “following outreach” from the DOJ, Facebook removed a “large group page” that was being used to target ICE officials. Meta said in a statement that the group "was removed for violating our policies against coordinated harm.” Meta is the latest tech company to restrict tools used to track ICE agents on its platform. Earlier this month, Apple and Google blocked downloads of phone apps that flag sightings of U.S. immigration agents, just hours after the Trump administration demanded that one particularly popular iPhone app be taken down. Bondi has said that such tracking puts Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers at risk. But users and developers of the apps say it’s their First Amendment right to capture what ICE is doing in their neighborhoods — and maintain that most users turn to these platforms in an effort to protect their own safety as President Donald Trump steps up aggressive immigration enforcement across the country. While a Facebook group for ICE sightings in Chicago does appear to have been taken down, as of Tuesday evening, dozens of other groups, some with thousands of members, remained visible on Facebook.  

OpenAI has partnered with Walmart to allow shoppers to buy products directly through ChatGPT, expanding the AI company’s growing move into digital commerce as it seeks new revenue sources. In a joint announcement Tuesday, Walmart said the new feature will let customers “simply chat and buy,” meaning users can instantly purchase items — from groceries and household essentials to other products they’re discussing with the chatbot — without leaving the app. “For many years now, eCommerce shopping experiences have consisted of a search bar and a long list of item responses,” Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said in a statement. “That is about to change.” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the partnership will “make everyday purchases a little simpler.” The companies did not specify when the feature will launch, only saying it would be available “soon.” The deal marks OpenAI’s latest move into online retail, following similar integrations with Shopify and Etsy sellers. Teaming up with Walmart — the world’s largest retailer — represents a major leap, potentially positioning ChatGPT as a competitor to Amazon and Google in the digital shopping space. Trump’s tariffs may mean Walmart shoppers pay more, his treasury chief acknowledges OpenAI, which has yet to turn a profit, has relied heavily on investor funding to maintain and expand its AI systems. The company said last month that it collaborated with payments firm Stripe to develop the technical framework for its “Instant Checkout” feature. Meanwhile, Walmart has been accelerating its own use of artificial intelligence across operations. The Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer highlighted tools like its AI shopping assistant “Sparky” and other innovations deployed in Walmart and Sam’s Club stores. Members of Sam’s Club will also be able to use ChatGPT’s new shopping feature once it launches. “AI is transforming everything we do, from smarter catalogs to faster delivery — and it only works if people trust it,” said Daniel Danker, Walmart’s executive vice president for AI Acceleration, Product and Design. Shares of Walmart closed nearly 5% higher on Tuesday following the announcement. Source: AP 

Google on Tuesday announced a $15 billion investment in India over the next five years to establish its first artificial intelligence hub in the country. The hub, located in Visakhapatnam in southern India, will be one of Google’s largest globally, featuring gigawatt-scale data centers, advanced energy infrastructure, and an expanded fiber-optic network, the company said. The investment highlights India’s role as a key technology and talent base in the global AI race. Google said the project will also include a new international subsea gateway connecting to its existing terrestrial and undersea cables spanning over 2 million miles. “The initiative creates substantial economic and societal opportunities for both India and the United States, while pioneering a generational shift in AI capability,” the company said. CEO Sundar Pichai told Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the hub will accelerate AI innovation and drive growth across India. Modi welcomed the investment, saying it aligns with India’s vision of becoming a developed nation and will help democratize technology. The Adani Group confirmed its partnership with Google for developing the AI hub.

Meta announced on Tuesday that teenagers using Instagram will now be limited to PG-13 content by default, and they won’t be able to change the setting without parental consent. The new restriction means teens will only see photos and videos similar to what would be allowed in a PG-13 movie — excluding sex, drugs, strong language, or dangerous stunts. “This includes hiding or not recommending posts with strong language, risky stunts, or content that promotes harmful behavior,” Meta said in a blog post, calling the change its biggest update since launching teen accounts last year. Parents will also be able to apply an even stricter “limited content” mode that further blocks sensitive posts and restricts interactions such as comments and messages. The move follows mounting criticism over Instagram’s impact on young users’ mental health. Despite Meta’s previous promises to protect teens from harmful content, reports found that teen accounts were still being recommended sexual or self-harm-related material. Under the new system, teens won’t be able to follow or interact with accounts that share explicit or inappropriate content, including those linked to adult platforms like OnlyFans. Meta will also expand its list of blocked search terms to include words such as “alcohol” or “gore,” even if misspelled.

  On Monday, SpaceX launched its eleventh test flight of the massive Starship rocket, once again achieving a successful mission as the vehicle circled halfway around the globe and released mock satellites, just like in previous flights. The Starship — the largest and most powerful rocket ever constructed — soared into the evening sky from southern Texas. The booster detached and executed a controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico, while the spacecraft briefly entered space before descending into the Indian Ocean. As planned, no components were retrieved. “Hey, welcome back to Earth, Starship,” said SpaceX’s Dan Huot, as employees celebrated. “What a day.” This flight marked the 11th full-scale launch of Starship, the reusable rocket Elon Musk hopes will eventually carry humans to Mars. For NASA, however, the timeline is more pressing: the agency needs Starship to land astronauts on the moon before the end of the decade. The 403-foot (123-meter) vehicle is key to ferrying crews between lunar orbit and the surface. For the first time, Musk watched the launch from outside Launch Control, describing the experience as “much more visceral.” The August test flight, considered a success after several previous failures, followed a similar trajectory. However, this latest test featured enhanced maneuvering — particularly during the spacecraft’s reentry phase. SpaceX conducted several tests over the Indian Ocean to simulate future landings back at the launch site. As with previous tests, Starship carried eight mock satellites resembling the company’s Starlink internet satellites. The mission lasted just over an hour, launching from SpaceX’s Starbase facility near the Mexican border. NASA’s acting administrator, Sean Duffy, praised the mission’s success on X, calling it “another major step toward landing Americans on the moon’s south pole.” In preparation for future missions, SpaceX is upgrading its launch facilities at Cape Canaveral to handle Starship rockets, alongside the smaller Falcon vehicles currently used to send astronauts and cargo to the International Space Station.

Global CRM leader Salesforce has unveiled a new Trusted AI foundation designed to help businesses scale accurate, explainable, and secure AI across all workflows. The announcement, made on Monday, introduces a unified framework called the “Agentic Enterprise,” where humans and AI collaborate seamlessly in decision-making and operations. Salesforce said the new system will ensure AI outputs are grounded in unified business data, embedding transparency, governance, and compliance into every process. Among the key innovations are Data Cloud Context Indexing, which allows AI agents to interpret complex documents; Data Cloud Clean Rooms, enabling secure data collaboration without exposing raw data; and Tableau Semantics, which translates raw data into business language for consistent insights. The company is partnering with Databricks, dbt Labs, and Snowflake to standardize semantics across platforms. It also plans to acquire Informatica by early FY27 to strengthen metadata management and data governance. Salesforce’s MuleSoft Agent Fabric will act as a central hub to register and orchestrate AI agents, supported by integrations with CrowdStrike and Okta for security and risk management. Rahul Auradkar, Salesforce’s EVP and GM of Unified Data Services, said the foundation aims to harmonize structured and unstructured data to unlock intelligent automation and actionable insights. “AI must be grounded in a deep business context to deliver true transformation,” Auradkar said. “With this foundation, we’re enabling our customers to scale responsibly and unlock the full potential of the Agentic Enterprise.”    

China Agricultural University (CAU) launched Shennong Large Model 3.0 on Monday at the 2025 World Agrifood Innovation Conference (WAFI 2025) in Beijing, signaling a major step toward making AI more accessible and practical for use in agriculture. According to Wang Yaojun, lead researcher at CAU, a key achievement is that this new model not only reduces computational demands substantially but also boosts performance by 5 percent compared to the original version. He added that the model's architecture had been comprehensively redesigned to strike an optimal balance between being lightweight and delivering high performance. This latest release builds upon critical groundwork laid by earlier versions. Shennong 1.0 established core agricultural knowledge and question-answering capabilities, while Shennong 2.0 introduced multimodal functions and expanded the model's applications across the agricultural sector. The model is named in honor of Shennong, a revered figure in Chinese mythology known as the "Divine Farmer," who is credited with teaching ancient Chinese people agricultural practices and the use of medicinal herbs. Alongside the large model, the team also released an agent platform. This platform fosters a lightweight, deployable and collaborative AI ecosystem that covers the entire agricultural chain, offering 36 specialized agents organized into six categories including smart breeding, planting and farming. "These agents are designed for 36 distinct agricultural scenarios and can be integrated with agricultural machinery and sensors to enhance intelligent agricultural production," Wang said. He noted that pilot programs have already been deployed in several areas surrounding Beijing, as well as in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, providing localized services such as plant protection and customized guidance throughout the cultivation process. The launch of Shennong Large Model 3.0 signals the arrival of a new phase in agricultural AI -- one characterized by high efficiency, user-friendliness and technological self-reliance, thereby laying a solid foundation for the future of smart agriculture, Wang added. Since its inception in 2023, the Shennong Large Model has been trained on an extensive and specialized agricultural dataset, integrating over 10 million agricultural knowledge graphs, 50 million records of modern agricultural production data and 20,000 agricultural monographs. WAFI 2025, being held from Oct. 12 to 14, has gathered about 780 experts from home and abroad -- serving as a world-class platform dedicated to advancing global agrifood innovation.    

Wine technology innovator VIVANT has launched its new Wine App, an AI-driven platform that offers personalised guidance, expert insights, and precision control to enhance the wine experience for enthusiasts and professionals alike. Paired with VIVANT’s award-winning Titan Portable Electronic Decanter Chiller, the app combines artificial intelligence with sommelier-level knowledge to create a seamless “smart wine ecosystem” that helps users explore, serve, and enjoy wine with professional precision. The app provides instant recommendations on grape varieties, regions, vintages, ideal serving temperatures, decanting times, and food pairings. It also includes a wine label scanner, precise serving guides, and remote connectivity with VIVANT devices—making expert wine service as simple as using a smartphone. “VIVANT has built this app to make professional wine expertise available to everyone, regardless of their experience level,” said Daniel Fu, Founder of VIVANT. “Whether it’s temperature recommendations, a wine’s story, or perfect food pairings, this app helps unlock every wine’s full potential.” VIVANT’s brand ambassador Reeze Choi, the ASI Best Sommelier of Asia and Pacific 2025, added: “Temperature control is non-negotiable in professional wine service. VIVANT makes such expertise accessible through a simple app, enriching wine education and appreciation in Singapore’s vibrant culinary scene—from fine dining to boutique bars and home settings.” The Wine App’s debut marks the beginning of VIVANT’s digital transformation. Future updates will include social features, interactive learning tools, and new product integrations aimed at making wine enjoyment more engaging and community-driven. iPhone users can now screen unknown calls with iOS 26 update Seamless integration with the Titan decanter chillerThe VIVANT Wine App works hand in hand with the company’s flagship Titan Portable Electronic Decanter Chiller, recently honoured with the SMART LABEL 2025 Award for Product Performance and an iF Design Award.The Titan features a cooling range of 8–20°C, a portable battery life of up to four hours, and now connects directly with the app for precise control over wine temperature and decanting—anytime, anywhere. VIVANT plans to expand its smart wine ecosystem with new digital experiences, including social sharing, wine-related games, and enhanced hospitality integrations, bridging technology, design, and culture to make expert-level wine service accessible to all. The VIVANT Wine App is now available for free download on iOS, with an Android version set to launch soon. Premium features and expanded device integrations will be rolled out in the coming months. Source: AP