Function calling is a capability that allows a language model to select an external function and produce structured arguments for it. The application defines available tools, such as searching a database, checking inventory, calculating a value, or creating a calendar event. When the model requests a call, trusted software validates the arguments, runs the function, and can return the result for the model to incorporate into its response. The model does not execute arbitrary code simply because it generated a call. Secure implementations restrict permissions, validate schemas, handle failures, protect sensitive data, require confirmation for consequential actions, and treat tool output as potentially untrusted input.
Spotify says it has excluded more than 50 million slop and spam tracks from recommendations in 2026, using listener signals and AI detection tools.
Tolan has raised $30 million for its everyday AI companion. The startup says 70% of users are women as it balances wider access with computing costs.
Inception says Mercury 3 delivers 1,068 tokens per second with a million-token context window, bringing diffusion-based AI to fast agents, tutoring and customer support.
MiniMax has released M3.1 Flash for AI agents, coding and computer use, with API pricing from $0.15 per million input tokens and claimed speeds above 200 tokens per second.
World has introduced a bank-facing World ID suite that lets financial firms request proof of humanity, presence or selected attributes as AI deepfakes and agents reshape trust online.
Anthropic says Claude-driven development pushed code changes past 30,000 a day, turning Git infrastructure into a bottleneck and leading to its new Scion source-control system.
Anthropic is reportedly consulting law firms on how Claude agents could negotiate prices, disputes and work terms while acting for human users.
YC-backed Outlit says its AI agents continuously combine internal records and public signals to flag churn risk and sales opportunities across business accounts.
Anthropic says junior technical hires fell from 27% to 9% while employee-directed Claude agents logged six times more runtime than their human handlers.
DeepSeek’s V4.1-Flash-1017 claims faster, shorter responses at the same model price while Search and Fetch APIs open its web tools to developers.