📱Care for a byte into this week’s tech news? From Microsoft’s latest big moves in the AI sphere — and an interesting collaboration with Mercedes-Benz — to Google’s continued AI push and the latest iPhone rumors ahead of its September launch, here are some of the stories making headlines in the tech world.

Following in Google’s footsteps, Microsoft is introducing an AI-powered search engine to Edge with Copilot Mode. The new feature follows a similar approach to Perplexity’s Comet, which launched earlier this month; it “understands your intent” and works intuitively. You can also now “speak” to Copilot and — with permission — it can track your screen activity for an enhanced, seamless experience.

Copilot is also going for a ride with Mercedes-Benz. The tech giant and the German auto leader are collaborating to bring Microsoft Teams meetings to the comfort of your driver’s seat. Through the car’s built-in camera, users will be able to attend Teams meetings. For safety purposes, however, the driver will not be able to see the screen while the car is in motion — though the camera would still be on.

The new CLA will be the first to include the in-car camera support for Microsoft Teams. The two companies are also linking up to make Microsoft 365 Copilot available in the brand’s latest vehicles. In short, you no longer have any excuse to miss that morning debrief.

Speaking of Google, the “search” giant doesn’t seem to be taking no for an answer. Though its recently launched AI Mode has been the topic of much controversy — with myriad publishers taking the Alphabet subsidiary to court on accusations of theft as AI Mode mines third-party information with no credit to the original source — it appears that Google is moving forward with the feature, launching it in the UK.

Already available in the US and India, the tool uses Google’s Gemini to produce responses in a conversational interface that eschews traditional search links. Google says the launch is intended towards more complicated queries — yet the same concerns remain. Even though AI responses could include links to websites, the threat is still there, especially considering that in Google’s case, the question of how original publishers will continue to make advertising revenue off AI Mode remains on the table. To make matters worse, AI Mode isn’t really paying off, with a new study confirming that users met with AI summaries are likely to cut their time on the platform short.

In other AI news, OpenAI is launching GPT-5 in August with advanced capabilities, including o3 reasoning, according to its CEO Sam Altman, as reported by The Verge. The upcoming iteration of the chatbot is part of OpenAI’s efforts to combine its models into a system that can be declared artificial general intelligence (AGI) — a step that will give OpenAI full independence from Microsoft.

The prospect, however, seems unlikely, seeing as GPT-5 won’t have a “gold level of capability for many months,” according to Altman. Let’s just hope that GPT-5 will skip the whole murder instructions and devil worship bit — which, according to the Atlantic, the chatbot is eager to discuss.

MEANWHILE– Outside of AI’s dizzying breakthroughs, the new iPhone 17 Pro is causing a stir for an allegedly new hardware design. Ahead of its launch this September, a test development iPhone was spotted in the wild. The leaks show a never-seen-before camera control on the top edge of the phone, bringing the total number of camera controls on the pro iteration of the iPhone to two.

Although the button’s function remains unclear, there is speculation suggesting it could be to make zooming easier. Should the leaks prove true, it would be an interesting choice for Apple to make — considering the iPhone maker would essentially be doubling down on a feature that disappointed many. All could turn out to be untrue, though, so we’ll just have to wait and see.

Tags: