News
Daily developments, policy and market moves across agentic payments and the agent economy.
Latest
Ant International Launches Dedicated Bank Accounts for AI Agents, Promises 100% Compensation for Agent Errors
Ant International has rolled out an 'Account for Agent' under its global account brand WorldFirst, running on Know Your Agent smart contracts that monitor agent activity in real time and allow enterprises to intervene.
Amazon AWS Launches AI Recruiting Agent Amazon Connect Talent, Interviewing Candidates 24/7
AWS has announced the general availability of Amazon Connect Talent, an AI agent that can conduct voice interviews 24/7 and generate evaluation briefs, while final hiring decisions remain with recruiters.
Alibaba.com Tests 13 AI Models: Best Completes Only 61.7% of Real Commerce Tasks
Alibaba.com's CommerceAgentBench reveals that even the top-performing AI model, Claude Opus 5, fails to complete nearly 40% of real-world trade tasks, with the biggest gaps in landed-cost calculations, return disputes, and multi-leg shipping routes.
Ant International Unveils Nearly 100 AI-Native Financial Products Spanning Payments, FX and Treasury
The suite is built on two in-house foundation models and includes a blockchain-based wholesale settlement platform and a new agentic mobile protocol.
Stripe Wallet Opens the Door to AI Agent Payments
Stripe is bringing AI agent-initiated payments into its wallet layer, signaling that agentic payments are moving from experimental use cases toward mainstream payment rails.
AI Safety Evaluators Accused of Conflicts of Interest, Staff Turnover Sparks Calls for Congressional Investigation
An analysis viewed nearly 5 million times has thrust the financial ties between AI safety evaluators and frontier labs into the spotlight.
California Governor Forms Expert Panel to Advance AI Safety Law
Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order convening a panel of national experts to guide the strengthening of the state's AI safety and security laws, with proposals due in two months.
Plugin4Shell Flaw Bypasses Version Locking in Four AI Coding Agents
A newly disclosed vulnerability lets repository owners slip malicious plugin configurations past version constraints in Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Windsurf, and Continue, raising supply-chain concerns as AI coding agents spread through enterprise development.
Shopify Partners with Meta to Advance AI Payments, Moving into the Agent Settlement Layer
Shopify and Meta are integrating AI agent payment capabilities across their platforms, allowing merchants to have AI agents initiate and complete transaction settlements within Meta's apps. The move shifts the payment initiator from consumers to AI agents, raising new questions around identity verification, authorization limits, and payee whitelisting.
Google Tests Personal AI Agent Account System With Family Sharing
Google is experimenting with dedicated accounts for AI agents that multiple household members can use, signaling a shift toward shared, permissioned automation.
Circle Opens Arc Mainnet to Expand USDC Use Cases
Stablecoin issuer Circle has launched the mainnet of its Layer-1 blockchain Arc, positioning it as infrastructure for payments and settlement to broaden USDC's on-chain applications.
WTO Stablecoin Report Cites XDC Network, Circle and BIS as B2B Stablecoin Payments Jump 733% Year-on-Year
The World Trade Organization's new stablecoin report references XDC Network, Circle and the Bank for International Settlements, signaling that stablecoins are being drawn into discussions of international trade infrastructure as B2B payment volumes surge.