Whether you're a scientist brainstorming research ideas or a CEO hoping to automate a task in human resources or finance, you'll find that artificial intelligence tools are becoming the assistants you didn't know you needed. In particular, many professionals are tapping into the talents of semi-autonomous software systems called AI agents, which can call on AI at specific points to solve problems and complete tasks.AI agents are particularly effective when they use large language models (LLMs) because those systems are powerful, efficient, and adaptable. One way to program such technology is by describing in code what you want your system to do (the 'workflow'), including when it should use an LLM. If you were a software company trying to revamp your old codebase to use a more modern programming language for better optimizations and safety, you might build a system that uses an LLM to translate the codebase one file at a time, testing each file as you go.But what happens when LLMs make mistakes' You'll want the agent to backtrack to make another attempt, incorporating lessons it learned from previous mistakes. Coding this up can take as much effort as implementing the original agent; if your system for translating a codebase contained thousands of lines of code, then you'd be making thousands of lines of code changes or additions to support the logic for backtracking when LLMs make mistakes....

Last month, Zheng Hehui gave an oral defence of his PhD in civil engineering at Southeast University in Nanjing, China. But Zheng had not written a thesis. Instead, he talked about a product he had developed: a set of Lego-like blocks, made with reinforced steel, that fit together to form a bridge pylon. Zheng is among the first cohort of Chinese doctoral students to be assessed on the basis of practical achievements that lead to new products, techniques, projects and installations. His invention is being used in a huge cable-stayed rail and road bridge built across the Yangtze River. Since September, at least 11 such 'practical PhD' students, all engineers, have obtained their doctoral degrees through this route. Their work includes the development and application of a welding technique and its equipment, and the creation of a fire-fighting system for a large seaplane. Universities in other countries offer 'industrial PhDs', for which students work closely with a company, but many of these degrees still require a written thesis....

The company has become the official watch partner of the Aston Martin Formula One Team, replacing Girard-Perregaux, and has also agreed a wider collaboration with Aston Martin Lagonda. The partnership will see Breitling develop a series of co-branded timepieces linked to Formula One, vintage cars, and the Lagonda marque. The debut watch, the Navitimer B01 Chronograph 43 Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team edition, is priced at $11,500 in the US and limited to 1,959 units. The design features Aston Martin's racing green livery, a lightweight titanium case, and a carbon-fibre dial inspired by materials used in Formula One cockpits. Breitling is majority owned by Partners Group, which increased its stake to over 50% in December 2022 after first acquiring a significant minority position in 2021. CVC Capital Partners, which bought a controlling stake in the Swiss watchmaker in 2017, remains a minority shareholder with an interest of about 23.6%. Following the ownership reshuffle in 2022, Breitling was valued at roughly SFr4.5bn, or about $4.5bn at the time....

On Thursday, AI giant OpenAI announced the launch of OpenAI Frontier, an end-to-end platform designed for enterprises to build and manage AI agents. It's an open platform, which means users can manage agents built outside of OpenAI too. Frontier users can program AI agents to connect to external data and applications, which allows them to execute tasks far outside of the OpenAI platform. Users can also limit and manage what these agents have access to, and what they can do, of course. OpenAI said Frontier was designed to work the same way companies manage human employees. Frontier offers an onboarding process for agents and a feedback loop that is meant to help them improve over time the same way a review might help an employee. OpenAI touted enterprises, including HP, Oracle, State Farm, and Uber as customers, but Frontier is currently only available to a limited number of users with plans to roll out more generally in the coming months. Agent-management products become table stakes since AI agents rose to prominence in 2024. Salesforce has arguably the best-known such product, Agentforce, which the company launched in the fall of 2024. Others have quickly followed. LangChain is a notable player in the space that was founded in 2022 and has raised more than $150 million in venture capital. CrewAI is a smaller upstart that has raised more than $20 million in venture capital....