
MarkTechPost: Meet Factory Droid 1.0: A Model-Independent Coding Agent Harness Built on Script Mode
Factory has released Droid 1.0, the largest update yet to the Factory Droid agent harness. The main change is programmatic tool calling, now on by default. The model writes a program that runs its tools. One model request can now drive hundreds of tool calls. TL;DR Size: Base prompt is 13,055 input tokens, down 37% from 20,887. Only 2 tool definitions ship up front, down from 11. Runs on: macOS and Windows desktop app, a terminal UI, and the Node SDK @factory/droid-sdk. Works with any
Factory released an updated coding agent harness that uses programmatic tool calling, allowing a single model request to execute hundreds of tool calls instead of processing each result individually. The harness is model-independent, works with various supported models through user-provided API keys, and achieved the highest pass rate on Terminal-Bench 4 testing compared to other harnesses tested on the same model. This approach reduces costs and processing time by keeping raw files, search results, and logs within a sandboxed program, with only printed output returning to the model for context.
Explainer: The 90% That Matters: Why Your Agent's Harness Beats the Model
Want to go deeper than the news? Explore live, cohort-based AI courses taught by practitioners.
Browse AI courses on Maven
A biotech startup let an agent choose a gene therapy and successfully inject the treatment, offering a startling glimpse of the future of research labs.

After months of bombarding mathematicians with a relentless stream of AI-generated results, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says he sympathizes with researchers struggling to make sense of it all. But he has no intention of stopping - and hints there could be much more to come from the company's stockpile of discoveries. "I think, on net, the world deserves to understand how the universe works," Altman said during an episode of the Cheeky Pint podcast released Thursday. "But I do have e
Humanitarian groups working in conflict zones are finding that agentic AI can shorten the research cycle between a crisis and an informed response. Cloudera Inc. has built its AI strategy around deployment flexibility, and one nonprofit partner is testing that approach on the front lines. But the aim is to give analysts a faster starting […] The post AI agents cut critical research time for humanitarian teams in conflict zones appeared first on SiliconANGLE.

The autofill update lets Chrome pull flight confirmations, tracking info, order details, and other information from your inbox, with your permission.
Also reported by The Verge

Now you can generate, preview, and edit PDFs, Google Docs, Google Sheets, slide decks, Markdown files, TXT files, and code directly within Google Gemini. The new file editing capabilities are available starting today for all Gemini users, and while PDF previews/editing works on both the web and mobile, all other file formats are only in the web version for now. Google added support for generating and downloading files in Gemini earlier this year, but now you can tweak those fil

To anyone listening closely to what Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has been saying over the past couple of years, this week felt like the clearest sign yet that AI is about to fundamentally change the size of Microsoft's workforce. Microsoft is now offering voluntary buyouts to around 60,000 employees across the US, UK, Canada, and India. It's the first time the company has presented such an offer to so many employees, expanding greatly upon the retirement offer that was limited t