
The Decoder: Stripe says AI agent purchases are adding up, but it won't share the numbers
AI agents are increasingly using Stripe's payment service Link to shop for their users, Upstarts Media reports. The article Stripe says AI agent purchases are adding up, but it won't share the numbers appeared first on The Decoder.
AI agents are increasingly making purchases through Stripe's payment service Link on behalf of their users. In September, transaction numbers grew 38-fold and payment volume grew 20-fold, though Stripe has not disclosed absolute numbers and the growth started from a small base. The service works by issuing agents a separate 16-digit number instead of accessing real credit card information, allowing users to set spending limits. Retail and travel made up the majority of transaction categories, with most purchases around $100 though some agents book flights or buy furniture worth thousands of dollars.
Want to go deeper than the news? Explore live, cohort-based AI courses taught by practitioners.
Browse AI courses on Maven
AI companion app Tolan has raised another $30 million after attracting more than 250,000 active users.

After chatbot startup Character.AI filed for bankruptcy earlier this week, many of its employees will have the opportunity to take jobs at Disney. Character.AI’s former CEO Karandeep Anand recently became the entertainment giant’s first CTO, and the startup previously said that Disney had agreed to acquire some of its assets for $20 million. A legal […]
Also reported by Wired AI and Ars Technica

At a creative industry event that took place today in Berlin — hosted in collaboration with Adobe, Bertelsmann, NVIDIA and UFA — the latest advancements in intelligent media were on display. Key to the news: the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) is collaborating with NVIDIA to expand its sovereign framework with cloud, open models and integration partners, while Adobe Frame.io is accelerating video agent search capabilities with NVIDIA GPUs, helping German TV and film producer UFA find the right
Motive Inc., the San Francisco-based artificial intelligence platform provider for physical operations, today announced the launch of Agents, a new capability that automatically responds to safety, maintenance and operational issues before they escalate into accidents, costly breakdowns or business disruptions. The new Agents platform moves beyond alerts to automatically contact drivers, initiate maintenance and coordinate […] The post Motive brings agentic AI to physical operations with a

Anthropic is hiring fewer and fewer junior staff in technical roles. The share of junior positions among new hires dropped from 27 to 9 percent since early 2025. By August 2026, AI agents across the company were already logging six times as many hours as humans. Researchers warn of a "tragedy of the cognitive commons": if junior positions disappear, experienced specialists will be in short supply down the road. That is, assuming such specialists are even needed anymore. The article Anth

OpenAI's ChatGPT Atlas browser is gone, but now ChatGPT's Google Chrome extension is getting some upgrades that allow it to use the browser tabs you already have open. With the extension installed, OpenAI says ChatGPT can now view your browser tabs when you tag Chrome in ChatGPT's web or desktop app, posting a demo video showing someone asking ChatGPT to compare the three tabs they have open with sofas they're considering. A few big upgrades for Chrome users today! We're bring
Also reported by The Decoder