The news: Sports technology company Catapult Group International has acquired athlete monitoring platform and Massachusetts Institute of Technology spinout Perch.

The numbers: The US$18 million ($28 million) acquisition was completed on Wednesday, with US$3 million cash to be paid out of Catapult’s existing cash reserves at close.

The remainder will be paid out in Catapult shares across four tranches.

Perch shareholders are also eligible for an earn-out of up to US$10 million in additional shares over the period June 2027 to May 2028 if growth milestones for annual contract value (ACV) are met.

Shares will be valued at the 30-day volume-weighted average price ending prior to the release of Catapult’s financial year 2025 results.

Perch, founded in 2016, has an annual contract value of about US$2.5 million and has trained its computer vision algorithm across 40,000 unique users.

The context: Perch’s uses 3D cameras combined with computer vision and AI to automate tracking of athlete strength training, aiming to deliver real-time feedback and saving time compared to manual data collection.

What they said: “By bringing our solutions together, we’re building a smarter, more connected athlete monitoring system — on the field, in the gym and beyond,” Catapult CEO and managing director Will Lopes said.

“The acquisition strengthens our Performance & Health vertical and accelerates our mission to deliver intuitive, end-to-end solutions for professional sports.

Shokz OpenFit 2+: One minute review

After just 24 hours with the Shokz OpenFit 2+ I can already tell they’re great headphones that are worthy of inclusion in our best open-ear headphones buying guide, and perhaps our best running headphones guide as well.

They’re comfortable to wear, even for glasses wearers like myself, with Shokz’ flexible nickel-titanium alloy ear hooks looping over your ears and weighted down by a bulbous end, while the driver sits snugly against your temples.

Social media platform Reddit sued the artificial intelligence company Anthropic on Wednesday, alleging that it is illegally “scraping” the comments of millions of Reddit users to train its chatbot Claude.

Reddit claims that Anthropic has used automated bots to access Reddit’s content despite being asked not to do so, and “intentionally trained on the personal data of Reddit users without ever requesting their consent.”

Anthropic said in a statement that it disagreed with Reddit’s claims “and will defend ourselves vigorously.”

Reddit filed the lawsuit Wednesday in California Superior Court in San Francisco, where both companies are based.

“AI companies should not be allowed to scrape information and content from people without clear limitations on how they can use that data,” said Ben Lee, Reddit’s chief legal officer, in a statement Wednesday.

Reddit has previously entered licensing agreements with Google, OpenAI and other companies that are paying to be able to train their AI systems on the public commentary of Reddit’s more than 100 million daily users.

Those agreements “enable us to enforce meaningful protections for our users, including the right to delete your content, user privacy protections, and preventing users from being spammed using this content,” Lee said.

The licensing deals also helped the 20-year-old online platform raise money ahead of its Wall Street debut as a publicly traded company last year Among those who stood to benefit was OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who accumulated a stake as an early Reddit investor that made him one of the company’s biggest shareholders.

Anthropic was formed by former OpenAI executives in 2021 and its flagship Claude chatbot remains a key competitor to OpenAI’s ChatGPT. While OpenAI has close ties to Microsoft, Anthropic’s primary commercial partner is Amazon, which is using Claude to improve its widely used Alexa voice assistant.

Much like other AI companies, Anthropic has relied heavily on websites such as Wikipedia and Reddit that are deep troves of written materials that can help teach an AI assistant the patterns of human language.

In a 2021 paper co-authored by Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei — cited in the lawsuit — researchers at the company identified the subreddits, or subject-matter forums, that contained the highest quality AI training data, such as those focused on gardening, history, relationship advice or thoughts people have in the shower.

Anthropic in 2023 argued in a letter to the U.S. Copyright Office that the “way Claude was trained qualifies as a quintessentially lawful use of materials,” by making copies of information to perform a statistical analysis of a large body of data. It is already battling a lawsuit from major music publishers alleging that Claude regurgitates the lyrics of copyrighted songs.

But Reddit’s lawsuit is different from others brought against AI companies because it doesn’t allege copyright infringement. Instead, it focuses on the alleged breach of Reddit’s terms of use, and the unfair competition, it says, was created.

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Can’t get enough Garmin gear? You’re in luck, as the American brand’s latest high-tech fitness monitor looks to be just around the corner.

After months of rumours, a new report from the usually reliable Fitness Tracker Test website has revealed loads of new details about Garmin’s upcoming sleep tracker, including its name: the Index Sleep Monitor.

The report suggests that the new Whoop-style device attaches to your upper arm with an adjustable Velcro strap and uses an optical sensor to measure your sleep. Next to the sensor is an LED light and an ‘integrated vibration module’, which can be used to gently wake you from a long sleep.

According to the report, the new Sleep Index Monitor will feature an array of different health monitors, including a blood oxygen saturation monitor and sleep score tracker.

The rechargeable device is rumoured to boast around a week of battery life, and is expected to hit the market in the coming months for roughly $170.

Expected features for the new Garmin sleep monitor

Wearable fitness bands strap onto your upper arm and provide 24/7 information about your health and fitness. Popular models like the Whoop 4.0 paint a vivid picture of your sleep and recovery by measuring various health metrics.

You can also log activities, food, and alcohol consumption in the Whoop app to access a more in-depth analysis. The latest Garmin device will likely link to the Garmin Connect app, so you can see your sleep stats from your phone.

Unlike Garmin watches, Whoop uses a subscription model. You pay an annual subscription of $239 (£229), or a monthly fee of $30 (£27) to access its health tracking services.

Garmin has been experimenting with paywalls in recent months, and currently charges $6.99 (£6.99) monthly or $69 (£69.99) annually for access to its Active Intelligence AI, which sends personalised health insights and suggestions to your Garmin watch.

• The best Garmin watches: make the right choice for the sport you love

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SUNNYVALE — An Amazon artificial intelligence technology crafted in the South Bay could more readily enable same-day deliveries.

The e-commerce titan said it has launched a new Agentic AI team at the company’s Lab126 research and development hub in Sunnyvale, which includes Amazon’s office tower at 1100 Enterprise Way.

Agentic AI systems make decisions and take actions with minimal human supervision.

The new technologies could provide wide-ranging capabilities to robots operating in Amazon distribution and logistics hubs.

“The development of our Agentic AI framework represents a fundamental shift in robotics,” Amazon stated in an information packet the tech company sent to this news organization.

Amazon added, “Instead of rigid, specialized robots, we’re creating systems that can hear, understand, and act on natural language commands, turning warehouse robots into flexible, multi-talented assistants.”

Those are the improvements that Amazon aims to roll out within its distribution and logistics warehouses.

Other endeavors are underway that could dramatically improve Amazon’s capabilities to more efficiently navigate the “last mile” leading to a customer’s location.

“We are sharing a milestone that will shape the journey of every Amazon package,” Amazon stated in the information the company sent to this news organization.

Amazon said it is using a new artificial intelligence system to power its supply chain optimization technology, or SCOT.

The AI system can process more than 400 million items over 270 different time periods. This approach is revamping how Amazon positions its inventory and prices items.

“SCOT is turning AI science into same-day deliveries by predicting what customers want before they click buy, reducing delivery times by almost a full day while simultaneously lowering our carbon footprint,” Amazon stated.

Amazon’s new supply chain model aims to look forward in a predictive way as much as it depends on the analysis of the outcomes and actions of the past.

“The model consistently improves the customer experience, allowing us to predict what hundreds of millions of customers will want, where they’ll want it, and when, delivering what matters the most to customers without delay or waste,” Amazon stated.

The new delivery effort has gone live across the United States, Amazon said.

“Items that previously took two days to deliver may now arrive the same day,” Amazon said. “The technology recognizes local demand patterns, ensuring customers get what matters to them without delay.”

Amazon said it’s also analyzing many building images and photos to improve delivery efforts by drivers.

“This innovation is making it much easier for Amazon drivers to find the right delivery spot, especially in tricky places like big office complexes or university campuses,” Amazon stated.

The technologies help an Amazon driver determine the best place to park.

“Customers get their packages faster and with fewer mix-ups, while drivers spend less time determining the best path to drop off the package at the place,” Amazon said.

Originally Published: June 4, 2025 at 1:30 PM PDT