Amid the AI boom, a growing number of startups are scrambling to build voice tools with the technology. A new company from a former Meta and Google researcher is the latest.

Neil Zeghidour’s startup Gradium aims to commercialize new technology in the speech recognition and generation space, like a live translation tool and multilingual chatbot. Zeghidour, whose research has attracted backers like former Google CEO Eric Schimdt, is in discussions to raise about $60 million, sources told Forbes.

Still, he faces competition from firms like the $6.6 billion-valued Elevenlabs, among many others.

Democrats are digging in as the government shutdown stretches into its 10th day Friday, with recent polling showing 41% of respondents blame Republicans for the stalemate, compared to 30% who blame Democrats. “Every day gets better for us,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) told Punchbowl, suggesting it hurts Republicans’ image the more they threaten permanent workforce and funding cuts—which President Donald Trump threatened to do again on Thursday.

A district court judge blocked Trump’s deployment of National Guard in Chicago temporarily on Thursday, similar to actions taken earlier this week by a separate judge regarding troops sent to Portland. District Court Judge April Perry said evidence suggests that the deployment may lead to “civil unrest,” and that the Department of Homeland........

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