Uber plans to offer drivers and couriers in the U.S. ways to make money through the company’s app when they’re not ferrying around people or food.

The ride-hailing company said on Thursday that it’s starting a pilot with its AI Solutions Group that will allow drivers to complete small online jobs. The example Uber gave is “uploading photos to help train AI models,” which the company said is already being tested in India.

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi announced the news at the company’s Only on Uber 2025 conference in Washington, D.C. Uber uses the event to reveal changes the company is making based on the best suggestions from drivers and couriers.

In prepared remarks, Khosrowshahi said Uber held “more than 60 Crew sessions with over 100 Uber team members, gathering hundreds of hours of feedback on everything from product design to policy changes,” before making product and business changes.

Meghan Casserly, an Uber spokesperson, said in an email that another example of a job drivers will be able to do is “recording themselves speaking in certain languages or accents (following prompts).” Casserly said that tasks will not be related to any of Uber’s autonomous partnerships or the development of driverless vehicles.

Pay for tasks will vary based on complexity and estimated time to completion. Drivers can see how much they will be paid before accepting a task.

The work is reminiscent of the small online jobs offered by Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, Upwork and other data labeling and freelance platforms. Uber said it doesn’t disclose the client names or nature of the specific AI-related projects that gig workers may be working on when completing a task.

Also on Thursday, Uber announced the official rollout of its women rider preference offering that pairs women drivers and riders. The service, which was introduced in July, will now be available for drivers in Baltimore, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Seattle, Portland, Oregon, and Washington, D.C. 

“In markets where it’s already live around the world, women drivers have embraced the choice — using it on more than 100 million trips,” Khosrowshahi said.

All Uber drivers can now set a rider rating preference to avoid being paired with a low-rated passenger, the company said on Thursday. Drivers can adjust their minimum rider rating level for different times of day or night.

Uber is also launching what it’s calling a delayed ride guarantee for drivers, ensuring that rides that take more than five minutes longer than estimated result in a higher payout.

“In some instances costs may be passed onto the rider,” Casserly said. It depends if a trip was delayed for something like heavy traffic or if more stops were added by the passenger.

WATCH: Uber CEO on Q2 results

Beta Technologies updated the prospectus for its initial public offering on Wednesday, setting a price range that could value the company at $7.2 billion at the top end.

The electric aircraft maker said it plans to sell 25 million shares at $27 to $33 each. The deal would raise as much as $825 million.

The planned offering comes amid a dayslong government shutdown that threatens to stall a healthy resurgence in IPO activity following a multi-year drought. Earlier this month, the SEC shared guidance to allow IPO proceedings to continue despite reduced operations.

Beta joins a growing list of electric aircraft makers that have taken a shot at public markets as the technology gains steam.

Key players Joby and Archer Aviation have accelerated in value this year as they beef up production and ink new partnerships at home and abroad. The sector has also gotten a boost from President Donald Trump‘s plans for an eVTOL, or electric vertical takeoff and landing, pilot program.

Archer was recently named an official partner for the 2028 Olympics, while Joby announced a partnership with defense contractor L3Harris.

Proponents have touted eVTOLs as a way to cut traffic in crowded metropolitan areas, but the technology has yet to be approved by the Federal Aviation Administration

Beta has yet to turn a profit.

The company reported a net loss of $183 million during the first six months of the year. which grew from a $137 million loss in the same period the year prior. Revenues more than doubled to $15.6 million in the first six months of 2025 from $7.6 million a year ago.

Last month, GE Aerospace announced a $300 million investment and stake in Beta.

Underwriters for the deal include Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and Jefferies.

On Tuesday, Microsoft stopped supporting Windows 10, the operating system it introduced 10 years earlier.

The software company is enticing people to upgrade their PCs with a slate of artificial intelligence features it will test in Windows 11, the successor to Windows 10.

Those who participate in both the Windows Insider Program and the Copilot Labs group for trying AI experiments will gain access to an updated Copilot assistant app in Windows 11 that can use desktop and web applications to complete certain tasks, such as resizing photos, with locally stored files.

Or perhaps a person could tell Copilot to put all available Brian Eno songs into a Spotify playlist and have the assistant push play, Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft’s consumer marketing chief, told reporters in a briefing.

Anthropic, Google and OpenAI have all developed AI models known as computer-use agents that accept people’s directives to perform actions in multiple steps that involve typing and clicking.

Microsoft has brought this technology to corporate workers who build AI agents, and consumers with premium subscriptions can try a computer-use agent called Copilot Actions. Now the software company is planning a variant for Windows 11.

Copilot Actions will be turned off by default. If enabled, it will operate in a contained environment with its own desktop, Microsoft said. People can watch the software working step by step and take over at any point, although they’re free to navigate away and do other things on their PCs as the work happens in the background.

“You may see the agent make mistakes or encounter challenges with complex interfaces, which is why real-world testing of this experience is so critical to help us apply learnings to make this experience more capable and streamlined,” Mehdi wrote in a blog post.

It’s the sort of thing that might help Microsoft get the attention of people who today own Apple’s Mac computers or Chromebooks that run Google’s Chrome OS. In the second quarter, Microsoft generated $4.3 billion in Windows and devices revenue, up just 2.5% from last year.

Windows 11 became available in 2021, bringing the Start button and app icons to the center of the taskbar on the bottom of the screen, instead of the traditional left side. In July, the new operating system became more popular than Windows 10 for the first time, according to data from web analytics software maker Statcounter. Microsoft controlled 72% of operating system market share in September, the data showed.

Microsoft wants to proceed carefully as it rolls out Copilot Actions. During the preview, the feature will only work with common folders such as desktop, documents, downloads or pictures, and people will have to approve the use of data elsewhere on their computers.

Those enrolled in the Windows Insider Program will be first to test an action in the Windows 11 File Explorer that draws on technology from Singaporean startup Manus. People can right-click on a file and click the “Create website with Manus” option.

Windows Insiders will also gain the ability to ask Copilot to analyze what’s onscreen through chat messages. Until now, people could only engage with this Copilot Vision feature by talking aloud.

Finally, Microsoft intends to provide a redesigned shortcut to Copilot directly to the right of the Start button. The new widget will include buttons that activate Copilot Vision or spoken AI conversations with one click. Alternatively, people can summon the assistant by saying, “Hey Copilot.”

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