A portrait of tech and art together: Seattle school makes colorful new home in an Amazon HQ tower

A portrait of tech and art working together is emerging on Amazon’s Seattle headquarters campus. Gage Academy of Art moved its school from a 100-year-old building to the 5-year-old re:Invent tower, bringing along a colorful and quirky aesthetic to a modern skyscraper, and serving as a proof of concept for how arts organizations and tech companies can partner in helping to diversify and revitalize downtown Seattle. See GeekWire’s tour.

Full-body MRI scans: There’s a recent trend of venture-backed startups promising to help consumers detect potential signs of cancer by paying upwards of $2,500 and laying in a high-tech tube for an hour. Celebrities and online influencers tout these companies, but some medical professionals have concerns. We gave it a try to learn more about the process .?

Amazon shut down a returns hub in Seattle’s SoDo neighborhood, near Starbucks’ headquarters. The company closed its Fresh Pickup grocery service at the same location earlier this year. Read more .

Amazon will make its Alexa voice assistant more conversational with help from Anthropic’s Claude artificial intelligence technology, according to a new report from Reuters . Amazon has invested $4 billion in Anthropic for a minority stake in the San Francisco-based AI company.

Hot Links:

• Starbucks is the target of a new class action lawsuit alleging that the company misled investors about earnings projections. (Restaurant Business )
• Several Seattle-area community colleges won grants from the National Science Foundation for STEM education programs. (NSF )
• Central Washington University and Western Washington University landed separate NSF grants to help tap into regional innovation ecosystems. (NSF )

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