We start this week's GeekWire Podcast by opening the listener mailbag, highlighting some recent comments and emails that set a new standard for critical feedback, in different ways.

We discuss Vayo, the AI travel venture Booking Holdings is launching in Seattle, home of its biggest rival, Expedia. Led by recent guest Mike Fridgen, Vayo uses AI agents to manage your trips. It's an example of the broader push to build personalized AI agents, even as more companies wall off their sites from rival agents.

Then we take on LinkedIn’s list of the top Seattle startups, where four of the top 10, including No. 1 Anthropic, aren’t headquartered in the region.

And in the final segment, we talk about Amazon’s new Bee AI wearables, which can turn things you say into shopping suggestions on Amazon.com if you opt in and pay $12 a month. That leads into the GeekWire Trivia Challenge, about an earlier Amazon wristband that listened to you.

Related links:

• Booking Holdings unveils AI travel startup Vayo, based in Seattle, with a planned $100M investment
• LinkedIn just released its list of the top 10 Seattle startups: One problem, nearly half aren’t based in the region
• Amazon’s new AI devices can listen to conversations and suggest things to buy — if you opt in
• Amazon’s Halo disappears: Tech giant discontinues health devices and service, promises refunds

Edited and produced by Curt Milton; Music by Daniel L.K. Caldwell.

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This week, we take the GeekWire Podcast to Front Burner Studios near Pike Place Market, where our host is studio co-owner Seth Paul, who's also co-founder and CEO of the Seattle security startup Qinsay.

We discuss the White House crackdown on Microsoft’s green-card sponsorships, hours before President Trump honored Satya Nadella. We also talk about record Seattle startup funding and Shield AI’s plans to build AI-piloted fighter jets in Des Moines, Wash., where a city FAQ assures residents it’s not a data center.

Seth tells us about the vintage console he drove from Detroit, and how he brings a musician’s approach to the startup world. Plus, the return of the GeekWire Trivia Challenge.

Related links:

• Microsoft responds to White House immigration crackdown as Trump honors Nadella
• From H-1B to CEO: How Satya Nadella traveled the path the U.S. just cut off for Microsoft workers
• Seattle-area startups raise a record $3.5B as national VC funding cools
• Shield AI selects Seattle area to build X-BAT autonomous fighter jet
• Shield AI lands $150M Navy contract for AI-piloted fighter jet

With GeekWire co-founders John Cook and Todd Bishop.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, GeekWire co-founder John Cook joins University of Washington historian Margaret O'Mara, author of "The Code," and San Francisco journalist Jonathan Weber, author of "City on the Edge," for a live joint taping with the Blue City Blues podcast at the National Nordic Museum in Seattle. With Blue City Blues hosts David Hyde and Sandeep Kaushik, they trace the rise of Microsoft and Amazon, the backlash against big tech, the record of both cities' mayors, and Seattle's place in an AI boom that's largely originating in San Francisco.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.