100 articles6 sources0 today
Live|Curated from VentureBeat AI•The Verge AI•TechCrunch AI•Ars Technica AI•Analytics India Magazine • 1 more
Featured Today
OpenAI floats giving Trump administration 5 percent cut of AI boom
The Verge AI
Business2d ago

OpenAI floats giving Trump administration 5 percent cut of AI boom

OpenAI is reportedly proposing a 5 percent government ownership stake to ease tensions with the Trump administration and mitigate public backlash against AI. CEO Sam Altman pitched this idea early last year, suggesting that a public financial interest would be the best way to share the upside of AI technology. Based on OpenAI's $852 billion valuation, this stake would be worth approximately $42.6 billion. The proposal also involves other US AI companies offering similar stakes to the government, though it remains in early stages. This move comes amid increased regulatory scrutiny, including export controls and supply chain risk designations by the Pentagon. The Trump administration has previously taken stakes in Intel and demanded revenue cuts from Nvidia and AMD. This development highlights a growing trend of governments seeking to capture wealth generated by the AI boom through policy and ownership.

1 min readRead

Latest Intelligence

AI-curated from the best sources

Meta has a new app called Pocket that is absolutely nothing like the old Pocket
The Verge AI
AppsYesterday

Meta has a new app called Pocket that is absolutely nothing like the old Pocket

Meta is launching a new application named Pocket, which bears no relation to the former Mozilla read-it-later service. The app introduces a social feed centered on interactive, AI-generated experiences called 'gizmos.' These gizmos can respond to touch, device tilt, and camera input, allowing users to create and share playable content. The technology appears to stem from Meta's acquisition of licensing rights from Atma Sciences Inc., creators of the original Gizmo app. Mark Zuckerberg envisions this as a key part of his strategy to integrate AI deeply into social media interactions. Currently, the app is not available in the United States, with users seeing region restriction notices on app stores. This launch signals Meta's continued pivot toward AI-driven user-generated content and interactive social experiences.

1 min readRead
OpenAI proposed donating 5% of its equity to a US sovereign wealth fund
TechCrunch AI
BusinessYesterday

OpenAI proposed donating 5% of its equity to a US sovereign wealth fund

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has proposed donating 5% of the company's equity to a U.S. sovereign wealth fund, a move reported by the Financial Times. This initiative aims to secure good relations with the administration and address potential political blowback regarding AI's rapid growth. The proposal aligns with recent discussions involving President Trump about the American public becoming a partner in AI companies. OpenAI has previously outlined similar concepts in a policy paper titled 'Industrial Policy for the Intelligence Age,' suggesting returns could be distributed directly to citizens. While similar ideas have been proposed by Senator Bernie Sanders, including a 50% tax on AI stock, those legislative efforts have not yet advanced. The current OpenAI proposal remains preliminary and would likely require complex congressional approval to become reality. This development highlights the growing intersection between AI corporate strategy and national economic policy.

1 min readRead
Anthropic is discussing a new custom chip with Samsung
TechCrunch AI
BusinessYesterday

Anthropic is discussing a new custom chip with Samsung

Anthropic is reportedly in discussions with Samsung to develop a custom AI chip, signaling a serious move towards hardware independence. This potential partnership aims to diversify Anthropic's compute strategy beyond its current reliance on Google, Amazon, and Nvidia. The move comes amidst a broader industry trend where major AI firms seek to reduce dependency on Nvidia's dominant market position. Notably, this development follows OpenAI's recent announcement of its own custom inference processor, 'Jalapeño,' developed with Broadcom. While Anthropic has not yet disclosed specific technical details or use cases for the Samsung collaboration, the strategic alignment highlights the growing importance of specialized hardware. Samsung, already a key Nvidia partner, brings significant manufacturing capabilities to such high-stakes AI infrastructure projects. This shift underscores the competitive race among AI leaders to optimize performance and efficiency through proprietary silicon.

1 min readRead
Microsoft launches its own AI deployment company with $2.5 billion commitment
TechCrunch AI
Business2d ago

Microsoft launches its own AI deployment company with $2.5 billion commitment

Microsoft has launched a new operating business named Microsoft Frontier, dedicated to facilitating enterprise AI deployments. The initiative is backed by a substantial $2.5 billion investment and leverages 6,000 industry and engineering experts. Microsoft’s Commercial Business CEO Judson Althoff emphasizes that this venture exceeds traditional Forward Deployed Engineering models. This move positions Microsoft directly against competitors like AWS, which recently announced a similar $1 billion commitment. Early partnerships include major entities such as the London Stock Exchange Group, Unilever, and Accenture. The company aims to utilize its existing Fortune 500 client base to accelerate adoption of its AI tools. This strategic shift highlights the growing focus on practical implementation over mere model development.

1 min readRead
Yep, we’re using OpenClaw to date now
TechCrunch AI
Apps2d ago

Yep, we’re using OpenClaw to date now

A content creator named Ben Guez has automated his dating strategy using OpenClaw and Claude to post Instagram reels about World Cup losses, claiming to have received over one million views and 200 DMs. Guez uses the AI agent to trigger nearly identical posts targeting women from specific countries, directing them to his AI language learning app, Canary. He argues that recipients are impressed by the creativity rather than feeling played, provided the automation is transparent. Another tech founder, Jeff Weisbein, uses OpenClaw to research date locations in South Florida, streamlining his planning process. While Guez's approach is more outrageous, both examples highlight how AI agents are being repurposed for personal and social tasks. The article notes that TechCrunch could not independently verify the women's reactions, relying on Guez's word. This story illustrates the emerging trend of using autonomous agents for unconventional personal automation.

1 min readRead
The Download: a startup has a solution for AI’s groupthink problem
MIT Technology Review
Apps2d ago

The Download: a startup has a solution for AI’s groupthink problem

MIT Technology Review highlights a new startup named Springboards that has developed an LLM called Flint to combat the groupthink problem in large language models. Mainstream chatbots like Claude and ChatGPT often produce predictable, repetitive responses, such as always choosing the number 7 when asked for a random number between 1 and 10. This lack of creativity hinders brainstorming and planning tasks where diverse ideas are crucial. Flint is specifically trained to generate a wider variety of responses to open-ended questions, offering a potential solution to this limitation. The newsletter also covers other major tech news, including the creation of the first synthetic cell and OpenAI's proposal for government stakes in AI companies. These developments underscore the ongoing industry focus on improving AI creativity and navigating complex regulatory landscapes. The article serves as a daily digest of significant technological advancements and business shifts.

1 min readRead
SpaceX has an AI device prototype, and it sure sounds phone-ish
TechCrunch AI
Apps2d ago

SpaceX has an AI device prototype, and it sure sounds phone-ish

SpaceX has reportedly demonstrated a prototype of a sleek, handset-like AI device to investors, sparking speculation about its potential as a competitor to existing AI hardware. The device is said to run on a proprietary operating system and integrate technology from Musk's xAI, aiming to create a native AI interface independent of major tech platforms. Elon Musk has publicly denied the report, calling it 'utterly false,' which adds a layer of mystery to the company's hardware ambitions. This move aligns with SpaceX's broader strategy to expand into wireless services through Starlink Mobile, potentially challenging traditional carriers like Verizon and AT&T. The article highlights the growing trend of major tech figures entering the AI hardware space, following similar efforts by OpenAI and its partners. However, it also notes the historical difficulty of the AI device market, citing the struggles of companies like Humane and Rabbit. Despite the denial, the report underscores Musk's intent to leverage his manufacturing expertise to disrupt the current smartphone ecosystem.

1 min readRead
Cloudflare’s new policy pushes AI companies to pay for publishers’ content
TechCrunch AI
Business2d ago

Cloudflare’s new policy pushes AI companies to pay for publishers’ content

Cloudflare has announced a new policy requiring AI companies to separate web crawlers used for search from those used for AI training and agents. Starting September 15, 2026, default settings will block mixed-use crawlers from pages hosting ads unless site owners adjust their preferences. This move aims to protect publishers' intellectual property and create a sustainable ecosystem where content creators are compensated. Cloudflare co-founder Matthew Prince emphasized the need for faster action as bot traffic now surpasses human traffic online. The company is evolving its Pay Per Crawl tool into Pay Per Use, allowing publishers to charge AI firms based on content value. Google has previously defended its practices, noting that opting out of AI training does not affect search visibility. This policy shift highlights growing tensions between AI developers and content publishers over data usage rights.

1 min readRead
LLMs are stuck in a groupthink groove. This startup is trying to get them out.
MIT Technology Review
Apps3d ago

LLMs are stuck in a groupthink groove. This startup is trying to get them out.

Large language models exhibit a significant 'groupthink' tendency, producing highly predictable and homogeneous responses to open-ended prompts. An Australian startup named Springboards has developed a new model called Flint designed to break this pattern by encouraging greater diversity in outputs. The article demonstrates that while mainstream models like ChatGPT and Claude often converge on identical answers, Flint generates varied results for the same queries. Co-founder Pip Bingemann argues that this homogeneity limits creativity, whereas Flint welcomes the variation that others might consider hallucinations. This issue is gaining attention as researchers publish papers highlighting the artificial hivemind effect across different AI systems. The startup aims to provide a solution for users seeking novel ideas rather than the most statistically probable answers. This development highlights a growing niche for AI tools focused on creativity and divergence from standard model behaviors.

1 min readRead
Meta, like SpaceX, looks to turn excess AI compute into cash
TechCrunch AI
Business3d ago

Meta, like SpaceX, looks to turn excess AI compute into cash

Meta is reportedly developing a new cloud infrastructure business to monetize its massive AI compute investments by selling access to data centers and models. This strategic move positions Meta to compete directly with major cloud providers like AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure. The initiative follows a similar trend where SpaceX's xAI has also begun leasing out excess compute capacity to other AI firms. Meta has committed $182.9 billion to AI infrastructure, including large-scale projects in Louisiana and Ohio, to support its superintelligence goals. Unlike Google and OpenAI, Meta currently lacks significant standalone revenue from its own AI models, prompting this pivot to infrastructure-as-a-service. The new venture, dubbed Meta Compute, aims to generate immediate returns on the company's colossal capital expenditures. This shift highlights a growing industry belief that owning physical AI infrastructure may become more profitable than just building models.

1 min readRead
Gemini Spark, Google’s agentic assistant, is now available on Mac
TechCrunch AI
Apps3d ago

Gemini Spark, Google’s agentic assistant, is now available on Mac

Google has expanded its Gemini Spark agentic assistant to macOS, positioning it as a direct competitor to Claude Desktop and Microsoft Copilot. The update includes deep integrations with Google Tasks, Keep, and third-party apps like Canva, Dropbox, and Instacart, enabling complex tasks such as grocery ordering and file organization. Users can now leverage real-time topic tracking for news and sports, alongside support for the Model Context Protocol (MCP) for custom app connections. The feature is currently available in beta exclusively for Google AI Ultra subscribers in the United States. This launch marks a significant step in Google's strategy to embed AI agents directly into desktop workflows. By enabling multi-step task execution and file manipulation, Google aims to enhance productivity for professional and personal use cases. The addition of MCP support suggests a broader ecosystem approach to AI assistant customization.

1 min readRead
Venice AI becomes a unicorn with $65M Series A as its privacy-first AI platform takes off
TechCrunch AI
Business3d ago

Venice AI becomes a unicorn with $65M Series A as its privacy-first AI platform takes off

Venice AI has achieved unicorn status with a $65 million Series A funding round, valuing the company at $1 billion. The privacy-first platform allows users to access over 200 AI models while maintaining strict data confidentiality through client-side encryption and external proxies. With 3 million active users and an annualized revenue run-rate exceeding $70 million, the startup demonstrates significant market traction just two years after its inception. The investment was led by Dragonfly, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, highlighting strong interest from the crypto community. CEO Erik Voorhees, known for his background in Bitcoin and ShapeShift, positions the service as a neutral tool akin to the Bitcoin protocol. This funding underscores the growing demand for AI solutions that prioritize user privacy and unrestricted access over traditional safety guardrails.

1 min readRead