AI News
Recent AI news and official updates
Follow recent AI announcements and reporting with concise PopAIExplorer summaries and direct original-source links.
Pramaana Labs raises $27M seed round from Khosla Ventures to bring formal verification to AI
TechCrunch AI published: Pramaana will focus on highly sensitive verticals like law, drug discovery, and tax preparation — where errors can be costly and reliability is at a premium.
Canadian pension giant joins race to fund India’s AI-fueled data center boom
TechCrunch AI published: The Canadian pension giant will acquire an 8.2% stake in CtrlS, a tech giant that operates more than 15 data centers across India.
Pinterest launches an experimental AI shopping app called ‘Ask Pinterest’
TechCrunch AI published: Pinterest has launched 'Ask Pinterest,' an experimental AI-powered shopping app that lets users seek recommendations and inspiration through a conversational interface.
Could AI tell you where you left your keys?
MIT News AI published: A new spatial memory system for robots efficiently captures details about the objects they see while exploring their environment.
Exclusive eBook: How AI is becoming the next military advisor
MIT Technology Review published: A collection of stories about how militaries are using AI models to make decisions. This subscriber-only eBook is a package of six stories that were originally published in MIT Technology Review between April 11, 2025, and April 21, 2026, and have been updated to reflect recent developments. Stories written by James O’Donnel by James O’Donnell…
Android 17 launches with new multitasking tools as Google expands Gemini features
TechCrunch AI published: Google has released Android 17 and Wear OS 7, introducing new multitasking features, parental controls, security tools, and smartwatch upgrades. The launch is also accompanied by a Pixel Drop that brings Google’s latest AI models to its devices.
Sixty percent of US consumers say ‘AI’ in brand messaging is a turnoff, survey finds
TechCrunch AI published: WordPress VIP’s latest survey suggests consumers are wary of AI-generated answers even as companies increasingly view AI search as an important referral channel.
Plaud says its software business topped $100M in ARR after shipping over 2M AI notetakers
TechCrunch AI published: Plaud is trying to make a mark in a crowded market full of AI-powered meeting notetakers.
Robinhood’s note on 10% layoffs shows blaming AI isn’t cutting it
TechCrunch AI published: Unlike many of his tech industry peers who have cut thousands of jobs citing the need to restructure to make the most of AI, Robinhood's CEO Vlad Tenev conspicuously made no mention of AI in his note about layoffs.
Probably raises $9M to build a more reliable kind of AI
TechCrunch AI published: Probably wants to prevent hallucinations and factual errors from reaching users, and achieve accuracy on par with deterministic systems.
The Download: the first brain implant power user and South Korea’s AI obsession
MIT Technology Review published: This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. This man with ALS is the first “power user” of a brain implant that lets him speak Casey Harrell has had a set of electrodes embedded in his brain for almost…
SpaceX to acquire Cursor for $60B in stock, days after blockbuster IPO
TechCrunch AI published: The deal is supposed to help SpaceX's struggling AI division. The company told IPO investors it sees a $26 trillion addressable market in AI.
ChatGPT’s market share slips below 50% for first time
TechCrunch AI published: The chatbot still remains the most popular AI assistant worldwide with over 1.1 billion monthly users, followed by Gemini with 662 million and Claude with 245 million.
Malaysia’s AI agent-powered messaging app Respond.io raises $62.5M, eyes acquisitions
TechCrunch AI published: Respond.io, one of Malaysia's startups to watch, uses AI agents to handle high volumes of customer inquiries and charges per convo, not per seat.
Sundar Pichai faces boos, walkout at Stanford graduation ceremony over Google’s Israel, ICE ties
TechCrunch AI published: AI is once again at the heart of a college graduation protest — this time for the technology's use in Google's defense contracts.
The US government’s Anthropic models ban was never about an AI jailbreak
TechCrunch AI published: The Trump administration's decision that forced Anthropic to pull its latest cybersecurity models could be reactionary, retaliatory, or both, but the message is clear: The AI industry isn't immune from U.S. government interference.
Why do South Koreans love AI so much?
MIT Technology Review published: This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here. When I landed in Seoul after a grueling 12-hour flight from San Francisco, I walked through an unmanned immigration checkpoint, where a machine scanned my face and passport. On the subway home,…
Meta’s new ‘AI Mode’ on Facebook pulls from public info across its platforms
TechCrunch AI published: Meta announced Monday that it's rolling out a wave of new AI features on Facebook, the latest sign of the company's effort to catch up in the AI race and keep users more engaged on the platform.
Cybersecurity vets protest ‘dangerous’ US government ban on Anthropic’s most powerful models
TechCrunch AI published: A group made up of dozens of cybersecurity experts urged the White House to remove export-control restrictions on Anthropic’s Fable and Mythos models, arguing that the order is going to limit the ability of cybersecurity defenders to secure their software and products.
Salesforce acquires AI customer service platform Fin for $3.6B
TechCrunch AI published: Salesforce says it wants to use Fin's team and technology to improve Agentforce, its existing enterprise platform that businesses can use to build custom AI agents that automate tasks.