AI News
Recent AI news and official updates
Follow recent AI announcements and reporting with concise PopAIExplorer summaries and direct original-source links.
Sarvam becomes India’s newest AI unicorn with $234 million funding round led by HCLTech
TechCrunch AI published: Indian IT services company HCLTech is investing $150 million in the Bengaluru startup.
As AI agents become employees, NewCore emerges with $66M to give them identities
TechCrunch AI published: NewCore argues the next challenge in enterprise security will be managing AI agents, not people.
The AI layoff wave is becoming a powder keg
TechCrunch AI published: At the very moment that tens of thousands of workers are being shown the door, a small cohort of AI insiders is becoming wealthy on a scale that's hard to comprehend.
As AI companies race to go public, who else is along for the ride?
TechCrunch AI published: Startups are trying to "ride that SpaceX IPO wave."
As Anthropic suspends access to new models, India debates its AI future
TechCrunch AI published: Tech leaders debate whether the Anthropic episode is a wake-up call for India’s AI ambitions.
KPMG pulls report on AI usage due to apparent hallucinations
TechCrunch AI published: Once again, AI proves to be an unreliable source of information about AI.
Amazon CEO reportedly raised Anthropic model concerns before government crackdown
TechCrunch AI published: Amazon CEO Andy Jassy may have been the source of security concerns that led Anthropic to cut off worldwide access to two models on Friday.
OpenAI faces investigation from state attorneys general
TechCrunch AI published: It's not clear which states are involved, but they're asking about everything from OpenAI's ad policies to its handling of health data.
Anthropic’s safety warnings may have just backfired — the government has pulled the plug on its most powerful AI
TechCrunch AI published: Anthropic isn't hiding its frustration. "We disagree that the finding of a narrow potential jailbreak should be cause for recalling a commercial model deployed to hundreds of millions of people," the company wrote in a blog post.
Meta’s months-old AI unit is a soul-crushing gulag, say the engineers stuck inside it
TechCrunch AI published: A new report suggests the unit, which employs 6,500 people, is on the verge of revolt.
Chinese cybercrime operation that used AI to scam ‘hundreds of thousands of victims’ sued by Google
TechCrunch AI published: The tech giant said a group called "Outsider Enterprise" used AI to scam hundreds of thousands of victims, sending 2.5 million text messages over a span of two weeks.
Google sues alleged Chinese cybercrime operation that used AI to send scam texts
TechCrunch AI published: The tech giant said a group called "Outsider Enterprise" used AI to scam hundreds of thousands of victims, sending 2.5 million text messages over a span of two weeks.
SpaceX, Anthropic, and OpenAI’s hot IPO summer
TechCrunch AI published: The IPO market is back, and it’s not the same companies leading the charge. FAANG had a good run, but a new acronym is taking over: MANGOS — Meta (or Microsoft, depending on who you ask), Anthropic, Nvidia, Google, OpenAI, and SpaceX. Half of that bunch is heading to public markets in the same window, and it’s a stress test for investors, for valuations, and for […]
It’s hot IPO summer, and the MANGOS are ripe
TechCrunch AI published: The IPO market is back, and it’s not the same companies leading the charge. FAANG had a good run, but a new acronym is taking over: MANGOS — Meta (or Microsoft, depending on who you ask), Anthropic, Nvidia, Google, OpenAI, and SpaceX. Half of that bunch is heading to public markets in the same window, and it’s a stress test for investors, for valuations, and for […]
Cheaper, faster, and culturally aware, Avataar’s video AI is built for India’s scale
TechCrunch AI published: Avataar AI's distilled video model is priced at $0.005 for every second of generation.
Theker just raised $85M to build the factory robot that doesn’t specialize in anything
TechCrunch AI published: Unlike humanoid robots designed around a fixed form — think Boston Dynamics — Theker's machines are built to be reconfigured.
Jeff Bezos’s Prometheus raises $12B to build an ‘artificial general engineer’ for the physical world
TechCrunch AI published: The new round values the physical AI startup that aims to automate heavy engineering and drug design at $41 billion.
Jinhua Zhao named head of the Department of Urban Studies and Planning
MIT News AI published: An expert in behavioral science and transportation, Zhao combines these studies with AI and public policy to address some of the most urgent challenges facing cities.
When it comes to predicting people’s preferences, it pays to consider “the power of three”
MIT News AI published: MIT researchers provide a major upgrade to the nearly century-old idea of random utility models.
Deezer’s new tool can identify AI music from Spotify, Apple Music, and others
TechCrunch AI published: Deezer introduced a tool that scans playlists from Spotify, Apple Music, and other platforms to identify AI music.