Elon Musk is serious about orbiting data centers
On Friday, when SpaceX submitted plans for a 1 million-satellite data center network to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), you might have thought Elon Musk was having a little fun with us. But after a week, it became clear that he was serious. The most obvious step, of course, is the formal merger of SpaceX […]
NASA astronauts can now bring cell phones on missions to the moon
Get ready to take some out-of-this-world selfies. NASA astronauts will be allowed to take smartphones into space for the first time with the Crew-12 and Artemis II missions. Crew-12 is scheduled to head to the International Space Station next week, but the long-awaited Artemis II mission, which will put humans around the moon for the […]
OpenAI launches a way for enterprises to build and manage AI agents
OpenAI has launched new products to help enterprises navigate the world of AI agents, focusing on agent management as a critical infrastructure for enterprise AI deployments. On Thursday, AI giant OpenAI announced the launch of OpenAI Frontier, an end-to-end platform designed to build and manage AI agents for enterprises. Since it is an open platform, […]
Anthropic releases Opus 4.6 with new “Agent Teams”
On Thursday, Anthropic released the latest version of Opus. This is the most advanced model and one of particular importance to Claude Code. Opus 4.5 was only released last November, but with 4.6, the company has expanded the model’s capabilities and appeal to accommodate a more diverse range of applications and customers. Perhaps the most […]
Meta tests standalone app for AI-generated “Vibes” videos
Meta is testing a standalone Vibes app, the company confirmed to TechCrunch on Thursday. Launched last September, Vibes lets you create and share short-form AI-generated videos and access a dedicated feed that shows other users’ AI videos. Think TikTok or Instagram Reels. But all the videos you see are generated by AI. Previously, feeds existed […]
Pacific Fusion finds cheaper way to run fusion reactors
The biggest question in fusion power generation remains unanswered: How can we ensure that the cost of starting a fusion reaction is not higher than the price at which we can sell the power? Many people have ideas, but no one has solved it yet. Commonwealth Fusion Systems, for example, is confident enough that it […]
Data breach at government tech giant Conduent balloon affects millions more Americans
The data breach at government technology giant Conduent appears to have affected far more people than initially revealed, with the number of victims potentially reaching tens of millions across the United States. A ransomware attack in January 2025 that shut down Conduent’s operations for several days is now known to have affected at least 15.4 […]
Fundamental raises $255 million in Series A for new big data analytics initiative
An AI lab called Fundamental emerged from stealth on Thursday to offer a new underlying model for solving an old problem: how to extract insights from the vast amounts of structured data that companies generate. The company believes that by combining older systems of predictive AI with more modern tools, it can reshape the way […]
Substack confirms data breach affects users’ email addresses and phone numbers
Newsletter platform Substack confirmed the data breach in an email to users. The company announced in October that an “unauthorized third party” had accessed user data, including email addresses, phone numbers, and other unspecified “internal metadata.” Substack specified that more sensitive data such as credit card numbers, passwords, and other financial information will not be […]
Eleven Lab CEO: Voice is the next interface for AI
Mati Staniszewski, co-founder and CEO of Eleven Labs, says voice is becoming the next major interface for AI, meaning models are moving beyond text and screens and increasingly the way people interact with machines. Speaking at the Web Summit in Doha, Staniszewski told TechCrunch that speech models like the one developed by Eleven Labs are […]