OpenAI CEO apologizes to Tumbler Ridge community
In a letter to residents of Tumbler Ridge, Canada, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said he “deeply regrets” the company’s failure to report the suspect in a recent mass shooting to law enforcement. After police identified 18-year-old Jessie Van Rootseller as the gunman accused of killing eight people, the Wall Street Journal reported that OpenAI flagged […]
Why Cohere is merging with Aleph Alpha
Canadian AI startup Cohere is acquiring Germany-based Aleph Alpha with the blessing of governments, with the aim of providing companies with a sovereign alternative in an AI landscape dominated by American companies. “Sovereign AI” refers to a system in which businesses and governments have full control over their own data, rather than having it routed […]
Why Tokyo will be the most important tech city in 2026
Every major technology conference has a theme. Most of the time, it’s so vague that it means everything and nothing at the same time. SusHi Tech Tokyo 2026 is doing something different. There are four precisely defined technology areas, each supported by live demonstrations, dedicated exhibition floors, and sessions featuring the people who are actually […]
Apple under Ternus: What’s next for the tech giant’s hardware strategy?
As Apple struggles to remain competitive in the AI space while navigating tariffs and supply chain uncertainty, the company’s future is about to change under new leadership. Apple announced Monday that John Tarnas will replace Tim Cook as CEO later this year. Mr. Cook turned Apple into a $4 trillion global powerhouse, expanded its services […]
India’s Snavit is seeking new funding at a valuation of $400 million, sources say.
Snabbit, the Indian instant housekeeping startup, is close to raising new funding in a round led by Susquehanna Venture Capital at a valuation of about $400 million, TechCrunch has learned. The Bengaluru-based startup is in talks to raise about $50 million in a round, according to three people familiar with the deal. One of the […]
Steve Ballmer slams founder he supports after pleading guilty to fraud: “I feel fooled and stupid.”
Silicon Valley tends to tolerate a certain amount of hyperbole from founders when pitching to investors, often ignoring it as part of selling their vision. But some choices can cross the line and lead to jail time for founders and scandal for investors. A case in point is Joseph Samberg, whose once-high-flying fintech startup Aspiration […]
Palantir reportedly assists IRS with financial crimes investigation
Palantir has been assisting the Internal Revenue Service’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation in investigating various financial crimes in the United States for the past 10 years, The Intercept reported. Citing public documents obtained by the nonprofit watchdog group American Oversight detailing IRS contracts with Palantir, the outlet reported that the IRS has paid Palantir $130 […]
Two college students raise $5.1 million pre-seed to build AI social network on iMessage
Social networking app Series announced it has raised $5.1 million in a pre-seed round with investors including Venmo co-founder Iqram Magdon-Ismail, Pear VC, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman, and GPTZero founder Edward Tian. The company was founded early last year by Yale University students Nathaneo Johnson and Sean Hargrow. Both are still fourth year university students. […]
The meta’s loss is the thinking machine’s gain.
Weiyao Wang spent eight years at Meta, his first job out of college, where he helped build multimodal perception systems and contributed to open-world segmentation projects, including SAM3D. His last day at Meta was last week, and he has since joined the Thinking Machines Lab (TML). His move to TML comes as the AI startup […]
Google invests up to $40 billion in cash and compute in Anthropic
Google plans to invest up to $40 billion in Anthropic to support the AI company’s growing computing needs, Bloomberg reports. According to Anthropic, the Alphabet subsidiary currently plans to invest $10 billion at Anthropic’s valuation of $350 billion, and an additional $30 billion if Anthropic meets certain performance goals. The investment commitment comes after Anthropic […]