AI Slop Is Ruining Cute Animals on the Internet — Pet owners, rescue agencies, and wildlife groups are calling for new safeguards as AI makes it harder to tell whether animals, from polar bears to house cats, are real or fake.
Apple just taught your iPhone to finish your sentences, your photos, and your workflows | TechCrunch — Apple is adding new AI-powered features to Safari, Shortcuts, and Password apps.
Microsoft offers devs a better way to control AI agent behavior | TechCrunch — The specification lets developer, compliance, and security teams define their own policies for agents to follow in portable policy files.
Prentis, new AI lab co-founded by Reid Hoffman, Marc Pincus in talks to raise $100M | TechCrunch — The neolab is betting that automating routine computer tasks will soon outpace coding as AI's biggest use case.
Saudi prince buys 5% stake in Lucid Motors | TechCrunch — The investment comes after speculation that Saudi Arabia may take Lucid Motors private -- which the EV maker has denied.
OpenAI's own model went rogue before Kimi had Wall Street sweating | TechCrunch — Watch as this episode of Equity digs into why Kimi K3 spooked Wall Street, OpenAI's rogue-model breach at Hugging Face, and what's next for EVs and battery startups.
The most interesting startups right now want to get you off your phone | TechCrunch — Watch as the Equity podcast breaks down Anthropic's surprise IPO filing, the founders building startups to get you off your screen, and the token bubble that's starting to burst.
Alibaba's AI video model rises to No. 2 in global rankings, as OpenAI's Sora and ByteDance's Seedance fall away — <p><a href="https://www.alibabacloud.com/en?_p_lc=1">Alibaba Cloud</a> on Sunday released <a href="https://www.happyhorse.com/">HappyHorse 1.1</a>, a major upgrade…
QueryStory wants you to believe what AI is telling you | TechCrunch — The startup came out of stealth with $6 million in seed funding and a plan to use LLMs and cybersecurity know-how to make AI queries coherent.
Mach Industries just spent $50M to solve a major defense tech problem | TechCrunch — Mach says the acquisition meaningfully improves unit economics across its five vehicle programs at exactly the moment the company is starting to scale.
The "Father of the Internet" is finally retiring | TechCrunch — Vinton Cerf, one of the creators of the protocols underlying the internet, will step down as Google's chief internet evangelist next week.
Melinda Gates’ venture firm backs Magnify Ventures' $46.6M Fund II | TechCrunch — Early-stage firm Magnify Ventures has raised a $46.6 million Fund II from LPs, including Melinda French Gates’ Pivotal Ventures.
Glencore Says Its Traders Post First-Half Profit of $3.3 Billion — Glencore Plc said its trading team made about $3.3 billion in profit during the first half, putting it on course for one of its best ever years.
Death toll from Nepal-Tibet flood surpasses 470 as barrier lake threatens — Over 1,500 people remain missing as rescue paused near the Nepal-China border amid fears of further flooding.
CCTV captures terrifying mudslide engulfing Nepal-China border — CCTV footage shows people fleeing seconds before a massive mudslide engulfs a crossing on the Nepal-China border.
The cleanup trap: Stop asking RAG to fix bad data — <p>The enterprise technology ecosystem is caught in a costly cycle. Over the past two years, millions of dollars have been funneled into generative AI pilots, yet many of these initiatives stall out before ever reaching a live…
Trump says US will refill its petroleum reserves using Venezuelan oil — President Donald Trump says in a post that the 'topping out' process will begin shortly.
Barret Zoph, the Thinking Machines co-founder who defected to OpenAI, is now at Google | TechCrunch — Zoph, who co-founded Thinking Machines Lab alongside Mira Murati and also served as the startup's CTO, led a brief stint at OpenAI and is now at Google.
Attackers scale deception with AI. Defenders need truth at machine speed. — <p><i>Presented by Splunk</i></p><hr/><p>AI has changed the economics of cyber deception.</p><p>An attacker can now generate thousands of convincing phishing lures, fake identities, and tailored pretexts
Amazon ups India bet with fresh $13B AI infrastructure investment | TechCrunch — Amazon’s latest India investment comes as global tech companies race to expand AI infrastructure in the country.
OpenAI’s new reasoning technique alarms AI safety experts | TechCrunch — OpenAI’s new Astra model will use “recurrent depth,” a technique that allows the model to operate outside of the sequential thinking that characterizes most reasoning models.
ChatGPT can now send texts for you with new Apple Messages plugin | TechCrunch — Ever wanted someone else to do your texting for you? ChatGPT is being offered up as an automated text scribe via a new Apple Messages integration.
Firecracker factory blast in India kills 8 children — Videos reveal demolished houses and desperate rescue efforts after third such blast at a firecracker factory in August.
AI is being used to resurrect the voices of dead pilots | TechCrunch — People used AI on a spectrogram image of cockpit recordings to reconstruct them, forcing the NTSB to temporarily block access to its docket system.
What happens when companies become too AI-pilled? | TechCrunch — The people deciding that AI can replace your job are also the ones least likely to understand what your job truly involves, according to Box founder Aaron Levie, who pointed to this as an example of "AI psychosis.”
Polaroid's 'Analog Summer' Campaign Pushes Against Digital Overload — Time to go touch grass.
Scientists may soon have explanation for pure sulfur discovery on Mars — New studies are working the "puzzling" case.
Google launches new study tools for students across Search and Gemini | TechCrunch — The launch of the new study features marks Google's latest effort to make Gemini the AI assistant that students turn to when learning and studying, as it continues to compete with companies…
Europe got its own TBPN-style live show, and everyone’s angling for a guest spot | TechCrunch — On Monday, the network announced a $1.6 million seed round from top players in the media ecosystem, including Powerhouse Capital, Axel Springer SE (which owns Business Insider and…
Trump Plans to Seize Direct Control of Venezuela’s Oil Reserves — President Donald Trump plans to seize direct control of Venezuela’s oil reserves, announcing that a deal had been reached with Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodríguez in which the US will control more than…
Sachin Bansal's fintech Navi raises first outside capital with $100M Prosus investment | TechCrunch — The investment comes amid Navi plans to go public.
OpenAI reportedly completed a $7 billion employee tender offer | TechCrunch — San Francisco's housing market is in trouble again.
The SpaceX IPO filing has arrived | TechCrunch — SpaceX has finally made the contents of its IPO filing public, weeks ahead of what is expected to be the largest IPO ever.
Google Maps renames Lake Ontario after Trump’s decree on ‘Lake America’ — Tech giant says name to remain Lake Ontario for Canadian users, change reflects decision by US government agency.
Strava declares war on scrapers ahead of IPO | TechCrunch — Strava will charge a flat monthly fee from developers to access its API
Barca & Real Madrid eye Cucurella - Tuesday's gossip — Chelsea's Marc Cucurella linked with a return to Spain, Liverpool keen on teenage RB Leipzig forward Yan Diomande, and Newcastle face competition for Atalanta right-back Marco Palestra, plus more.
Land Rover Should Be Wary of Chinese Look-Alikes — Jaguar Land Rover should expect a lot more competition from Chinese automakers. Bloomberg Opinion columnist Chis Bryant explains how their manufacturing of huge SUVs and offroaders look very similar, but for a fraction of the…
Apple says it's fixed the awful search function for emails, photos | TechCrunch — Apple says a completely rebuilt Search function will competently find the emails, photos and other content you are searching for.
Google will now let you sign in to your account with a selfie video | TechCrunch — The tech giant says selfie videos give users more options to sign in if they're ever locked out or don't have access to their usual phone or computer.
Hackers steal over $130 million by exploiting bug in offline hardware wallets | TechCrunch — A security vulnerability in the cryptocurrency hardware wallet Coldcard is allowing hackers to drain the crypto from victims’ wallets. The total losses amount to more than $130 million,…
Shut Those Laptops! Anthropic Puts Its Claude Cowork Agent on Your Phone — Claude Cowork now keeps working on tasks even after you close your laptop. It’s part of a larger push toward smartphone-controlled agents.
Groq raises $350M to fuel its pivot from AI chips to neocloud | TechCrunch — Groq raised $350 million at a $3.5 billion valuation as the former AI chipmaker pivots to a neocloud business and expands its Nvidia-powered data center footprint.
The real cost, security, and culture problems behind enterprise AI agents — <p><i>Presented by Red Hat </i></p><hr/><p>At VentureBeat's recent AI Impact event, where the discussion centered on what separates enterprises that scale agentic AI from those that stall in pilot…
3 captivating new Netflix documentaries to watch this weekend (August 28-30) — A fake pregnancy scandal, a football legend's breakdown, and an American food road trip—3 great Netflix documentaries for this weekend.
Ukraine’s Shakhtar to use ex-Russian-owned Chelsea as Champions League home — Shakhtar have not played at home since 2014 when Russia annexed the Donetsk region and now switch to Stamford Bridge.
Venus Aerospace raises $90M Series B to build a new kind of rocket engine | TechCrunch — Build a new kind of rocket engine, and the world will beat a path to your door.
The AI layoff wave is becoming a powder keg | TechCrunch — What makes this combustible: 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.
Anthropic says it will watermark text generated by its AI models | TechCrunch — Anthropic will extend support for watermarking AI generations for older models as well.
Inside one London founder house rewriting the founder-house rules | TechCrunch — How one founder house is betting work-life balance can beat burnout .
I replaced Excel with this open-source alternative for a week—I wasn't ready for the difference — Many of ONLYOFFICE's core spreadsheet tools worked, but even basic Excel workflows became increasingly frustrating to reproduce.
6 router tricks that solve Wi-Fi problems in under 5 minutes — Is it the router or your ISP? It might be neither, and you can fix it for free
That fake Grand Theft Auto VI demo is actually just malware | TechCrunch — Grand Theft Auto fans, eager for news about one of the most anticipated video games of all time, appear especially vulnerable to this new cyberattack.
Medical device maker Boston Scientific says a cyberattack is causing a 'global disruption' to its operations | TechCrunch — The company won't say if medical devices are affected or if any customer data was exfiltrated.
Wordle today: The answer and hints for August 20, 2026 — Here are some tips and tricks to help you find the answer to "Wordle" #1888.
Agility Robotics plants its flag in Tesla's backyard | TechCrunch — Agility is opening a new training center for its Digit robots in Fremont, California.
Jannik Sinner withdraws from US Open due to knee injury — Jannik Sinner will miss the US Open with a right knee injury that has kept him out of action since Wimbledon.
The Super El Niño Won’t Fix the West’s Water Crisis — “People have talked about the Colorado River crisis for decades—we’re now in it,” says one expert. “Everyone you talk to is like, ‘Shit, man.’”
Waymo says it built a better benchmark for comparing robotaxis to humans | TechCrunch — Waymo created a new computer model to help it better understand how humans behave in crash scenarios that its robotaxis encounter.
Don't waste time trying to block Fire TV ads—Amazon has already won — A subsidized ad engine runs beneath Fire TV's cheap hardware, leaking device identifiers and mixing telemetry with needed cloud calls.
Fery into first ATP Tour final as opponent retires — Arthur Fery is into his first ATP Tour final as opponent James Duckworth retires because of injury at the Winston-Salem Open.