Source: Inference provider Modal Labs closing in on $750M round at $15.75B valuation
The new financing is expected to more than triples the AI infrastructure startup's valuation from just four months ago.
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AMD will acquire Fei-Fei Li’s World Labs for $8.2 billion
The acquisition will see World Labs founder Fei-Fei Li join AMD as executive vice president and chief scientist.
Shopify opens checkout to browser-based AI agents
Shopify is expanding WebMCP support to checkout, allowing browser-based AI agents to update order details and complete purchases with a buyer’s authorization.
The AI boom took over Climate Week and not everyone is happy about it
Just like the rest of the U.S., data centers and AI are dividing climate tech founders and investors.
Towards safety cases for frontier AI training
Our early guidelines for safety cases in frontier AI training cover technical safeguards, operational practices, and investigating misalignment incidents
How we will do better for Australia
OpenAI apologises for incidents involving Australian government websites and outlines stronger safeguards and support to strengthen Australia’s cyber defences.
OpenAI’s AI agents need to catch up
OpenAI popularized the modern generative AI chatbot, but as its 2026 DevDay event approaches, it's fallen behind in one of the industry's hottest categories: continuously running, consumer-facing AI agents. On Tuesday, it will likely try to capture the lead in that race. Rumors abound that OpenAI will release its own AI agent, dubbed Aeon - …
Nvidia launches new platform for reining in rogue AI agents
As the debate rages over whether the recent spate of rogue AI agents is a step toward AGI or a more conventional engineering problem, Nvidia is offering its own answer to problem. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang on Monday introduced a toolkit of software and hardware products that add independent security layers around AI agents to …
AI is supercharging hacking, and your local hospitals and banks aren’t ready
In March, Janice Malone began getting calls about suspicious activity from her nonprofit organization, Vivian's Door. Vivian's Door, headquartered in Alabama, typically provided training, resources, and community to underserved and minority-owned businesses. The work sometimes put it in close contact with these companies' financial data, which was stored on its systems. But suddenly, concerned callers …
Anthropic releases Sonnet 5.5, which it calls a significantly cheaper, faster work partner
Anthropic has released the newest version of its mid-range model, boasting faster response times and less token burn.
Google is killing off Gemini’s Gems in favor of ‘skills’
As all-in-one AI agents like Meta's Muse and Instinct take off, Google is opting to end a feature which built task-specific agents.
OpenAI still doesn’t seem to have a handle on all of its rogue AI activity
On Friday, OpenAI published a new site devoted to “misalignment reports” and the breadth of the incidents is alarming.
When can we say AI made a scientific discovery?
This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here. Last Wednesday, Anthropic announced that earlier this year it had launched a molecular biology lab, where Claude agents read and conjecture about hard biology problems and human scientists run experiments on what…
Florida seeks a ban on ChatGPT acting like a person
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier is calling for a judge to block OpenAI from "giving ChatGPT false human attributes," a few months after Florida sued the AI company over safety concerns. According to Uthmeier, users are lulled into a false sense of security by the AI bot, as "ChatGPT's use of language, including first-person pronouns …
OpenAI keeps bulldozing mathematicians
In a chaotic few months, OpenAI has demonstrated it can do two things with remarkable consistency: make impressive breakthroughs in mathematics, then colossally screw up announcing them. OpenAI is now trying to do better. Somehow, it has botched that too. OpenAI's latest attempt to repair fractured relations with a mathematical community it has repeatedly alienated …
Meta launches enterprise AI platform, hires MongoDB CEO to lead new initiative
Meta says it will focus on bringing its full technology stack, including Muse, Meta Business Agent, Muse API, Muse Code, and more to businesses and developers.
Walmart won’t hike prices based on your shopping history, CEO says
Walmart says it won't change product prices based on your personal information or the time of day, as reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal. In a letter to customers, Walmart CEO John Furner writes that the company's switch to digital shelf labels is meant to save store associates time, rather than dynamically change prices. …
Anthropic, Gamma, and Clay share what happens when enterprises actually deploy AI at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026
Anthropic, Clay, and Gamma on what it takes for an AI product to go beyond the demo at the AI Stage at TechCrunchDisrupt 2026. Register to join and get 50% off a second pass.
After a deepfake voice fooled her grandfather, this founder sprang into action
After her grandfather was scammed by a deepfake of his brother's voice, Tarini Padmanabhuni founded DetectifAI, a San Francisco startup building AI models small enough to run directly on smartphones and flag fake voices in real time, and it's now one of the companies competing in Startup Battlefield at TechCrunch Disrupt.
Next 5 VCs judging Startup Battlefield 200 contenders at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026
Thousands of applications. Multiple rounds of review. Hundreds of hours spent evaluating startups from around the world. Now comes the part everyone has been waiting for. Register for TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 today.