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Signal. External read.
What we're reading across AI and web3 — pulled straight from the source, no rewrite. Every card links out to the original outlet.
AI code-testing startup Blacksmith’s valuation jumps almost 10x in less than a year
Blacksmith says revenue has grown more than tenfold over the past year.
Google’s Pixel Watch 5 dives deeper into AI and health
The $399 Google Pixel Watch 5 isn't about the hardware. Sure, there's a new satin pyrite case finish, a few new strap colors, and a Steph Curry Special Edition. Under the hood, there's a slightly faster Qualcomm processor and an itty-bitty battery bump. There's a $50 price hike from last year, too, because the Pixel […]
Of course the ChatGPT dog cancer vaccine spawned a startup
Remember that much-hyped story about an Australian tech entrepreneur using ChatGPT, Grok, and other AI tools to craft a personalized cancer vaccine for his dog? Well, surprise: He's launched a startup. That entrepreneur is Paul Conyngham, who says he is launching Gamgee to offer "personalised mRNA cancer vaccines for dogs." But his ambitions go well […]
Grok is now an AI ‘teammate’ you can assign work
SpaceXAI has introduced Grok Bot, an always-on AI agent service designed to behave like independent "AI teammates" that can do your work for you. The bots share their own cloud-based computer environment, and can sign into apps, tools, and websites you already use to complete multi-step workplace tasks, only coming back when their assigned work […]
Accel closes oversubscribed $550M India fund within weeks, 19 months after its last
The U.S. VC firm still has more than 55% of its previous $650 million India fund available for deployment.
Saber denies replacing Rideshare Stimulator’s writers with ChatGPT
After a former lead writer claimed Saber "replaced me with ChatGPT," CEO Matthew Karch now claims, "Neither Saber nor Unigine have replaced any writers with AI," for the Rideshare "Stimulator" game announced last month, developed by Unigine. The writer, Stella Sacco, says differently, however, posting on Bluesky that "I was lead writer on this one! […]
Google’s Gemini app surges to 1 billion users
Google also shared numbers of how people are actually using the chatbot, with 63% of Gemini users talking directly to the assistant using the voice feature. Plus, Gemini now generates more than 150 million images every day, according to Google.
Brad Lightcap, OpenAI’s longtime COO, is leaving to ‘start something new’
One of OpenAI's longest-serving executives is headed out the door, although the longtime COO told staff that he was "excited to help you all advance the mission from a different vantage point."
General Catalyst leads $1.1B round into 2-month-old River AI
River AI, a startup founded by xAI co-founder Igor Babuschkin, has a fascinating vision for personal agents and secured $1.1 billion out of the gate.
ChatGPT and Gemini both just passed 1 billion users
For the 14th time, a Google product has hit 1 billion users. Google CEO Sundar Pichai posted on X that a billion people are using Gemini every month, and that Gemini is Google's fastest-growing product ever. A billion users is a huge milestone, but Google isn't the first AI app to hit it. OpenAI's ChatGPT […]
Another OpenAI executive takes off
Brad Lightcap, OpenAI's special projects lead and the company's former COO, announced his departure after an eight-year stint at the AI lab. In an internal memo he later posted to X, Lightcap told colleagues he'd be starting "something new." "Over the last few months, I've been focused on the next horizon and what would stand […]
Made by Google 2026: all the Pixel news and announcements
On August 12, 2026, Google revealed a bunch of new Pixel devices. The colorful Pixel 11 lineup comes with upgraded cameras and performance, with the Pro models offering a built-in LED ring that lights up for Google’s Gemini AI and other features. Google also showed off its next-gen Pixel Fold featuring thinner bezels, alongside a […]
Spotify will label ‘AI Persona’ profiles and exclude their music from recommendations
Spotify is introducing “AI Persona” labels for artist profiles that represent AI-generated identities and will exclude their music from editorial, algorithmic, and personalized recommendations by default.
Apple could help you prove your iPhone photos aren’t deepfakes
Apple is seemingly developing an iOS feature that can verify when a photograph was taken using an iPhone camera. 9to5Mac reports that the iOS 27 beta 5 includes code references for an "Apple Reference Image" system that can embed provenance metadata into iPhone photographs at the point of capture - enabling users to prove where […]
Anthropic says it will watermark text generated by its AI models
Anthropic will extend support for watermarking AI generations for older models as well.
‘Zoomsday’ hack uncovered using fewer than 20 AI prompts
Zoom has patched a major security vulnerability that could allow an attacker to hijack anyone's device during a meeting. In a blog post on Tuesday, researchers at A Security say they uncovered the flaw using "fewer than 20 prompts on publicly available AI models," as reported earlier by Wired. The exploit involved Zoom's annotation feature, […]
Why your Amazon order confirmation emails have become so unhelpful
Earlier this summer, Amazon customers began noticing that emails related to their online orders looked sparse: Order confirmation emails didn't name specific items anymore, and instead listed only item categories. "Your Beauty item is confirmed!" an email about my retainer cleaning tablets read. Shoppers have posted other iterations of the redacted emails as well: "Ordered: […]
Spotify says it won’t recommend music from ‘AI Personas’
Spotify will soon label AI artists and remove their music from your recommendations. The change, which will start rolling out in mid-September, means you'll see an "AI Persona" badge on an artist's profile across the app if they do "not represent a real person." The music streaming platform will allow artists to disclose that they're […]
Claude will apply invisible watermarks to AI text and images
Anthropic has pledged to start marking Claude-generated text and images with machine-readable data, in an effort to comply with European rules for AI transparency. "Generated text will carry embedded watermarks, and generated files will include digitally signed provenance metadata where supported," Anthropic says on a new Claude support page. The changes are invisible to human […]
The AI takeover of mathematics has begun
Mathematician James Maynard has spent a lot of time this past year "soul searching." A professor at the University of Oxford and winner of the prestigious Fields Medal, Maynard told The Verge he's been grappling with the future of his field as the traditionally slow-moving discipline hurries to adapt to AI. Days before we spoke, […]
OpenAI reportedly completed a $7 billion employee tender offer
San Francisco's housing market is in trouble again.
As AI-led attacks multiply, OpenAI launches a new cyber model
OpenAI is expanding its AI cybersecurity defense program Daybreak, and rolling out a new cyber-trained AI model with it.
Mark Zuckerberg’s AI manifesto is exactly why people don’t like AI
On Monday, Mark Zuckerberg published a 6,500-word manifesto about personal AI, largely about the possibilities for the "personal superintelligence" systems Meta AI is building.
Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t understand how to live
Recently, a man I was rock climbing with told me about how he'd used AI to make a motivational poster for himself, which he'd hung on his bedroom wall: a bear, walking a slackline over a canyon, holding a sign that said, "Do cool shit." I made what I hoped was a polite noise. What […]