.png){kind=logo}
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.
Trump bought SpaceX shares two weeks after blockbuster IPO
The president bought when the stock was in the mid-$150 range. SpaceX finished trading on Monday back at its IPO price of $135.
Instinct’s powerful AI assistant is raising privacy and security concerns
Early testers are raving about what Instinct can do, but some say the AI assistant’s sweeping access, broad terms and ability to act on users’ behalf come with uncomfortable trade-offs.
Hugging Face reportedly in talks to be acquired for $13B
Hugging Face has reportedly been fielding acquisition offers that would value the company at around $13B. But with the founders' feeling of responsibility to community, doubts arise as to whether a sale will happen.
Who’s behind the new ‘stealth model’ Ox Alpha?
A mysterious new AI model called Ox Alpha has driven certain corners of the internet into a frenzy of speculation.
Is it legal to train AI models on copyrighted books? It’s complicated
Most published authors have, without their knowledge or consent, contributed to the development of the same AI tools that threaten to undermine their livelihoods. That seems illegal, right?
Harvard’s $699 startup bootcamp offers AI avatars of its instructors
In the HBS Foundry program, AI avatars provide feedback during practice pitches and board meetings.
OpenAI says California should strengthen its AI safety bill
OpenAI's global affairs team post also referenced “recent incidents” that “underscore both the need for these protections and the importance of updating them” as new risks emerge.
Frontier AI labs still won’t say how they’d contain a rogue model
A new study finds leading AI labs have few publicly documented plans for containing rogue models, raising questions about preparedness as AI systems increasingly demonstrate unexpected and potentially dangerous behavior.
Michael Polansky is training an AI model on skin that’s still alive
Michael Polansky — better known publicly as Lady Gaga's partner and a former top deputy to Sean Parker — has quietly spent years building an AI-driven startup that keeps living human skin tissue alive for weeks outside the body to discover new skincare compounds, and is only now going public about it.
Anthropic’s Opus 4.6 is a smut-machine
Anthropic forbids its Claude models from generating sexually explicit content. But a series of tests conducted by TechCrunch found that it didn't take much to get past the restriction.
Nvidia partners with data center developer Cloverleaf
Nvidia continues to pour money into data center development — just as AI data centers bring lots of money into Nvidia.
Over 1 million people have clicked LinkedIn’s AI slop button
LinkedIn actually announced a "Seems like AI slop" button on July 30th, and the company says that a lot of people have already used it. According to a Thursday post from chief product officer Hari Srinivasan, "over a million people" have clicked on the button, which is accessible from the three dots menu on a […]
The DOJ is investigating a16z. What does this mean for venture capital?
Andreessen Horowitz has two partners sitting on the boards of companies that now compete with each other: Ben Horowitz at Databricks and Martin Casado at Fivetran. Nothing too scandalous on the surface, except the Department of Justice has reportedly been investigating the arrangement for almost a year, dusting off a 112-year-old antitrust law that’s rarely used against VCs.  Board conflicts aren’t&#
Starcloud raises $250 million for orbital data centers as launch options dry up
There's about to be a big fight to secure access to space.
AI data startup Micro1 reaches $500M gross run rate amid AI training boom
Surging demand for AI training data is driving rapid growth for the startup and its rivals.
OpenAI is gaining on Anthropic with business users, new data indicates
Businesses are willing to flop back and forth as each lab releases new models, volatility that should give both companies' investors pause about how "sticky" enterprise AI spending really is.
ChatGPT can now send texts for you with new Apple Messages plug-in
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.
OK, can we actually cool data centers with our pee?
Jason Kelce joked that people should cool data centers with their pee, rather than potable water -- but his suggestion is not completely ludicrous.
Runlayer, Rippling drop lawsuits — but the brouhaha is still a cautionary tale for founders
Runlayer and Rippling have dropped their lawsuits. No money was paid. Rippling celebrated by releasing a competing product.
Grok keeps sending gibberish responses to users
Affected users told TechCrunch they were using Grok Lite, and noticed the issues as early as Wednesday morning.
A third of web pages published since ChatGPT launched were written by AI, study finds
ChatGPT and other AI models are now authoring and editing much of the new web.
Ramp launches its own AI model router, called Router
Ramp has launched its own AI model routing service, dubbed Router, that lets users and companies use and switch between various large language models via an API.
Meta brings Pocket, an app that lets you vibe-code and share games, to US users
Meta is bringing Pocket, its experimental AI-powered app for creating and sharing interactive games, to users across the U.S. after quietly testing it in Brazil.
Inertia Enterprises finds a way to make its fusion fuel fast
Fusion power startup Inertia Enterprises reduced the fuel filling process from a week to just a few hours. It's one of 10 hurdles the company must overcome to make a profitable power plant.