Tech

OpenAI has been all over the news recently, whether that news is about acquisitions, competition with Anthropic, or bigger debates about AI’s impact on society. On the latest episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Kirsten Korosec, Sean O’Kane, and I did our best to round up all the latest OpenAI news. While the company’s latest acquisitions seem to be classic acqui-hires, …

Despite the months-long feud between Anthropic and the Pentagon, the National Security Agency is using the AI company’s new Mythos Preview, according to Axios, which spoke to two sources with knowledge of the matter. Anthropic announced Mythos Preview at the beginning of April, describing it as a general-purpose language model that is “strikingly capable at computer security tasks.” But back …

In a recent episode of “No Priors” — the excellent podcast co-hosted by AI investors Sarah Guo and Elad Gil — Gil made a point about exit timing that’s undoubtedly familiar to founders who’ve spent time with him, but seems particularly useful in this moment of go-go dealmaking. For most companies, Gil said, there’s roughly a 12-month period where the …

To make up for an incredibly laughable inaugural event, Beijing is running back its humanoid robot half-marathon. Fortunately, the event that pits humanoid robots made by Chinese companies against each other across 13 miles went a lot smoother this year. This year’s half-marathon hosted more than 100 competitors, with first place going to Honor, better known for its smartphones, and …

Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin successfully re-used one of its New Glenn rockets for the first time ever on Sunday, but the company failed at its primary mission: delivering a communications satellite to orbit for customer AST SpaceMobile. AST SpaceMobile issued a statement Sunday afternoon that the upper stage of the New Glenn rocket placed BlueBird 7 satellite into …

The winning runner at a Beijing half-marathon for humanoid robots finished the race today in 50 minutes and 26 seconds — significantly faster than the human world record of 57 minutes recently set by Jacob Kiplimo. Comparing human and robot running times may seem unfair; one social media user observed, “my car can outrun a cheetah too.” Still, the winning …

Because we get asked a lot. The Technological Republic, in brief. 1. Silicon Valley owes a moral debt to the country that made its rise possible. The engineering elite of Silicon Valley has an affirmative obligation to participate in the defense of the nation. 2. We must rebel against the tyranny of the apps. Is the iPhone our greatest creative …

Anyone looking to upgrade to the next Mac Studio or MacBook Pro might have to wait a little longer, thanks to the ongoing global memory shortage. As reported by Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman, “at least two of the company’s upcoming machines … could debut a little later than the company initially planned,” referencing the refreshes to Apple’s desktop and its laptop …

Surveillance and analytics company Palantir recently posted what it called a “brief” 22-point summary of CEO Alexander Karp’s book “The Technological Republic.” Written by Karp and Palantir’s head of corporate affairs Nicholas Zamiska, “The Technological Republic” was published last year and described by its authors as “the beginnings of the articulation of the theory” behind Palantir’s work. (One critic said …

Tesla is expanding its Robotaxi footprint across Texas by introducing availability in both Dallas and Houston. As announced in a post on X, the EV maker is rolling out its Robotaxis to small sections of the Texas cities, as detailed by two maps of its new service areas. The first Robotaxi rides started in Austin, Texas where Tesla is headquartered, …