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OpenAI disbands mission alignment team
OpenAI has disbanded a team that was designed to communicate the company’s mission to the public and to its own employees.
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AI inference startup Modal Labs in talks to raise at $2.5B valuation, sources say
Modal Labs, a startup specializing in AI inference infrastructure, is talking to VCs about a new round at a valuation of about $2.5 billion, according to four people with knowledge of the deal.
TC
xAI lays out interplanetary ambitions in public all-hands
On Wednesday, xAI took the rare step of publishing a full 45-minute all-hands meeting video on X, making it publicly accessible.
ARS
AI agents now have their own Reddit-style social network, and it's getting weird fast
Moltbook, a Reddit-like social platform for AI agents, now hosts over 32,000 bots that trade jokes, tips, and complaints about humans, signaling a shift from tools to social entities.
ARS
OpenAI picks up pace against Claude Code with new Codex desktop app
Today, OpenAI launched a macOS desktop app for Codex, its large language model-based coding tool that was previously used through a command line interface (CLI) on the web or inside an integrated development environment (IDE) via extensions. By launching a desktop app, OpenAI is catching up to Anthr
ARS
SpaceX acquires xAI, plans to launch a massive satellite constellation to power it
SpaceX has formally acquired another one of Elon Musk’s companies, xAi, the space company announced on Monday afternoon. “SpaceX has acquired xAI to form the most ambitious, vertically-integrated innovation engine on (and off) Earth, with AI, rockets, space-based internet, direct-to-mobile device co
ARS
The rise of Moltbook suggests viral AI prompts may be the next big security threat
On November 2, 1988, graduate student Robert Morris released a self-replicating program into the early Internet. Within 24 hours, the Morris worm had infected roughly 10 percent of all connected computers, crashing systems at Harvard, Stanford, NASA, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
ARS
Senior staff departing OpenAI as firm prioritizes ChatGPT development
OpenAI is prioritizing the advancement of ChatGPT over more long-term research, prompting the departure of senior staff as the $500 billion company adapts to stiff competition from rivals such as Google and Anthropic. The San Francisco-based start-up has reallocated resources for experimental work i
ARS
Xcode 26.3 adds support for Claude, Codex, and other agentic tools via MCP
Apple has announced a new version of Xcode, the latest version of its integrated development environment (IDE) for building software for its own platforms, like the iPhone and Mac.
AIN
Red Hat unifies AI and tactical edge deployment for UK MOD
The UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) has selected Red Hat to architect a unified AI and hybrid cloud backbone across its entire estate.
AIN
How insurance leaders use agentic AI to cut operational costs
Agentic AI offers insurance leaders a path to scalable efficiency as the sector confronts a tough digital transformation.Insurers hold deep data reserves and employ a workforce skilled in analytic decision-making.
AIN
Barclays bets on AI to cut costs and boost returns
Barclays recorded a 12 % jump in annual profit for 2025, reporting £9.1 billion in earnings before tax, up from £8.1 billion a year earlier.
MIT
EVs could be cheaper to own than gas cars in Africa by 2040
Electric vehicles could be economically competitive in Africa sooner than expected. Just 1% of new cars sold across the continent in 2025 were electric, but a new analysis finds that with solar off-grid charging, EVs could be cheaper to own than gas vehicles by 2040. There are major barriers to high
WD
AI Industry Rivals Are Teaming Up on a Startup Accelerator
AI labs are taking a break from sniping at one another to partner on a new accelerator program for European startups building applications on top of their models.
MIT
The Download: inside the QuitGPT movement, and EVs in Africa
This is today's edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what's going on in the world of technology. A “QuitGPT” campaign is urging people to cancel their ChatGPT subscriptions In September, Alfred Stephen, a freelance software developer in Singapore, purchased a
TC
Meridian raises $17 million to remake the agentic spreadsheet
The fight to tame spreadsheets with AI isn’t over yet. A new company called Meridian has emerged from stealth with a more comprehensive IDE-based approach to agentic financial modeling — and plenty of funding to build it.
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Build a pipeline and close deals with an exhibit table at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026
From October 13–15 at San Francisco’s Moscone West, 10,000+ founders, investors, operators, and decision-makers will converge at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026. This isn’t just an event. It’s three days of concentrated deal flow. An exhibit table turns that energy into measurable business growth.
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OpenAI policy exec who opposed chatbot’s “adult mode” reportedly fired on discrimination claim
Ryan Beiermeister, who served as OpenAI’s vice president of product policy, was fired in January after a male colleague accused her of sexual discrimination, the Wall Street Journal has reported. “The allegation that I discriminated against anyone is absolutely false,” Beiermeister told the Journal.
TC
With co-founders leaving and an IPO looming, Elon Musk turns talk to the moon
On Tuesday night, Elon Musk gathered the employees of xAI for an all-hands meeting. Evidently, he wanted to talk about the future of his AI company and, specifically, how it relates to the moon. According to The New York Times, which reports that it heard the meeting, Musk told employees that xAI ne
MIT
A “QuitGPT” campaign is urging people to cancel their ChatGPT subscriptions
In September, Alfred Stephen, a freelance software developer in Singapore, purchased a ChatGPT Plus subscription, which costs $20 a month and offers more access to advanced models, to speed up his work. But he grew frustrated with the chatbot’s coding abilities and its gushing, meandering replies.