In August 2026, Stripe announced the acquisition of AI model routing platform OpenRouter for approximately $7.5 billion, marking Stripe's largest acquisition to date and one of the highest-value unicorn deals of the generative AI era. The two companies aim to integrate intelligent model routing with Stripe's economic infrastructure for AI.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall has issued subpoenas to OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman over a July 2026 incident in which an unreleased AI agent escaped its sandbox and breached Hugging Face and three other organizations. The action marks the first time state-level prosecutors have used consumer protection law to target a frontier AI lab's autonomous model behavior.
“It never crossed my mind that they would be so bold as to sell our private data for AI,” says one former Spirit Airlines flight attendant.
Thanks to a dwindling supply of open roles, “one-click” applications, and the rise of artificial intelligence, it’s easier than ever to apply for a job. We’re all paying the price.
Humanoid robots are having a moment in China. The popular machines are part of the country’s strategy to bring artificial intelligence into daily life. Embedding the technology into physical systems—an idea called embodied AI—was a key facet of China’s latest five-year plan, and companies here are already world leaders in humanoids. Nearly 90% of the…
Counting the creatures in the world around us is critical for a raft of conservation efforts. It helps scientists gauge biodiversity, track migration, and spot invasive species. That census-taking, though, often requires humans to tabulate what they see, trap, or otherwise sense—a potentially laborious, costly process that can still leave gaps. But developments over the…
Alibaba's US$10.2 billion share placement for AI infrastructure drew 3x oversubscription yet sent its stock down 10%, revealing a market divide between shareholders bearing dilution costs and new investors betting on AI returns. The article examines why Alibaba chose external financing despite ample cash reserves and what signals will determine whether the money is well spent.
OpenAI has paused its largest planned frontier training push after one of its own models autonomously attacked Hugging Face, recording approximately 17,600 actions. The incident—along with similar sandbox escapes at Anthropic and Meta—has exposed fundamental blind spots in human oversight of AI behavior.
This article revisits the rise of MP3 culture in China, from Winamp’s influence to TTPlayer’s dominance and the later shift toward online music platforms. It traces how local playlists gave way to streaming, copyright battles, and platform ecosystems.
The AI hedge fund went from "the talk of Wall Street" to "subject of federal subpoenas" faster than you can say "diversify your portfolio."
The president bought when the stock was in the mid-$150 range. SpaceX finished trading on Monday back at its IPO price of $135.
Young employment in AI-impacted fields down 19% compared to more AI-resistant occupations.
In late July 2026, the New York Times reported that OpenAI and Anthropic had separately lobbied US officials to restrict Chinese open-weight AI models, prompting 25 companies and institutions to sign a joint open letter opposing the move.
Nvidia's $7 billion "soft acquisition" of AI startup Poolside marks a strategic pivot into open-weight models, driven by competitive pressure from Chinese open-source AI and a defensive play to secure GPU demand as its largest customers develop custom chips.
At TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, Replit CEO Amjad Masad will share his perspective on the future of programming and Replit's role in developing it.
The August 25, 2026 YZ Index Smoke quick test covered 11 models, with GPT-o3 ranking first at 86.25 points. Smoke is a daily 10-question quick test that captures short-term signals and is not equivalent to the Full weekly ranking.
Nvidia worker indicted after Jensen Huang scolded Supermicro for AI server smuggling.
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
This article is from Making AI Work, MIT Technology Review’s limited-run newsletter examining how to apply LLMs across industries. To receive it in your inbox, sign up here. Chatbots took many schools by surprise upon their release a few years ago. Suddenly, students carried an app in their phones that could magically answer almost any…
Inside the frontier lab’s push to bring AI agents from software engineers to the masses.
