On Tuesday, Apple rolled out a potentially controversial set of Audio Intelligence features into testing with the first developer beta versions of iOS 27.3 and watchOS 27.3. The betas bring four new AI features that allow Apple Watch Series 12 wearers to detect important sounds, identify songs, catch up on conversations, and take notes.
After just a day with Apple’s Siri Recaps feature on my…
Google faces backlash for plan that would turn off Search for schools that restrict AI
November 5, 2026
Google was met with swift backlash on Tuesday after it announced that schools using Google’s K-12 software will not be able to use Search unless they opt in to using AI tools.
Chris Phillips, vice president for education at Google, told The New York Times that…
Anthropic is still grappling with the economics of compute
November 4, 2026
There’s a lot of mystery around the finances of major AI labs, and as Anthropic inches towards it IPO, we’re starting to get some answers. In particular, the company is finally disclosing more about the economics of compute, and how much of Anthropic’s…
Apple Watch’s AI features for rewinding and recapping conversations begin beta testing
November 4, 2026
Apple’s AI-powered “Audio Intelligence” technology for the Apple Watch is rolling out into beta testing on Tuesday, initially for developers in the iOS 27.3 update, after first being announced at the company’s Surprise and Shine hardware event in September. The technology includes a set of four opt-in AI features that allow Apple Watch Series 12 wearers to detect important…
Google takes Dreambeans to India in bid to bring AI-generated personal stories to the masses
November 4, 2026
Google has launched its experimental AI app Dreambeans in India, its first market outside the U.S., as the company looks to tap the world’s second-largest internet market to bring personalized visual stories drawn from users’ digital activity to a broader…
42AI comes out of stealth with $62.5M and a world model that can ‘predict human behavior’
November 3, 2026
Here’s a question straight out of sci-fi: What if AI could predict what you were going to do before you decided to, even in a completely new situation?
Israeli startup 42AI says it is developing a “behavioral world model” that can do just that, and it has…
U.S. data centers use 17 to 19 billion gallons of water to cool their hot-running chips each year – and that number is expected to triple in the next five years, according to The Water Foundation.
That’s an expensive and politically tricky proposition for investors throwing billions of dollars at the challenge of scaling up AI. One way to use less water is to do a better job monitoring…
Data centers are now a midterm issue, even in Brooklyn
November 3, 2026
On Thursday evening, I slipped on my neon yellow heels and a floral mini dress. It’s New York, so I can wear whatever I want to a midterm election event full of media types, techies, policy advocates, and, well, does anyone else even exist at these things? I walked…
AI can make tech CEOs’ lives easier. What about everyone else?
November 2, 2026
Dazzle AI CEO Marissa Mayer recently became the latest tech CEO to face criticism over seemingly out-of-touch comments extolling the usefulness of AI.
In Mayer’s case, that involved asking an AI tool for help with a school-assigned description of her daughter. For…
Last-minute Halloween costumes for tech nerds
November 1, 2026
It happens to the best of us – you’ve completely dropped the ball on figuring out a Halloween costume. Naturally, you’ve decided to solve this problem by turning to… TechCrunch? Yeah, sure, why not. I’ve got some ideas.
Here are some last-minute techy Halloween costumes. Effort levels vary.
Recursive self-improvement
AI leaders like Dario Amodei and Sam Altman have…
