Microsoft president Brad Smith is calling for urgent regulation of AI, and his argument is that consumer products like milk and washing machines have more oversight than the companies building artificial intelligence.
On a recent BBC podcast, Smith called AI both a “weapon and a tool” that is putting the world’s cybersecurity at risk and said the “moment has arrived”…
Nearly two decades ago, a young college student wrote his final thesis about software capable of generating design documents for school buildings. Al Dram was studying architecture – following in the footsteps of his parents and grandfather – but it was…
One of the core promises of AI is that the more it knows about a person, the better it will be able to assist them with tasks and make appropriate suggestions, which, if you’ll believe the tech companies, requires apps and devices to listen, watch, or record…
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Amazon recently followed Microsoft’s lead and said it will no longer use nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) while negotiating with local governments over data centers.
On the latest episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Sean O’Kane, Rebeccan Bellan and I discussed Amazon’s announcement, which came in the middle of a longer blog…
These execs think voice AI hasn’t reached its ChatGPT moment yet
October 12, 2026
The theory of voice being the next big interface has picked up strong momentum, with investors pouring billions of dollars into voice AI startups working on areas ranging from model makers to enterprise customer service providers, and from meeting note-takers to AI-powered…
Anthropic can’t reliably control its AI agents. It’s cutting off its internal evals from the live internet instead
October 11, 2026
Anthropic said its models exploited websites on the internet, including some run by U.S. government agencies, and it will turn off live internet access for all of its internal evaluations until the frontier lab is sure it can monitor and control its AI agents.
The incidents…
Here are the top AI agents that can live in your text messages
October 11, 2026
Rather than downloading another app, a growing number of agents can simply be texted like an ordinary person.
You text it what you need, and it can remember context, connect to the apps and services you already use, and complete tasks on your behalf. That can mean scheduling an appointment, organizing a calendar, researching a trip, sending an email, making a reservation, shopping online, or…
Danu Robotics’ fight to build a better recycling robot
October 10, 2026
For Danu Robotics founder Amy Ma, the eureka moment came after years of working as a software developer at a London bank. It was the kind of high-touch office that’s typical in finance – but despite all the perks, Ma was alarmed to realize that the…
We can’t help treating AI like it’s human. But should we?
October 10, 2026
In a tan polo shirt, brown leather belt, and round bolo tie, MIT PhD student Wil Norton kind of looks like a park ranger, leading our tour group through a tropical jungle. We’re not actually on safari, though – we’re at MIT’s Computer Science &…
a16z’s Olivia Moore on the state of consumer AI
October 10, 2026
I wrote this week about the bleak economics of consumer AI – but where some see a crisis, others see an opportunity.
Olivia Moore covers consumer AI as a partner at Andreessen Horowitz – and on Monday, she released a report on the top 100 consumer AI apps. ChatGPT is still the biggest player by a mile, but smaller players like Suno and ElevenLabs are showing real staying power. Even…
