AI news, distilled.

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Zest’s new AI agent finds restaurants and books reservations over text

Can't agree on where to eat? Zest's AI concierge can combine everyone's tastes, put restaurant options to a vote, and make the reservation.

Starbucks wants to use AI to show you a ‘personalized digital menu’ at the drive-thru

Starbucks could eventually show you a personalized digital menu when you pull up to the drive-thru. During an earnings call on Thursday, Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol said the company is going to explore "experiences that recognize participating customers as they arrive, present personalized digital menus, and make payment more effortless," as spotted earlier by More […]

Google’s first data center satellite is online and writing poetry

The first TPU in space is a running a Google DeepMind Gemma 4 model and writing cheesy poetry.

Theranos whistleblower Tyler Shultz warns that the AI boom is ‘a great opportunity to go deceive people’

The cautionary Theranos tale takes on a new significance in the AI era, when companies that have never turned a profit are raising capital at trillion-dollar valuations.

Pope Leo calls for the disarmament of AI: ‘Machines are tools, not persons’

Pope Leo XIV says AI systems should be "disarmed," adding that humans "have the responsibility to guide, change and, when necessary, reject its applications." In Friday's Papal Address, Pope Leo encourages United Nations member states to "take concrete steps toward banning lethal autonomous weapons" during their meeting in Geneva next month. The address reflects many […]

Speeding up planning decisions with AI

Google DeepMind and UK government work together to reduce planning assessment times

Skip the small talk: Make game-changing connections at TechCrunch Founder Summit with Braindate

At TechCrunch Founder Summit 2026, happening November 4 at SoWa Power Station in Boston, networking powered by Braindate is designed to make those conversations easier to find, whether they are in 1:1 or small-group on-site meetings. Register before the event starts to save up to $100 on your pass, plus get a second for free.

DoorDash said it’s only received ‘several hundred’ orders from AI agents

DoorDash said that it is open to working with third-party agent makers

Silicon Valley wants you to invest in miracles

Investing in any stock is kind of like gambling in the sense that you're betting your money on a company's future performance. But how do you bet on a technology that could, in the worst-case scenario, "pose catastrophic or existential risks to humanity," or best case, "bring forth an age of miracles"? To some extent, […]

Sam Altman sympathizes with mathematicians, but says OpenAI’s math onslaught won’t stop

After months of bombarding mathematicians with a relentless stream of AI-generated results, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says he sympathizes with researchers struggling to make sense of it all. But he has no intention of stopping - and hints there could be much more to come from the company's stockpile of discoveries. "I think, on net, […]

5 days left: Your last chance to connect, scale, and save at TechCrunch Founder Summit 2026

5 days to save up to $100, plus a second pass for free to TechCrunch Founder Summit 2026 in Boston on November 4. Register now.

Can AI data centers be mass-produced like cars? This startup aims to find out

Runware is building a factory to turn out prefabricated AI data centers on an assembly line. The real test will be whether it can deliver at that scale.

Maine’s data center revolt will decide who controls the Senate

Maine Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican, was midway through defending her record during the final debate of the midterms when an audience member cut her short. "I'm terrified," a man shouted. "AI data centers are destroying our climate. They are poisoning our water." Collins brushed off the outburst, tying the man to her Democratic challenger, […]

Making it easier for websites to express AI training preferences

OpenAI will honor a shared robots.txt signal to help website operators communicate their AI training preferences to participating providers.

Community safety report and new protections for teens

OpenAI is strengthening violence prevention in ChatGPT with expanded safeguards, earlier interventions, and a new commitment to public safety reporting.

Wikipedia’s operator says a bad AI copyright ruling could threaten the open web

The Wikimedia Foundation is staking out a middle ground in a group of landmark AI copyright cases, pushing courts to legally protect large language models (LLMs) training on copyrighted work - but not chatbots regurgitating that work to users. An overly black-and-white ruling, it says, could either deprive Wikipedians of useful AI-based tools or endanger […]

You don’t need to believe in a god to get a religious exemption from using AI at work

David Durman, a University of Kentucky administrator, recently earned a religious exemption from using AI in the workplace.

Fair use benefits everyone

OpenAI shares excerpts from court briefs by creators, academics, accessibility advocates, and legal experts, among others, on how fair use supports AI training and innovation.

AWS will be a $1T business, Jassy says. But first, it will spend big.

Amazon wants to be the king of AI cloud computing and become the first $1 trillion revenue business. But to do that it will have to continue on its capex spending spree, its CEO said Thursday.