LLM & Models
Ex-Nvidia-turned-VC Amulya Vishwanath: ‘Physical AI is in its LEGO era’
It’s the moment everyone is waiting for — the ChatGPT moment for robotics, Amulya Vishwanath explained to TechCrunch’s Equity.
TechCrunch AI Original
LLM & Models
Curated coverage, updated continuously.
LLM & Models
Plants can speak using electricity, so this startup built an AI model to decipher their language
Electric Plant has built an AI-powered translator to help humans listen to what plants are saying with the subtle electricity coursing through their stems.
TechCrunch AI Original
LLM & Models
Figma co-founder Dylan Field thinks MCP is not a perfect protocol
Figma said it plans to support as many standards as possible without exposing all of its data
TechCrunch AI Original
LLM & Models
US orders federal agencies to remove China’s DeepSeek AI from their systems
The US has ordered federal civilian agencies to remove DeepSeek products and third-party services built using its technology, citing national security concerns.
TechCrunch AI Original
LLM & Models
Eka is worth $1.45B thanks to a physical AI model that has experts raving
Eka Robotics may be the first robotic arm that is actually good at picking a wide range of objects up, and it is so smooth and human-like, it is wowing the industry.
TechCrunch AI Original
LLM & Models
Yelp can now call on your behalf to check wait times at a restaurant
Yelp is embedding numerous new AI features into its app that can do everything from call to check on restaurant wait times to create personalized recommendations that remember your preferences.
TechCrunch AI Original
LLM & Models
Otter.ai raises $320 million from General Catalyst’s growth fund for its meeting tool
Meeting note-taking tool Otter.ai announced on Tuesday that it has raised $320 million from General Catalyst’s Customer Value Fund (CVF), which provides capital to startups without diluting equity and gets returns on the results of marketing spend. Otter.ai said that it will use these funds for enterprise growth, go-to-market strategy, international expansion, and product innovation. […]
TechCrunch AI Original
LLM & Models
Franchisee reconciles cash in 94% less time with ChatGPT Work
An independent Schlotzsky’s and Cinnabon franchisee cut menu repricing time by 95% and built a workflow that could free up $100K in cash flow.
OpenAI Blog Original
LLM & Models
Terminal X matches senior investor judgment 88.6% with GPT-6.1
Terminal X’s Eval Agent grades outputs against a 54-criterion rubric, catching 25% more deviances from a fund’s mandate with GPT-6.1 Sol.
OpenAI Blog Original
LLM & Models
Mamdani says feds have abdicated on AI, urges New Yorkers to push back
Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Monday night that New Yorkers must resist the narrative that an AI takeover is inevitable and demand regulations that protect the public and put power back in their hands.
TechCrunch AI Original
LLM & Models
OpenAI acquires Orchestra Bio
OpenAI is acquiring Orchestra Bio to bring AI-powered operations to life sciences R&D, helping biopharma teams accelerate drug development and advance new treatments.
OpenAI Blog Original
LLM & Models
Nscale and Anthropic are reportedly in talks for yet another $45 billion compute deal
In August, Nscale and Anthropic announced a $45 billion compute deal. The two companies are reportedly discussing yet another deal of the same magnitude.
TechCrunch AI Original
LLM & Models
Embedded AI evaluators won’t be an easy solution, Hugging Face’s policy chief says
AI labs have staked their reputations on model benchmarking — the supposedly neutral and accurate system of evaluations that are designed to measure whether one AI product is better than another. However, the methods behind these evaluations are complicated and still maturing, said Irene Solaiman, Hugging Face’s chief policy officer, during a discussion at TechCrunch […]
TechCrunch AI Original
LLM & Models
Microsoft says AI agents are like insider threats as ‘frontier models can’t be trusted’
Microsoft wants enterprises to closely watch the agents employees use with systems not controlled by AI labs like OpenAI and Anthropic.
TechCrunch AI Original
LLM & Models
Amazon is taking its biggest shot at Nvidia yet with new TorchNeuron dev tool
Amazon wants to break Nvidia’s hold on PyTorch, the free toolkit used to build most AI apps, so that more developers run their apps on alternative chips like its own.
TechCrunch AI Original
LLM & Models
Hackers hit AI coding tool OpenCode, running up charges on users’ AI accounts
OpenCode is an open-source AI coding agent that's become a popular alternative to Claude Code and Cursor. But hackers got into part of its online platform and stole some users’ API keys, and the AI tools it turned to for help kept refusing to look at the malicious code.
TechCrunch AI Original
LLM & Models
Tolan snags $30M for its AI companion that helps users navigate life
AI companion app Tolan has raised another $30 million after attracting more than 250,000 active users.
TechCrunch AI Original
LLM & Models
Replika’s founder built the AI assistant she pitched at Disrupt 12 years ago
Eugenia Kuyda's newest startup Wabi is positioned to take advantage of an idea she had more than a decade ago. Wabi offers a personal AI assistant with a twist, free and downloadable to anyone today.
TechCrunch AI Original
LLM & Models
Tenstorrent hits $6.2B valuation to scale open-weight AI chips
After drawing acquisition interest earlier this year, the Nvidia challenger raised $1.5 billion to remain independent.
TechCrunch AI Original
LLM & Models
People are using AI to make their smart TVs dumb again
Fed up with ads, tracking and sluggish interfaces, some smart TV owners are turning to AI agents to strip away bloatware and take back control of their TVs.
TechCrunch AI Original