LLM & Models

AI computing startup Lambda to raise $4B ahead of planned IPO

Nvidia-backed Lambda is raising up to $4 billion at a $14.5 billion pre-money valuation ahead of a planned 2027 IPO, led by Coatue and Blackstone.

The next hurdle for AI agents: getting websites to let them in

Personal AI agents promise to shop, book flights, and make reservations for you. But deliberate blocks and anti-bot defenses are getting in the way, leaving consumers caught in the middle. A new standard aims to help.

Hark releases an AI personal assistant with a focus on privacy

The AI lab's personal assistant is an operating system from the future designed to compete with Muse, Dots and Instinct.

Mirror Particle is building a ‘world model’ of human behavior

Mirror Particle will launch at TechCrunch Disrupt's Startup Battlefield 200 with a world model built from scratch to predict human behavior, arguing that LLM role-play falls short for market research and brand strategy.

Atlassian and OpenAI expand partnership to turn enterprise knowledge into action

Atlassian and OpenAI are expanding their partnership to connect frontier models with enterprise knowledge and help teams plan, build, and deliver work.

Anthropic is giving startups a free year of Claude Team and $1,000 in credits

"We created this program because we believe the benefits of AI will reach most people through the companies that build on top of models, rather than through the models alone."

LibreOffice says ‘no AI’ is now a software feature

The maker of the open source document editor says it has no plans to add AI to its software's default configuration, citing user privacy.

Mistral’s new 1T model aims to leapfrog closed and open rivals

French AI lab Mistral AI has released Mistral Large 4, a new large multimodal model aiming to leapfrog both American and Chinese rivals.

Pinterest’s AI now turns beauty Pins into action plans

Pinterest’s new AI-powered Beauty Guides translate hair and nail Pins into salon terminology, with estimated costs, appointment times and maintenance needs.

Get all your questions answered at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026: The full breakout session agenda revealed

Get all of your scaling and tech questions answered at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026. Here's the full breakout session agenda, happening October 13-15 in San Francisco. Register now to join and save up to $100, and get a second pass at 50% off.

How Jump Trading is scaling quant research with ChatGPT

Jump Trading uses OpenAI to expand quantitative research. See how longer-running AI workflows combine multiple data sources with human review.

Sharing AI progress in mathematics

OpenAI publishes new results on open problems in mathematics from an internal frontier model and shares Lean proof formalizations and research details on GitHub.

Advancing computer use with Ironclad

Learn how OpenAI and Ironclad are training and evaluating AI agents on complex contracting workflows to advance computer use for professional work.

Expanding the Cyber Verification Program

OpenAI will start watermarking ChatGPT’s text in the EU

OpenAI will watermark ChatGPT and Codex text in the EU to comply with the AI Act. Editing can make the invisible marks harder to detect, it says.

Reflection debuts Beam, a open-weight AI model to rival Chinese models at lower compute cost

Nvidia-backed Reflection AI unveils Beam, its first open-weight model, which it says rivals GLM-5.2 on reasoning with far less inference compute. Weights are due this month.

Instinct brings its AI agent to group chats, even for friends without an account

Instinct is launching group chats that let friends use its AI agent together for tasks like planning trips, organizing carpools, and coordinating events. The company says personal accounts remain separate, with permission required before personal agents share information or take action.

TikTok rolls out an AI shopping assistant and one-click checkout

TikTok describes its new Shopping Assistant as a conversational AI agent designed to help users discover and purchase products.

Hot Girl Hotline is like ‘Dear Abby’ for the AI era

Founded by two sisters, Hot Girl Hotline uses AI to give young women personalized dating and relationship advice, with an emphasis on safety and avoiding emotional dependency.

HackerRank’s AI interviewer offers a glimpse into what job interviews could become

HackerRank’s AI interviewer has already conducted more than 500,000 interviews, with Snowflake, Snorkel, and Capgemini among its early testers.