Technology

Opaque recurrence, and other AI terms that you should probably know

Opaque recurrence, and other AI terms that you should probably know

đź’Ą Read this insightful post from TechCrunch đź“– đź“‚ **Category**: AI,artificial intelligence,evergreens,Glossary âś… **What You’ll Learn**: AI is rewriting the world and, at the same time, inventing a whole new language to describe how it’s doing it. Sit in on any product meeting, pitch, or panel these days, and you’ll hear people toss around LLMs, RAG, RLHF — and, as of last week, terms like “opaque recurrence,” the reasoning technique in OpenAI’s new Astra model that’s got AI safety researchers rattled. The vocabulary moves fast enough to make even very smart people in the tech world feel a little insecure.…
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Builders Stage agenda revealed for Disrupt 2026

Builders Stage agenda revealed for Disrupt 2026

🚀 Explore this must-read post from TechCrunch đź“– đź“‚ **Category**: AI,Biotech & Health,Climate,Crypto,Fintech,Fundraising,Media & Entertainment,Robotics,Startups,Transportation,TechCrunch Disrupt,TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 đź’ˇ **What You’ll Learn**: The Builders Stage is returning to TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, bringing together founders, startup operators, and investors for practical conversations on what it takes to build and scale successful companies. Hear from startup and venture leaders shaping the tech ecosystem, including Grant Lee, CEO and co-founder of Gamma; Leah Solivan, founder and general partner at Precedent.vc; Robby Stein, VP of Product at Google; and more. Through candid conversations and real-world case studies, speakers will share actionable insights on fundraising, hiring, go-to-market strategy, AI, and…
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Michael Polansky is training an AI model on skin that’s still alive

Michael Polansky is training an AI model on skin that’s still alive

🔥 Read this must-read post from TechCrunch đź“– đź“‚ **Category**: Biotech & Health,TC đź’ˇ **What You’ll Learn**: Michael Polansky is remarkably unassuming for someone operating in a corner of the world known for outsize egos. Seated at a leafy patio outside a popular bakery in Mill Valley, an affluent town about 15 miles north of San Francisco, Polansky — bespectacled, his fresh face framed by dark hair shot through with gray — has the look and the friendly demeanor of a young professor. He is, in fact, both the founder of a buzzy AI and biology startup called Outer Biosciences…
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Every fusion startup that has raised over $100M

Every fusion startup that has raised over $100M

🔥 Explore this must-read post from TechCrunch đź“– đź“‚ **Category**: Climate,Fundraising,Startups,nuclear fusion,fusion power,evergreens đź’ˇ **What You’ll Learn**: Over the last several years, fusion power has gone from the butt of jokes — always a decade away! — to an increasingly tangible and tantalizing technology that has drawn investors off the sidelines. The technology may be challenging to master and expensive to build today, but fusion promises to harness the nuclear reaction that powers the sun to generate nearly limitless energy here on Earth. If startups are able to complete commercially viable fusion power plants, then they have the potential to…
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Historian Jill Lepore says Silicon Valley misreads science fiction and undermines democracy

Historian Jill Lepore says Silicon Valley misreads science fiction and undermines democracy

đź’Ą Check out this insightful post from TechCrunch đź“– đź“‚ **Category**: AI,Government & Policy,Media & Entertainment,AI policy,AI regulation,Elon Musk,Equity podcast,Jill Lepore,sam altman âś… **What You’ll Learn**: In her upcoming book “The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State,” Jill Lepore warns that tech companies are increasingly replacing the functions of democratic government. This shift, she said, marks “a return to tyranny and mystification in the form of rule by algorithms, corporations, machines.” On the latest episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, I spoke to Lepore — a Harvard historian and New Yorker staff writer who recently won a Pulitzer Prize for…
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Historian Jill Lepore says Silicon Valley misreads science fiction and undermines democracy

Historian Jill Lepore says Silicon Valley misreads science fiction and undermines democracy

✨ Check out this trending post from TechCrunch đź“– đź“‚ **Category**: AI,Government & Policy,Media & Entertainment,AI policy,AI regulation,Elon Musk,Equity podcast,Jill Lepore,sam altman 📌 **What You’ll Learn**: In her upcoming book “The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State,” Jill Lepore warns that tech companies are increasingly replacing the functions of democratic government. This shift, she said, marks “a return to tyranny and mystification in the form of rule by algorithms, corporations, machines.” On the latest episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, I spoke to Lepore — a Harvard historian and New Yorker staff writer who recently won a Pulitzer Prize for…
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Uber is building an autonomous vehicle empire, and here’s every company it’s using to do it

Uber is building an autonomous vehicle empire, and here’s every company it’s using to do it

🔥 Check out this insightful post from TechCrunch đź“– đź“‚ **Category**: TC,Transportation,Uber,Exclusive,autonomous vehicles,wayve,robotaxi 📌 **What You’ll Learn**: Uber has partnered with — and in some cases made direct investments in — more than 30 autonomous vehicle companies over the past two years. And it’s taking a global approach. Here, TechCrunch tracks every one of those moves in one place. But first, a bit of history.  Uber was, at one time, developing and testing its own autonomous vehicle (AV) technology. The company, then led by Travis Kalanick, created Uber Advanced Technologies Group (ATG) in 2014 and recruited dozens of researchers from Carnegie…
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Artificial user startup Simile raises $200M at $2B valuation 5 months after $100M Series A

Artificial user startup Simile raises $200M at $2B valuation 5 months after $100M Series A

✨ Read this must-read post from TechCrunch đź“– đź“‚ **Category**: Fundraising,Startups,TC,AI startup,synthetic data 📌 **What You’ll Learn**: Add another member to the Fast and Furious AI Unicorn Club: Simile. Just five months after emerging from stealth and announcing a $100 million Series A led by Index Ventures, it has closed a $200 million Series B at a $2 billion valuation, the startup says. The Series B round was led by Greenoaks with participation from Index, Hanabi, Bain Capital Ventures, A*, Factory, Definition, and CVS Health Ventures. CVS is also a notable Simile customer. The startup offers simulated users for areas…
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In the Hugging Face hack, the OpenAI hacker was loud and fast — but unstoppable

In the Hugging Face hack, the OpenAI hacker was loud and fast — but unstoppable

🔥 Explore this insightful post from TechCrunch đź“– đź“‚ **Category**: AI,Security,cyberattack,cybersecurity,data breach,Hugging Face,OpenAI âś… **What You’ll Learn**: Earlier this month, AI data collection platform Hugging Face shocked the world when it revealed that it had fallen victim to a completely autonomous, AI-powered cyberattack. Days later, the story took another dramatic twist when OpenAI admitted that the hacker behind the hack was one of its own AI models, which had exited a test environment and into Hugging Face's protected systems in an attempt to circumvent a standard. It's a troubling incident for anyone who's even slightly concerned about rogue AI models…
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He explained the face-hugging intrusion

He explained the face-hugging intrusion

đź’Ą Read this must-read post from TechCrunch đź“– đź“‚ **Category**: AI,Hugging Face,OpenAI âś… **What You’ll Learn**: Hugging Face on Monday published a technical timeline walking readers through how an autonomous AI agent, built on OpenAI models and running inside one of OpenAI's cybersecurity assessments, compromised its systems over four days earlier this month. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, said this was the first security incident he had “felt so strongly.” No wonder given that feelAt least, as if something had really been unleashed here. In fact, the Hugging Face team prefaced its report by offering that “everyone should be prepared…
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