TechCrunch

Astropad launches Workbench — AI agent control panel for Mac Mini
Astropad reimagined the remote desktop: the new Workbench is built not for IT support, but for monitoring and managing AI agents from iPhone

AWS chief explained why investing in both Anthropic and OpenAI is not a conflict of interest
AWS invested billions in two competing AI leaders at the same time. The company's chief explained why this is standard practice for the clou

Poke launches access to AI agents via SMS — no apps or technical knowledge needed
Startup Poke opens access to AI agents through regular SMS: no apps, sign-ups, or technical knowledge — just send a task and the agent carri

Bret Taylor from Sierra: The Button Era Is Over, AI Agents Will Replace Interfaces
Sierra's co-founder believes traditional software interfaces will give way to AI agents — users will simply state what they need.

Meta AI App Soars to 5th Place on App Store Following Muse Spark Launch
The new Meta Muse Spark model propelled the app from 57th to 5th place on the American App Store in just days — a record jump among AI apps.

Florida Prosecutor Investigates OpenAI: ChatGPT May Have Helped Plan University Shooting
Florida's Attorney General has opened an investigation against OpenAI following the deaths of two people at a university; according to inves

ChatGPT Launches $100/Month Tier: Closing the Gap Between Plus and Pro
OpenAI closed the tenfold price gap in its subscription lineup: an intermediate ChatGPT tier at $100 per month for advanced users now sits b

TechCrunch brings Startup Battlefield to Tokyo: AI, robots, and anime at SusHi Tech 2026
TechCrunch will hold its Startup Battlefield startup competition in Tokyo for the first time at SusHi Tech 2026, a festival focused on AI, r

Stalking victim sues OpenAI: company ignored three warnings about a threat
A woman accuses OpenAI of allowing ChatGPT to fuel her stalker’s delusional ideas — the company received three warnings that the user was da

Anthropic temporarily blocked the creator of OpenClaw after changing Claude pricing
The developer of the unofficial OpenClaw client lost access to Claude shortly after Anthropic changed pricing for users of the tool.

TechCrunch Released a Guide to AI Jargon: What Are LLMs, Hallucinations, and RAG
TechCrunch compiled a glossary of key AI terms—from large language models and hallucinations to tokens and agents—for those seeking to under

Claude from Anthropic Became the Main Topic of the HumanX Conference in San Francisco
At the April AI conference HumanX in San Francisco, Anthropic and Claude found themselves in the spotlight, overshadowing competitors and be

Trump Administration Advises Banks to Test Anthropic's Mythos Model
Trump administration officials informally recommend that banks test Anthropic's Mythos — despite the U.S. Department of Defense just recogni

Vercel CEO Guillermo Rauch announces IPO readiness amid AI agent-driven growth
Vercel CEO Guillermo Rauch announced at the HumanX conference the company's readiness for IPO — revenue has surged due to demand for AI agen

Stanford AI Index: the gap between AI experts and society continues to widen
The annual Stanford AI Index 2026 documented a growing gap between the optimism of AI specialists and public concern about employment, healt

OpenAI acquired startup Hiro to integrate financial planning into ChatGPT
OpenAI acquired fintech startup Hiro, which specialized in AI-driven personal finance management — a sign that ChatGPT will soon become a pe

Google adds AI Skills to Chrome — save prompts for any site
Google integrates the Gemini-based Skills feature into Chrome: users will be able to save and rerun AI prompts on any site without additiona

Parasail raises $32M: betting on developers who want more AI tokens
Parasail closed a Series A at $32M, betting that the future of AI infrastructure will be fragmented across multiple models and compute provi

Startup Gitar Exits Stealth with $9M: AI Agents Secure Code Written by Other AI
Gitar raised $9M and is exiting stealth with an AI-agent platform that audits code security—including code written by other neural networks.

Adobe launched Firefly AI assistant that manages Creative Cloud autonomously
Adobe introduced Firefly AI assistant capable of executing tasks in Photoshop, Premiere, Illustrator, and other Creative Cloud applications

Reid Hoffman on tokenmaxxing: tokens measure reach, not productivity
LinkedIn co-founder warns against confusing AI token consumption with real productivity — the metric is useful, but only in proper context.

Allbirds Sells Shoe Business, Relaunches as NewBird AI with $50M Funding
Eco-friendly sneaker maker Allbirds has sold its shoe business and relaunched as NewBird AI — raising $50M through convertible financing and

Indian startup Emergent launches Wingman — an AI agent for WhatsApp and Telegram
Emergent, an Indian vibe-coding startup, released Wingman — an AI agent for automating tasks in WhatsApp and Telegram, competing with OpenCl

Google released native Gemini app for Mac with screen sharing support
Google launched a full-featured Gemini application for macOS — now users can share their screen and local files directly with the AI assista

Peter Thiel's Startup Offers to Pay AI to Challenge Journalism
Objection launched a platform where AI acts as arbiter in disputes with newsrooms — critics worry about pressure on sources.

AI learning service Gizmo closes $22M Series A with 13 million users
AI learning platform Gizmo raised $22 million in a Series A round with a user base of more than 13 million — an unusual outcome for the cool

Hightouch reached $100 million ARR thanks to AI agents for marketers
Startup Hightouch added $70 million in annual revenue in just 20 months after launching an AI agent platform for marketers and reached $100

OpenAI updated Agents SDK: enterprise security and multi-agent scenarios
OpenAI expanded its Agents SDK for the enterprise market: new security tools, improved agent tracing, and more flexible multi-agent orchestr

Antioch raises $8.5M: startup wants to become Cursor for robot developers
Antioch wants to do for robot developers what Cursor did for programmers: embed AI into the workflow and remove the extra steps between an i

Canva updated its AI assistant: it now creates editable designs from text prompts
Canva updated its AI assistant: it can now invoke the platform's tools on its own and generate fully editable designs from a user's text pro