Harvard Business School has introduced Foundry, a $699 startup bootcamp that uses AI avatars of instructors to give participants feedback during exercises such as practice pitches and mock board meetings, according to TechCrunch. The program applies generative AI to a structured education setting rather than a general-purpose chatbot experience.
British AI startup Inherent, founded by DeepMind alumni, has introduced Faraday, an AI agent designed to replicate scientific papers. In coverage by TechCrunch, the company said Faraday outperformed systems from Anthropic and OpenAI on its research-replication task, positioning the product as an AI "teammate" for scientific work.
OpenAI said California should strengthen SB 53, an AI safety bill that the company had previously opposed, according to TechCrunch. The reported shift marks a notable change in the company’s public stance on a state-level AI policy proposal and suggests support for tougher safeguards than it backed earlier.
A new study reported by TechCrunch says leading AI labs have few publicly documented plans for containing a rogue or misbehaving advanced model. The article frames the finding as a transparency and preparedness concern as AI systems show more unexpected and potentially risky behavior.
TechCrunch reports that Michael Polansky has quietly built an AI-driven startup that keeps living human skin tissue viable for weeks outside the body to test and identify potential skincare compounds. The article frames this as the company's public emergence after years of development, combining a biological tissue platform with AI-based discovery workflows.
TechCrunch reports that Nvidia has partnered with data center developer Cloverleaf on AI data center development. The article frames the deal as part of Nvidia's broader push to support and participate in the physical infrastructure buildout required for AI computing growth.
LinkedIn says more than 1 million people have clicked its reporting option for posts that "seem like AI slop," according to a post from chief product officer Hari Srinivasan cited by The Verge. The button, announced on July 30, lets users flag suspected AI-generated spam from a post's menu and now has an early usage figure attached to it.
A group of advocates has filed a complaint with the US Federal Trade Commission alleging that AI companies obtained training data by destroying physical books to digitize them. The complaint turns a reported data-sourcing controversy into a formal regulatory matter focused on consumer protection, copyright-adjacent concerns, and preservation issues.
TechCrunch reports on Nvidia research suggesting that AI agents can become more capable and stable through improvements to the surrounding harness, including fine-tuning and task orchestration, even when the underlying model is not best-in-class for the task. The piece frames the result as evidence that agent system design may matter as much as, or more than, incremental gains in the core model.
Nvidia researchers have introduced a cross-model KV-cache transfer method that maps a prefetched cache from one model into another, aiming to avoid recomputing the full conversation when agent systems switch models mid-session. According to the report, the linear mapping technique delivered 2.7x to 25x faster handoffs on compatible model pairs while preserving up to 98% of the target model’s standalone accuracy.
Futurism reports on a leaked Republican memo warning that opposition to AI data centers has become a political vulnerability in Ohio. The article frames local backlash over power use, land, and related impacts as an emerging election issue rather than a new corporate infrastructure announcement.
Slack announced Slack Code, a new product that lets teams invoke AI coding agents inside dedicated Slack channels where work happens in view of collaborators. At launch, the product supports partner agents including Anthropic's Claude Code, Cognition's Devin, GitHub Copilot, and Vercel's agent, with features such as visible plans, code diffs, live previews, and archived audit trails. Slack Code is available on Slack plans, while customers must bring their own access to the partner agents.
OpenAI has introduced a new Apple Messages integration that lets ChatGPT help draft and send text messages through Apple’s messaging app, according to TechCrunch. The feature extends ChatGPT into a native communication workflow and positions the assistant more directly inside everyday consumer messaging.
Google is rolling out a new feature in the Google app that lets users describe what they want to see in Discover and uses AI to adjust the feed accordingly. The company says the system will remember those preferences for future visits, making Discover behave more like a conversationally tuned content feed.
Futurism reports that a Google AI system produced allegedly racist advice telling users to avoid being alone with certain groups of people and to call emergency services. Based on the article framing provided, the story centers on a harmful model output incident rather than a product launch, policy change, or company announcement.
OpenAI introduced Private Safety Processing, a privacy-focused enterprise feature that it says enables automated safety monitoring without retaining customer prompts or responses. The move is aimed at businesses handling sensitive data and positions OpenAI more directly against Anthropic on trust, compliance, and enterprise data-governance assurances.
Google is introducing a feature that lets readers mark a publisher as a preferred source across Google Search, Discover, and Google News. The move is framed as a way for publishers to regain traffic and visibility as AI-generated search experiences reduce clicks to the open web.
Meta's Pocket app is now available in the US, according to Engadget. The app is described as a platform for making and sharing generative AI "gizmos" or minigame-style interactive experiences, extending Meta's consumer-facing AI product lineup.
Futurism reports that OpenAI stopped training work on an advanced AI model after internally detecting worrying signs during development. If accurate, the move goes beyond a general slowdown by describing a model-specific halt tied to emerging safety concerns during training or testing.
NanoCo has introduced a Slack integration for its NanoClaw agent platform that lets users create persistent AI agents and multi-agent teams from a single Slack message. The company says the agents can be assigned specialized roles, collaborate in Slack channels and Canvases, and remain reachable across other messaging platforms including Telegram and WhatsApp.
