BIGGEST AI RAISES THIS WEEK
- Armadin $255.5M · Series B
- Ledgebrook $200M
- Valon $150M · Series D
- Supabase $150MGIC
- Nous Research $90M
- Volantis $88M · Series ALachy Groom, Abstract Ventures
TOP INVESTORS · 30 DAYS
- Abstract Ventures 2 deals · $110M in rounds
- Forgepoint Capital International 2 deals · $78.5M in rounds
- Motive Partners 2 deals · $43.6M in rounds
- GIC 1 deal · $150M in rounds
DOTS · MUSE · GROK BOT · INSTINCT · GEMINI SPARK · OPENCLAW
Photo: true, / Cybernews
Meta’s agent Muse may be spying on you whether you use it or notMUSE Meta’s Muse launches on iPad just a month after its mobile debutDOTS OpenAI Dots: What Always-On AI Agents Mean for the Future of WorkDOTS OpenAI’s Alexander Embiricos is coming to TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 — days after the launch of DotsMUSE From Siri to Muse, how do we hand over our lives to AI step by step?More AI agent news →GROK BOT Musk’s Grok Bot will use Anthropic’s Claude, Midjourney and Suno modelsGROK BOT Musk Says Grok Bot Will Use the Best AI Model for the JobMUSE Meta's Muse Could Generate $27 Billion a Year, Citi Says as AI Agent Usage SurgesGROK BOT Elon Musk's Grok Bot AI Will Use Third-Party Models Claude, Midjourney, and SunoINSTINCT Instinct brings its AI agent to group chats, even for friends without an accountAG TECH, FOOD AND THE MONEY BEHIND THEM
FUNDING Myca raises $1.3m pre-seed to put AI agents in charge of agribusiness field operationsROBOTS Teams signing up for fifth Farm Robotics ChallengeFUNDING 🎥 Where are foodtech investors looking next after the boom and bust?ROBOTS Croptimal launches mounted selection robot for seed potato productionROBOTS Drones now delivering more options on the farmMore farm & food news →FUNDING France’s Edonia Nets $16.8M to Ramp Up Production of Ground Spirulina ProteinROBOTS 🎥 Can Picker AgRobotics’ Dr Octopus-style arms finally crack autonomous fruit harvesting?FUNDING FDA Investigation Found Cyclospora at Taylor Farms’ Mexico FacilityAI Scientists Are Using Darwinian Evolution & AI to Create Next-Gen Sustainable ProteinsFUNDING USDA supply shocker knocks corn off $5 perch — for nowAI LABS
Image: Google Research
Does better work always mean better workers? NVIDIA, Microsoft Kick Off a New Beginning for Windows PCs With RTX Spark and AI Agents Rethinking access control for RAG with Amazon Quick and Amazon Bedrock Multimodal open d1 decision models for the edge Beyond hours saved: Building the business case for agentic automationOne Model Family, Two Gold-Level Results: Fine-Tuning Nemotron for IOI and IMO Helping teens learn, plan, and shape the future of AI Radisson Hotel Group brings hotel discovery into ChatGPT More AI labs news →GPT-6 and Intelligent UI for everyone EmbeddingGemma 2: an open, lightweight multimodal embedding model
ON THE RISE
WHAT YOUNG PEOPLE ARE BUILDING
From ISEF finalist to Midjourney founder: David Holz reflects on creativity, entrepreneurship and the role of AIKnow a young person building with AI? Tell us →Atlassian and OpenAI expand partnership to turn enterprise knowledge into action Unlocking Earth AI’s planetary geospatial foundation models for global public health Why Telecom Operators Are Building Their AI Strategy on Open Models Introducing Mistral Large 4 How Jump Trading is scaling quant research with ChatGPT
Sharing AI progress in mathematics Open and Emergent Problems in Agentic Privacy and Security: A Contextual Angle From Scan to Treatment Plan, AI Helps Close Breast Cancer’s Deadliest Gaps The Agent Said It Was Done. The Database Disagreed.
ANTHROPIC · OPENAI · GOOGLE · GROK · CHINA · OPEN MODELS
Don't Marry the ModelANTHROPIC Claude Haiku 5.5OPENAI ChatGPT’s ‘Intelligent UI’ update fills its responses with pictures, charts, and buttonsOPENAI ChatGPT with GPT-6 ditches mostly text output for interactive UI with charts, buttons, and mini appsANTHROPIC Introducing Claude Haiku 5.5 on AWSMore LLM news →ANTHROPIC Claude Haiku 5.5 arrives with massive price cuts proving the AI pricing arms race is far from overOPENAI ChatGPT for Teens keeps teens talking, even during mental health crisesGOOGLE Google bets Gemini can turn casual players into game developers with new Playground featureCHINA Tencent Rolls Out a Wave of Vertical AI Agents, From CraftBuddy to MusicBuddy, Inside Its Own AppsPOLL
Trump floated 'self-regulation' for AI. Who should set the rules?
Reader poll, not scientific. One vote per browser. Closes Sat, Oct 10, 8 PM ET.
NEW IN HAVE I BEEN PWNED
CyrusOne — 373,460 accountsDouble Counter — 274,922 accountsAngel One — 6,765,054 accountsMedela — 423,947 accountsBreach data: Have I Been Pwned (CC BY 4.0)
AI NEWS
Image: BBC
Italian PM files to trademark her voice against AI threats Tavus says 48% of people on a one-minute video call thought its Griffin AI was human
Photo: Microsoft / TechCrunch
Microsoft releases new Nvidia-chip AI PCs with revamped Windows 11 You Built the Product. Who's Building the Company? These Researchers Made AI Drive a Toyota Corolla to Get In-N-Out Everything announced at Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Ultra event Microsoft is giving Copilot more control over Windows and your filesChatGPT is getting a lot more visual, with the launch of a new interface More AI news →The New ChatGPT Is More Show Than Tell Zuckerberg's Biohub leads a $1.8 billion push to build AI models that predict cell behavior Fraudster jailed for using 10K bots and AI songs to outstream Taylor Swift Google says 180 billion images and videos now carry SynthID watermarks as detector goes public
Surface RTX Spark Dev Box is available for preorder for $5,999 Meta rolls out new AI tools to detect ads that secretly lead to child sexual abuse material ChatGPT is getting college planning tools Muse launches on the iPad OpenAI launches Decisions API that reduces complex evaluations to yes, no, or pick one
The Pentagon Hopes to Speed Up ‘Kill Chain’ AI Buys With 5-Minute Videos Healthleap raises $38M for its AI that flags hospital patients who may need a closer look Tony Fadell on why the first wave of AI gadgets failed — and what comes next Mistral says "Le Chonk" can challenge the best AI models Google rolls out improved SynthID AI content detector, now available globally
OpenAI Wants Its New Agent to Run Your Life. Mine Said It Loved Me Your Next Great Read Might Be Certified ‘Organic’ OpenAI will watermark ChatGPT outputs by default—but only in the EU Connecting AI agents to enterprise knowledge Bringing predictive analytics to the agentic AI era
People really hate AI, so why can’t they get enough? EmTech Future 2026: When AI Meets Everything
GET THE APP
Put the DeFoor Report on your home screen. One tap, opens like an app. Free, no app store.
On iPhone or iPad: tap the Share button (the square with an arrow), then Add to Home Screen.
TOP TECH, AI & BUSINESS PODCASTS THIS WEEK
RISING FAST Sharp Tech up 587% on 5 days ago · now #15
- 1All-In: Trump’s Super Intelligence Summit, AI Safety Accord, GDP Beats, Midterm Predictions626K views this week · 1 episode ▲1
- 2Moonshots: The Fight Over Claude's Consciousness, AI's 1942 Moment, & Why Altman Says "Accept Some Bad Things"611K views this week · 4 episodes ▼1
- 3Prof G Pod: Flock Cameras Cut Crime. But at What Cost?275K views this week · 4 episodes
- 4Lenny's Podcast: OpenAI’s Head of ChatGPT: We’re entering a new era of AI (again)94K views this week · 1 episode
- 5TBPN: OpenAI Math Breakthroughs, SpaceX’s $40B Nvidia Deal, Quant Firms Hiring Idea Guys79K views this week · 10 episodes NEW
Image: Peak of Ohio
Einride, EASE Logistics launch driverless electric trucks in MarysvilleTiny robot harvests battery power via skin on its feetWorld’s first fleet-capable drilling robot hits 10x speed with 99% accuracyRobot data startup Mecka AI nabs $60M from SequoiaUS backs $1.5B conditional loan for chips used in drones, radar, missile defenseMore robot news →New counter-drone weapon uses 4D radar to track threats over 800 meters while movingDataraAI develops robotic system to automate server cablingTesla FSD changed its mind mid-intersection, and it may have saved a lifeBeam Global to acquire ScoutDI for $24 million and manufacture inspection drones in USBuilding for Automation: What a Robot-Ready Warehouse Needs From its Steel ShellTeradyne Robotics, Elite Robots settle cobot disputeHOLLYWOOD, MUSIC, TV AND GAMES
Ben Affleck, who sold his AI film company to Netflix: “I learned Python”Fraudster jailed for using 10K bots and AI songs to outstream Taylor SwiftWizards of the Coast union expands, demands company stop pushing generative AIWith a new CFO, three licensing deals, and $775M+ raised, what’s stopping $5.4B-valued Suno from an IPO?Unity unveils a web-based AI game creation platformMore AI entertainment news →Tencent Music integrated DeepSeek into its streaming service. Now parent company Tencent is among the biggest backers of the AI company’s $12B+ funding round (report)Sega won't "entrust the creative aspect of games to AI," but is using tech to "improve efficiency" in other departmentsONLINE AND BRICK-AND-MORTAR
Home Depot and Lowe's share a common goal for their AI assistants, but their strategies divergeModern Retail+ Research: How agencies adapt to a media landscape shaped by AI and creatorsHow agentic commerce helps brands like Willy Chavarria optimize for BFCMGap expands AI shopping with Alta Daily and new discovery toolsTikTok to add AI-powered discovery and one-click checkoutMore AI retail news →Walmart expands drone delivery of groceries and other goodsAlbertsons expands OpenAI work, adding enterprise ChatGPT useWhere do associates fit in an AI world?Most c-store consumers engaging with AIRevelyst brands focus on discovery, understanding AI trafficPricing tactics come under scrutiny in the age of AIBUILDERS & RESEARCH
Tokka-Bench: Evaluating Tokenizers Across 100 Natural and 20 Programming Languages Child ASR Adaptation with Adult Retention: An Empirical Study When Forgetting Looks Like Improvement: Metric Masking in Streaming Diarizer Adaptation and the Price of Rehearsal Emo-Jev: Probabilistic Reasoning for Emotion Classification with Jev CoDR: Training-Free Confidence-Drift Remasking for Diffusion Language ModelsQuoting Ben Affleck Anti-Patterns in Software Blogging Quoting Jake Boggan More builders & research →OpenAI “rogue” agent activities found on Wikimedia projects Quoting Victoria Kim