BIGGEST AI RAISES THIS WEEK
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
- High-Tech Gründerfonds 2 deals · $5.2M in rounds
BITCOIN, ETHEREUM, STABLECOINS AND THE RULES
BTC $83,651 ▲0.4%ETH $2,511 ▲0.1%SOL $108 ▼0.1%XRP $1.37 ▲0.3%24 hr · CoinGecko
Bitcoin climbs toward $84,000 after Fed’s Williams sees no rate hikes in 2027Coinbase lays out flexible designs as key priority for Bitcoin’s post-quantum migrationSkyAI risks SEC offer failure if SOL falls under $100Bitwise’s Hougan says Q3 charts point to ‘crypto spring’Largest Philippines crypto exchange, Coins.ph, said to face central bank regulatory actionMore crypto news →Strive raising $500 million to buy additional bitcoin with new preferred share classUS deposit rates choke USDC adoption, and a BIS model reveals whyLido DAO exposes token flaw and forces a budget reviewBinance Is Shutting Down Its Bitcoin Mining Pool After Six YearsMost tokenized stock trading on Solana, BNB Chain occurs outside US market hoursDOTS · MUSE · GROK BOT · INSTINCT · GEMINI SPARK · OPENCLAW
GROK BOT Grok Bot's Expanding Capabilities: 4 Details That MatterGROK BOT Grok Bot Gets Its Own Email Address — and Scam DetectionMUSE JPMorgan Chase blocks outside AI agents like Muse, Instinct from directly accessing accountsDOTS How to use a ChatGPT Dot when it rolls out to youMANUS OPPO Partners with Manus to Bring Agentic AI Experiences to SmartphonesMore AI agent news →DOTS Always-On AI Agents Are Here: OpenAI Dots, Meta Muse & Google Gemini Agents (2026)GROK BOT xAI launches X subscription to bundle X Premium, Grok, Grok Bot, and Cursor into one packageMUSE Meta's new frontier model Muse Wonder Full breaks into the AI top tierMUSE Meta releases its first frontier model, Muse WonderDOTS I Let Dots, Muse, and Spark Take Over My Daily Chores. Only One AI Passed the TestAG TECH, FOOD AND THE MONEY BEHIND THEM
FUNDING SLM Partners secures $167m from Dutch pension investor to regenerate forestsFUNDING New Barn Organics Acquires Bam’s Buckwheat Milk Recipe to Fuel Regenerative Farming PushFUNDING Will $5 corn and $12.50 beans fuel farmland sale growth?FUNDING CarbonFarm Gets $7.8M to Expand AI-Assisted Rice Decarbonisation Tech GloballyFUNDING Scottish Govt Pumps $3.3M Into MiAlgae’s Factory to Recycle Whisky Waste Into Algal Omega-3More farm & food news →Indian Culinary School Amps Up Plant-Based Training After Cutting Animal Products by 30%Switch Bio partners with Bayer to advance ‘switchable’ tech for biofertilizers🎥 ClimateCrop bets on starch ‘off switch’ to improve crop performanceHarvest gear gets smarter, more automatedHardi supplies new automatic boom stabilisationTHE WEEK'S AI WRITING, ONE POST PER WRITER
NOTABLE ESSAYS
- The Future Is for EveryoneMark Zuckerberg · Aug 2026
- Policy on the AI ExponentialDario Amodei
- The Adolescence of TechnologyDario Amodei · 2026
Graphic: DeFoor Report
The Work Moves OutwardIt remains “very difficult [to find] actual, materially measurable financial impacts” from spending on AI, per new studyMore essays and blogs →Building resilient AI-powered software, and planning for when things go wrongArguments About AI Consciousness Remain Highly Motivated and At Best OverconfidentImport AI 476: Creativity and RSI; worse-than-China open weight models; AI goes to space📈 What is bigger than AI?I expect rapid progress but not towards general superintelligenceThe Actual Reason Why Meta Got Back in the AI Race Changes EverythingAI is solving math problems faster than humans can understand the solutionsUnderstanding Jev, the new model everyone is talking aboutClaude Haiku 5.5AI LABS
Image: AWS Machine Learning
Building agents that transact with Anchor Browser and AgentCore payments Manage private pricing offers for Amazon Bedrock with managed entitlements Run fast, private agents on-device with LFM2.5-24B-A2B Natural language security queries at Orca Security using Amazon Bedrock Gemini 4 Argon for RoboticsGemini 4 Argon: Built to solve your hardest problems Higgsfield takes AI video from 1 minute to over 10 OCP Global Summit: Amid Ecosystem Adoption, NVIDIA Opens Vera Rubin Architecture to Help Scale AI Factories Worldwide More AI labs news →Impactful scheduling for GPU clusters Sophos cuts threat investigation time by 96% with OpenAI Daybreak
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 →Asana cuts model costs 76x in browser tests with GPT-6.1 Sol
ANTHROPIC · OPENAI · GOOGLE · GROK · CHINA · OPEN MODELS
OPENAI An OpenAI Employee Allegedly Used a Chatbot to Help Plant a Recording Device at the OfficeANTHROPIC Redesigning source control at AnthropicOPENAI OpenAI employee arrested for allegedly planting a bug in a conference roomOPENAI Judge orders OpenAI to turn over hiring records in Apple trade secrets caseGOOGLE Developing Gemini 4 Argon responsibly and safelyMore LLM news →GOOGLE Gemini 4 Argon is now available worldwide as Google's most capable frontier modelGROK SpaceXSI bundles X Premium, Grok, and Cursor into one subscriptionANTHROPIC Anthropic says it cut Claude reasoning token theft by up to 99% in fight against industrial-scale distillationANTHROPIC Anthropic study warns that small AI models could soon replicate across everyday devicesOPEN Open models have real benefits. Do they outweigh the risks?CHINA 1688 Opens Alibaba's Accio AI Workbench to All Buyers and Factories, Adding a Seller AssistantCHINA Alibaba Opens Sign-Ups for Qwen Go!, a Personal Agent That Files Flight-Delay Claims and RefundsCHINA ByteDance’s Seed AI lab creates dedicated model safety and alignment departmentGROK xAI’s Subscription Pivot: Bundling Power or Consolidating Debt?NEW IN HAVE I BEEN PWNED
Sharecare — 318,185 accountsNeogen — 435,963 accountsCyrusOne — 373,460 accountsDouble Counter — 274,922 accountsBreach data: Have I Been Pwned (CC BY 4.0)
LAWS, RULES AND GUIDANCE FROM GOVERNMENTS
AI.gov is now SI.gov: the White House renames its AI site "Super Intelligence"Character.ai will shut down if no buyer emerges, capping a fall from $2.7 billion Google deal to bankruptcyScaling Laws Roadshow at Nebraska Law: Matt Tokson on AI SurveillanceBuilding a Safer, More Secure Britain in the age of AIBritain steps up national defences against growing AI risksMore AI policy →OPM launches beta AI chatbot for federal workforce data100 new UK jobs created as Kuwait buys British-made AI-enabled air defence systemsAI NEWS
Photo: Image Credits / TechCrunch
Science Corporation implants its vision-restoring chip in its first Stargardt disease patient The Work Moves Outward Cerebras CEO says we’re nearing a future where everyone has a personal AI assistant at home Industrial Next wants factory robots to switch tasks in minutes, not weeks Cerebras CEO pushes back on AI doomsday warningsShopify opens its catalog up to more AI agents OpenAI and Anthropic Tell British Lawmakers: Regulate Us Xbox is officially embracing the chaos of AI-powered game ports More AI news →406 scientists demand AI models be cut off from the internet immediately Flox Intelligence is building AI to keep wildlife away from trains, airports, and roads
Disney offers $20M for Character.AI’s scandal-plagued chatbot tech Facebook is giving users more control over their algorithm I don’t miss the camera on the Ray-Ban Meta Audio glasses Laplace Intelligence red-teams robots and self-driving cars before they hit the real world Machine learning pioneer Michael I. Jordan dismantles AI doom rhetoric as "grand moralizing performance"
Facebook will let you customize your feed algorithm using AI Google wants to host your personal vibe-coded apps in the Play Store Google makes it easier to launch your vibe-coded apps Gemini 4 Argon begins rolling out in Gemini app and Antigravity, but only if you pay Character.ai will shut down if no buyer emerges, capping a fall from $2.7 billion Google deal to bankruptcy
They war-gamed dimming the Sun. It went even worse than you think. Western mathematicians fear AI makes them dumber while China builds an entire alliance for it Wikipedians Believed AI Would Come and Go. They Were Wrong The Biggest Pro-AI Super PAC Network Has Poured Millions Into Nevada Shell Companies AI labs are buying data from dead startups to train their models
Epic Games reportedly pivoting to "AI first" game development model Anthropic's Claude AI submitted false murder tip to Philadelphia police Elon Musk Bragged About His Grok Lego Star Wars Haul. Then X Users Punked Him We’re putting too much faith in AI’s ability to say no
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WHO'S HIRING, WHO'S CUTTING, AND THE WORK ITSELF
An OpenAI Employee Allegedly Used a Chatbot to Help Plant a Recording Device at the OfficeWorkday brings autopilots to hiring, payroll in autonomous AI betKroger plans to cut 3,000 corporate jobs as grocery giant expands AI useIn 2026, healthcare employers are hiring with AI and paying in digital dollarsKroger Is Cutting 3,000 Corporate Jobs, but Its CEO Didn’t Blame AI‘What’s your AI stack?’ The new job interview question you need to know how to answerAI Is Changing Work Faster Than Workforce Development Can RespondAI yet to make significant dent in German employment, study findsMore AI and jobs news →Factbox: Companies cutting jobs as investments shift toward AIChina Targets AI-Linked Jobs With New Employment InitiativeThe 6 Essential Skills Your Workforce Needs to Keep Pace with AIForget the Fear of AI Replacing Workers: Here Is How It Could Spark the Next Era of Jobs and InnovationHSBC Job Cuts Show Banks Make Different Workforce Choices With AINOW HIRING
1,409 open AI roles · 321 new this week · most wanted: Solutions & customer · top pay $555K
INTEL AI Frameworks Engineer Poland, GdanskCOHERE Forward Deployed Engineer, Agentic Platform (Korea) KoreaCAPITAL ONE Principal Quantitative Analyst - Model Risk Office McLean, VAHARVEY Legal Engineer Manager, Product Specialist, Munich MunichTARGET Lead Engineer Cyber AI 7000 Target Pkwy N,NCD-0375 Brooklyn Park,MN 55445All active AI listings →Hiring for AI? List your jobs →SMALL TEAMS TAKING ON THE GIANTS
ADOBE Can Vibe Coded Apps Replace Adobe and Microsoft? These AI Apps Hope SoMICROSOFT ArtCraft Expands With Free AI-Built Alternatives to Word, Excel, and PowerPointMICROSOFT AI Developer Behind Free Photoshop Clones Now Takes On Microsoft OfficeADOBE Someone made a free Photoshop clone – so I had to try it on LinuxADOBE I replaced the Adobe suite with a free open source alternative that Claude can control directlyMore David and Goliath stories →ADOBE I tried those free AI-coded Adobe Creative Cloud clones, and they have some big problemsTHE BIG APPS Opus 5.5 made a fully featured Figma clone in 3 hours / 8 promptsMICROSOFT Adobe software dupe maker takes on Microsoft Office, releasing free versions of Word, Powerpoint, and ExcelMICROSOFT One Developer Is Building Free Replacements for Word, Excel, and PowerPointADOBE I Tried 'PhotoCraft,' the AI Clone of Photoshop, and It's Almost Exactly Like the Real ThingTOP TECH, AI & BUSINESS PODCASTS THIS WEEK
RISING FAST The Cognitive Revolution up 402% on last week · now #11
- 1All-In: Martin Shkreli: Big Pharma's Blind Spot, Betting Against Quantum & What Prison Taught Him729K views this week · 2 episodes
- 2Moonshots: The Coming Manhattan Project, Fight’s Over Claude's Consciousness & Altman Says "Accept Bad Things"292K views this week · 1 episode
- 3Prof G Pod: Stocks Hit a Record High While Bonds Flash Red. Who’s Right?110K views this week · 3 episodes
- 4Latent Space: Robots That Predict the Future: Dyna-2 & Physical AI — Jason Ma, Dyna Robotics73K views this week · 4 episodes NEW
- 5a16z Podcast: Recursive Self-Improvement and the Future of AI67K views this week · 3 episodes NEW
NYSOFA expands partnership with Intuition Robotics to bring ElliQ to more seniorsIndustrial Next wants factory robots to switch tasks in minutes, not weeksAvatar comes to life: Honda’s new robot mirrors human movements to work remotelyGemini 4 Argon cuts quantum computing costs 100-fold, advances fusion and roboticsHello Robot, A&K Robotics to discuss how robots navigate crowded indoor spaces at RoboBusinessMore robot news →Rivian’s Mind Robotics snags Doug Field, ex-Tesla and Ford EV chiefRivian’s startup Mind Robotics hires former Ford EV chief Doug FieldNew drone interceptor takes off like a quadcopter, then flies forward autonomouslyLaplace Intelligence red-teams robots and self-driving cars before they hit the real worldUbitium raises $14 million to build ‘first universal processor for physical AI’HOLLYWOOD, MUSIC, TV AND GAMES
Ben Affleck, who sold his AI film company to Netflix: “I learned Python”Mia Goth Blames Instagram for Spread of Viral AI-Generated SelfieXbox is officially embracing the chaos of AI-powered game portsDisney offers $20M for Character.AI’s scandal-plagued chatbot techDeezer to let users block AI-generated music from search resultsMore AI entertainment news →Epic Games delays Disney game and tells developers to go "AI first"Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii releases game he says he made with AI in about 30 minutesThe happiest man in gaming hates generative AIONLINE AND BRICK-AND-MORTAR
Home Depot and Lowe's share a common goal for their AI assistants, but their strategies divergeShopify opens its catalog up to more AI agentsBrands Briefing: As AI reshapes retail, brands are investing even more in storesGen Z, Gen Alpha and the AI-ificiation of retail this holiday seasonWhen AI becomes the shopper: Why retailers must rethink customer experienceMore AI retail news →The gap in shared understanding of LLM capability is wideningMEDICINE, WELLNESS, HOSPITALS AND THE FDA
Suki raises $90M in Series E round to create AI agentsSTAT+: Takeaways from an evaluation of Google’s diagnostic chatbot, AMIEAre Hospital Operating Rooms Ready For FDA’s Expectations for Surgical Robots?STAT+: AI for breast cancer risk prediction goes DTC, regulatory cloud over Utah sandbox, and AI psychosisAI Can Flag Cognitive Decline Earlier — Health Systems Still Own What Happens NextMore AI in health →STAT+: Why this startup is taking its AI to predict breast cancer risk directly to patientsTeladoc Health Adds Contactless Vitals and Ambient AI Scribe to Virtual Visit PlatformSTAT+: Why health AI pilots in Utah may be on a collision course with the FDASCHOOLS, TEACHERS, STUDENTS AND CAMPUSES
A university-branded boot camp promised tech jobs. It delivered only debtHow K–12 Districts Sustain Lasting Device ProgramsWhat could help formerly incarcerated students return to school? Join Chalkbeat’s virtual event.Opinion: AI-Powered Instruction Needs Precision. Right Now, It’s Not Even CloseStandardize to sustain: Building a resilient K-12 technology strategyMore AI education news →After yearslong transition to digital tests, state officials weigh return to paper exams for NYCMamdani’s school device ban has its first exception: virtual tutoringOpinion: AI & Back-to-School Night: Anxious Parents, Nervous Teachers and Chill CoachesDespite Rise of AI, More Skilled Trades Training Needed, Industry Leaders SaySupporting Career and Technical Education Programs With the Right TechnologyBUILDERS & RESEARCH
Image: Simon Willison
llm-gemini 0.35 Gemini 4 Argon Quoting Geoffrey Huntley web-edit 0.1a1 llm-meta-ai 0.2I turned my unused Kindle into a photo frame with GPT-6 Astra Hello Python 3.15, goodbye 3.10, and now I can use 3.11 Show HN: Atticus – Hold-to-talk voice assistant for macOS that runs on Claude -p More builders & research →The gap in shared understanding of LLM capability is widening