Author: Naveed Ahmad

Friday afternoon, simply as this interview was getting underway, a information alert flashed throughout my laptop display screen: the Trump administration was severing ties with Anthropic, the San Francisco AI firm based in 2021 by Dario Amodei and different former OpenAI researchers who left over security considerations. Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth had invoked a nationwide safety regulation — one designed to counter overseas provide chain threats — to blacklist the corporate from doing enterprise with the Pentagon after Amodei refused to permit Anthropic’s tech for use for mass surveillance of U.S. residents or for autonomous armed drones that would choose…

The streaming and leisure trade simply witnessed one in every of its most high-stakes megadeals ever, gorgeous trade observers. Not solely is it historic in its measurement, however it is usually predicted to disrupt Hollywood and the media enterprise as we all know it.  After years of Warner Bros. Discovery struggling underneath the burden of billions of {dollars} in debt, compounded by declining cable viewership and fierce competitors from streaming platforms, the corporate has been contemplating main strategic modifications, together with promoting its leisure belongings to one in every of its rivals. A number of main gamers noticed the potential…

Netflix shocked the leisure world this week when it declined to boost its bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, setting the stage for Paramount Skydance to win possession of the Hollywood studio. On the time, Netflix co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters mentioned that they had been being financially disciplined. Now reporting in Bloomberg affords extra particulars about why Netflix executives backed down from a bidding conflict that it appeared to win again in December.  For one factor, the streaming big’s shareholders appeared unconvinced that purchasing a Hollywood studio was the best transfer — Netflix’s share value was down 30% since…

Anthropic’s chatbot Claude appears to have benefited from the eye across the firm’s fraught negotiations with the Pentagon. As first reported by CNBC, as of Saturday afternoon, Claude is at the moment ranked quantity two amongst free apps in Apple’s US App Retailer — the primary app is OpenAI’s ChatGPT, and quantity three is Google Gemini. In keeping with data from SensorTower, Claude was simply outdoors the highest 100 on the finish of January, and has spent most of February someplace within the high 20. Its rating has climbed in the previous few days, from sixth on Wednesday to fourth…

An increase within the want for computer systems and information facilities to energy AI is causing a massive shortage of RAM, driving reminiscence costs sharply higher. Now, analyst agency IDC predicts that it will trigger smartphone shipments to plummet by 12.9% this yr, making it the largest single-year dip in additional than a decade. Hours after IDC revealed its report, one other analyst agency, Counterpoint, made a similar prediction and stated the market will dip by 12% this yr. Earlier this yr, IDC reported that producers shipped 1.26 billion devices in 2025. The agency predicts that determine will drop to…

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman introduced late on Friday that his firm has reached an settlement permitting the Division of Protection to make use of its AI fashions within the division’s labeled community. This follows a high-profile standoff between the division — additionally identified beneath the Trump administration because the Division of Warfare — and OpenAI’s rival Anthropic. The Pentagon pushed AI corporations, together with Anthropic, to permit their fashions be used “all lawful functions,” whereas Anthropic sought to attract a purple line round mass home surveillance and totally autonomous weapons. In a lengthy statement released Thursday, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei…

Xiaomi in the present day launched a slew of devices forward of the Cell World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona together with a camera-focused flagship smartphone, an AirTag clone, Xiaomi Watch 5 smartwatch, and an extremely slim energy financial institution. The China-based firm has partnered with digital camera maker Leica to co-brand its Xiaomi 17 Extremely smartphone. As a part of the partnership, it’s utilizing Leica lenses and creating filters within the type of the German digital camera firm. The cellphone has a 50-megapixel foremost sensor with an F/1.67 aperture and a 1-inch sensor. However the principle attraction is the 200-megapixel…

China’s humanoid robots grabbed global attention with kung fu flips on the nation’s televised Spring Competition Gala, whereas Chinese language cellphone maker Honor is ready to unveil its first humanoid robot at MWC in Spain.  Robotics was flagged as a precedence underneath the nation’s “Made in China 2025” plan, albeit initially targeted on manufacturing facility automation, relatively than humanoids. Now, fast advances in multimodal AI are accelerating so-called embodied AI — autonomous machines working in the actual world — a push officers say might assist offset labor shortages and drive productiveness positive factors.  At this early stage of humanoid robotic…

Weeks after stepping down as CEO from meals supply service Zomato and its dad or mum Everlasting, Indian entrepreneur Deepinder Goyal is again with a $54 million increase for wearable startup Temple, a part of what the 43-year-old earlier described as a shift towards “higher-risk exploration and experimentation.” On Friday, Goyal said in a publish on X that Temple had raised funds in a friends-and-family spherical from founder mates and early Zomato backers, at a post-money valuation of about $190 million. Greater than 30 workers participated on the similar valuation, he mentioned. Goyal is main the funding spherical, adopted by…

In the present day is it! When the clock hits 11:59 p.m. PT, the bottom ticket charges of the yr for TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 go up. No extensions. No second probabilities. The identical entry will value extra tomorrow. If you’re planning to attend, that is your closing window to lock in as much as $680 off your move or as much as 30% off group passes. After tonight, this yr’s greatest financial savings disappear. Register now. Disrupt: Your launchpad within the tech ecosystem If you’re elevating capital, hiring prime expertise, launching your startup, or searching on your subsequent portfolio firm, lacking Disrupt from October 13–15 at San Francisco’s Moscone West isn’t simply inconvenient. It’s a missed alternative to…