Accel reportedly in talks to lead $1B round for Thinking Machines at $40B valuation

The high-profile startup’s annual revenue run rate stands at over $100 million.

Abliteration.ai is making a business out of removing AI guardrails

Abliteration.AI is making powerful AI models without guardrails easier to access, arguing that giving defenders the same tools as bad actors could ultimately improve cybersecurity.

Meta is paying to peek at how you use their latest AI model

For its new Muse Spark model, intended for operating coding and other agents, Meta is offering an explicit discount averaging out to about 95% for users who “contribute” to the development of future models by sharing their prompts and model outputs.

Palo Alto Networks paid $500M for Thrive-backed Console, sources say

The acquisition also leaves Sequoia-backed Serval as the de facto startup leader in AI IT service automation, industry watchers believe.

TechCrunch Disrupt 2026’s new Real World AI Stage features Nvidia, robots, and extinct animals 

On our new Real World AI stage, we’ll be focusing on the intersection between the digital and physical, and all the ways we’ll continue to see a blending of the two.

OpenAI’s new reasoning technique alarms AI safety experts

OpenAI’s new Astra model will use “recurrent depth,” a technique that allows the model to operate outside of the sequential thinking that characterizes most reasoning models.

AfterQuery reportedly becomes Y Combinator’s fastest-ever unicorn, now valued at $3.2B

AI model-training startup AfterQuery has reportedly raised a round that valued it at $3.2 billion, just five months after announcing its $30 million Series A at a $300 million valuation in April.

OpenAI’s Astra model is on the way — and very good at breaking into computer systems

OpenAI previewed the precautions it is taking as it prepares to release Astra, its newest, cyber-critical LLM.

Google’s Android update tackles motion sickness, accessibility, and more

While some of the features see Google playing catch-up to Apple, which already offers similar features for iPhone users, others specifically leverage Gemini to provide various improvements.

Anthropic’s new Fable release is cheaper, less restrictive

Fable 5.1 includes changes meant to reduce token cost and false-positive restrictions from the model’s safeguards.