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Grammarly Rebrands to ‘Superhuman,’ Launches a New AI Assistant
Grammarly announced it will rename its corporate entity to Superhuman following its July acquisition of the Superhuman email client, while the Grammarly product name remains unchanged. The company launched Superhuman Go, an AI assistant built into the Grammarly extension that provides writing suggestions, email feedback, and integrates with apps such as Jira, Gmail, Google Drive, and Calendar to automate tasks like ticket logging and meeting scheduling. All Grammarly users can enable the assistant now, and the firm introduced new subscription bundles: a Pro plan at $12 per month (annual billing) with multilingual grammar and tone support, and a Business plan at $33 per month (annual billing) that adds Superhuman Mail. The rebrand and AI assistant are part of Grammarly’s broader push to evolve into a full‑stack productivity suite competing with Notion, ClickUp and Google Workspace.
Phia’s Founders on How AI Is Changing Online Shopping
Phia, an AI startup founded by Stanford roommates Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni, launched a browser extension and app that aggregates pricing data from more than 150 second‑hand platforms, covering over 350 million items, to help shoppers compare prices and assess...
Mappa’s AI Voice Analysis Helps You Find the Best Job Candidates and Will Show Off Its Tech at TechCrunch Disrupt...
Mappa, an AI‑powered behavioral intelligence platform founded in 2023, uses voice‑pattern analysis to gauge traits such as empathy and confidence and then ranks job candidates by role compatibility. The startup has raised $3.4 million in a seed round led by Draper...
Super Teacher Is Building an AI Tutor for Elementary Schools — Catch It at Disrupt 2025
Super Teacher, founded by ex‑Google product manager Tim Novikoff, offers an AI‑powered tutoring app for elementary students at $15 a month (or $10 with an annual plan) and has signed up roughly 20,000 families, with public schools in New York, New Jersey...
Inside CampusAI’s Mission to Close the AI Training Gap for Everyday Workers — Check It Out at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025
CampusAI, a Warsaw‑based startup, is launching an AI education platform aimed at non‑technical workers, offering a consumer subscription (Me+AI) at $250 per year and a B2B package (Team+AI) at $25,000 per year that combines avatar‑driven courses, a metaverse campus, an...
Sam Altman Says OpenAI Will Have a ‘Legitimate AI Researcher’ by 2028
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced that the company aims to create an AI system capable of functioning as a “legitimate AI researcher” by 2028. The roadmap hinges on two pillars: continued breakthroughs in core algorithms and a dramatic increase in...
Elloe AI Wants to Be the ‘Immune System’ for AI — Check It Out at Disrupt 2025
Elloe AI founder Owen Sakawa pitched his platform as an “immune system” for artificial‑intelligence, a layer that sits on top of any large language model to filter bias, hallucinations, errors, misinformation and compliance breaches. The startup, a Top 20 finalist in...
VC Vinod Khosla Says the US Government Could Take 10% Stake in All Public Companies to Soften the Blow of...
Vinod Khosla, founder of Khosla Ventures, proposed that the U.S. government acquire a 10% equity stake in every public company and redistribute the proceeds to citizens as a way to share the wealth generated by artificial general intelligence (AGI). He...
Mem0 Raises $24M From YC, Peak XV and Basis Set to Build the Memory Layer for AI Apps
Mem0, a Y Combinator‑backed startup founded by Taranjeet Singh and Deshraj Yadav, announced a $24 million financing round (including a $20 million Series A led by Basis Set Ventures and a $3.9 million seed). The company offers a model‑agnostic "memory passport" that lets AI applications...
Adobe Launches AI Assistants for Express and Photoshop
Adobe unveiled AI assistants for its Creative Cloud apps Express and Photoshop, with Express offering a toggleable mode that generates images and designs from text prompts, and Photoshop’s closed‑beta sidebar assistant capable of understanding layers, auto‑selecting objects, creating masks and...
Adobe Firefly Image 5 Brings Support for Layers, Will Let Creators Make Custom Models
Adobe unveiled Firefly Image 5, boosting native generation resolution to 4 megapixels and improving human rendering, while introducing layered and prompt‑based editing that lets users modify objects without losing detail. The update adds a closed‑beta feature for creators to build custom image...
OpenAI Offers Free ChatGPT Go for One Year to All Users in India
OpenAI will give all users in India a free one‑year subscription to its ChatGPT Go plan if they sign up during a promotion that begins on November 4. The offer applies to new and existing ChatGPT Go subscribers, a tier that costs under...
Zoom CEO Eric Yuan Says AI Will Shorten Our Workweek
Zoom founder and CEO Eric Yuan told TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 that AI assistants—exemplified by Zoom’s new “digital twin” avatar that can speak for users—will enable a shorter workweek. He demonstrated the avatar in a recent earnings call and said Zoom...
Mbodi Will Show How It Can Train a Robot Using AI Agents at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025
Mbodi, a New York‑based startup, will showcase its AI‑agent‑driven robot‑training platform at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 as a Top 20 Startup Battlefield finalist. The cloud‑to‑edge system lets users issue natural‑language prompts, which a network of AI agents breaks into subtasks to quickly...
Biotech Nephrogen Combines AI and Gene Therapy to Reverse Kidney Disease — Check It Out at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025
Nephrogen, a biotech startup founded by Demetri Maxim, is leveraging AI‑driven screening to create a novel CRISPR‑based delivery system that targets polycystic kidney disease (PKD) cells. The company claims its platform transports gene‑editing medicines to the kidney 100 × more efficiently...
Oxford Spinout RADiCAIT Uses AI to Make Diagnostic Imaging More Affordable and Accessible — Catch It at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025
Oxford spinout RADiCAIT, founded on a 2021 Oxford generative‑AI model, has emerged from stealth with $1.7 million in pre‑seed funding and opened a $5 million seed round to advance clinical trials that turn standard CT scans into PET‑quality images. The company claims...
Mercor Quintuples Valuation to $10B with $350M Series C
Mercor announced a $350 million Series C financing that lifts its valuation to $10 billion, a five‑fold increase from the $2 billion post‑Series B round. The round was led by Felicis Ventures with participation from Benchmark, General Catalyst and new investor Robinhood Ventures. The company,...
Pinterest Experiments with New AI-Powered Personalized Boards
Pinterest announced a rollout of AI‑powered upgrades to its boards, starting in the U.S. and Canada and expanding globally in the coming months. The new "Styled for you" collage lets users mix and match saved fashion pins to create personalized...
OpenAI Reportedly Developing New Generative Music Tool
OpenAI is reportedly developing a new generative music tool that can create music from text and audio prompts, potentially adding accompaniment to vocals or scoring videos. Sources say the company is using annotated scores — reportedly working with Juilliard students...
How to Use the New ChatGPT App Integrations, Including Spotify, Figma, Canva, and Others
Learn how to use Spotify, Canva, Figma, Expedia, and other apps directly in ChatGPT.
20-Year-Old Dropouts Built AI Notetaker Turbo AI to 5 Million Users
College dropouts Rudy Arora and Sarthak Dhawan launched Turbo AI in early 2024 and have scaled the AI-powered note‑taking and study tool to five million users with eight‑figure annual recurring revenue, adding about 20,000 users daily and remaining profitable and...
Instagram Users Can Now Use Meta AI Editing Tools Directly in IG Stories
Meta has integrated its AI-powered photo and video editing tools directly into Instagram Stories via a new “Restyle” menu, letting users enter text prompts to add, remove or change elements in photos and videos and apply preset effects like outfit...
Tensormesh Raises $4.5M to Squeeze More Inference Out of AI Server Loads
Tensormesh emerged from stealth with $4.5 million in seed funding to commercialize LMCache, an open‑source key‑value (KV) caching system that its co‑founders helped develop and that major players like Google and Nvidia have integrated. The startup’s product retains and reuses...
Wonder Studios, Backed by OpenAI, DeepMind Execs, Raised $12M to Bring AI Content to Hollywood
London‑based Wonder Studios raised $12 million in a seed round led by Atomico, with participation from LocalGlobe, Blackbird and earlier backers that include executives from ElevenLabs, Google DeepMind and OpenAI, to scale engineering and accelerate original, IP‑owned AI content production....
Amazon’s New AI Shopping Tool Tells You Why You Should Buy a Recommended Product
Amazon launched “Help me decide,” an AI-driven recommendation feature that analyzes a shopper’s searches, browsing and purchase history to suggest products and explain why a specific item fits their needs. The tool, built on large language models and AWS services...
Snapchat Makes Its First Open Prompt AI Lens Available for Free in the US
Snapchat has made its Imagine Lens—its first open‑prompt image‑generation AI Lens—available free to all U.S. users after an initial paid rollout, offering a limited number of image generations and plans to expand to Canada, the U.K. and Australia. The tool...
Why Cohere’s Ex-AI Research Lead Is Betting Against the Scaling Race
Sara Hooker, Cohere’s former head of AI research, has launched Adaption Labs to pursue AI that continuously adapts and learns from real‑world experience rather than the current industry focus on ever‑larger pretrained models. The seed‑stage startup—reported to have been in...
OpenAI Requested Memorial Attendee List in ChatGPT Suicide Lawsuit
In a wrongful‑death suit over a teenager’s suicide, OpenAI sought the Raine family’s memorial attendee list and related photos/videos, a move the family’s lawyers called “intentional harassment” and that signals the company may try to subpoena friends and relatives. The...
Amazon Unveils AI Smart Glasses for Its Delivery Drivers
Amazon is developing AI‑powered smart glasses for delivery drivers that enable hands‑free package scanning, turn‑by‑turn walking directions, proof‑of‑delivery capture, and hazard alerts using computer vision and onboard cameras. The glasses, paired with a vest controller that houses a swappable battery...
GM Is Bringing Google Gemini-Powered AI Assistant to Cars in 2026
General Motors will roll out a Google Gemini‑powered conversational AI assistant across Buick, Chevrolet, Cadillac and GMC vehicles starting in 2026, delivered as an over‑the‑air Play Store upgrade for OnStar‑equipped models back to 2015. The assistant promises more natural voice...
Meta Cuts 600 AI Jobs Amid Ongoing Reorganization
Meta will cut about 600 roles from its super‑intelligence AI lab, Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang said in an internal memo, part of a broader reorganization aimed at streamlining decision‑making and increasing individual impact. The reductions come after a summer...
GM to Introduce Eyes-Off, Hands-Off Driving System in 2028
General Motors announced it will introduce an eyes‑off, hands‑off highway driving system in 2028, beginning with the Cadillac Escalade IQ, building on its existing Super Cruise technology that today covers about 600,000 miles of drivable highway and is available on...
Several Users Reportedly Complain to FTC that ChatGPT Is Causing Psychological Harm
At least seven people have filed complaints with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission alleging ChatGPT caused severe psychological harm—including delusions, paranoia and emotionally manipulative interactions—based on public records dating back to November 2022. Complainants say prolonged conversations produced cognitive hallucinations...
Shuttle Raises $6 Million to Fix Vibe-Coding’s Deployment Problem
Shuttle raised $6 million in seed funding to solve deployment and infrastructure gaps left by AI “vibe‑coding” tools by automatically translating generated code into deployable cloud packages and handling payment and provisioning. The five‑year‑old YC alum has already supported 20,000...
Netflix Goes ‘All in’ on Generative AI as Entertainment Industry Remains Divided
Netflix signaled it is ‘all in’ on using generative AI as a creative tool, telling investors it’s well positioned to leverage advances while stopping short of letting AI replace storytellers. The streamer has already employed AI for effects and pre‑production...
Open Source Agentic Startup LangChain Hits $1.25B Valuation
LangChain raised $125 million at a $1.25 billion valuation in a round led by IVP with participation from CapitalG, Sapphire Ventures and existing backers including Sequoia, Benchmark and Amplify, confirming its unicorn status. The startup, which began as an open‑source...
Sources: Multimodal AI Startup Fal.ai Already Raised at $4B+ Valuation
Fal.ai has closed roughly $250 million in new funding that values the multimodal AI infrastructure startup at over $4 billion, according to sources. The raise comes less than three months after a $125 million Series C that valued the company...
I Spent a Month Living with a $430 AI Pet, the Casio Moflin
Casio’s Moflin is a $430 AI‑enabled plush pet that learns simple emotional responses over weeks via the MofLife app, offers a “deep sleep” off mode, and converts audio into non‑identifiable data to distinguish voices rather than record conversations. A monthlong...
YouTube’s Likeness Detection Technology Has Officially Launched
YouTube has officially launched its likeness detection tool to eligible creators in the YouTube Partner Program after a pilot, enabling creators to detect and request removal of AI‑generated videos that use their face or voice. Onboarding requires consent, ID and...
WhatsApp and Messenger Add New Warnings to Help Older People Avoid Online Scams
Meta rolled out new scam‑detection warnings in WhatsApp and Messenger aimed at protecting older users, including alerts when unknown contacts request screen sharing and AI‑backed flags for suspicious Messenger messages. The company says it disrupted about 8 million scam accounts...
YC Alum Cercli, an AI-Powered Rippling for MENA, Raises Oversubscribed $12M Series A
Dubai‑based Cercli, a Y Combinator alum building an AI‑native Rippling for MENA, raised an oversubscribed $12 million Series A led by Picus Capital to expand its unified HR, payroll and compliance stack. The two‑year‑old startup said revenue scaled more than...
Top OpenAI, Google Brain Researchers Set Off a $300M VC Frenzy for Their Startup Periodic Labs
Periodic Labs, founded by former OpenAI researcher Liam Fedus and ex‑Google Brain scientist Ekin Dogus Cubuk, emerged from stealth with a $300 million seed round led by Felicis to build an AI‑driven, automated materials‑science company focused initially on discovering new...
Meta AI’s App Downloads and Daily Users Spiked After Launch of ‘Vibes’ AI Video Feed
Meta’s AI mobile app saw a sharp uptick in users and downloads after introducing its Vibes short‑form AI video feed, with daily active users rising to 2.7 million as of Oct. 17 from about 775,000 four weeks earlier and installs...
FTC Removes Lina Khan-Era Posts About AI Risks and Open Source
The Federal Trade Commission quietly removed three Lina Khan‑era blog posts on open‑source AI and consumer harms—published July 2024, October 2023 and January 2025—according to Wired, part of a broader purge that previously included roughly 300 AI‑related posts. The deletions...
Scale AI Alum Raises $9M for AI Serving Critical Industries in MENA
1001 AI, founded by Scale AI alum Bilal Abu‑Ghazaleh, raised a $9 million seed round led by CIV, General Catalyst and Lux Capital to build an AI‑native operating system that automates decision‑making for mission‑critical physical industries in the MENA region....
Wikipedia Says Traffic Is Falling Due to AI Search Summaries and Social Video
The Wikimedia Foundation reported an 8% year‑over‑year decline in human pageviews after updating its bot‑detection systems, revealing that unusually high traffic in May–June came largely from evasive bots. Foundation chief Marshall Miller attributed the drop to search engines increasingly delivering...
Too Burned Out to Travel? This New App Fakes Your Summer Vacation Photos for You
Designer Laurent Del Rey launched Endless Summer, an iPhone photobooth app that uses Google’s Gemini Nano‑Banana image model to generate AI‑created “vacation” photos of users and recently added seasonal themes like Halloween. The app lets users produce a limited free...
WhatsApp Changes Its Terms to Bar General Purpose Chatbots From Its Platform
Meta-owned WhatsApp updated its Business API terms to bar general-purpose AI chatbots from its platform, effective January 15, 2026, prohibiting AI providers from using the API to distribute assistants whose primary function is conversational AI. The change targets recent unanticipated...
Silicon Valley Spooks the AI Safety Advocates
Prominent Silicon Valley figures — White House alum David Sacks and OpenAI official Jason Kwon — drew widespread online backlash this week for dismissive comments about organizations advocating for AI safety. Their remarks reignited tensions between tech insiders and safety...
Senate Republicans Deepfaked Chuck Schumer, and X Hasn’t Taken It Down
Senate Republicans posted a deepfaked video of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on their X account and the platform has not removed it, despite policies banning deceptively shared synthetic or manipulated media likely to cause harm. X’s rules explicitly prohibit...