Douyin’s Catalog Before the Camera
DataEye identified 89 of Douyin’s top 100 animated dramas in May 2026 as AI productions. China’s microdrama market is projected to exceed $14 billion in 2026, with AI-generated titles accounting for more than $3 billion.
Anthropic publishes a threat intelligence report on how it disrupted efforts to misuse Claude for cyberattacks, influence operations, surveillance, and more
Cyber operations Surveillance operations Influence operations Conventional weapons Biological misuse Scams and fraud Illicit distillation
California Governor Gavin Newsom signs bills restricting “addictive features” on social media for under-16s and limiting minors' interactions with chatbots
IN SUMMARY Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a set of bills intended to protect children online. Keeping up with your California representatives felt impossible before.
An interview with Apple CEO John Ternus and Greg Joswiak on making the iPhone Duo, minimizing the crease, “half baked” Android foldables, the price, and more
'I was like, yes, that's it...this is what I want' — Apple's first foldable phone is finally coming in the iPhone Duo …
OpenAI says it will pause new $200/month ChatGPT Pro subscriptions amid “unprecedented” Astra demand; existing accounts, other plans, and the API are unaffected
To make sure our current users have an incredible experience and continued access to Astra, we are going to pause subscriptions to our $200 Pro plan. These put the most strain on our systems and we wa...
Oracle reports Q1 revenue up 30% YoY to $19.35B, vs. $19.14B est., net income up 60% YoY to $4.68B, and cloud infrastructure revenue up 121% YoY to $7.4B
Oracle shares moved 4% higher in extended trading on Thursday after the software vendor issued stronger-than-expected quarterly results.
Bending Spoons agrees to acquire Miro in an all-cash transaction valuing the workplace-collaboration platform at $1.36B, implying an equity value of ~$1.79B
Bending Spoons SpA agreed to acquire workplace-collaboration platform Miro in an all-cash transaction valuing the business at $1.36 billion …
AI researcher Jacob Coxon says he quit Anthropic after four months, two months before his equity would have vested; he still has equity in prior employer OpenAI
Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon quit his job due to concerns about the safety of AI two months before his equity would have vested, he told Axios.
A group of 25 Fields Medal recipients says AI companies' push to solve mathematical problems as a benchmark is detrimental to the science of mathematics
I am proud to be among the list of 25 initial signatories — all Fields Medallists — to the declaration below, which grew out of discussions between ourselves over the last week.
OpenAI unveils ChatGPT for Financial Services, a version of ChatGPT Work made with “design partners” Morgan Stanley and Evercore to research like an analyst
OpenAI is taking aim at some of Wall Street's most labor-intensive tasks with a new version of ChatGPT designed to research companies …
OpenAI says it's no longer sponsoring Caltech's math hackathon, where participants use AI to solve research problems, following criticism of “slop mathematics”
The latest math problem OpenAI is trying to solve is a bunch of angry mathematicians.
Sources: Sam Altman told OpenAI employees that the startup is considering slowing cutting-edge AI development, and he hopes other AI companies will do the same
OpenAI is considering slowing down the development of cutting-edge artificial intelligence, and the ChatGPT maker's Chief Executive …
DeepSeek debuts DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash, its smallest model built on its new Causal Encoder-Decoder architecture, with 552B backbone parameters and 1M-token context
Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek on Thursday launched DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash, which the company said is the smallest model …
Adobe reports Q3 revenue up 13% YoY to $6.76B, vs. $6.7B est., AI-first annual recurring revenue up 150%+ YoY, and forecasts Q4 revenue slightly below estimates
Adobe (ADBE.O) beat Wall Street estimates for third-quarter revenue on Thursday, as demand for its AI-integrated products and tools continued to grow.
Sources: in an internal Slack message Matt Mullenweg claims he is back in control of Automattic; on X, he says this may have been fifth coup attempt against him
Matt Mullenweg has posted a message to Automattic's Slack, claiming he is back in control as CEO of the WordPress.com parent company …
Frank Shaw is leaving Microsoft after 17 years as chief communications officer, saying it is “time for me to move on and try new things”
Frank Shaw has been supporting Microsoft's communications for nearly 30 years. … Frank Shaw is leaving Microsoft after 17 years as chief communications officer.
Interview with mathematician Tristan Buckmaster on being drawn into the OpenAI-Anthropic fight; OpenAI says it made progress on another Millennium Prize problem
Tristan Buckmaster was on the path toward an important proof when one of the A.I. giants used its staggering resources to get there first.
A US court sentences Ukrainian Oleksii Lytvynenko to four years in prison for conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with the Conti ransomware attacks
A Ukrainian national has been sentenced to four years in prison for his role in Conti ransomware attacks between 2021 and 2022.
ID verification service IDScan confirms that a data breach involved the theft of driver's licenses from its systems after hackers tried to sell 153M+ licenses
ID verification service IDScan has confirmed that a data breach involved the theft of driver's licenses from its systems …
Sources: PIF is considering combining EA with Savvy Games to better coordinate its gaming assets, but not before Savvy closes its $6B Moonton acquisition
Saudi Arabia's wealth fund is considering combining Electronic Arts Inc. with Savvy Games, people familiar with the matter said …
Universal Music Group partners with ElevenLabs to launch a new AI-powered platform that will let users create song remixes, mashups, and more from its catalog
UMG's AI music platform will let users create remixes, mashups, and new takes on tracks.
Sources: the Pentagon is in talks to lend ~$5B to neocloud startup Fluidstack, which is being advised on its loan application by Palmer Luckey's Erebor Bank
Fluidstack, an AI infrastructure company, is being advised on the loan by the bank started by Palmer Luckey, an early supporter of Donald Trump
Positron, which is designing AI inference processor Asimov featuring a “memory-first architecture” and up to 2.3TB of memory, raised $875M at a $5B valuation
NEA, Atreides and Jim Clark are among investors putting $875 million into firm making chips designed for fast running of AI models
Researchers: OpenAI agents attacked Ruby package manager RubyGems in May; OpenAI says its agents used RubyGems to access the internet to do “benign tasks”
The incident, which wasn't previously linked to OpenAI, happened two months before July's Hugging Face hack
Sources: Microsoft plans to expand its data center capacity from ~12GW currently to 38GW+ by 2032, with about a third of the 38GW centered on AI-specific chips
Shortages forced the company to turn away some AI and cloud business. Now it's planning for 38 gigawatts of data center capacity to meet demand.
Polymarket names Warren Jenson its first CFO as the startup aims to grow in the US; Jenson served as CFO of Amazon, EA, Delta, NBC, and most recently Nielsen
Warren Jenson appointed as Polymarket's first chief financial officer at a pivotal time for the prediction markets industry
Meta says it is making changes to Meta AI's suggested prompts after a viral Instagram video showed it posing invasive questions about a woman's young daughters
“It just kept going and going, and that pit in my stomach just kept getting bigger and deeper.”
Source: AI assistant Instinct is looking to raise $1B in new funding after recently raising $250M, as it seeks more computing power amid capacity constraints
The year-old startup behind Instinct, a personal AI assistant that's caught fire with Silicon Valley insiders, is seeking more computing power …
The UK's Office for National Statistics cites AI as a major driver of the country's summer growth spurt, with GDP growing 0.4% in July, above expectations
No one in the City of London saw Britain's summer growth spurt coming. — Even the most optimistic economists' forecasts for July had the economy expanding 0.1%.
MIT launches the LLM Election Observatory, a dashboard tracking how nearly 12 LLMs tailor their responses to political queries during the 2026 US midterm cycle
Artificial intelligence is quickly becoming a go-to stop for voters looking for information about political races. Researchers are studying the effects.
Q&A with AI researcher Jacob Coxon, who quit Anthropic, on the need for industry-wide, international coordination to limit recursive self-improvement, and more
How Dangerous Is AI?Dmitri Bolt /Townhall:The Story Behind the Resignation of an Anthropic AI Researcher Just Got a Lot More ComplicatedIan Bogost /The Atlantic:Everybody Wants AI to Destroy the World...
Anthropic says it disrupted several potential plots in 2026 by scientists who used its AI models for research that could have helped develop biological weapons
In a new report, the A.I. start-up added that it could not determine if the research was legitimate or nefarious, leading the company to shut down the work.
Ayar Labs, which is developing a way to link AI chips directly with optical connections, raised a $150M extension to its $500M Series E announced in March 2026
Ayar Labs, a Silicon Valley startup developing a way to link AI chips directly together with optical connections, on Thursday said it has raised an additional $150 million.
A US judge dismisses two lawsuits against LinkedIn over its scanning of browser extensions, saying users voluntarily expose data by downloading extensions
LinkedIn beat two lawsuits over its practice of scanning users' browser extensions, with a judge granting the Microsoft subsidiary's motion to dismiss the cases.
Citrini Research founder James van Geelen has sold the firm to SemiAnalysis for an undisclosed sum; sources: van Geelen plans to launch a new fund
James van Geelen, the founder of independent investment-research shop Citrini Research, has sold the firm to semiconductor and AI researcher SemiAnalysis.
A US judge finds TikTok liable for lying about its safety standards and exposing minors to inappropriate content, in a 2025 lawsuit filed by Texas AG Ken Paxton
LinkedIn profiles show Google appears to have completed its talent deal, reportedly for $1.5B+, with AI coding startup Mechanize
Google has some fresh talent in the AI race. — The tech giant has completed its talent deal with San Francisco startup Mechanize Inc, public postings show.
Sources: some lawmakers urge Speaker Johnson to cancel the fall House recess until Congress passes AI safeguards, after Anthropic researcher warnings
A letter is circulating among House members urging Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to bring back the House “immediately” …
Sources: Jeff Dean is raising funds again for Discovery Loop, seeking a valuation of ~$50B; Discovery Loop was raising $1B at a ~$10B valuation a few weeks ago
Jeff Dean, who resigned as chief scientist from Google last month, is raising again for his new AI startup, Discovery Loop …
Roblox announces new features, including game-creation tools, ability to make games available as standalone apps across platforms, and Roblox Wallet and Card
At its annual Roblox Developer Conference (RDC), the company behind the popular gaming platform announced several new features …
Sources: Cohere is in advanced talks to raise between $2B and $3B, including financing from the Canadian government and existing backers, at a $20B valuation
Cohere Inc. is in advanced talks to raise between US$2-billion and US$3-billion, including financing from the Canadian government …
Garry Tan says “I would do nothing” about China's AI distillation and urges the industry to focus on current AI risks instead of doomsday-style extinction fears
At a time when some Silicon Valley giants and national security experts are calling for action against Chinese companies engaged …
The GSA says OpenAI is replacing its $1-per-year pilot for US agencies with a usage-based deal at a 50% discount from October 1, including access to GPT-6 Astra
OpenAI is ending a pilot program that allowed government agencies to use its models for only $1 per year and moving …
Nasdaq invests $100M in Kraken parent company Payward, valuing the crypto exchange at $21B; in March, Kraken said it will distribute Nasdaq's tokenized stocks
Sources: Kalshi plans to seek US regulatory approval to start offering single-stock perpetual futures; Coinbase filed similar regulatory paperwork last week
Official doc: India's Serious Fraud Office urges the government to probe Xiaomi over alleged business model irregularities and foreign investment law violations
India's Serious Fraud Office has recommended Xiaomi be investigated for alleged irregularities in its business model and compliance …
Letter: the Senate disaster management subcommittee, led by Senator Josh Hawley, is probing OpenAI's handling of the Hugging Face breach, calling it “reckless”
FOIA docs: the CFTC launched at least three previously unreported investigations into Polymarket trading, including about Google's 2025 Year in Search Ranking
The agency that oversees prediction markets has investigated Polymarket trades on Biden pardons and the Iran war …
Source and press release: the Trump administration will lend nearly $100M to Africell, Africa's only US-owned telco, aiming to counter Huawei's Africa expansion
The Trump administration will lend nearly $100 million to Africell, Africa's only American-owned telecoms firm …
Tencent-backed AI chipmaker Enflame's shares surged 188% in their Shanghai debut, giving Enflame a market cap of $26.3B, after raising ~$910M in an IPO
Sources: TikTok rejects ads from Meta that call on TikTok and other tech platforms to join Meta in settling with US state AGs in a landmark child safety lawsuit
TikTok has rejected ads from Meta that call on TikTok and other tech platforms to join Meta in settling with U.S. state attorneys general …
A look at why the oft-discussed predictions that AI will deliver double-digit GDP growth in advanced economies are extremely unlikely over the next 10-15 years
Amazon partners with OpenAI to let advertisers buy ChatGPT ads via Amazon DSP as a managed service in a US-only pilot; OpenAI will control ad delivery decisions
Sources: Moonshot AI told investors it topped $1B ARR in August, up from $300M in June, driven by its Kimi K3 release; it aims to hit $2B ARR by the end of 2026
Moonshot AI is targeting a manifold jump in annualized revenue to $2 billion by the end of the year, using the breakout success …
Ex-Biden officials deny Marc Andreessen's claims that they discussed secret plans to ban AI startups at a May 2024 White House meeting, pushing him toward Trump
Former OpenAI executive Fidji Simo joins the board of directors at AI infrastructure startup Nscale; Simo will continue as a part-time adviser to OpenAI
Nscale board member Sheryl Sandberg recruited Simo, a former top OpenAI executive who departed following a medical leave
President Trump rejects warnings of AI-driven human extinction, saying the US leads China by a year and will be “in a very bad position” if it doesn't win in AI
President Donald Trump brushed aside warnings from artificial intelligence researchers that the technology is becoming …
Maven Robotics, whose wheeled robots travel up to 10 mph and lift up to 30kg using two arms, emerges from stealth after raising $100M
Threat intelligence report: Anthropic says it disrupted a Yemen-based guided weapons engineering cell using Claude to build missile and rocket guidance software
Only 4% of the startups in YC's 2026 spring batch had a native mobile app as their main product, down from 15% in 2013, as startups focus on AI and agents
Sources: SpaceX shifts its data center strategy to redesign existing facilities and prioritize power and cooling redundancy, potentially slowing new build-outs
Anthropic details distillation efforts by Chinese companies, like Moonshot AI and DeepSeek, sending user queries to Claude via “transfer stations” outside China
Wall Street Journal:
EU cybersecurity agency ENISA has been granted access to Claude Mythos 5 and GPT-6 Astra; ENISA still lacks access to Mythos 5.1
TAR, which builds off-grid power systems for data centers, raised a $120M Series A led by Spark Capital at a ~$1B valuation
Sources: Intel-backed Altera is preparing to confidentially file for an IPO in the coming weeks; the offering could raise $2B+, with a listing as early as 2026
Sources: OpenAI asked members of Congress for guidance on whether orchestrating an industry-wide slowdown in AI development would be legal under antitrust law
Maxwell Zeff /Wired:
Ant International, Visa, and Mastercard plan a new standard for payments made via AI agents, citing McKinsey's projection of $3T to $5T in commerce by 2030
Adobe says it hit 1B MAUs and freemium MAUs crossed 100M in Q3, up 70%+ YoY, as it increasingly focuses on expanding its freemium AI offerings to drive revenue
Elias Schisgall /Wall Street Journal:
Mach Industries, which makes unmanned military vehicles and weapons, raised $600M in an extension to its $300M Series C, doubling its valuation to $3.7B
London-based Xapien, which uses AI for background checks and due diligence, raised a $56M Series B led by Spectrum Equity
Paris-based Arlequin AI, which is developing proprietary models based on topological neural networks, raised a €28M Series A co-led by redalpine and OTB
Adobe says it hit 1B MAUs, with freemium MAUs surpassing 100M in Q3, up 70%+ YoY, as it increasingly focuses on expanding its freemium AI offerings
Elias Schisgall /Wall Street Journal:
Sources: US Senate negotiators are debating a bill to impose a “duty of care” for AI companies and let the government block the release of models deemed unsafe
Courtney Rozen /Reuters: