AI

DeepSeek releases ‘sparse attention’ model that cuts API costs in half

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Researchers at DeepSeek on Monday released a new experimental model called V3.2-exp, designed to have dramatically lower inference costs when used in long-context operations. DeepSeek announced the model with a post on Hugging Face, also posting a linked academic paper on GitHub. The most important feature of the new model is called DeepSeek Sparse Attention, […]

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Vibe coding Anything nabs a $100M valuation, after hitting $2M ARR in its first two weeks

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It’s no secret that vibe coding — using AI-powered coding tools to build apps and websites via natural language prompts — is exploding in popularity. In July, Swedish vibe coding startup Lovable hit $100 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) just eight months after launch, plans to close the year at $250 million ARR and

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Anthropic launches Claude Sonnet 4.5, its best AI model for coding

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On Monday, Anthropic launched a new frontier model called Claude Sonnet 4.5, which it claims to offer state-of-the-art performance on coding benchmarks. The company says Claude Sonnet 4.5 is capable of building “production-ready” applications, rather than just prototypes, representing a leap in reliability from previous AI models. Claude Sonnet 4.5 will be available via the

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OpenAI rolls out safety routing system, parental controls on ChatGPT 

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OpenAI began testing a new safety routing system in ChatGPT over the weekend, and on Monday introduced parental controls to the chatbot – drawing mixed reactions from users. The safety features come in response to numerous incidents of certain ChatGPT models validating users’ delusional thinking instead of redirecting harmful conversations. OpenAI is facing a wrongful death lawsuit tied to one such incident, after a teenage boy died by suicide after months of interactions with ChatGPT.  The routing system is designed to detect emotionally sensitive conversations and automatically

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Former Microsoft execs launch AI agents to end Excel-led finance

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Despite millions spent on financial software, many finance teams still rely on Excel to close their books and reconcile numbers while preparing them for audit. Two former Microsoft executives view it as a problem — and they have started Maximor to replace spreadsheets with AI agents for the grunt work finance teams perform. Excel spreadsheets

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Paid, the AI agent ‘results-based billing’ startup from Manny Medina, raises huge $21M seed

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Manny Medina, previously best-known as the founder of sales automation startup Outreach ($4.4 billion valuation), has wowed investors with his young startup, Paid. Paid just closed an oversubscribed $21.6 million seed round led by Lightspeed. With the €10 million pre-seed round it raised in March, London-based Paid has already raised $33.3 million and hasn’t even

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The AI services transformation may be harder than VCs think

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Venture capitalists have convinced themselves they’ve found the next big investing edge: using AI to wring software-like margins out of traditionally labor-intensive services businesses. The strategy involves acquiring mature professional services firms, implementing AI to automate tasks, then using the improved cash flow to roll up more companies. Leading the charge is General Catalyst (GC),

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Wiz chief technologist Ami Luttwak on how AI is transforming cyberattacks 

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“One of the key things to understand about cybersecurity is that it’s a mind game,” Ami Luttwak, chief technologist at cybersecurity firm Wiz, told TechCrunch on a recent episode of Equity. “If there’s a new technology wave coming, there are new opportunities for [attackers] to start using it.”  As enterprises rush to embed AI into

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Beware coworkers who produce AI-generated ‘workslop’

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Researchers at consulting firm BetterUp Labs, in collaboration with Stanford Social Media Lab, have coined a new term to describe low-quality, AI-generated work: “workslop.” As defined in an article published this week in the Harvard Business Review, workslop is “AI generated work content that masquerades as good work, but lacks the substance to meaningfully advance

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