AI

California lawmakers pass AI safety bill SB 53 — but Newsom could still veto

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California’s state senate gave final approval early on Saturday morning to a major AI safety bill setting new transparency requirements on large companies. As described by its author, state senator Scott Wiener, SB 53 “requires large AI labs to be transparent about their safety protocols, creates whistleblower protections for [employees] at AI labs & creates […]

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xAI reportedly lays off 500 workers from data annotation team

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Elon Musk’s AI startup xAI laid off 500 team members on Friday night, according to internal messages viewed by Business Insider. These emails reportedly announce an immediate “strategic pivot,” with the company deciding to  “accelerate the expansion and prioritization of our specialist AI tutors, while scaling back our focus on general AI tutor roles.” “As

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We are entering a golden age of robotics startups — and not just because of AI

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When Seth Winterroth left his job at GE Ventures to help launch Eclipse Ventures in 2015, robotics was on his mind. Or more specifically, the number of early-stage robotics startups that were struggling to launch due to lack of interest. “These are teams that had just finished their postdocs at Waterloo, or CMU, or MIT,

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OpenAI secures Microsoft’s blessing to transition its for-profit arm

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OpenAI announced Thursday it reached a non-binding agreement with Microsoft, its largest investor, on a revised partnership that would allow the startup to convert its for-profit arm into a public benefit corporation (PBC). The transition, should it be cleared by state regulators, could allow OpenAI to raise additional capital from investors and, eventually, become a

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Apple’s new live translation feature for AirPods won’t be available in the EU at launch

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One of the headlining features of Apple’s new AirPods Pro 3 was the ability to translate incoming audio in real time, but it seems the feature won’t work in the European Union at launch. On its official page detailing the features available on iOS 26, the company said EU residents or those with EU Apple

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Exploring the future of voice AI with Mati Staniszewski at Disrupt 2025

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Synthetic speech is no longer the stuff of science fiction. From audiobooks and dubbing to gaming and avatars, AI-generated voice is breaking into the mainstream — and Mati Staniszewski, CEO and co-founder of ElevenLabs, is helping lead the charge. At TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, he’ll take the stage to talk about what it takes to make

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