A safety institute advised against releasing an early version of Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4 AI model

A third-party research institute that Anthropic partnered with to test one of its new flagship AI models, Claude Opus 4, recommended against deploying an early version of the model due to its tendency to “scheme” and deceive. According to a safety report Anthropic published Thursday, t

Mozilla is shutting down read-it-later app Pocket

Mozilla announced on Thursday that it’s shutting down Pocket, a read-it-later app it acquired in 2017, on July 8. The company is also shutting down Fakespot, its browser extension that helps users identify unreliable reviews. “Pocket has helped millions save articles and discover stor

Anthropic’s new AI model turns to blackmail when engineers try to take it offline

Anthropic’s newly launched Claude Opus 4 model frequently tries to blackmail developers when they threaten to replace it with a new AI system and give it sensitive information about the engineers responsible for the decision, the company said in a safety report released Thursday. During pre-

Open social web browser Surf makes it easier for anyone to build custom feeds

Surf, the new app from Flipboard for browsing the open social web, is making it easier for people to create and discover their own custom feeds focused on their interests. Instead of getting stuck in an algorithmically generated timeline designed by a social network’s owner, custom feeds allo

Meta adds another 650 MW of solar power to its AI push

Meta signed another big solar deal on Thursday, securing 650 megawatts across projects in Kansas and Texas. American utility and power generation company AES is currently developing the solar-only projects, with 400 megawatts to be deployed in Texas and 250 megawatts in Kansas, the company told Te

Anthropic’s new Claude 4 AI models can reason over many steps

During its inaugural developer conference Thursday, Anthropic launched two new AI models that the startup claims are among the industry’s best, at least in terms of how they score on popular benchmarks. Claude Opus 4 and Claude Sonnet 4, part of Anthropic’s new Claude 4 family of mode

SpaceX’s Starship cleared to return to flight with expanded ‘hazard areas’

The Federal Aviation Administration has cleared SpaceX to perform the ninth test flight of its Starship rocket system, following back-to-back explosions earlier this year. The agency said Thursday it is “expanding the size of hazard areas both in the U.S. and other countries” for the f

Vercel debuts an AI model optimized for web development

The team behind Vercel’s V0, an AI-powered platform for web creation, has developed an AI model it claims excels at certain website development tasks. Available through an API, the model, called “v0-1.0-md,” can be prompted with text or images, and was “optimized for front-

RevenueCat raises $50M as it expands beyond mobile app monetization

RevenueCat, a company so tied to the mobile economy that now one-in-three new subscription apps launch with its software under the hood, is preparing to expand its business. Capitalizing on its market position, which now includes powering the subscriptions in over 70,000 mobile apps, RevenueCatR

The wild story of how gut health AI toilet startup Throne raised $4M led by Moxxie 

The tale of how smart toilet startup Throne landed its seed round is so full of serendipities, one could almost believe it was orchestrated by the hand of Fortuna, Roman goddess of providence. Throne is an Austin-based company working on an AI-powered toilet device for consumers. It uses computer

Strava is buying up athletic training apps — first Runna, and now The Breakaway

The social fitness app Strava has made two acquisitions over the last month and change: On Thursday, Strava acquired cycling app The Breakaway, following its acquisition of Runna last month. Incubated in Y Combinator’s Summer 2021 class, The Breakaway uses AI to create personalized training

Signal’s new Windows update prevents the system from capturing screenshots of chats

Signal said today that it is updating its Windows app to prevent the system from capturing screenshots, thereby protecting the content that is on display. The company said that this new “screen security” setting is enabled by default on Windows 11. Signal said that this new feature is

Alt Carbon scores $12M seed to scale carbon removal in India

From a struggling family tea estate to an innovative climate venture, Alt Carbon has raised $12 million in a seed round as it plans to scale its carbon dioxide removal work in the South Asian nation. The climate tech startup, which locks away carbon for thousands of years through enhanced rock weat

Luminar secures up to $200M following CEO departure and layoffs

"">Lidar company Luminar reached a deal with Yorkville Advisors Global and an unnamed investor that could bring another $200 million into its coffers through the sale of convertible preferred stock over an 18-month period. The agreement, which was announced in a regulatory filing Wednesday, follows