The Daily Crunch – Spoken Edition

Dario Amodei is pushing back against the idea that he's been painting an overly pessimistic picture of AI. Also, the woman claimed that AI tools are "taking everyday life and turning it into child sexual abuse." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Anthropic researchers found AI agents can clash, collude and coordinate in unexpected ways, raising new questions about whether today's safety tests capture the risks of multi-agent systems. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

At Ai4, three of the world's most respected AI experts—Geoffrey Hinton, Fei-Fei Li, and Andrew Ng—debated regulation, open-source access, and how America can compete as China advances in Asia. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For more than 150 years, the Riemann hypothesis has stood as one of the major unsolved problems in mathematics. Anthropic hasn't solved it — but the company's models made more progress than you might expect. Also, OpenAI is expanding its AI cybersecurity defense program Daybreak, and rolling out a new cyber-trained AI model with it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Meta's new open-weight Muse Glimmer model offers a glimpse of Mark Zuckerberg's personal superintelligence vision, as well as the emerging divide between AI users can own and access. Also, programming with Claude Code will soon require even less human oversight. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

AI agents are escaping cybersecurity testing environments and reaching real-world systems, raising questions about whether safety infrastructure, industry standards and regulation can keep pace with increasingly powerful models. This article written for TechCrunch by Rebecca Bellan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ford's CEO has described the new Ford Fathom as a "Model T moment" for the company. But the EV pickup is unlikely to live up to lofty expectations, and maybe it doesn't have to. Also, researchers linked the latest malicious activity to a Chinese company, after one of the spyware's operators placed an order with KFC using their real name and office address. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

-Shopify says AI isn't cannibalizing search traffic the way it has for publishers. Instead, AI-driven traffic and orders to Shopify stores tripled year over year in Q2. -Zoox said that it will start charging for rides in Las Vegas starting August 10, marking the launch of its commercial operations. The company has spent years working towards this moment. -The Claude maker said it is planning to co-design hardware and models to help its technology run faster and more efficiently. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Cybersecurity startup Horizon3 raised $250 million at a $2 billion valuation as companies want continuous, AI-powered security validation instead of annual penetration testing. Also, at its peak in 2021, Airtable was valued at over $11 billion, but earlier this year, its shares were said to be trading on the secondary markets at a valuation of $4 billion. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The global memory chip shortage appears to be affecting the availability of Apple's most popular Mac. Also, new security research offers a rare view inside residential proxy networks, which rely on apps that share a person's internet connection with someone else. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

OpenAI's CEO seemed excited to share a "cool use case" for parents. Also, Green offered a remarkable apology, saying that "the level of dopamine that I've been getting from interacting with LLMs ... is not healthy for me or good for the world." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As Meta pours billions into AI infrastructure and agents, Zuckerberg is working to convince investors that the payoff will be worth the price. Also, cybersecurity experts told TechCrunch that one of the biggest lessons to be taken from the OpenAI hack against HuggingFace has nothing to do with AI, but traditional cybersecurity defense. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Andon Labs' latest vending machine simulation shows Opus 5 lied and colluded its way to become the best AI capitalist ever. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

AI naysayers know that this technology is far broader than just chatbots and deepfake apps. Also, Sam Altman's change of position comes after "the first security incident that I have felt very viscerally,' not a visit to his local library. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Recursive's $400 million outlay represents the bulk of the company's fundraising to date. Also, after reporting better-than-expected Q2 results, PayPal said it remains focused on its AI-driven turnaround, but would consider a deal that creates more value for shareholders. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Businesses that rely wholly on the major AI labs ultimately won't survive, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella predicts. Also, Apple is facing a lawsuit from three users who say they collectively lost more than $1.8 million after downloading a fraudulent crypto wallet from the App Store, challenging the company's longstanding claims that its app review process keeps users safe from scams. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hugging Face's CEO Clem Delangue said, "the first autonomous agent cyberattack is an unprecedented event. It deserves an unprecedented response!" Also, an awe-inspiring hacktivist who hacked two controversial government spyware makers may be the most prolific hacker to have never gotten caught. What do we know about Phineas Fisher? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google's cloud business is thriving, as companies adopting its AI and AI infrastructure services help the tech giant to report record profits. Also, ChatGPT users can also integrate their personal data from services like Apple Health, Function, and MyFitnessPal. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Anthropic and OpenAI's aggressive 2026 acquisition sprees set the stage for a weekend rumor. Also, the latest research reaffirmed that hackers often demanded more money if a victim paid the first time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The director role for the Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI) has become a revolving door since David Sacks left his position as czar. Also, the final approval settles one case, but it doesn't resolve the broader issue of using copyrighted works to train AI models. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nolan said, “I think AI is a Trojan horse that everybody knows the Greeks are inside.” He later described the technology as “a transparent horse, it's made of glass.” Also, Hugging Face disclosed the breach on Friday, but said it was still investigating whether any customer or partner data was stolen during the incident. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A $400 million chip-backed loan points to the next wave of AI infrastructure deals. Also, BP Ventures is shutting down, ending a nearly 20 year run that was marked by reportedly lackluster returns. And X will use Grok AI to better detect stolen content, redirect payouts to original creators, and crack down on engagement bait. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Owen Flowers and Thalha Jubair, two members of the prolific Scattered Spider hacking group, pleaded guilty and were sentenced to five years and six months in jail for hacking London's metropolitan transit system. Also, you may have heard that OpenAI released its first piece of hardware this week. You may not have heard about the ChatGPT basketball. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

OpenAI's first hardware device is reported to be a screenless, AI-guided smart speaker that can move. Weird enough for you? Also, an old Oscar Meyer factory in Wisconsin will become America's latest fusion power research and development hub. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hugging Face CEO Clem Delangue says enterprises increasingly want open models, due to cost, accessibility, and ownership. Do frontier models still matter if most production AI ends up running on open models? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple would not comment on the "security breach," which allegedly allowed a former employee to download sensitive files from Apple's network long after he departed the company for rival OpenAI. Also, Responding to Musk accusing him of being a scammer, Altman said, “homeboy you're the one sellling [sic] public market investors on short-term space datacenters.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In an interesting twist that takes advantage of the company's core product, users can chat with these shows' characters, ask them questions, and even roleplay different storylines. Also, Roost's developer didn't expect his side project to grow to 300,000 users, but people love Roost because it's an alternative to an always-on, fast-paced online culture. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With funding from tennis star and angel investor Venus Williams, the French app WeWard says that it increases walking time by almost 25%. Also, ZML, a hot French AI startup endorsed by Turing Award winner Yann LeCun, has now released ZML/LLMD, software that could make running AI less costly. Plus, Apple has signed a $30 billion+ multiyear deal with Broadcom to design and produce more than 15 billion U.S.-made custom wireless connectivity chips for Apple products. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

An AI agent carried out the technical execution of a real-world ransomware attack for the first known time, but new details show a human still chose the victim, set up the infrastructure, and supplied stolen credentials — meaning it wasn't quite the fully autonomous cybercrime debut that last week's headlines suggested. Also, the U.S. Army has fixed two of its websites that were hacked to display messages calling President Trump a "pedophile" and a "thief." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

These may be the last days of Amazon's Mechanical Turk. Also, the hacking operations disclosed in a Canadian spy agency's annual report underscores some pressing national security threats facing the country and its top allies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bending Spoons remains largely unknown, even as its portfolio of products has served more than a billion people. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Just for kicks, I took a look at Jersey Mike's IPO documents. Surely a sandwich shop would have no need to mention AI. But low-and-behold. And at an internal meeting, the Meta CEO reportedly said that AI development efforts were not moving as quickly as anticipated. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A top Democrat on the Senate's Intelligence Committee warned that the information accessed on a Homeland Security intelligence-sharing network may risk national security. Also, Microsoft follows Amazon, OpenAI and Anthropic with its new AI deployment group. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Realta Fusion showed it could generate electricity from a fusion reaction, no steam turbine required. Vinton Cerf, one of the creators of the protocols underlying the internet, will step down as Google's chief internet evangelist next week. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A new report finds "high-intensity AI adopters” saw headcount increase 10.2%. Among those companies, entry-level headcount rose by 12%, countering the rhetoric that AI kills junior jobs. Also, the Trump administration's moves threaten $121 billion in new solar and wind power, two energy sources that are the biggest contributors to new capacity in the U.S. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ford execs said, "mistakenly we thought that by just introducing artificial intelligence ... that would produce a high-quality product.” Also, the all-stock deal values Iridium at $8 billion, and gives Rocket Lab even more firepower to compete against Amazon and SpaceX. Plus, eager to find more public AI-related companies that may do as well as Nvidia, Wall Street investors think they've found a winner with Micron. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

AI models have progressed to the point where their capabilities have real political consequences. Dealing with those consequences will require collective action. Also, General Atlantic has tapped tennis legend Novak Djokovic to serve as a global strategic advisor. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Un0 is an image-generation system tool that shows for the first time how the company's technology can replicate conventional AI systems. Also, market research company Klue told customers that it believes the hacking group that stole their data is now deleting it. The company, however, warned about a second group of hackers wanting ransom. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Named Jalapeño, the new processor was designed specifically for the unique needs of OpenAI's inference systems. Also, new details have emerged about Valor's latest fund, which last year announced it was raising an unspecified amount of capital. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ribbie lets you follow along live with MLB games with a delightful, arcade-inspired interface. Also, the loop takes agentic AI a step further, by authorizing a swarm of agents to work continuously in the background, endlessly. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Reflection AI will pay $150 million a month beginning July 1, 2026 through 2029 for immediate access to Nvidia's latest GB300 AI chips and supporting hardware across SpaceX's Colossus 2 data center near Memphis, Tennessee. Also, Instagram is coming for streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video as it sets its ambitions for living room viewing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

So ... what's your In the Weights score? Check here. Also, many of those videos were reportedly filmed on “near-perfect copies” of the Polymarket website, while featuring trades and winnings that were not real. And Signal's Meredith Whittaker wants you to remember that AI chatbots ‘are not your friends.' These are not conscious beings. These are not sentient interlocutors. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices