The Daily Crunch – Spoken Edition

Hubble Network's satellite-enabled Bluetooth network is getting a boost from Muon's new XL satellite bus. Also, Truth Social's AI search is powered by Perplexity, but the platform can set limits on sources. The search engine, dubbed Truth Search AI, is already available on the web version of Truth Social, with public Beta testing on the iOS and Android apps planned for “the near future.” And Upwork is buying its way into corporate staffing beyond freelancers. The company will merge Bubty and Ascen with its existing enterprise business to form a separate entity later this year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google denies AI is impacting search across the web, saying only "some" sites have suffered. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In a debate likely to get louder as AI agent usage grows, some people say Perplexity crawling blocked websites isn't a simple matter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For the first time in more than five years, OpenAI is launching a new open language model that appears to be state-of-the-art. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Joby is buying the Blade brand and the company's passenger business, which includes operations in the United States and Europe, for as much as $125 million. In other news, Mastercard seemingly denied playing a role in a recent marketplace crackdown on games with adult content, while Valve says the pressure was indirect. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

North Korean IT workers are increasingly using generative AI to draft resumes and "deepfake" their appearances to make money for North Korea's sanctioned nuclear weapons program. Also, Apple is reportedly working to create a lightweight competitor to ChatGPT. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dribbble is enforcing its terms of service that lets it take a cut of designers' work, and kicking out those who don't comply. One top designer has had enough, and is building his own startup instead. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google DeepMind has revealed Genie 3, its latest foundation world model that the AI lab says presents a crucial stepping stone on the path to artificial general intelligence, or human-like intelligence.  Also, enterprise security company SonicWall is urging its customers to disable a core feature of its most recent line-up of firewall devices after security researchers reported an uptick in ransomware incidents targeting SonicWall customers.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google released its first publicly available "multi-agent" AI system, which uses more computational resources, but produces better answers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple is open to M&A to accelerate its AI strategy, and says it's made seven acquisitions this year so far. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Space Force is leveraging commercial competition for the next phase of its PTS program. Also, Adobe is adding an improved background removal tool to Photoshop using AI, so the app doesn't leave weird artifacts in your images. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Spotify says AI will allow for "much more interactive" consumer experiences in its app. Also, YouTube is introducing age detection technology to identify teens on the platform in the U.S. and apply protections, and TikTok is bringing new parental controls to Family Pairing, its feature that allows parents to link their accounts with their teen's account to customize safety settings. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Construction could start fast -- but that speed has edangered Boring Company workers in the past. Also, Jack Dorsey's Bitchat is now available on the App Store, but security researchers have questioned the app's privacy claims. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Golden Dome, the White House's next-gen missile defense system, is a huge opportunity for startups that can successfully collaborate with incumbents. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A U.K. law requiring that pornography websites verify the age of their users took last week. Also, the Department of Government Efficiency has presented plans to use a new AI tool to eliminate half of the federal government's regulatory mandates by the first anniversary of President Donald Trump's return to office, according to The Washington Post; and Indie video game marketplace Itch.io announced this week that it has "deindexed" adult and not-safe-for-work games, removing them from its browse and search pages. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

India has ordered the blocking of 25 streaming services — many with millions of viewers and even paying subscribers — for allegedly promoting "obscene" content. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The NATO Innovation Fund is entering a new chapter, marked by the arrival of two new partners and the departure of its penultimate founding team partner. Also, Google is testing a new vibe-coding tool called Opal, available in the U.S. through Google Labs, that lets users quickly spin up web apps with just a few prompts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tesla is behind on its goal to produce at least 5,000 Optimus humanoid robots by the end of 2025. Also, Apple has expanded its age rating system to include 13+, 16+, and 18+ ratings, in addition to the existing ratings for younger users; and in response to the European Union's incoming regulation of political advertising, Meta said on Friday that it would stop selling and showing political ads in the EU from October 2025. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A new AI coding challenge has revealed its first winner — and set a new bar for AI-powered software engineers.  On Wednesday at 5pm PST, the nonprofit Laude Institute announced the first winner of the K Prize, a multi-round AI coding challenge launched by Databricks and Perplexity co-founder Andy Konwinski. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When DeepSeek, Alibaba, and other Chinese firms released their AI models, Western researchers quickly noticed they sidestepped questions critical of the Chinese Communist Party. U.S. officials later confirmed that these tools are engineered to reflect Beijing's talking points, raising concerns about censorship and bias. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple launches $19.99 monthly AppleCare One subscription with coverage for three devices Also, Snap Map's new "Home Safe" feature sends one-time alerts to friends, so you don't need to remember to message others that you're back safely. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Proton's new AI assistant Lumo promises to keep user data private with zero-access encryption, no logging, and an incognito mode. In other news, NetZeroNitrogen's bacteria approach has attracted investors and $6.6 million in seed funding. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Karun Kaushik and Selin Kocalar weren't planning to raise a Series A so soon. Their AI compliance startup, Delve, which announced a $3 million seed round in January, was growing fast and signing customers at a steady clip. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The spyware maker was banned from the surveillance industry in 2021, but was caught flouting the ban less than a year later. Now the founder wants the ban lifted altogether. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The new SS7 bypass-attack tricks phone operators into disclosing a cell subscriber's location, in some cases down to a few hundred meters. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

SpaceX has been moving at breakneck pace, rapid progress comes at a cost. Worker injury rates at its Starbase facility are almost six times higher than the average, data reveals. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

OpenAI announced the launch of ChatGPT agent, which the company claims to be its most capable AI agent product yet. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hadrian wants to revolutionize American manufacturing through automation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Uber is investing hundreds of millions of dollars into Lucid and autonomous vehicle technology startup Nuro in a bid to launch its own robotaxi service. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The new business calling feature uses AI to call local businesses on your behalf, for information about availability and pricing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A senior engineer describes the thrill, chaos, and exhaustion of working at OpenAI this past year while launching its coding agent Codex. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Researchers warned that Chinese residents, and visitors to China, should be aware of the tool's existence and the risks it poses. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

ParadeDB built a Postgres extension that facilitates full-text search and analytics on Postgres without the need to transfer data. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Atmo will use its deep learning models to help Rainmaker identify clouds that have potential for seeding. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Analysis: In calling itself an ethical spyware vendor, Paragon has opened itself up to scrutiny of its government customers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Software engineer workflows have been transformed in recent years by an influx of AI coding tools, but However, a new study calls into question the extent to which today's AI coding tools enhance productivity for experienced developers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Diligent Robotics hired Cruise's former chief operating officer and former head of AI and robotics into c-suite positions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Medium CEO Tony Stubblebine announced on Friday that the publishing platform has remained profitable since August of last year, when it first achieved this milestone. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google has launched a suite of its AI-powered advertising tools in India, which debuted in the U.S. in May, as the repeal of the so-called “Google tax” has made the South Asian market more attractive to global tech firms selling online a Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

LGND has raised $9 million to convert geographic data into vector embeddings to power AI models that understand the Earth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mastodon, the open source, decentralized social network offering an alternative to Elon Musk's X and Meta's Threads, is rolling out a number of updates with Tuesday's release of Mastodon 4.4. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The independent online bookseller Bookshop.org took a swipe at Amazon to celebrate the start of Prime Day, Amazon's annual sale (which, despite its name, is actually four days this year). Like many other retailers, Bookshop.org holds a sale to coincide with Amazon's big event — it's a way to lure away consumers. Also, Activision last week brought offline the Microsoft Store version of "Call of Duty: WWII" as the company was investigating “reports of an issue”; and Waymo has begun offering teen accounts for families in Phoenix as it works to expand more of its user base and entrench young riders in the autonomous life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices