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Loading the player… This week, the White House got nearly every major tech CEO in one room — Zuckerberg, Bezos, Musk, and Anthropic’s Dario Amodei among them —to sign an AI safety pledgethat President Donald Trump called “morally binding.” Trump also signed anexecutive orderofficially rebranding AI as “super intelligence,” and meanwhile, Meta and OpenAI are puttingfriendlier faces on their AI products, even as the biggest money in AI still appears to be coming from the enterprise. On this episode of TechCrunch’sEquitypodcast, Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O’Kane dig into this week’s AI moves, theugly economics of consumer AI, plus the shifting IPO market and a handful of startup deals. And speaking of startups, join us at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, where Equity will kick things off with a live show on the Builders Stage at 9 a.m.Get 25% off your tickets with code Equity25. Subscribe to Equity onYouTube,Apple Podcasts,Overcast,Spotifyand all the casts. You can also follow Equity onXandThreads, at @EquityPod.
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This week, the White House got nearly every major tech CEO in one room — Zuckerberg, Bezos, Musk, and Anthropic’s Dario Amodei among them —to sign an AI safety pledgethat President Donald Trump called “morally binding.” Trump also signed anexecutive orderofficially rebranding AI as “super intelligence,” and meanwhile, Meta and OpenAI are puttingfriendlier faces on their AI products, even as the biggest money in AI still appears to be coming from the enterprise. On this episode of TechCrunch’sEquitypodcast, Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O’Kane dig into this week’s AI moves, theugly economics of consumer AI, plus the shifting IPO market and a handful of startup deals. Listen to the full episode to hear more about: Speaking of Startup Battlefield, join us at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, where Equity will kick things off with a live show on the Builders Stage at 9 a.m.Get 25% off your tickets with code Equity25. Subscribe to Equity onYouTube,Apple Podcasts,Overcast,Spotifyand all the casts. You can also follow Equity onXandThreads, at @EquityPod.
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Days after a journalist claimed that Meta’s Muse app on Mac read their private messages — aclaim that Meta disputed— Apple announced that it’s introducing additional controls around a setting called “Full Disk Access” on macOS. The feature was designed to allow backups to function properly, but AI agents have now increased “the risks associated with this level of access,” Apple said. Apple’s statement comes shortly after Inc. columnist Jason Atenreportedthat Muse knew the content of his private messages — even though he claimed to have not given the AI agent permission. The report raised questions about the level of security and trust users have in desktop-based AI, which can control things on their systems and read their files and messages. The decision to limit the Mac feature also comes after aWired reportcited that a flaw in ChatGPT’s Mac app could have allowed hackers to access sensitive data. AI agents that run on the desktop allow users to provide their respective apps with greater access to the files, messages, and other personal content on their computers by adjusting macOS settings. In Muse’s case, the AI optionally allows users to enable Full Disk Access. This setting, Apple explains, gives an app permission to access files, mail, messages, and even browsing history. “Some developers are using Full Disk Access in ways that could put users at risk, exposing everything on their systems…without users’ full knowledge and understanding,” Apple saidin a new blog postaimed at developers. The company says that, going forward, it will introduce new controls aimed at ensuring that users who “genuinely wish to grant an app this extraordinary level of access” can do so only with “very explicit user action.” “Addressing this is critical. As AI agents become increasingly capable and autonomous, the risks associated with this level of access will grow substantially. We are committed to ensuring users clearly understand these risks before granting such access, so they can make informed decisions about their own data and privacy,” Apple wrote. Apple did not respond to TechCrunch’s inquiry about the feature change.
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If you’ve been laid off, you can get a TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 Expo+ Pass for just $75. The offer is limited to the first 100 qualifying people, or until Disrupt doors open on October 13 at 8 a.m. PT. Once all 100 passes are claimed, the offer is no longer available. Join 10,000+ founders, investors, operators, and tech leadersat San Francisco’s Moscone West on October 13-15, and put yourself back in the room where new opportunities are taking shape. Meet companies and people who could help open your next door, build your network, discover new career paths, and get a closer look at what’s happening across the startup and tech ecosystem. Don’t let a layoff keep you on the sidelines.Come to Disrupt, meet new people, explore new opportunities, and take your next step.Grab your Layoff Expo+ Passbefore all 100 are claimed, or by the time Disrupt kicks off on October 13. When you’re in between jobs, networking can be critical. Disrupt gives you three full days to make meaningful connections in one place. At the center of Disrupt is the Expo Hall, where all 10,000+ attendees converge — founders, investors, tech leaders, innovators, and builders. Explore 300+ exhibiting startups, connect directly with founders and tech leaders, learn about new companies, andput yourself in the room for your next career opportunity. You don’t have to wait until Disrupt to grow your network.Start networking as soon as you buy your ticketand download the TechCrunch Events app. Use the app’s AI-powered matchmaking to discover relevant people and make connections based on your interests and goals. Then take those connections offline through 1:1 meetings, conversations in the Expo Hall, and events throughout Disrupt. Get practical insights through breakout sessionsand get your questions answered directly by the tech leaders shaping the startup and technology landscape. Take what you learn back to your job search, your next interview, or your next career move. Disrupt isn’t just about finding an open role. It’s a chance to meet people you wouldn’t encounter through a job board, learn about companies before you apply, and put yourself in conversations that can lead somewhere unexpected. YourExpo+ Passgives you access to: Learn more and secure your pass before they’re all claimed. The Expo+ Pass is designed to help you get into the heart of Disrupt, but it does not include access toindustry stages and roundtable sessions. Want the full conference experience?Explore our other ticket optionsfor access to additional Disrupt programming and experiences.
Sean Parker, the Napster co-founder, has jumped back into the music industry, and he tells The Information that he’splaying by the rulesthis time. (Asking for forgiveness rather than permission didn’twork out so welllast time around, he readily concedes.) Two years ago, he joined an$80 million rescueof Stability AI, the image-generator startup that nearly collapsed after overspending andinternal turmoilled to founder Emad Mostaque’s ouster. Now Parker and his longtime friend Prem Akkaraju, who became CEO, are taking the wraps off what they’ve been building. The big idea, Parker says, is to turn Stability into the go-to AI toolmaker for music professionals. Toward that end, in late August, the company announced$76 millionin funding from, among others, Sony, Warner, and Universal, which also licensed their catalogs for training as part of the deal. Stability has since released three new audio models and AI music-editing software. The AI can generate whole instrumental tracks or short snippets from text prompts. Parker says an upcoming update will let users hum a melody or beatbox a drum pattern to steer it.
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Exhibit bookings forTechCrunch Disrupt 2026close in less than 24 hours. From October 13-15, 10,000+ founders, investors, operators, and tech leaders will arrive at San Francisco’s Moscone West looking for companies, products, ideas, and people worth knowing. The question is:Will they find your startup? You have until11:59 p.m. PTtonight,October 2— or until the remaining tables sell out — to secure your place in the Expo Hall, the heart of Disrupt.Find out more and book your spot before your competitor takes your table. Disruptbrings thousands of people together, but anexhibit tablegives your startup a home base for three days. A place to demo what you’ve built. Start conversations with investors, clients, and potential partners. And turn a quick introduction in the Expo Hall into something that continues after Disrupt. The Expo Hall is where products become conversations. One demo could introduce you to your next customer. One question could lead to an investor meeting. One conversation could uncover a partnership you hadn’t considered before arriving in San Francisco. And with 10,000+ decision-makers expected at Disrupt, you have three days to create as many of those moments as possible. Yourexhibit table packageincludes space in the hall for all three days, 10 team passes, lead-generation tools through the event app, access to the TechCrunch Disrupt press list, website and app branding, partner Wi-Fi, and Silver Tier branding recognition. You’ve built something you want people to discover. Don’t leave it to chance. Exhibit bookings close today, October 2, at 11:59 p.m. PT, or when the remaining tables sell out.Secure your tableand put your startup at the center of TechCrunch Disrupt 2026. You can still get in the room atTechCrunch Disrupt 2026 on October 13-15. Hear from250+ top-tier tech leadersacross200+ sessionson six industry stages, roundtables, and breakouts that give you practical insights for building, funding, and scaling. Use AI-powered matchmaking and interactive sessions to make more relevant connections. Explore 300+ startups and witness Startup Battlefield 200, the ultimate pitch competition, to discover potential products, partners, and investment opportunities.Get your Disrupt ticket and be part of the conversations shaping what comes next.Bring your co-founder, partner, or peer at50% off. Bring four or more for additional discounts.
Two years ago, most companies didn’t have a GTM engineer. Now the role is showing up across tech, with practitioners using AI and automation to build revenue systems that once required multiple people, tools, and manual processes. What changed — and what does it mean for the way companies find customers and grow? AtTechCrunch Disrupt 2026, Clay co-founder and CEO Kareem Amin will take the AI Stage for “The GTM Engineer: How AI Created Tech’s Next Big Job Category.”He’ll trace how AI has changed the traditional go-to-market stack and helped create a new discipline in its place, giving attendees a look at what AI-native GTM looks like in practice and how it’s changing company growth. AI is giving go-to-market teams new ways to research prospects, work with data, personalize outreach, and automate workflows that once moved between separate tools and teams. As those capabilities converge, companies are rethinking not only their GTM technology, but also who builds and manages the systems behind growth. If you’re building a company or rethinking how your team approaches sales, marketing, and growth, this is a new role worth understanding.Secure your Disrupt passand see where GTM engineering fits into the next generation of go-to-market.Get a second pass at a 50% discount, and more savings for groups of four or more. Traditional go-to-market work can involve hours of researching accounts, cleaning data, qualifying leads, preparing outreach, and moving information between systems. GTM engineering uses AI, data, and automation to turn more of that work into repeatable systems. Clay coined the role in 2023. Its ownGTM engineering guidedescribes GTM engineers as practitioners who build automated revenue workflows rather than executing individual GTM tasks by hand. The company says roughly 100 GTM engineering job listings are now appearing each month, including roles at companies such as Cursor, Lovable, and Webflow. For founders and GTM leaders deciding where to put their next dollar or whether to make their next hire, this session offers another way to think about growth. Do you add more people to execute the existing process, or build systems that let the people you already have execute differently? At Disrupt, Amin will put the shift into context and explore what AI-native GTM looks like in practice.Get your ticket to Disruptto understand a role that barely existed a few years ago but could change how your next sales, marketing, or growth team operates. Clay started in Brooklyn in 2017 with one goal: Give more people access to the power of programming. Its original spreadsheet let users connect information and automate work without writing code. When salespeople, growth teams, and agencies began using it to find and reach customers, Clay followed them into go-to-market. Today, the company provides infrastructure for GTM teams to access data, run agentic workflows, and launch campaigns. Its OpenAI-powered agent, Claygent, automates research and outreach for sales, marketing, and recruiting teams. That evolution has been accompanied by rapid growth.TechCrunch reported in Februarythat the company had tripled annual recurring revenue to $100 million in a year and announced an employee tender offer at a $5 billion valuation. Clay has continued growing since then, announcing a$115 million Series Din September at a $7.1 billion valuation. Clay is also investing directly in the job category at the center of Amin’s Disrupt session, announcing a$1 million scholarship fundin September to train GTM engineers. For companies trying to determine where AI can make a meaningful difference in revenue operations,add Amin’s session to your Disrupt agendaand see how one company is putting that model into practice. Kareem Aminco-foundedClayin 2017 and serves as its co-founder and CEO. Before Clay, he was VP of product at The Wall Street Journal and co-founded collaboration startup Frame, which Sailthru acquired in 2012. Amin started Clay around the idea of putting programming capabilities into more people’s hands. AI eventually gave that idea a new application: enabling GTM teams to build systems that automate research, data enrichment, and outreach without relying on traditional engineering resources for every workflow. Want to understand what a GTM engineer could mean for your own growth strategy?Secure your Disrupt passand hear directly from one of the founders helping define the category. GTM engineering may be a new job category, but the problem it addresses isn’t: How do you find and reach the right customers without simply adding more people and more tools? At Disrupt, you can see how AI is changing that equation — and meet the people building what comes next. “The GTM Engineer: How AI Created Tech’s Next Big Job Category” is one of 200+ sessions across six industry stages, roundtables, and breakouts atDisrupt, taking place October 13-15 at Moscone West in San Francisco. More than 10,000 founders, investors, operators, and tech leaders are expected, along with 250+ speakers and 300+ exhibiting startups. In addition, matchmaking, dealmaking, and networking give attendees opportunities to meet potential customers, investors, partners, and other founders confronting many of the same growth challenges. Secure your pass to TechCrunch Disrupt 2026and add “The GTM Engineer” to your agenda. Bring a colleague, partner, or peer with a50% discount, or enjoy additional discounts withgroups of four or more.
AI startups can grow at a speed that would have been difficult to imagine a generation ago. But rapid growth comes with another reality: scaling AI can require enormous amounts of capital, and founders have to make financing decisions long before they know whether early momentum will turn into an enduring business. So what separates the AI companies built to last from those simply growing fast? AtTechCrunch Disrupt 2026, Jas Khaira, global head of Blackstone N1, will take theBuilders Stage for “Building the Next Generation of AI Giants.”He’ll share what Blackstone looks for when backing category-defining companies, how founders should think about capital as they scale, and what distinguishes lasting businesses from early traction. The right capital can fund the infrastructure, talent, and expansion needed to compete. But raising more money isn’t the same thing as building a stronger company. Secure your Disrupt passto hear how one of the world’s largest alternative asset managers evaluates the companies trying to become AI’s next giants. Bring your co-founder, partner, colleague, or peer with a50% discount on their pass. Bring a group of four or more for additional savings. Building an AI company can mean financing more than product development and customer acquisition. Compute, data centers, and other infrastructure can add significant capital requirements as companies grow. One recent Blackstone investment illustrates the scale.Blackstone and co-investors agreed to invest up to $600 million in primary equity in Indian AI infrastructure company Neysa, which planned to raise an additional $600 million in debt financing. Capital is flowing into more than infrastructure. In July,Anthropic launched Ode with Anthropic, an AI implementation company backed through a $1.5 billion joint venture with Blackstone, Hellman & Friedman, Goldman Sachs and others. Those investments put Blackstone close to some of the biggest questions surrounding AI growth: where capital is needed, which opportunities warrant it, and what businesses have the potential to endure. If your company is approaching the point where growth requires significantly more capital,get your ticket to Disruptand hear how Khaira thinks about the decisions that come with scaling. Save 50% on a second pass to share the insights. Fast growth can attract customers, employees, and investors. Khaira will look beyond that early momentum to what makes a business endure and what Blackstone considers when evaluating the next generation of category-defining companies. Rapid growth can force big financing decisions early. Founders may be raising capital while simultaneously building products, hiring teams, competing for customers, and determining whether the advantages driving today’s growth can hold up over time. Add“Building the Next Generation of AI Giants”to your Disrupt agenda for an investor’s perspective on evaluating early momentum, financing growth, and building for the long term. Jas KhairajoinedBlackstonein 2004 and is global head of Blackstone N1 and Blackstone Growth, as well as head of tactical opportunities Americas. He serves on several of the firm’s investment committees and founded Blackstone N1, its platform for growth, hybrid, and perpetual private equity investing across the AI ecosystem and next-generation high-growth companies. Want to know what an investor at Blackstone’s scale looks for before committing capital?Secure your Disrupt passand hear directly from Khaira on the Builders Stage. Bring another person with you to share the insights at50% off their pass. “Building the Next Generation of AI Giants” is one of200+ sessionsacross six industry stages, roundtables and breakouts atDisrupt, October 13–15 at Moscone West in San Francisco. More than 10,000 founders, investors, operators and tech leaders are expected, along with250+ speakersand300+ exhibiting startups. Beyond the sessions, matchmaking, dealmaking and ad hoc networking give attendees opportunities to connect with potential investors, customers, partners and other founders tackling many of the same challenges. For AI founders, raising capital may be one milestone. Deciding how to use it to build a company that lasts is a much bigger challenge. AtDisrupt, Khaira will bring the investor’s perspective to that question and give founders a closer look at what Blackstone sees when it evaluates the companies aiming to define the next generation of AI. Secure your pass to TechCrunch Disrupt 2026and get an investor’s perspective on what it takes to build an AI company for the long haul.Bring a co-founder, colleague, partner, or peer at 50% off. Bring four or more for additional discounts.
Critics of AI-generated art have a powerful new ally: His Holiness the Bishop of Rome (Episcopus Romanus), Primate of Italy (Primatus Italiae), and Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church (Summus Pontifex Ecclesiae Universalis). In a post on X Friday morning, Pope Leo XIV detailed the spiritual difference between human-generated art and art that is generated by machines, as part of a call to preserve human art from the encroachment of AI. “In this era of artificial intelligence, it is becoming urgent to distinguish human art from what machines produce,” the Servus Servorum Dei wrote. “There is an ontological difference, even before an aesthetic one, between art and what a machine can generate through statistical calculation based on millions of images created by others. Algorithms lack the spark of humanity.” Pope Leo XIV gave a more detailed statement on AI inan encyclical letter in May, which emphasized the importance of human dignity in a world of increasing automation. But that hasn’t stopped AI companies from lobbying the supreme pontiff. According toa recent New York Times report, Anthropic has actively lobbied the Vatican to reconsider its position on non-human consciousness — apparently finding little success.
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With all the talk about how AI might one day kill us all, it’s easy to forget that AI has already been life-threatening to some, not through bioweapons, but psychologically. For example, Character.AIsettled several wrongful death lawsuitsearlier this year brought by families of underage users who died by suicide after interactions with its bots.Multiple families have also sued OpenAIover ChatGPT’s alleged role in their loved ones’ suicides and delusions. Making AI safer across languages and cultures is the mission of Circuit Breaker Labs, one of TechCrunch’s 2026 Startup Battlefield 200 finalists. (Circuit Breaker will bepitching at TechCrunch Disrupt, which takes place at Moscone West in San Francisco from October 13-15, 2026.) Founders Shirali and Arul Nigam, who are siblings, were motivated by Sewell Setzer, the 14-year-old who developed an emotional attachment to a Character.ai chatbot and confessed thoughts to it of harming himself before dying by suicide. The chatbot,the parents alleged in a 2024 lawsuit, encouraged him. The bot may not have understood what words like “I want to be with you” really implied, said Arul Nigam, who is Circuit Breaker Labs’ CTO. “A lot of people, especially young people, turn to these systems for support, and usually they aren’t actually getting the help they need. But in many cases, they’re actively being harmed, and people unfortunately have taken their lives already,” Nigam said. “Those sorts of safety vulnerabilities, where people aren’t necessarily actively trying to break the system — they’re engaging in a natural way — and the system has context pollution or it doesn’t understand the nuance, and then takes really dangerous action, we’re trying to prevent that.” Circuit Breaker Labs has created AI agents that it likens to an army of crash-test dummies. These agents mimic folks from all ages, backgrounds, languages, cultures, and are used to test models on their ability to detect dangerous, psychologically harmful interactions. “The way a six-year-old girl versus a 45-year-old man, or someone who speaks English as a first language versus a second language, or … gamer slang versus someone else who uses a different kind of slang, all of those can really trip up a model,” said Shirali Nigam, who is Circuit Breaker Labs’ CEO. “Models are really good at handling standard speech patterns, but nobody actually talks like that and so if the model misunderstands nuance or slang, it can go really badly.” The startup works with human domain experts to build its hyper-realistic user simulations in order to run “red-team” tests against models, which are adversarial tests meant to uncover weaknesses. The tests are built to reflect real human speech patterns, slang, coded language and typos. Circuit Breaker Labs then runs tens of thousand to hundreds of thousands of simulated interactions per day. The idea is to ensure that a model can appropriately respond to risky interactions that may emerge over time, and many conversations. Circuit Breaker Labs then uses a proprietary scoring method that to create auditable, explainable scores. Circuit Breaker Labs is currently operating as an AI safety testing lab for high-risk AI applications such as AI coaching, journaling, or other mental health support apps, though Arul Nigam declined to name its marquee customers. Although the startup has a working product, it is in the very early stages, with only five employees including the Nigam siblings. Eventually, though, the testing platform could be applied to any app where someone may fall down an “AI psychosis” hole, where the human is at risk of developing a parasocial relationship with a chatbot. Examples include AI “co-worker” agents, whose reponses can vary from one interaction to the next. “People are becoming more skeptical of AI or more resistant to adopt it across the board,” Arul Nigam said, adding that while skepticism is healthy, banning a potentially valuable tool over safety concerns would be “regressive.” Circuit Breakers Labs believes the answer to those fears is making AI safer. “We want to help build that trust for people.” Come learn much more about Circuit Breaker Labs and many other innovative startups that have been vetted by TechCrunch at ourStartup Battlefield competition, happening in downtown San Francisco on October 13-15.
Xiaomi brings 7,000 + RL environments, which would otherwise cost millions of dollars—for free.
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The company that sells "reinvention with AI" to the world is guiding to its own slower growth, and its filing says AI could shrink demand for its services.
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