Latest AI News
OpenAI Launches GPT-5.4 That Matches Professionals in 83% of Knowledge Work Tasks
The new model combines improvements in reasoning, coding, and agentic workflows while integrating GPT-5.3-Codex’s coding capabilities.
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Fractal Reports First Results as Public Company, Profit Rises 8.5%, Revenue Jumps 21%
Srikanth Velamakanni said the company also made progress in its AI research and platforms, including Vaidya and PiEvolve.
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Oracle Plans Thousands of Job Cuts as AI Data Centre Spending Rises: Report
Oracle said last month that it could raise as much as $50 billion in 2026 through a mix of debt and equity offerings.
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Karnataka Considers Social Media Ban for Children Under 16
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah raised the idea during the presentation of the Karnataka Budget 2026.
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Meta Faces Lawsuit After Report Reveals Humans Reviewed Ray-Ban AI Glasses Footage
The lawsuit follows a Swedish media investigation that found workers at a Kenya-based contractor reviewing footage from Meta’s smart glasses.
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AWS Launches AI Agent to Automate Healthcare Administration
The AI agent-powered platform is designed to automate administrative tasks for healthcare providers and integrate with medical records.
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Karnataka to Introduce AI Courses in Polytechnics, Plans Digital Tutor for 12.8 Lakh Students
Announced in the Karnataka Budget 2026, the state plans AI tutors for 12.8 lakh students and new AI-focused polytechnic courses.
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Microsoft Stands by Anthropic for Commercial Clients Despite Pentagon Rift
Microsoft will continue offering Anthropic’s AI across its products for most customers, even as the Pentagon moves to sideline the startup.
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Karnataka to Provide ₹2 Lakh Loans for AI training to Backward Class Engineering Graduates
As many as 250 students can avail this facility, CM Siddaramiah said in the Karnataka Budget 2026.
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Anthropic to challenge DOD’s supply-chain label in court
Dario Amodeisaid Thursdaythat Anthropic plans to challenge the Department of Defense’s decision to label the AI firm asupply-chain riskin court, a designation he has called “legally unsound.” The statement comes a few hours after the DOD officially designated Anthropic a supply-chain risk following a weeks-long dispute over how much control the military should have over AI systems. A supply-chain risk designation can bar a company from working with the Pentagon and its contractors. Amodei drew a firm line that Anthropic’s AI will not be used for mass surveillance of Americans or for fully autonomous weapons, but the Pentagon believed it should have unrestricted access for “all lawful purposes.” In his statement, Amodei said the vast majority of Anthropic’s customers are unaffected by the supply-chain risk designation. “With respect to our customers, it plainly applies only to the use of Claude by customersas a direct part ofcontracts with the Department of War, not all use of Claude by customers who have such contracts,” he said. As a preview of what Anthropic will likely argue in court, Amodei said the Department’s letter labeling the firm a supply-chain risk is narrow in scope. “It exists to protect the government rather than to punish a supplier; in fact, the law requires the Secretary of War to use theleast restrictive means necessaryto accomplish the goal of protecting the supply chain,” Amodei said. “Even for Department of War contractors, the supply chain risk designation doesn’t (and can’t) limit uses of Claude or business relationships with Anthropic if those are unrelated to their specific Department of War contracts.” Amodei reiterated that Anthropic had been having productive conversations with the DOD over the last several days, conversations that some suspect got derailed when aninternal memohe sent to staff was leaked. In it, Amodei characterized rival OpenAI’s dealings with the Department of Defense as “safety theater.” OpenAI has signed a deal to work with the DOD in Anthropic’s place, a move that has sparked backlash among OpenAI staff. Amodei apologized for the leak in his Thursday statement, claiming that the company did not intentionally share the memo or direct anyone else to do so. “It is not in our interest to escalate the situation,” he said. Amodei said the memo was written within “a few hours” of a series of announcements, including a presidential Truth Social post saying Anthropic would be removed from federal systems, then Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s supply-chain risk designation, and finally the Pentagon’s deal announcement with OpenAI. He apologized for the tone, calling it “a difficult day for the company” and said the memo didn’t reflect his “careful or considered views.” Written six days ago, he added, it’s now an “out-of-date assessment.” He finished by saying Anthropic’s top priority is to ensure American soldiers and national security experts maintain access to important tools in the middle of ongoing major combat operations. Anthropic is currently supporting some of the U.S.’s operations in Iran, and Amodei said the company would continue to provide its models to the DOD at “nominal cost” for “as long as necessary to make that transition.” Anthropic could challenge the designation in federal court, likely in Washington, but the law behind the decision makes it harder to contest because it limits the usual ways companies can challenge government procurement decisions and gives the Pentagon broad discretion on national security matters. Or as Dean Ball — a former Trump-era White House adviser on AI who has spoken out against Hegseth’s treatment of Anthropic — put it: “Courts are pretty reluctant to second-guess the government on what is and is not a national security issue … There’s a very high bar that one needs to clear in order to do that. But it’s not impossible.”
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It’s official: The Pentagon has labeled Anthropic a supply-chain risk
The Department of Defense (DOD) has officially notified Anthropic leadership that the company and its products have been designated a supply-chain risk,Bloombergreports, citing a senior department official. The designation comes after weeks ofconflictbetween the AI lab and the DOD. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei hasrefusedto allow the military to use its AI systems for mass surveillance of Americans or to power fully autonomous weapons with no humans assisting in the targeting or firing decisions. The Department has argued that its use of AI should not be limited by a private contractor. Supply-chain-risk designations are typically reserved for foreign adversaries. The label requires any company or agency that does work with the Pentagon to certify that it doesn’t use Anthropic’s models. The Pentagon’s finding threatens to disrupt both the company and its own operations. Anthropic has been the only frontier AI lab with classified-ready systems. The U.S. military is currently relying on Claude in its Iran campaign, where American forces are using AI tools to quickly manage the data for their operations. Claude is one of the main tools installed in Palantir’s Maven Smart System, which military operators in the Middle East rely on, according to Bloomberg. Labeling Anthropic a supply-chain risk over this disagreement is an unprecedented move from the Department, several critics say. Dean Ball, a former Trump White House AI adviser, hasreferred to the designationas a “death rattle” of the American republic, arguing government has abandoned strategic clarity and respect in favor of “thuggish” tribalism that treats domestic innovators worse than foreign adversaries. Hundreds of employees from OpenAI and Google haveurged the DOD to withdrawits designation and called on Congress to push back on what could be perceived as an inappropriate use of authority against an American technology company. They have also urged their leaders tostand togetherto continue to refuse the DOD’s demands to use their AI models for domestic mass surveillance and “autonomously killing people without human oversight.” TechCrunch has reached out to Anthropic for comment. In the midst of the dispute, OpenAI forged its own deal with the Department to allow the military to use its AI systems for “all lawful purposes.” Some of the company’semployeeshave expressed concern about the ambiguous phrasing of the deal, which could lead to exactly the type of uses Anthropic was trying to avoid. Amodei has called the actions of the DOD “retaliatory and punitive,” andreportedlysaid his refusal to praise or donate to President Trump contributed to the dispute with the Pentagon. OpenAI president Greg Brockman has been a staunch backer of Trump, recently donating$25 million to the MAGA Inc. Super PAC.
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US reportedly considering sweeping new chip export controls
How, and if, the Trump administration plans to regulate the export of semiconductors has remained unclear since Donald Trump took office last year. Now, we have an idea of what the administration is thinking. U.S. regulators have allegedly drafted rules that would require U.S. government approval to ship AI chips anywhere outside the U.S.,according to Bloomberg, citing sources. This would give the U.S. significantly more control over companies like AMD and Nvidia. TechCrunch reached out to AMD and Nvidia for comment. A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Commerce provided the following: “The Commerce Department is committed to promoting secure exports of the American tech stack. We successfully advanced exports through our historic Middle East agreements, and there are ongoing internal government discussions about formalizing that approach. Today there was reporting that we were returning to the AI diffusion rule. We will not. It was burdensome, overreaching, and disastrous.” In these drafted rules, companies and governments outside the U.S. would have to be granted approval by the U.S. Department of Commerce to purchase these chips. The review process would vary based on the size and scale of the potential purchase, Bloomberg reported. For example, a small order by a company outside the U.S. may warrant a basic review while a sizable order could require the company’s corresponding government to get involved. This could, of course, all change before a final announcement or ruling, but the proposal would represent significantly more government involvement thanthe AI Diffusion ruleinstituted under President Joe Biden. The Trump administrationformally rescindedBiden’s diffusion regulation last May, less than a week before it was set to go into effect. While this is the first inkling of what broad export restrictions would look like, it isn’t fully surprising that the Trump administration is looking for more government involvement as opposed to less based on how it has handled Nvidia’s potential exports to China. The Trump administration hasflip-flopped multiple timeson whether or not the company could send its advanced AI chips to the Chinese market before deciding to allow exports if theU.S. Department of Commerce was able to approve the customers. However, this oversight approach may end up hurting U.S. chip companies and the U.S.’s current dominance in the global AI market. If it becomes harder to source chips from the U.S., companies may increasingly turn to other sources, especially as chip companies outside the U.S. continue to develop more advanced chips. In Nvidia’s case, the export regulations already are hurting them. The semiconductor gianthas not seen the return of its customers in Chinaafter nearly a year of uncertainty of whether or not they would keep access to the AI technology.
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