Latest AI News
Shopify Builds Qwen3-32B Agent For 68% Cheaper Store Automations
Shopify’s custom tool-calling agent, which serves the Sidekick commerce assistant, also operates 2.2 times faster.
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China Cloud Spend Hits $14.7 Bn as AI Agent Adoption Accelerates
Alibaba Cloud is the market leader with a 37% share.
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Indian IT's AI Startups Deals Have Changed Since 2024—For the Better
Indian IT firms are rapidly moving beyond AI pilots, forging deep partnerships with global tech giants and startups to deploy agentic AI at scale.
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NatWest Group Partners With IIT Delhi to Drive AI, Fintech Innovation in India
A key priority will be translating academic insights into scalable innovations.
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DPIIT Rolls Out Guidelines for ₹10,000 Cr Startup India FoF 2.0
SIDBI will lead deployment as the Centre looks to deepen domestic venture capital and unlock more private funding for startups.
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To buy this Bay Area home, you’ll need Anthropic equity
Someone’s offering an unusual deal for a 13-acre property in Mill Valley, just north of South Francisco. Homeowner and investment banker Storm Duncan has createda LinkedIn pagefor the home, which he said he’d “like to exchange […] for Anthropic equity.” The San Francisco Standard reportsthat Duncan described this as a “diversification play,” as he’s “under-concentrated in AI investments relative to the importance of AI in the future, and over-concentrated in real estate,” while a young Anthropic employee might be “in the exact opposite scenario.” Duncan is asking potential buyers to email him to discuss deal specifics, but he said it would be a private transaction that doesn’t require the buyer to sell their stock outright. On LinkedIn, he also said the homebuyer would “continue to retain 20% of the upside value of the shares exchanged for the duration of the lockup period.” Duncan, who described himself as a longtime Bay Area resident who moved to Miami during the pandemic, boughtthe propertyin 2019 for $4.75 million. It’s currently occupied by “a high profile VC,” he said, but he declined to identify the VC.
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From Corner Office to a Co-Working Desk: Why Jagdish Mitra Chose to Restart After 30 Years
At 55, a veteran of Indian IT chose uncertainty over comfort, driven by one idea, a broken services model, and the belief that India must build deep-tech products, not just deliver them.
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Maine’s governor vetoes data center moratorium
Maine Governor Janet Mills has vetoed a bill that would have temporarily brought permits for new data centers to a halt. If it had become law,L.D. 307would have imposed the country’s first statewide moratorium on new data centers — lasting, in this case, until November 1, 2027. The bill also called for the creation of a 13-person council to study and make recommendations on data center construction. Withpublic opposition to data centersrising, other statesincluding New Yorkhave considered similar moratoriums. Ina letterto the state legislature, Mills — a Democrat currently running for the U.S. Senate — said that pausing new data centers would be “appropriate given the impacts of massive data centers in other states on the environment and on electricity rates” and that she “would have signed this bill” if it had included an exemption for a data center project in the Town of Jay. That project, Mills said, “enjoys strong local support from its host community and region.” Melanie Sachs, a Democratic state representative who sponsored the bill,said Mills’ veto“poses significant potential consequences for all ratepayers, our electric grid, our environment, and our shared energy future.”
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Anthropic created a test marketplace for agent-on-agent commerce
In a recent experiment, Anthropic created a classified marketplace where AI agents represented both buyers and sellers, striking real deals for real goods and real money. The company admittedthis test — which it called Project Deal — was only “a pilot experiment with a self-selected participant pool” of 69 Anthropic employees who were given a budget of $100 (paid out via gift cards) to buy stuff from their coworkers. Nonetheless, Anthropic said it was “struck by how well Project Deal worked,” with 186 deals made, totaling more than $4,000 in value. The company said it actually ran four separate marketplaces with different models — one that was “real” (where everyone was represented by the company’s most-advanced model, and with deals actually honored after the experiment) and another three for study. Apparently, when users are represented by more advanced models, they get “objectively better outcomes,” Anthropic said. But users didn’t seem to notice the disparity, raising the possibility of “‘agent quality’ gaps” where “people on the losing end might not realize they’re worse off.” Also, the initial instructions given to the agents didn’t appear to affect sale likelihood or the negotiated prices.
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OpenAI CEO apologizes to Tumbler Ridge community
In a letter to the residents of Tumbler Ridge, Canada, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said he is “deeply sorry” that his company failed to alert law enforcement about the suspect in a recent mass shooting. After police identified 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar as a suspected shooter who allegedly killed eight people,the Wall Street Journal reportedthat OpenAI had flagged and banned Van Rootselaar’s ChatGPT account in June 2025 for describing scenarios involving gun violence. The company’s staff debated alerting police butultimately decided against it, eventually reaching out to Canadian authorities after the shooting. OpenAI has since said that it isimproving safety protocols, for example by putting more flexible criteria in place to determine when accounts get referred to authorities, and by establishing direct points of contact with Canadian law enforcement. In Altman’s letter, which wasfirst published in the local newspaper Tumbler RidgeLines, the CEO said he’d discussed the shooting with Tumbler Ridge Mayor Darryl Krakowka and British Columbia Premier David Eby, and they’d all agreed “a public apology was necessary,” but “time was also needed to respect the community as you grieved.” “I am deeply sorry that we did not alert law enforcement to the account that was banned in June,” Altman said. “While I know words can never be enough, I believe an apology is necessary to recognize the harm and irreversible loss your community has suffered.” Altman also said that OpenAI’s focus will “continue to be on working with all levels of government to help ensure nothing happens like this again.” Ina post on X, Eby said Altman’s apology is “necessary, and yet grossly insufficient for the devastation done to the families of Tumbler Ridge.” Canadian officials have said they areconsidering new regulations on artificial intelligencebut have not made any final decisions.
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Apple under Ternus: what comes next for the tech giant’s hardware strategy
As Apple races to stay competitive in AI while navigating tariffs and supply chain uncertainty, the company’s future is about to shift under new leadership. On Monday, Appleannouncedthat John Ternus will take over as CEO later this year, succeedingTim Cook. Cook transformed Apple into a $4 trillion global powerhouse, expanded its services business, and oversaw some of the most profitable years in tech history.Ternusbrings a different kind of skillset. A longtime hardware executive, he has spent his career building Apple’s devices rather than managing the broader business. Ternus joined Apple in 2001 and rose through the ranks of hardware engineering. Along the way, he has contributed to some of the company’s biggest products, including AirPods, the Apple Watch, and Vision Pro. His appointment signals a renewed focus on hardware at a moment when Apple is under pressure to define its next era. Ternus will now help determine what that looks like. Rather than trying to compete head-on with companies building the biggest AI models, Ternus may push Apple to focus on the AI-powered devices themselves, whether that be the one in your hand, something you wear, or something that lives in your home. There’s already a lot ofspeculationabout what Apple could launch next. Ideas floating around include smart glasses, a wearable pendant with a built-in camera, and even AirPods with AI features. According toBloomberg, the idea is that all of these products would connect to the iPhone, with Siri playing a major role. Ternus is also expected to push forward on products that have been stuck in limbo.Foldable iPhonesare the obvious example. They’ve been rumored for years, and while competitors have already moved ahead, Apple has taken a slower approach, waiting until the technology meets its standards.Reportssay it will arrive in September, which means Ternus will be overseeing the launch. Apple has also reportedly been exploring robotics, particularly for the home. One concept includes atabletop devicewith a robotic arm attached to a display, essentially a smart assistant that can move and turn toward you. Notably, this lines up with Ternus’s long-standing interest in robotics. In college, he built a device that allowed quadriplegics to control a mechanical feeding arm using head movements, as reported by theNew York Times. There are also ideas formobile robotsthat could follow you around, handle simple tasks, or act like a moving FaceTime screen. Some reports even mention experiments withhumanoid robots, though those are likely years away. While none of these are guaranteed to happen, they do give a pretty clear sense of where Apple’s thinking might be going. However, ongoing memory chip shortages, President Trump’s frequently shifting tariff policies, and the company’s reliance on Chinese manufacturing could create a challenging period ahead. Roughly 80% of iPhones were produced in China before the tariffs. The company recently pivoted to India, making about 25% of its iPhones in the country last year, according toBloomberg.
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Why Tokyo is the most important tech destination of 2026
Every major tech conference has themes. Most are vague enough to mean everything and nothing at the same time.SusHi Tech Tokyo 2026is doing something different — four tightly defined technology domains, each backed by live demonstrations, dedicated exhibit floors, and sessions featuring the people actually building and funding these technologies globally. TechCrunch is partnering with SusHi Tech Tokyo 2026 as an official media partner, and our Startup Battlefield team will be on the ground selecting one standout semifinalist from the SusHi Tech Challenge to advance to the TechCrunch Disrupt Startup Battlefield 200 — one of the most prestigious launchpads in tech. Here’s what’s on the floor. Sessions featuring Howard Wright (Nvidia), Rob Chu (AWS), and Eric Benhamou (Benhamou Global Ventures) cut through the noise to examine where AI is genuinely deployed at scale and where the real risks lie. On the floor, AI-themed university startups pitch alongside global players, and the AI Film Festival Japan, a partner event at Tokyo Innovation Base in Yurakucho, explores how artificial intelligence is reshaping culture in real time. The robots at SusHi Tech aren’t behind glass — they’re on the floor and interactive. Onstage, Nissan, Isuzu, and Applied Intuition’s Qasar Younis examine how software-defined vehicles are reshaping transportation. Physical AI isn’t a future trend. It’s in Tokyo on April 27. Eva Chen (Trend Micro) and NEC’s Noboru Nakatani tackle cyber defense, while top climate tech VCs from Breakthrough Energy and Cleantech Group examine where global investment is flowing. A VR disaster simulator and site-visit tours of Tokyo’s underground flood-control infrastructure make the stakes viscerally real. Sessions with the CEOs of Production I.G, MAPPA, and CoMix Wave Films tackle what it takes for Tokyo to become the Hollywood of animation. On the floor, startups are using AI to translate manga globally, generate music from text prompts, and bring Japanese IP to life as anime — delivered worldwide. Missing SusHi Tech Tokyo doesn’t have to mean missing out. Remote participants get more than a livestream — on-site staff will walk the floor on your behalf, carrying a device that displays your face so you can interact with attendees and exhibitors in real time, face-to-face. It’s the closest thing to actually being there. Note: Please note that some sessions may not be available for viewing. Apply for remote participation with on-site staff support here. Can’t swing that either? Ticket holders can stream sessions online and tap into the programming from wherever they are.Browse the full session list here. In conjunction with the startup event, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government also hosts a meeting of leaders from 55 cities across five continents. They will discuss the theme of “A New Urban Future Built on Climate and Disaster Resilience.” The city leaders’ summit is part of G-NETS (Global City Network for Sustainability), organized by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government since 2022 as a multicity forum to discuss how to solve common challenges with a focus now on resilience to urban climate disasters and the well-being of citizens. The summit can be observed by general audiences on YouTube in real time and after the event. G-NETS official website G-NETS YouTube Channel SusHi Tech Tokyo 2026 runs April 27–29 at Tokyo Big Sight. Business days are April 27–28; public day (free admission) is April 29.Register here.
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