Latest AI News
Gupshup Launches ‘Superagent’ to Drive Autonomous Customer Conversations at Scale
The new AI agent promises faster campaign execution, higher conversions, and on-device privacy with ‘SuperClaw’.
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Gemini Personal Intelligence Rolls Out in India With App Integration, Contextual AI Responses
Google on Monday announced the rollout of Personal Intelligence for Gemini in India. The feature expands the AI assistant's capabilities with contextual responses and improved app integration. First introduced in the US earlier this year, Personal Intelligence allows Gemini to connect with select Google apps and utilise that data to provide more accurate and detailed responses to queries. The Mountain View-based tech giant says its rollout is part of ongoing efforts to expand Gemini's functionality across services such as Search, Gmail, and Chrome.
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Anthropic’s rise is giving some OpenAI investors second thoughts
OpenAI’s $852 billion valuation is facing skepticism from some of its own investors as the company scrambles to reorient itself around enterprise customers and fend off Anthropic,according to the Financial Times. Anthropic’s annualized revenue jumped from $9 billion at the end of 2025 to $30 billion by the end of March, driven largely by demand for its coding tools. One investor who has backed both companies told the FT that justifying OpenAI’s round required assuming an IPO valuation of $1.2 trillion or more — making Anthropic’s current$380 billion valuationlook like the relative bargain. The secondary market tells a similar story right now, where demand for Anthropic shares has grown nearly insatiable while OpenAI shares are trading at adiscount. Altman has been here before. During his tenure leading Y Combinator,aggressive valuation inflationleft some portfolio companies financially stranded while others proved worth every penny and then some. OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar pushed back, telling the FT that the company’s$122 billion raise— the largest private fundraising in history — was evidence of continued investor confidence. Not everyone is persuaded. Jai Das, president of investment firm Sapphire Ventures (who has no stake in either company) told the FT he saw OpenAI as “the Netscape of AI,” a reference to the once-dominant browser that was overtaken by Microsoft and eventually absorbed by AOL. Update: This piece has been updated to remove an investor quote published and later removed by the Financial Times.
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Google adds AI Skills to Chrome to help you save favorite workflows
Google is adding more AI capabilities to its Chrome web browser, the companyannouncedon Tuesday. It’s introducing a new feature called Skills, which will allow users to save and reuse their favorite AI prompts that can run across different web pages without having to type them in again. The feature ties into Google’s integration of itsGemini AI into Chrome, which arrived alongsidea slate of new competitorsin the browser ecosystem from companies like OpenAI (Atlas), Perplexity (Comet), and The Browser Company (Dia), among others. Gemini already allows users to ask questions about a web page, summarize its information, or perform various tasks. Skills will take it a step further by allowing users to create AI prompts that can be accessed time and again with just a click. For instance, Google suggests that if a user often asks Gemini to suggest vegan substitutions when looking at recipe websites, they can now save that prompt and use it across different web pages. To access the feature, save the AI prompt as a Skill directly from chat history. The Skill can then be reused in Gemini in Chrome by typing a forward slash ( / ) or clicking the plus sign ( + ) button. The Skill will then run on the web page that’s being viewed, along with any additional tabs that have been selected. These Skills can also be edited at any time, Google notes. In tests, the company found that early adopters used Skills in areas like health and wellness — for instance, to calculate protein macros in recipes — or for shopping comparisons or scanning and summarizing lengthy documents. To help users get started with Skills, the company is also launching a Skills library that will offer common tasks and workflows in areas like productivity, shopping, recipes, budgeting, and more. To use one of the pre-programmed Skills, users just add it to their saved Skills in Chrome. The Skill can also be customized to fit a user’s needs by editing the prompt. Like other Gemini actions in Chrome, Skills will ask the user for confirmation before taking certain actions, like sending an email or adding an event to your calendar. Skills will begin rolling out today to Chrome desktop users who are signed into their Google account. The feature will initially work only if your Chrome browser’s language is set to English (US).
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Max Hodak’s Science Corp. is preparing to place its first sensor in a human brain
Science Corporation, the startup from former Neuralink president and co-founder Max Hodak, has enlisted a top neurobiologist to lead the first U.S. human trials for its biohybrid brain-computer interface. Dr. Murat Günel, chair of Yale Medical School’s Department of Neurosurgery, has signed on as a scientific adviser after two years of discussions. His goal is to surgically place the first sensor for a future interface — one that will eventually combine lab-grown neurons with electronics — into a patient’s brain. Science, founded in 2021, completed a $230 million Series C fundraising roundlast monththat valued the company at $1.5 billion. Its most advanced product is PRIMA, a device for restoring vision in people with blindness caused by macular degeneration and similar conditions. Science acquired the technology in 2024 and has advanced it through clinical trials, with plans to make it more widely available in Europe once regulatory approval is obtained, perhaps as soon as this year. Hodak, however, co-founded the company witha bigger visionin mind: creating reliable communication links between computers and the human brain — both to treat disease and to establish a path toward human enhancement, such as adding entirely new senses to the body. He has dedicated his career to that proposition, from talking his way into a graduate neuroscience lab as a college student, to founding his first biotech computing startup, to building Neuralink alongside Elon Musk. Neuralink and other organizations have succeeded in using electronic sensors to detect brain activity in patients suffering from ALS, spinal injuries, and other conditions that sever the brain’s communication with the body. Users with implanted devices can control computers or generate words on a screen simply by thinking about them. However, thepath to a real marketfor these devices remains murky, given regulatory challenges and the relatively small number of patients with applicable diagnoses. For his part, Hodak concluded that the conventional method of influencing the brain with electricity by using metal probes or electrodes is the wrong path forward. While the technology can achieve remarkable results, Günel says these probes cause brain damage that is likely to undermine device performance over time. That limitation led the Science founding team toward a more organic approach. “The idea of using natural connections through neurons and creating a biological interface between the electronics and the human brain is genius,” Günel told TechCrunch. Alan Mardinly, a co-founder and the company’s chief science officer, has led development of Science’s biohybrid sensor with a team of 30 researchers. The final device will be embedded with lab-grown neurons. Those neurons can be stimulated with pulses of light and are designed to naturally integrate with the neurons in a patient’s brain, forming a bridge between biology and electronics. In 2024, the company releaseda working paperthat showed the device could be safely implanted in mice and used to stimulate brain activity. Inside the company, the focus now is developing prototypes of the device and working out how to grow neuron cells for different therapeutic applications that meet the standards for medical use. Günel will advise the team as it is preparing for human clinical trials and is already in discussion with the medical ethics boards that oversee experiments involving human subjects. The first step will be testing the company’s advanced sensor, without the embedded neurons, inside a living human brain. Unlike a Neuralink device, which is inserted directly into brain tissue, Science’s sensor will be implanted inside the skull but rest on top of the brain. Possibly because of that distinction, the company says it doesn’t plan to seek FDA approval for these trials, arguing the tiny device — which contains 520 recording electrodes packed into an area the size of a pea — poses no significant risk to patients. The team’s plan is to find patient candidates who already require significant brain surgery, like stroke victims who need a piece of their cranium removed to reduce the impact of brain swelling. In such a case, Günel expects to place the sensor on top of their cortex and evaluate its safety and efficacy in measuring brain activity. Günel believes the device could help address multiple neurological conditions if it proves successful. One early use could be delivering gentle electrical stimulation to damaged brain or spinal cord cells to encourage healing. A more complex application might involve monitoring neurological activity in patients with brain tumors, and providing early warnings to caregivers about oncoming seizures. If the full potential of these devices is realized, though, Günel wonders if they might provide more effective treatments for conditions like Parkinson’s disease, a progressive disorder that gradually robs patients of control over their bodies. Current treatment options includeexperimentalbrain cell transplants and deep brain stimulation with electricity, but neither has been proven to reliably stop the disease from advancing. “I imagine this biohybrid system as combining those two — you have the electronics, and you have the biological system,” he told TechCrunch. “In Parkinson’s, for example, we cannot stop the progression of the disease; in neurosurgery, all we are doing is putting an electrode to stop the tremors. Whereas if you can really put the [transplanted] cells back in the brain, protect those circuits, there’s a chance, and I believe it’s a good chance, that we can stop progression of the disease.” There is much work to be done before then, however. Günel says it would be “optimistic” to expect trials to begin in 2027.
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Anthropic co-founder confirms the company briefed the Trump administration on Mythos
Jack Clark, one of Anthropic’s co-founders who also serves as Head of Public Benefit for Anthropic PBC, confirmed that the AI company had briefed the Trump administration about its new Mythos model. The model,announced last week, is so dangerous that it’s not being released to the public, largely due to its alleged powerful cybersecurity capabilities. In an interview at theSemafor World Economy summitthis week, Clark explained why the company was still engaged with the U.S. government while simultaneously suing them. This March, Anthropicfiled a lawsuitagainst Trump’s Department of Defense (DOD) after the agency labeled the company a supply-chain risk. Anthropic had clashed with the Pentagon over whether the military should have unrestricted access to Anthropic’s AI systems for use cases that included mass surveillance of Americans and fully autonomous weapons. (OpenAI ended upwinning the dealinstead.) At the conference, Clark downplayed the administration’s labeling of its business as a supply-chain risk, saying it was merely a “narrow contracting dispute” and that Anthropic didn’t want it to get in the way of the fact that the company cares about national security. “Our position is the government has to know about this stuff, and we have to find new ways for the government to partner with a private sector that is making things that are truly revolutionizing the economy, but are going to have aspects to them which hit National Security, equities, and other ones,” said Clark. “So absolutely, we talked to them about Mythos, and we’ll talk to them about the next models as well.” His confirmation comes afterreportslast week that Trump officials wereencouraging banks to test Mythos, including JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Bank of America, and Morgan Stanley. Clark also addressed other aspects of AI’s impact on society during the interview, including things like unemployment and higher education. Previously, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has warned that AI’s advances could bring unemploymentto Depression-era numbers, but Clark slightly disagrees. He explained in the interview that Amodei believes that AI will get much more powerful than people expect very quickly, so he’s using that as the basis of his estimations. Clark, who leads a team of economists at Anthropic, said that the company is so far only seeing “some potential weakness in early graduate employment” across select industries. He noted that Anthropic is ready in case there are major employment shifts, however. Pushed to say what majors college students today should be pursuing or avoiding, as a result of AI’s impacts, Clark would only broadly suggest that the most important majors are those that “involve synthesis across a whole variety of subjects and analytical thinking about that.” “That’s because what AI allows us to do is it allows you to have access to sort of an arbitrary amount of subject matter experts in different domains,” Clark said. “But the really important thing is knowing the right questions to ask and having intuitions about what would be interesting if you collided different insights from many different disciplines.”
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How vibe-coding app Anything is rebuilding after getting booted from the App Store twice
Apple is taking a tough stance on vibe-coding apps as the company isblocking updatesor removing those apps from the App Store. Affected apps includeReplit, Vibecode, andAnything. While Replit and Vibecode’s updates were paused, Anything’s app was removed twice. The company is now looking for new ways, like offering a desktop version of its service, to let users build apps for mobile devices. Anything’s co-founder, Dhruv Amin, said in a conversation with TechCrunch that Apple removed its app on March 26. Since then, the company has been unable to get its app approved, despite a period where there was a brief reinstatement. “It’s been a long saga. We built a mobile app primarily to let our users who are building iOS apps preview their own app on their own device while developing it. [We] had no problems through December. Post December, we and everyone else in the category started getting our updates blocked,” Amin told TechCrunch. Amin noted that Apple told the company that the app was restricted or removed because of its developer agreement clause 2.5.2, which prevents apps from downloading, installing, or executing code. “The app markets itself as a mobile app builder for iPhone and advertises making native iOS apps with features like 1-tap App Store submissions, code export, and full source code editing,” Apple told the company, according to a screenshot of an emailshared by Anything on X. Guideline 2.5.2 – Gatekeeping – Vibes deniedwe haven't talked about this publiclyfor months we tried to resolve it privately with emails, calls, appeals, and four technical rewrites to comply with whatever Apple wantedhere's our truth, unfilteredon March 26th, Apple…pic.twitter.com/yJfjxonC41 Amin said that when the company managed to get on a call with Apple, the iPhone maker told them that the vibe coding app was removed because of the potential it could be used to download malicious code. In addition, Apple noted that a user could build a harmful app, sideload it on their phone, and then claim that it passed Apple’s App Review process. Anything’s appwas restored on April 3, but it was swiftly removed as Apple told the company that it couldn’t market itself as an app maker. TechCrunch reached out to Apple for a comment on these removals, and we will update the story if we hear back. Following the battle with Apple, Anything’s maker is looking for other ways to allow people to build mobile apps. Earlier this month, the company launched a feature that let users build apps using the iMessage platform. The company said it will also build a desktop companion app that lets users vibe code mobile apps on their computer. In addition, Amin said that the company may instead look at Google’s Android operating system for building its apps, as the platform is more open than iOS. Besides vibe coding app makers, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney has been vocal about Apple’s tactics. In a reply to Replit’s Amjad Masad on X, Sweeny said that Apple needs to “stop blocking development tools apps ASAP.” Apple needs to stop blocking development tools apps ASAP. This practice is abhorrent to the founding principles of Apple as expressed by Steve Wozniak, in which every Apple ][ computer booted to a programming language prompt and treated using and making software equally. Earlier this month,The Informationreported that thanks to AI-powered coding tools, Apple saw 84% jump in app submissions in a single quarter. This could force Apple to change its human-led review processes. Plus, as AI-powered coding takes off, consumers might demand that platforms like Apple allow them to create apps for themselves.
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Google brings its Gemini Personal Intelligence feature to India
Googleannouncedon Tuesday that it’s bringing Gemini’s Personal Intelligence feature to users in India. The feature lets users connect their Google accounts, such as Gmail and Google Photos, then ask Gemini questions to get personalized answers. After connecting their services, users could ask something like, “What are my travel plans for Jaipur?” to get information from their emails or photos. The feature can also refer to recent YouTube videos that users have watched to get ideas. The company said that Gemini will identify sources for its answers so you can verify details, if needed. At launch, the Personal Intelligence feature will be limited to AI Pro and AI Ultra users in India. However, Google said that it aims to expand it to free users in the coming weeks. The expansion to India brings Gemini’s capabilities to another sizable market. Google debuted Personal Intelligence inbeta in the U.S. in January, for some of the paid tiers. The company made itavailable to all users in the U.S. in March and has also launched the feature inJapan. Google cautioned that Gemini doesn’t always get the context in your data right and might make connections between completely unrelated topics. “Gemini may also struggle with timing or nuance, particularly regarding relationship changes, like divorces, or your various interests. For instance, seeing hundreds of photos of you at a golf course might lead it to assume you love golf. But it misses the nuance: You don’t love golf, but you love your son, and that’s why you’re there. If Gemini gets this wrong, you can just tell it (“I don’t like golf”),” the company explained in the blog post. The company is seeding advanced AI features to users in India, one of its biggest markets, at a quick pace. In March, the company launchedGemini in Chrome for users in the country. Last week, it also enabled an agentic flow of booking restaurants through AI mode in India by partnering with platforms likeZomato, Swiggy, and EazyDiner.
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In just a couple weeks, StrictlyVC San Francisco brings leaders from TDK Ventures, Replit, and more together
Thefirst StrictlyVC of the yearwill be coming to San Francisco before you know it! There are still a few tickets available to join us and our stacked speaker lineup April 30, at the Sentro Filipino Cultural Center. On top of the mixing and mingling with the community StrictlyVC is known for, this upcoming event in the heart of SF will be of particular note for AI innovators and founders looking for the latest insights into obtaining funding. You can get a ticket right now, but for those who haven’t been to a StrictlyVC event in the past and already clicked that link, let’s dive into what’s particularly exciting about this one … TDK VenturespresidentNicolas Sauvagewill kick things off after you get your requisite beverages and networking in, as he makes the case for corporate VCs in a conversation with TechCrunch editor-in-chief Connie Loizos. Sauvage, who leads TDK Ventures’ $500 million effort to invest in early-stage startups, will explain what makes corporate VCs operate differently and what founders should know about what catches his eye in an investment. And founders on the fence should take note: Sauvage has steered TDK into backing 52 startups and three unicorns — Groq, Ascend Elements, and Silicon Box — during his tenure. TDK will also be hosting and sponsoring this StrictlyVC event, soattendees will get ample opportunityto learn from and get some potential face time with their team. Then we’ll move to a conversation withCampbell Brown, former CNN host and head of news at Meta who has since made the pivot toward the startup scene as she looks to make AI platforms more trustworthy while more and more people turn to them for advice and information. She’s now theco-founder and CEO of Forum AI, and in the thick of the conversation over how to vet, verify, and sustain the veracity of information provided by LLMs. And those who are similarly a part of the AI revolution will be excited to hear thatAmjad Masad, co-founder and CEO ofReplit, is also taking to the stage to share his firsthand experience helping lead a revolution in how software is constructed. The rise of vibe coding has changed the ways many have worked, especially in the Bay Area, and that’s also brought in some potent competitors like Anthropic and OpenAI. Anyone looking for a peek into the future of programming is going to need to join us and stick around for Masad’s talk. As if that all wasn’t exciting enough, we still have one more speaker to announce, so you’ll be getting even more insights and expertise leading into the concluding round of networking and connection-making that defines the real proving point of StrictlyVC. Some of the greatest minds and most well-connected members of the startup community join us for these events, and you can be a part of it by registering, soget your ticket today!
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Anthropic Mythos Sparks Revenue Deflation Fears in Indian IT
Advanced AI models are beginning to compress effort, threatening jobs and billing-driven revenue across India’s IT services sector.
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India’s Data Centre Ambitions Demand a Global Energy Playbook
AI needs large data centres, and India has the scale and space to host them. But it can’t simply build its way out.
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NVIDIA Launches Ising Family of Open-Source AI Models for Quantum Computing
NVIDIA’s Ising models aim to improve calibration and error correction, making quantum systems more reliable and scalable.
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