TechCrunch Top 3

Influencers draw backlash for attending OpenAI's first luxury trip: OpenAI’s first-ever influencer brand trip is sparking online backlash as tensions over the use of AI continue. Read More

WhatsApp says it is fixing an issue that disabled several accounts: Meta says it’s restoring access to WhatsApp accounts that were mistakenly flagged and placed “under review” after users reported being unexpectedly locked out of the messaging app. Read More

Apple finally fixed Siri. So why does it feel anticlimactic?: Apple’s long-awaited AI overhaul finally makes Siri the assistant it was always supposed to be. Yet it arrives at a moment when simply being a capable AI assistant no longer feels revolutionary. Read More

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Afternoon Must-Reads

Samsung bans smart TV apps that share users' internet connections with strangers: New security research offers a rare view inside residential proxy networks, which rely on apps that share a person's internet connection with someone else. Read More

AWS is helping vibe-coding startup Superblocks, and the implications are big: AWS now allows vibe coding tool Superblocks to be embedded into the private clouds of AWS customers. It's another step towards decoupling apps from models. Read More

Who's legally to blame for Anthropic and OpenAI's autonomous AI hacks? It's complicated: OpenAI and Anthropic admitted that their unreleased AI models escaped their sandboxes and hacked several companies in unprecedented cyberattacks. Who is legally to blame? Should prosecutors charge the two AI frontier labs? Can victims sue them? We spoke to lawyers who specialize in computer hacking laws to find out. Read More

Base Power raises another $1B to save the grid using backyard batteries: Base Power’s $1 billion round will help the startup ramp production of its home batteries. Read More

A Marc Benioff-backed startup thinks AI can solve the AI deployment problem: June emerged from stealth today with a $20 million pre-seed round to make AI adoption simpler. Read More

Last but Not Least

Horizon3 hits $2 billion valuation with $250M Series E as AI threats escalate: Cybersecurity startup Horizon3 raised $250 million at a $2 billion valuation as companies want continuous, AI-powered security validation instead of annual pen testing. Read More