Stripe will reportedly acquire AI gateway startup OpenRouter for $7B+

OpenRouter's CEO recently described the startup as Stripe for AI.

from TechCrunch
via Click me for Details

Why people aren’t buying Mark Zuckerberg’s AI future

On the latest episode of Equity podcast, we discuss why not everyone is buying Zuckerberg’s vision.

from TechCrunch
via Click me for Details

How Trump Officials Used The Pretti Shooting To Target The Left

“These are the actions of an authoritarian state,” said US Sen. Chris Van Hollen on Thursday regarding new reports of a broad investigation by the Department of Homeland Security into numerous left-wing groups in Minnesota earlier this year, in the wake of Border Patrol agents’ fatal shooting of Alex Pretti at a protest against the agency’s anti-immigration crackdown.

As The New York Times reported, days after Pretti was killed in the street as he tried to help a woman who had been violently pushed by the agents, the DHS office in St. Paul opened an investigation into groups including the climate-focused Sunrise Movement, major labor groups like the AFL-CIO and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the Democratic Socialists of America, and a collective called Direct Action Minnesota (DAMN).

read more

from Latest articles from Crooks and Liars
via Click me for Details

Woman claims her stepfather used Grok to transform childhood photo into explicit imagery

The woman claimed that AI tools are "taking everyday life and turning it into child sexual abuse."

from TechCrunch
via Click me for Details

Fox Flacks Roll Lamest Attack Yet To Defend Trump Mistreatment Of Troops

The liars on Fox not "news" resorted to tired attacks on Sen. Richard Blumenthal to pretend the horrid conditions the service members on the USS Lincoln are experiencing aren't really happening.

As we've already discussed here, things are going so badly with Trump's Iran war that we've seen multiple troops throwing themselves overboard in a desperate effort to end their horrific deployment. And it's not just the USS Lincoln.

As The Meidas Touch Network just reported: Not Just the Lincoln: Families Describe Human Waste, No Food, No End in Sight Across Multiple Ships:

Since MeidasTouch began reporting on conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, messages have poured in to MeidasTouch from military families and service members across multiple ships and even multiple branches. Taken together, they paint a picture of a crisis that extends well beyond a single carrier. All sources below are being kept anonymous to protect them and their loved ones from retaliation.

Go read the rest of their report, which details the conditions our service members are dealing with that they've documented.

read more

from Latest articles from Crooks and Liars
via Click me for Details

Anthropic shares more details about how Claude’s new watermarks will work

How will the watermarking actually work? Can it be hidden with editing? And how does this affect code?

from TechCrunch
via Click me for Details

Wife Of Service Member Trapped On USS Lincoln Shreds Trump

The wife of a US service member responded to Trump's callous statement this weekend, where he basically told everyone trapped on that ship to pound sand.

After playing a clip of Trump, when asked if the deployment was too long, saying, “No, no, no. Not nearly long enough,” CNN's Jake Tapper asked the wife to respond. Tapper told the audience that they were keeping her and her husband's identity a secret, which is good, because you know Trump and Whiskey Pete will be trying to retaliate against anyone they can identify that is brave enough to speak out about what's going on.

Here's the exchange via CNN, where she rightfully ripped Trump:

TAPPER: Thank you so much for joining us. What is your husband saying about conditions on the ship?

USS LINCOLN SERVICE MEMBER'S WIFE: My husband is appalled at the conditions on this ship. This is not his first appointment. This is not his first time being out there. And he is saying that it is the worst deployment that he's ever been on. And he also says that his shipmates say the same.

The food is appalling, but the food's been appalling the whole time. I think that the food on these ships are always pretty bad, but it's more -- it's not just the quality, it's the quantity, it's the rationing. The portions are awful. So it's really—it's really not good.

read more

from Latest articles from Crooks and Liars
via Click me for Details

Self-driving trucks are officially testing on California highways

Aurora Innovation and Kodiak AI, two companies developing self-driving trucks, have received permits from the California Department of Motor Vehicles.

from TechCrunch
via Click me for Details

Read-it-later app Pocket shut down — here are the best alternatives

Pocket users have until October 8, 2025, to export their saved articles and other items, including lists, archives, favorites, notes, and highlights.

from TechCrunch
via Click me for Details

Everyone Predicted Blanche Would Protect Trump's IRS Deal; He Didn't Wait A Week

Attorney General Todd Blanche wasted no time. The day after his swearing-in, his Justice Department filed a brief backing Trump's private lawyers in their effort to overturn a federal judge's sanctions order — an order that had put Trump's IRS settlement in serious jeopardy.

That settlement, struck in May, gave Trump, his family members, and his businesses protection from IRS audits in exchange for dropping a $10 billion lawsuit against the agency. U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams threw the deal into question in July, sanctioning Trump's legal team for fraud on the court and issuing a gag order barring any reference to the settlement in official proceedings.

The move tracks almost exactly what Democrats predicted during Blanche's contentious confirmation fight. Sen. Cory Booker warned from the floor that Blanche would become Trump's sword against his adversaries and protection against scrutiny, while Sen. Adam Schiff argued Blanche would serve Trump's interests rather than the public's.

read more

from Latest articles from Crooks and Liars
via Click me for Details

Databricks wanted to raise $1B, investors wanted $15B. It settled on $5B at a $190B valuation.

AI is expensive, Ali Ghodsi tells TechCrunch. With so many investors wanting into his latest round, he said yes to more than planned.

from TechCrunch
via Click me for Details

IBM partners with OpenAI to bolster enterprise AI push

IBM plans to train and certify tens of thousands of consultants on OpenAI's technologies as part of this deal.

from TechCrunch
via Click me for Details

Northrop’s robot space mechanic is a new way to keep satellites at work longer

The Mission Robotic Vehicle is making the first attempt to attach a new thruster to an aging satellite.

from TechCrunch
via Click me for Details

Amazon will train on Twitch streamers’ content by default, unless they opt out

"If this was opt-in, nobody would opt in," Twitch CPO Mike Minton said on a livestream responding to user feedback. "That's honestly the answer."

from TechCrunch
via Click me for Details

Jeanine Pirro Is Up To Something Weird Amid Drama With Donald Trump

It hasn't even been two weeks since Jeanine Pirro effectively spit directly in Donald Trump's eyeball by dropping the federal vandalism charges he was championing against former Olympian David Hearn for picking up a chunk of paint out of his ridiculous Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, leaving the President positively enraged and her job hanging in Limbo.

Now, Jeanine Pirro is up to something weird.

According to a new report from the Washington Post, the former Fox News talking head turned United States attorney for the District of Columbia has suddenly begun to impanel a special grand jury in Washington, D.C., leading people to wonder just what in the Hell she's up to now.

Special grand juries are particularly rare and differ from a typical grand jury in that they can release a report that could potentially reveal critical information about the subject of an investigation, even if no one is actually brought to trial in the case they're overseeing.

The fact that she's pulling a special grand jury together at all is enough to raise eyebrows in and of itself. But to make matters even more bizarre, no one seems to know who Jeanine Pirro is targeting here.

read more

from Latest articles from Crooks and Liars
via Click me for Details

NIH Director Spanked For Blaming Biden For COVID Vax Misinformation

During a lengthy interview on Face the Nation, NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya was continually fact checked when he lied and said President Biden was at fault for eroding public trust on vaccines by the public at large during the COVID pandemic.

The debate took off when Bhattacharya discussed honoring Officer Rose, who was killed by a vaccine denier during a shooting at the CDC.

FTN host Margaret Brennan brought up the shooter's father, who said "he was brainwashed about the COVID vaccine and thought it was making him suicidal."

Bhattacharya wanted no part of that discussion. He started blaming Biden when Brennan jumped in.

BRENNAN: The Trump administration officials.

BHATTACHARYA: No, I mean, I mean like Biden. So Biden, uh, for instance,

BRENNAN: It began under the Trump administration.

BHATTACHARYA: The Biden administration censored me, right? They censored, they've sent out, uh, uh, direct attacks on people who disagreed on, on, on the COVID on, on sort of whether the COVID vaccine, uh, stopped him,

BRENNAN: RFK Jr called the COVID vaccine the deadliest vaccine ever made. That is misinformation and we're not being clear about that. And I think that is dangerous.

read more

from Latest articles from Crooks and Liars
via Click me for Details

Google’s Gemini app surges to one billion users

Gemini is keeping pace with OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which hit 1 billion monthly active users back in June. 

from TechCrunch
via Click me for Details

Tech industry is buzzing after a Claude agent hacked into a gym

An OpenClaw agent hacked into a gym's reservation system to bump its human boss higher on a class' waitlist. And the tech industry took notice.

from TechCrunch
via Click me for Details

Insurrectionists Sue The Federal Government For Entrapment

Twelve J6 insurrectionists, including Oath Keeper Roberto Minuto, have filed a lawsuit against the federal government for one million dollars each, claiming that the whole insurrection was "a trap" to give it "the appearance of a riot."

According to the Ticktin Law Group, the law firm representing the dirty dozen, the government was hatching the plan to entrap people for months:

"Long before January 6th, in fact, going back at least to September of 2020," the filing says, conspirators held Zoom meetings and plotted "to turn a peaceful protest of the conservative J6ers...into the appearance of a riot."

"Those seditionists...actually plotted to break some of the windows of the Capitol Building so that their compatriots and foreign participants would enter the Capitol Building to unlock and open the doors of the Capitol so that the anticipated protestors outside would be herded into the Capitol Building," the complaint says.

The complaint also states that an unidentified "instigator," described only as wearing a red MAGA cap with the tag still attached, was the person who broke the first window to gain entrance into the Capitol.

The complaint cites Trump's pardons and commutations throughout as the basis for their demand. However, the report does not indicate whether they acknowledge that Trump was President at the time that this alleged plot was concocted and executed.

read more

from Latest articles from Crooks and Liars
via Click me for Details

Mike Rogers Releases Hostage Video Calling El-Sayed The Other

Mike Rogers released this creepy video of him and his wife, looking like an angry HOA MAGA Karen, both of them seemingly offended that Michigan could soon choose Dr Abdul El-Sayed instead of these two rich, entitled Floridians. The obligatory Islamophobia and racism seem to be Rogers' only campaign strategy at this point.

"They look like Lifetime movie villains," quipped one internet user.

Source: Washington Examiner

Former Republican Rep. Mike Rogers released a campaign message on Friday appealing directly to Democratic voters after Michigan Democrats nominated Abdul El-Sayed for Senate earlier this week.

El-Sayed, a former public health official, narrowly defeated establishment-backed Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) in Tuesday’s Democratic primary. Backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), El-Sayed will now face Rogers in November for the Senate seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI).

Rogers sought to capitalize on divisions within the Democratic Party, arguing that voters dissatisfied with the primary outcome should consider supporting his campaign.

read more

from Latest articles from Crooks and Liars
via Click me for Details