Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis said he’s “surprised” that OpenAI has already moved to introduce ads within its AI chatbot. In an interview with Axios at Davos, the AI leader was responding to a question about using ads to monetize AI services, saying the idea is something that the team at Google was thinking through “very carefully.” Hassabis also said that his team wasn’t feeling pressure from the tech giant to make “a knee-jerk” decision around advertising, despite how key ads are to Google’s core business. The DeepMind co-founder’s remarks followed Friday’s news that OpenAI will begin testing ads as a…

It’s going to be more difficult to fake or manipulate Ring camera video footage going forward. On Thursday, the Amazon-owned device maker introduced Ring Verify, a new video authenticity feature that will allow anyone to determine whether a video has been altered in any way. The company says this could be useful when you come across shared videos, like those sent to you by a neighbor or those purporting to show some sort of incident. While you may not be able to instantly identify whether some TikTok video was AI-generated — like bunnies jumping on a trampoline, for instance —…

Prepping for the SAT is nobody’s idea of fun, but Google aims to make it less stressful with AI. The company announced that it’s now focusing its AI education efforts on standardized testing with free SAT practice exams powered by Gemini.  Students can prompt Gemini by typing “I want to take a practice SAT test,” and the AI will provide them with a free practice exam. Gemini then analyzes the results, highlighting strengths and identifying areas that need further review. It also offers detailed explanations for any incorrect answers.  Google The company said it partnered with education companies like The…

Last year, fusion power startup General Fusion was struggling to raise funds, laying off at least 25% of its staff before receiving a $22 million lifeline investment while it figured out how to keep the company afloat. Today, General Fusion revealed its survival plan: it will go public through a reverse merger with an special purpose acquisition company, Spring Valley III, combined with additional investment from institutional investors. It’s a significant change in fortunes for a company whose CEO wrote a public letter just last year pleading for funding. If the deal closes as planned, General Fusion could receive up…

AI Mode, Google’s conversational Search feature for complex questions, is getting more personalized. The tech giant announced on Thursday that it’s bringing “Personal Intelligence” to AI Mode, enabling it to tap into your Gmail and Google Photos to provide more individualized responses. The company first debuted Personal Intelligence last week in the Gemini app to allow the AI assistant to tailor its responses by connecting across your Google ecosystem, starting with Gmail, Photos, Search, and YouTube history. The opt-in feature is now starting to roll out to AI Mode to Google AI Pro and AI Ultra subscribers in English in…

Since 2024, Anthropic’s performance optimization team has given job applicants a take-home test to make sure they know their stuff. But as AI coding tools have gotten better, the test has had to change a lot to stay ahead of AI-assisted cheating. Team lead Tristan Hume described the history of the challenge in a blog post on Wednesday. “Each new Claude model has forced us to redesign the test,” Hume writes. “When given the same time limit, Claude Opus 4 outperformed most human applicants. That still allowed us to distinguish the strongest candidates — but then, Claude Opus 4.5 matched…

Two days after settling a lawsuit accusing Snapchat of causing social media addiction and mental health issues, Snap announced that it’s introducing new parental controls. Parents and guardians can now use Snapchat’s “Family Center” tool to see how much time their teen is spending on the platform, along with additional details about the new friends they add. With these new features, Snap is likely looking to appease regulators and parents over concerns about safety and screen time on its platform. Parents can now see the average amount of time their teen spent on Snapchat each day over the previous week.…

Companies and governments are looking for tools to run AI locally in a a bid slash cloud infrastructure costs and build sovereign capability. Quadric, a chip-IP startup founded by veterans of early bitcoin mining firm 21E6, is trying to power that shift, scaling beyond automotive into laptops and industrial devices, with its on-device inference technology. That expansion is already paying off. Quadric posted $15 million to $20 million in licensing revenue in 2025, up from around $4 million in 2024, CEO Veerbhan Kheterpal (pictured above, center) told TechCrunch in an interview. The company, which is based in San Francisco and…

Tiger Global and Microsoft are primed to fully exit PhonePe, the Walmart-backed Indian payments startup which has updated its IPO filing, offering investors and market watchers a rare peek at how global investors are cashing out of the venture boom via India’s public markets. On Wednesday, PhonePe updated its IPO prospectus (PDF), detailing how many shares are up for sale. Tiger Global and Microsoft are offering up their full stakes in the company, while Walmart is choosing to retain its majority stake, and selling up to 45.9 million shares (about 9% of the company). Up to 50.66 million shares are…

For a new generation, 2016 is now known as “the last good year.“ Since the new year, Instagram has been taken over by a 2016-themed “add yours” sticker, which prompts users to post throwback photos from 2016. Users have posted more than 5.2 million responses, creating enough buzz to spill over onto other platforms. On Spotify, user-generated “2016” playlists have increased 790% since the new year, and the company now boasts in its Instagram bio that it’s “romanticizing 2016 again.” In fairness, 2016 does seem like a simpler time. Donald Trump had not yet served a day in the White…