ZeroDrift raises $10M to enforce AI compliance without degrading speed
A new startup positions itself between large language models and end users, using deterministic rules plus targeted LLM rewrites to catch compliance violations faster than conventional approaches.
TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 Early Bird Pricing Expires Tonight
Final deadline to lock in up to $410 savings on tickets to October's flagship startup and innovation conference in San Francisco.
TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 Early Bird Pricing Ends May 29
Early Bird discounts of up to $410 on individual passes and 30% on group tickets expire tomorrow at 11:59 p.m. PT for the October 13–15 conference in San Francisco.
Why Enterprise AI Deals Fail: It's Not the Model, It's the Chaos
Databricks co-founder argues enterprise AI adoption hinges on operational stability, not model performance—a reality most startups still misunderstand.
AI Startups Gaming Revenue Metrics as VCs Turn a Blind Eye
Founders and investors are systematically inflating ARR figures by substituting contracted revenue, creating a credibility crisis in AI startup valuations.
Clouted Raises $7M to Automate Short-Video Clipping and Distribution
The startup uses AI and a 100K-creator network to optimize viral video clips across platforms, backed by Slow Ventures and others.
A New Wave of AI Search Startups Emerges to Challenge Google and OpenAI
Venture-backed startups including Exa Labs and Parallel Web Systems are raising hundreds of millions to build alternatives to traditional search and ChatGPT's search interface.
Recursive Superintelligence Emerges from Stealth with $650M to Build Self-Improving AI
Richard Socher's new startup wants to create AI that redesigns itself autonomously — no humans required.
TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 Ticket Deadline Arrives as Programming Tracks Map AI's Real-World Turn
A buy-one-get-one-half-off ticket deal for TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 expires before midnight Pacific on May 8, as six programming stages signal where AI is actually deploying.
Roomba Creator Launches AI Companion Robot to Combat the Loneliness Epidemic
iRobot founder Colin Angle debuts Familiar Machines & Magic with an AI-powered quadruped companion robot targeting eldercare and family markets.
Replit Bets on Independence as Cursor's $60B SpaceX Deal Reshapes AI Coding
Replit CEO Amjad Masad says strong margins and 300% net revenue retention give the company the financial footing to stay solo — for now.
doola Embeds LLC Formation Into AI Chat via Model Context Protocol
YC-backed doola has built an MCP integration that lets users file a business entity directly from within Claude or Replit, collapsing legal paperwork into a conversational workflow.
Shapes Exits Stealth With $8M, Arguing AI Belongs in Group Chats
The social app embeds AI characters into shared conversations, positioning itself as a mental-health-conscious alternative to solo AI companionship.
The Robot That Screws In a Light Bulb: Eka's Dexterity Moment
Cambridge startup Eka has built a robot arm that does what no commercial arm can — and its founders say scaling is all that stands between here and a revolution.
AlphaGo's Creator Says LLMs Are a Dead End — and Raised $1.1 Billion to Prove It
David Silver, who built AlphaGo at DeepMind, argues large language models are fundamentally capped by human data and has founded Ineffable Intelligence to pursue reinforcement learning instead.