Startups & Ventures

🍟 McDonald’s AI Suggests Local Big Mac Prices

In Fresno, a Big Mac costs $5.69 at one McDonald’s and $6.89 at another 2 miles away. That is a 21% gap, linked by Reuters to the chain’s AI pricing system.

The system seeks an “optimal price” for each US restaurant and some overseas markets, based on local customers’ willingness to pay. Franchisees see prompts about price sensitivity. McDonald’s tracks deviations and sends suggestions at least 3 times a year.

Owners formally set the price, but some told Reuters that deviations can trigger calls from headquarters. New franchise standards require them to “constructively engage” with approved pricing tools.

📊@tech

📹 HeyGen launches its first video model

The model generates clips from text, animates an image, or uses another video as a reference for motion and visual style. Audio is created with the video, including speech, background sound, and effects.

It runs on MiniMax H3, with additional training by HeyGen. Clips run from 5 to 15 seconds in 480p or 768p, with aspect ratios from 21:9 to 9:16.

HeyGen’s blind comparison put the model first against 4 others, based on 4,800 votes. 768p generation costs $0.03 per second, with a 50% discount through the end of October. It is available through API, OpenRouter, Runware, and ComfyUI. The web version will come later.

📊@tech

🤖 Anthropic Adds Robots to the AI Risk Map

Anthropic estimates that robots can already perform 74% of physical work tasks in the US under at least some conditions. With LLMs added, the figure reaches 81% of all work.

The most exposed roles are mostly vehicle operators. Waste sorting is another example. Waymo robotaxis and autonomous tractors show how the shift works. Sorting robots target recycling work.

With LLMs alone, transport and moving work had under 15% exposure. Robots raise it to about 90%. But exposure means technology can perform part of a job. Robots are currently cost-competitive with humans in only 0.3% of tasks.

📊@tech

🍏 Apple May Break Its September Cycle

According to Bloomberg, new CEO John Ternus wants Apple to release products more often than at its major autumn and spring presentations. He says faster launches and more experiments are needed to stay competitive in the AI era.

Ternus is also considering fewer management layers between engineers and top executives. Over the past 2 weeks, the hardware development team has shed some engineering program managers. Bloomberg reported earlier cuts in the Siri and Vision Pro teams in August.

The rumored pipeline includes a new HomePod mini and iPad mini. Apple is also reportedly working on a new Apple TV 4K, camera-equipped AirPods, touchscreen MacBooks, plus a special iPhone for its 20th anniversary.

📊@tech

✍️ White House AI deal has a typo

The world’s biggest AI companies signed a safe AI agreement with the White House.

But under Donald Trump’s signature, “president of the United States” became “president unites the States.”

📊@tech

🧠 DeepSeek Builds Software for Huawei Chips

The companies open-sourced tools for Huawei Ascend, now the main Chinese AI accelerators used by local startups. The software gap is the hard part: the industry has spent 10+ years writing for Nvidia CUDA.

The release includes DeepGEMM for matrix multiplication and DeepEP for chip-to-chip communication. Their APIs match Nvidia versions, so existing code needs almost no rewriting.

The stack runs on TileLang. Its compiler now handles scheduling and data synchronization instead of requiring manual code. DeepSeek says its training kernels already run on Ascend. This covers kernel writing, not the full CUDA stack.

📊@tech

🤖 Robot Data Is the IROS Theme

At IROS 2026, 8 dedicated sessions focus on VLA models, which turn an image and text instruction into robot actions. Force and tactile sensing also appear throughout because cameras alone are not enough for dexterous work.

Diffusion and flow matching now generate robot movements, not images. Humanoid work covers walking and whole-body control, while one competition had robots assembled IKEA furniture themselves.

Reinforcement learning and imitation learning appear in almost every second paper. Robots can already do a lot, but data remains the bottleneck. Unlike language models, they are only starting to build a training pool.

📊@tech

🤖 ChatGPT adds a $500 tier

The plan gives 25x the limits of Plus and unlocks Astra’s Ultrafast mode, which runs 8x faster.

Just before that, OpenAI quietly halved limits on the $200 plan.

📊@tech

🤖 OpenAI Shows Dots Agents

Built on GPT-6 Astra, Dots take on work tasks in the background and notify users on a PC or smartphone when they are ready.

Users can give an agent a unique name and connect it to software, including calendars and messaging apps. Dots will appear inside ChatGPT, with one agent first and full teams later.

Soon, users will also be able to talk to them in messengers and by phone.

📊@tech

🍏 Apple Hit With $5.7 Billion Verdict

A San Diego federal jury ordered Apple to pay more than $5.7 billion to Taction, over the Taptic Engine used in the iPhone and Apple Watch.

Taction, a haptics company, filed the case in 2021. It said Apple used its technology without a proper license. The dispute covered 2 patents for vibration-based haptic actuators, which let users physically feel a device respond. The jury found infringement, but saw no intent behind Apple’s actions.

Apple will appeal the decision. Taction had also claimed that Apple recreated the technology through reverse engineering. The case is still moving.

📊@tech

🔭 Roman Telescope Activates Main Camera

While still traveling to its operating point, NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope activated its Wide Field Instrument. Its 300-megapixel infrared camera covers more than the full Moon while retaining detail comparable to Hubble.

The 18 infrared detectors were cooled to −183°C. Engineers tested the filter and prism wheel in zero gravity and checked focus, with everything working as expected.

The coronagraph also passed initial checks. It blocks starlight so faint reflected light from nearby planets can be seen. Roman will study exoplanets, dark energy, and matter distribution, with first scientific images expected by early 2027.

📊@tech

🤖 Anthropic Releases Claude Sonnet 5.5

On benchmarks, the daily-use model beat GPT-6 Sol and came close to Opus 5.5.

It handles code and common office formats. Testers at Epic Games and Unity, along with SpaceXAI, praised its design sense.

The price remains unchanged from Sonnet 5. Anthropic promises responses up to 30% faster and up to 30% lower token usage. It is already available in Claude Code and the chatbot.

📊@tech

🍓 Raspberry Pi Prototype Watches Railways

A Raspberry Pi prototype combines a camera that scans the tracks, AI that detects defects and cracks, GPS location tracking, vibration sensing for anomalies, and automatic logging.

The idea is to replace scheduled inspections with continuous monitoring, so problems can be found while they are still minor. The prototype is only a small part of that approach.

📊@tech