Startups & Ventures

🤖 Anthropic Prepares Astra Rival

Reuters reports that Anthropic is safety-testing a new model that could launch soon.

It is meant to compete with Astra, just 1 week after Dario Amodei argued for slowing AI progress.

📊@tech

🥋 Japanese Airports Compress Clothes

At 4 Japanese airports, machines press clothes into compact cubes in about 1 minute. Depending on the fabric, items shrink by up to 7 times.

They also handle towels, with no vacuum bags required. After tests earlier this year, the machines are now being rolled out at full scale.

📊@tech

🍏 iPhone 18 Pro Adds Photo Proof

Reference Image mode works only with the main camera on iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max. It is unavailable in some countries, and older iPhones lack the required hardware.

The sensor signs each shot with a secret key embedded during production. A protected processor adds another signature, while Apple records which sensor belongs to each phone. Edits fail verification, and sensor firmware cannot change the captured data.

Apple usually adds a signed time mark every 15 minutes. The image is saved as a DNG digital negative, checked in Private Cloud Compute, and returned to Photos as a signed JPEG. It can be viewed on Apple devices running version 27.

📊@tech

🤖 Claude Helped Hack OpenAI

Hacktron began at OpenAI’s Discourse forum, where a crafted HEIC or HEIF file passed through ImageMagick and vulnerable libheif, enabling code execution on the server.

The forum used OpenAI sign-in, so the access exposed user sessions. Researchers reached ChatGPT and Codex accounts, including one belonging to an OpenAI employee. Codex connected to internal GitHub, where they confirmed access with a harmless change and pull request.

Claude handled much of the technical work. A new version made the libheif bug a stable exploit in about 3 hours. OpenAI fixed its part in about 14 hours and later paid $6500.

📊@tech

🎁 A Toothbrush Becomes a Street Camera

A street photographer took a Dyson CameraJet toothbrush on a photo walk. Its tiny camera sits under the brush head, while the companion app uses Wi-Fi live viewing to stream the image to a smartphone.

The images were square, with heavy edge distortion and dark corners. Bright sky often blew out, while grass and leaves turned pink-purple. The camera has only 0.1 megapixels and a strobe light. Its actual job is to help AI find gaps between teeth, analyzing 28 frames per second and firing mouthwash into a detected gap within 100 ms.

📊@tech

🏮 Xiaomi 18 Pro’s Back Screen Runs AI Apps

Its second display can launch mini-apps generated by AI for specific tasks. Users can pin the most useful ones to the back of the phone.

Xiaomi calls the feature Versatile Back Screen. Examples include an egg timer, a water reminder, and a Pomodoro timer.

📊@tech

🤖 Astra Lost Its Minecraft Loot

During several days of livestreamed Minecraft tests by Vals AI, Astra built a semi-automatic blaze farm and collected 6 blaze rods. It also found a warped forest, killed more than 6 endermen, and gathered 3 Ender Pearls, going further than any AI system before it.

A creeper then blew up the chest holding all the loot. Astra left a note: “ALWAYS CARRY CRITICALITEMS withkeepInventory, don'tstoreinunguardedchesteveragain.”

After the incident, Astra refused to continue playing and only planted potatoes, apparently in depression.

📊@tech

🤖 Anthropic’s Funding Links Surface

Independent researcher Kevin Bass traced the funding behind content about AI dangers. Frequent clients Center for AI Safety and Future of Life Institute received major donor support from Open Philanthropy, now Coefficient Giving. It is owned by Dustin Moskovitz, an early major Anthropic shareholder.

Open Philanthropy’s grants come from Good Ventures, funded mainly by Moskovitz’s wealth. Bass says a significant share of its assets is Anthropic stock. It also funds Tarbell Center for AI Journalism, which trains AI journalists.

Through other foundations, it funds METR, called by Dario Amodei an independent third-party model safety evaluator. METR is now financially interested in Anthropic’s success.

📊@tech

🔍 Google adds background reasoning to Gemini Live

Gemini 3.8 Live can keep a voice conversation going while it calls tools and handles multi-step tasks through APIs. It also processes images almost in real time and switches between 97 languages during a call.

The Extended Thinking version targets harder voice tasks. It ranked first on Speech to Speech Quality Index with 82.6 and scored 97.7% on Big Bench Audio.

Both models are appearing in Gemini API and Google AI Studio. Extended Thinking is also available in Gemini Live and some Google apps.

📊@tech

🤖 Claude embeds creative tools in chats

The tools for presentations and documents, including design mockups, now sit inside regular Claude chats and Claude Code.

Work continues after the laptop is closed, with progress available from a phone. The rollout is already reaching users.

📊@tech

🤖 OpenAI Contractors See ChatGPT Chats

Hundreds of contractors evaluate ChatGPT replies to real user requests.

They may see entire dialogues with personal details. Account names are hidden, but sensitive data is not always removed before review.

📊@tech

🤖 Anthropic Accused of Funding AI Panic

Blogger Kevin Bass traced funds around Anthropic to Tarbell Center, which pays journalists covering AI risks, and METR, promoted by Dario Amodei as an independent AI watchdog.

Bass’s conclusion is that the problem and its solution draw from the same wallet. Anthropic’s rising value could mean louder panic. METR says it does not take money from AI labs.

📊@tech

🌐 Trump Calls Presidency AI’s ‘Limiter’

On Truth Social, Trump said AI needs only a “strong and smart” president. He said his administration had stopped AI figures from doing bad or potentially bad things, naming Dario from Anthropic.

Trump claimed the US has “huge criminal and regulatory power” over AI companies. He called opposition to AI and data centers a conspiracy benefiting China, warned critics and leakers to beware, and said the post was not generated.

📊@tech

🍏 iOS 27 Is Now Available

Apple has released iOS 27. The update supports iPhone 11 and newer models. iPhone X is no longer supported.

Liquid Glass gets a more precise transparency slider. AirPods now have a system equalizer. Photos adds perspective controls, and app icons have been updated.

The file system, apps, and Spotlight search should open much faster. Wi-Fi disconnects sooner after leaving a café or home. Apple Intelligence expands, while Siri as a full AI agent begins rolling out in October. Calendar cycle tracking and broader parental controls are also included.

📊@tech

☹️ Waymo Robotaxi Called the Police

A Waymo car in San Francisco detected two teenagers carrying a loaded “ghost gun”, a homemade firearm without a serial number. It pulled over and called the police.

Waymo later confirmed the vehicle to the Los Angeles Times. The company called it a “violation of the terms of use related to a firearm.”

Earlier this year, another Waymo pretended to have a breakdown so it could stop while passengers drank alcohol and fired a toy gun out the rear window. Those passengers were also teenagers.

📊@tech

📊 Cliff Booth Sequel Gets First Trailer

The sequel to Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood is now titled The Adventures of Cliff Booth.

Tarantino wrote the script.

David Fincher directs.

Brad Pitt returns.

Premiere: 25 November.

📊@tech