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4일 전

Meta and Instinct are racing to build your AI assistant. Wabi has a different idea.

It seems like every big AI player is building a personal agent. Meta has Muse, OpenAI launched Dots, and a startup called Instinct recently raised $1 billion at a $10 billion valuation. But Eugenia Kuyda thinks the next generation of AI assistants needs to do more than book your restaurant reservations and find you hidden money in your Gmail. Kuyda, who founded AI companion app Replika, has just launched Wabi, a personal AI agent that organizes your life into separate conversations, brings other people into the mix, and builds custom apps around what you're trying to do. The idea is to make AI less of a solo productivity tool and more of a way to spend time with the people who matter to you. On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Rebecca Bellan talks with Kuyda about why she thinks AI agents should bring people together instead of keeping them glued to a single chatbot, how Wabi plans to compete in a crowded and expensive market, and what it takes to get people comfortable giving an AI access to their email. Listen to the full episode to hear more about: Why Kuyda thinks single-threaded AI chats get worse as you use them, and how separate threads improve the user experience. How Wabi is approaching compute costs and monetization while its app is free. Whether phones will remain the primary way people access AI, even as operating systems become more AI-first. What Kuyda looks for when deciding whether an AI startup deserves users' trust. Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You can also follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
10월 16일

Physical AI is more than robots, says the Nvidia veteran now investing in it

Amulya Vishwanath, who spent seven years leading product marketing for NVIDIA’s robotics platforms, says robotics is currently in its “Lego era,” with the basic building blocks like actuators, robotic hands, software, and safety standards still being rebuilt. This view runs counter to those who believe that robotics, powered by a general foundation model, is about to have its “ChatGPT moment” — that day when the shockingly capable chatbot was launched in late 2022. (General Intuition CEO Pim de Witte told Equity earlier this year that a single general foundation model would make much of today’s specialized robotics work redundant, and be that moment.) On this episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Dominic-Madori Davis caught up with Vishwanath to discuss where she’s writing first checks as the founder and managing partner of Techable VC. They also talked about what she’s learned as one of the first women executives to spin out of Nvidia and launch her own early-stage firm investing in physical AI across robotics, materials science, and life sciences. Listen to the full episode to hear more about: Why Vishwanath defines physical AI as more than robots: “a molecule, a material, a medicine,” or a machine on a factory line. What she means by “conscious automation.” Why the best opportunities solve big problems like family-run factories that can't find workers to surgeons facing burnout. Why she wants founders to see their VC as their moat, and how years at NVIDIA built the network she now uses for due diligence and customer introductions. Where she thinks the U.S. and China each have the edge, and why humanoids should be good for more than dancing. Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You can also follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. Chapters: 00:00 Intro 01:03 Amulya’s path from Intel to Nvidia, and why she left 04:39 What physical AI meant in 2018 vs. now 06:12 Beyond dancing robots: industrial and surgical use cases 09:31 What “conscious automation” means 12:12 Cutting through the hype: the “Lego era” of robotics 16:43 Why your VC should be your moat 20:30 Biggest bottlenecks for physical AI founders 22:30 U.S. vs. China in physical AI 25:43 Are humanoids just for entertainment? 28:10 The most promising near-term areas 29:22 Outro Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
10월 9일

Amazon drops data center NDAs, and AI agents want your credit card

Amazon says it will stop using NDAs when negotiating data center deals with local governments, following a similar move from Microsoft earlier this year. Secrecy has fueled community backlash against AI infrastructure, with opposition leading to hundreds of proposed and enacted moratoriums from New York to San Francisco. Meanwhile, a wave of startups is betting that consumers will hand AI agents access to their inboxes, files, and credit cards — if they can get websites to let them in. On this episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Anthony Ha, Sean O’Kane, and Rebecca Bellan dig into whether ditching NDAs will change how data center deals get done, why trust may be the real product for personal AI startups, plus a couple of deals of the week. Listen to the full episode to hear more about: The White House’s plans to make plans with its new Super Intelligence Force Ghost’s $3,499 computer built to run AI agents around the clock, and why the Equity crew doesn’t see it going mass market Tab, Underdog, and Hark pitching privacy as their product, plus the business model that could turn your agent into a salesperson United, Apple, and Amazon putting up walls against outside agents Lambda’s reported $4 billion raise, and the single customer behind $35 billion of its backlog Uber’s $2.3 billion all-cash deal to get into the office catering space with ezCater We’ll see you next week at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026! Get 25% off your tickets with code Equity25, and we’ll see you on the Builders Stage Tuesday at 9 am. Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You can also follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. Chapters: 00:00 Intro 0:55 Trump’s “superintelligence force” and the great AI rebranding 3:19 Amazon drops NDAs on data center deals 9:17 Why the AI industry has a communication problem 12:51 Personal AI agents: finding money in your inbox 15:27 Ghost’s $3,500 computer built for personal AI 19:16 Trust is the product: privacy-first agent startups 27:36 Lambda’s $4B raise and the neo cloud backlog problem 31:22 Uber’s $2.3B move into catering 35:10 Outro Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
9월 25일

Meta’s Muse just stole the spotlight from OpenAI and Anthropic

When AI leaders at OpenAI and Anthropic started talking about “pacing the frontier,” maybe someone should have asked: what pace? It’s turned into model drop week for both companies as Anthropic rolled out Opus 5.5, followed by OpenAI’s GPT-6 model updates just 90 minutes later. But the company that stole the spotlight this week was Meta, whose personal AI agent Muse is reportedly outpacing ChatGPT’s early numbers and is headed for smart glasses and a tiny Tamagotchi-style device next. On this episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O’Kane dig into Meta’s consumer AI strategy and what it means for the startups trying to build on top of this technology, from where the money is flowing to which AI products might actually become part of people's daily lives. They also get into a16z's new school for aspiring founders and two very different AI and hardware deals. Listen to the full episode to hear more about: How a16z's Horowitz Andreessen Academy plans to pave a new path for aspiring founders, and why the Equity crew sees echoes of the Thiel Fellowship and Silicon Valley's long-running anti-college streak Why Oura's $2.2 billion IPO looks more like a payday for existing shareholders than a major fundraising event for the company Ema’s $77 million raise to sell teams of AI agents that automate HR, IT, and finance workflows, with Google and Microsoft among its early enterprise customers Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
10월 14일

Who’s the sheriff in AI’s wild west? (Equity Live at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026)

The Equity crew was live at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026! Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O’Kane took over the Builders Stage Tuesday morning to tackle a growing challenge for the AI industry: what happens when AI agents go off-script, and who’s responsible for keeping them in check? Recent incidents, from Anthropic pulling internal evaluations off the live internet after agents misbehaved to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella calling for an “emergency brake” on AI models, have brought agent security into focus. The Equity team unpacked whether the problem calls for better engineering, new regulation, or both, and why startups are raising millions to secure AI agents. Listen to the full episode to hear more about: The Anthropic agent mishaps, including a false police report that went nowhere after landing in a spam folder Nadella’s call for an AI emergency brake, and why the hosts wonder what took so long The funding race to secure AI agents, from AIR’s $50 million raise to Reco’s $55 million and Oak’s $60 million for agent identity, plus Sequoia-backed Cymphony Why independent verification and certification could be key to building trust, and whether Big Tech will buy its way out of the problem Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, and all the casts. You can also follow Equity on X and Threads. Chapters: 00:00 Intro and what we’re excited for at Disrupt 01:34 Durability, security, and Anthropic’s rogue agents 04:41 Nadella’s “emergency brake” post 06:33 NVIDIA’s OpenShell and the engineering-vs-regulation debate 10:04 The agent security startup boom: AIR, Reco, Cymphony 13:38 When agents go rogue in real life 15:55 Certifications and standards 19:33 HiddenLayer and the jump to production 20:40 Will Big Tech just acquire these startups? 22:52 Consumer trust and agent adoption 25:05 Predictions: acquisitions vs. independent verifiers 27:26 What’s coming up at Disrupt 29:02 Outro Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
10월 2일

Call it AI, call it Super Intelligence, only 2% of consumers are buying it

This week, the White House got nearly every major tech CEO in one room — Zuckerberg, Bezos, Musk, and Anthropic’s Dario Amodei among them — to sign an AI safety pledge that President Donald Trump called “morally binding.” Trump also signed an executive order officially rebranding AI as “super intelligence,” and meanwhile, Meta and OpenAI are putting friendlier faces on their AI products, even as the biggest money in AI still appears to be coming from the enterprise. On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O’Kane dig into this week’s AI moves, the ugly economics of consumer AI, plus the shifting IPO market and a handful of startup deals. Listen to the full episode to hear more about: What Oura pulling its IPO, plus Anthropic’s leaked S-1 and OpenAI going back to private funding, says about how picky public markets have gotten Quartermaster’s $140M raise to bring real-time sensors to an industry that AI basically hasn’t touched yet: maritime shipping Why Atomic, a supply-chain startup from ex-Tesla vets, is already running 90% of DoorDash’s purchasing How Startup Battlefield finalist Charter Space raised $5M to bring insurance to satellites Speaking of Startup Battlefield, join us at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, where Equity will kick things off with a live show on the Builders Stage at 9 a.m. Get 25% off your tickets with code Equity25. Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You can also follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
8월 14일

Meta's “open” AI, data centers' hidden costs, and a $250M deal gone very wrong

Meta released Glimmer this week, an open-weight AI model anyone can download and run on their own hardware — a contrast to Muse Spark, the company’s more powerful model that stays locked behind its own APIs. The release landed alongside a letter from Mark Zuckerberg arguing AI should be “for everyone” rather than controlled by a handful of labs, but as Equity’s hosts point out, the vision comes with some asterisks. On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Rebecca Bellan take a look at Glimmer, Zuckerberg’s 6,500-word manifesto, and more of the week’s headlines, from the true cost of the AI industry’s energy needs to a $250M acquisition gone very wrong. Listen to the full episode to hear more about: Who’s on the market for a $300 cocktail robot? Why Anthropic is adding watermarks to its generated text, and users are not happy. The potential cost Amazon’s planned data center in Texas and the startups racing to fix the grid, including Form Energy’s $750M raise for 100-hour batteries, Reservoir’s $8M bet on smarter water heaters, and Discovered Materials’ hunt for cooler chips. Why Joby Aviation’s $500M acquisition of a defense contractor reminds Kirsten of its Blade deal last year — and what the 2028 LA Olympics have to do with it. How a $250M deal between video-clipping startup VideoVerse and sports publisher Minute Media collapsed amidst allegedly forged documents, multiple lawsuits, and a CEO nobody can reach. Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. 00:00 Intro 1:20 Would you buy a $300 cocktail robot? 3:08 Meta's Glimmer and the “AI for everyone” pitch 8:03 Anthropic starts watermarking its writing, and users have thoughts 14:34 Amazon's data center and its natural gas problem 16:37 The startups racing to keep the grid from melting down: Form Energy, Reservoir, and Discovered Materials 23:28 Joby Aviation buys into defense with Resonant Sciences 28:24 The $250M VideoVerse-Minute Media deal, a missing CEO, and a mess of lawsuits 32:37 Outro Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
7월 31일

AI labs want to pump the brakes, but Amazon and SpaceX are still blasting off

After years of pushing full speed ahead on AI, Sam Altman says maybe it’s time for the AI industry to “pace” itself. The comments come just days after one of OpenAI's own models broke out of its test environment and got tangled up in a breach at Hugging Face, though as Equity’s hosts point out, sloppy security seems to have been just as much to blame as the model itself. Altman's not alone in this stance: both OpenAI and Anthropic have come out in support of a petition echoing that same message. On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O'Kane dig into whether the industry is ready to pump the brakes or just spooked, and who's on the hook when a model goes rogue. Listen to the full episode to hear more about: The viral “Avoiding AI” workshops hosted by librarians to help people opt out of AI features they didn't ask for How Amazon's new 5,000-satellite bid to connect directly to your phone could turn up the heat on SpaceX (even though it's unclear if anyone actually wants satellite-to-phone service) Why somehow there's room for one more AI lab: Reid Hoffman and Mark Pincus's new startup, Prentis, is in talks to raise $100M at a $1B valuation How Pangram raised $9 million to help publishers, teachers, and readers tell human writing from AI slop Why DoorDash is building its own drone delivery business instead of just relying on partners like Wing and Flytrex Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. Chapters: 00:00 Intro 1:18 Zoox gets its robotaxi exemption 2:11 Sam Altman calls for pacing the frontier 6:01 The Hugging Face hack, dissected 10:12 Responsibility, regulation, and the Elon Musk wildcard 13:29 Librarians teaching people to unplug from AI 15:16 Prentice: a new AI lab raises at a $1B valuation 16:46 Amazon files for its own satellite-to-phone network 18:42 SpaceX, Blue Origin, and the launch-business angle 23:48 Pangram raises $9M to detect AI slop 29:23 DoorDash builds its own delivery drones 33:24 Outro Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
9월 2일

We're ‘dangerously close’ to dead internet theory according to Pangram's CEO

The internet has a trust problem, and it’s not just because social media feeds are filling up with AI slop. AI-generated text and images are now making their way into job applications, product reviews, and even insurance claims, leaving platforms and users alike scrambling to figure out what’s real. A handful of startups have cropped up in the past couple of years to become the “trust layer” the internet needs — including Pangram. The startup recently snapped up $9 million for its AI detection system and landed a partnership with Substack, which is now using Pangram’s tech to show readers which of their favorite authors use AI to write their newsletters. Pangram also recently dropped a new AI image detection tool. On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Pangram co-founder and CEO Max Spero joins Rebecca Bellan to dig into the promise of AI detection tools and where to draw the line between AI assisted and AI generated. Listen to the full episode to hear more about: Why Spero thinks the internet could be “dangerously close” to the dead internet theory becoming reality within a few years. Why figuring out how much AI went into something is harder — and potentially more useful — than simply labeling it AI or human. The stakes of getting AI detection wrong, especially when false positives involve sensitive images. Why Spero thinks the “bottom tier” of writing jobs may be gone for good, while genuinely good human writing could become more valuable. Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. Chapters: 00:00 Intro 1:15 Building Pangram: from binary detector to gauging AI assistance 2:06 Why job applications, reviews, and Amazon are drowning in slop 5:39 How Pangram actually spots AI writing 9:26 Where people draw the line on AI-assisted vs. AI-generated 12:50 The false positive problem, and "America has a Pangram problem" 14:30 Detecting fake images, now that AI photos are scarily good 19:13 Competing with GPTZero, Winston, and building "core infrastructure" 21:43 Will good writing jobs actually come back? 23:36 Outro Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
7월 24일

‘AI communism’, rogue models, and the why Kimi K3 spooked Wall Street

Chinese AI lab Moonshot's open model Kimi went viral this week for reasons that had less to do with the model itself and more to do with how the U.S. AI industry reacted to it. Meanwhile, an unreleased OpenAI model wandered outside its test environment and ended up connected to a real security breach at Hugging Face — a reminder that “China risk” isn't the only kind of AI risk worth worrying about. On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, hosts Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O'Kane dig into why Kimi K3 set off a fresh round of AI panic, the industry’s response to an OpenAI staffer's “regulatory FUD” post, and what that OpenAI breach means for AI security more broadly. Listen to the full episode to hear more about: Why EVs are getting killed off across the U.S. even as automakers roll out new models, and how Rivian and Ford, and a wave of new startups are betting on different EV strategies to survive What Sila's $300 million raise says about where battery investment is headed even as EV demand cools Travis Kalanick's comeback with a $1.7 billion raise for his robotics startup, Atoms, and why we’re surprised to see Uber among its investors Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. Chapters: 00:00 Intro 1:39 Chinese AI model Kimi sparks a Wall Street freakout 10:45 OpenAI model breaks out of a test, Hugging Face breach 15:53 Why EVs are getting killed off in the U.S. 20:35 Tax credits, free markets, and the road ahead for EVs 28:56 Sila raises $300M for battery materials 32:20 Travis Kalanick's Atoms raises $1.7B, with Uber as an investor 36:39 Outro Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

TechCrunch podcasts cover the business of technology, startups, venture capital funding, crypto, and the humans behind it all.

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TechCrunch

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Meta and Instinct are racing to build your AI assistant. Wabi has a different idea.

Physical AI is more than robots, says the Nvidia veteran now investing in it

Amazon drops data center NDAs, and AI agents want your credit card

Meta’s Muse just stole the spotlight from OpenAI and Anthropic

Who’s the sheriff in AI’s wild west? (Equity Live at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026)

Call it AI, call it Super Intelligence, only 2% of consumers are buying it

Meta's “open” AI, data centers' hidden costs, and a $250M deal gone very wrong

AI labs want to pump the brakes, but Amazon and SpaceX are still blasting off

We're ‘dangerously close’ to dead internet theory according to Pangram's CEO

‘AI communism’, rogue models, and the why Kimi K3 spooked Wall Street

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