August 23, 2026

TechCrunch Top 3

Inherent, founded by DeepMind alumni, says its AI 'teammate' just outperformed Anthropic and OpenAI at replicating research: Built by DeepMind alumni, British AI lab Inherent released Faraday, an AI agent whose ability to replicate scientific papers could be a stepping stone for innovation. Read More

Michael Polansky is training an AI model on skin that’s still alive: Michael Polansky — better known publicly as Lady Gaga's partner and a former top deputy to Sean Parker — has quietly spent years building an AI-driven startup that keeps living human skin tissue alive for weeks outside the body to discover new skincare compounds, and is only now going public about it. Read More

Two years after launch, Walmart's Flipkart is closing in on India's quick-commerce leaders: Flipkart's quick-commerce venture is delivering 1.1 million to 1.2 million orders a day, nearly triple its November volume. Read More

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Most startups don't think strategically about hardware architecture. They just buy what's available. But the founders who understand NPU efficiency, on-device AI economics, and platform standardization? They're building companies that scale cheaper and faster. That architectural knowledge is the competitive edge most founders haven't thought about yet. Join us Thursday September 10th at 10am PT/ 1PM ET to learn what it actually means, and why it matters for your bottom line.

Sunday Must-Reads

Tesla’s solar roof is dead — here’s what went wrong: Tesla's solar roof was an experiment that never really caught on for the company. But does that mean the concept of roof-integrated solar is dead? Read More

Flock CEO calls for ‘compromise’ as surveillance company faces growing backlash: Flock Safety faces a growing public outcry over concerns that its surveillance technology could be misused. Read More

How AI accounting startup Rillet raised $100M and became a unicorn in 48 hours: Rillet CEO Nicolas Kopp shared growth numbers at a board meeting and set off a fundraising frenzy from Iconiq, Sequoia and others. Without even trying. Read More

Nvidia just showed that the harness, not the AI model, is now the real hero: Nvidia research shows that AI agents can perform well, and not go off the deep end, through fine-tuning, even if the AI model isn't that great at the task. Read More

Anthropic’s Opus 4.6 is a smut-machine: Anthropic forbids its Claude models from generating sexually explicit content. But a series of tests conducted by TechCrunch found that it didn't take much to get past the restriction. Read More

Disrupt 2026: Where deals and ideas ignite

Oct 13–15 at San Francisco's Moscone West, 10,000 founders, investors, and operators gather for high-signal insights, curated connections, and real momentum.

Last but Not Least

Is it legal to train AI models on copyrighted books? It’s complicated: Most published authors have, without their knowledge or consent, contributed to the development of the same AI tools that threaten to undermine their livelihoods. That seems illegal, right? Read More

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