Latest AI News
Beehiiv rolls out new creator tools, including webinars and customizable paywalls
It’s been clear for a while that Beehiiv wants to be more than just a newsletter platform. The L.A.-based company announced a slew of updates on Thursday that make that ambition even more obvious. The new features include webinars, AI analytics for podcasts, metered paywalls, and paid trials. Taken together, the announcement is a clear sign that the nearly five-year-old company is trying to become an all-in-one hub for creators, reducing the hassle of juggling various tools and services to run their businesses. With these additions, Beehiiv is positioning itself against platforms spanning newsletters, webinars, and podcasting — including Patreon, Substack, Zoom, Kit, and Ghost. The webinar launch is probably the biggest signal of where things are headed. Creators can now host live events for up to 10,000 people directly inside Beehiiv, complete with video, screen sharing, and chat. They can charge for access in multiple currencies or just use it as a free offering to grow their audience. The feature opens up new use cases for educational content, product demonstrations, and community building. On the monetization side, Beehiiv is making it easier to turn new readers into paying subscribers without alienating them immediately. The new metered paywalls let creators decide how much content to give away before asking for money — one post or ten before a subscription prompt appears. Creators can also control the reset period: daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, or never. Paid trials are another widely used tactic for enticing new subscribers. Creators can control the trial length, price, and billing cycle — for example, $1 for 30 days, or $5 per month for 3 months. Podcasts have exploded in popularity, and Beehiiv is betting its new tools will make it easier for creators to stand out in the crowded space. Last month, the platform addednative podcast hosting, allowing creators to handle everything from hosting and distribution to monetization. The company has seen positive results so far. It reports that 50% of existing users have migrated existing podcasts to the platform, and 25% of existing users have launched entirely new podcasts. Now, the platform is layering in AI analytics, giving creators the ability to dig into their audience metrics and ask questions about their data, like how an episode performed or where listeners are coming from, and get answers without digging through dashboards. Creators have to opt in and can choose which AI tools they connect, including Claude and ChatGPT. More features are coming. The company tells TechCrunch it’s working on adding video support for podcasts, due to launch in Q2. Ads are also expected later this year. Separately, Beehiiv touted its first-quarter results, which it calls the best quarter in the company’s history. The company said it reached 400 million unique readers, crossed 50,000 active users, and sent 10 billion emails. The outfit also said it surpassed $28 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) this month.
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Why the Future of AI Will Go Beyond Transformers
There is a growing realisation that while AI models have been scaling, they no longer deliver transformative leaps.
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Swiggy Launches Builders Club, Opening AI Commerce Infra to Developers and Enterprises
Built on Amazon Web Services, the Builders Club programme is powered by Amazon Bedrock, which offers unified API access to foundation models from Anthropic, Meta, Mistral AI, and others.
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OpenAI Launches Workspace Agents in ChatGPT to Automate Team Workflows
OpenAI said workspace agents are an evolution of its existing GPT-based tools and are powered by Codex.
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Hyderabad Startup Deep Algorithm Raises ₹16 Cr to Expand AI-Driven Identity Security Platform
Hyderabad-based cybersecurity startup Deep Algorithm’s Pre-Series A funding was led by Unicorn India Ventures.
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Google Wants Your Employees to Manage Agents, and That May Rewire Work Itself
The Gemini Enterprise portfolio integrates tools that enable employees to manage AI agents rather than perform repetitive tasks.
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LTM Sees 45% Surge in Q4 Profits, AI Push Deepens
The company also pointed to efficiency gains under its Fit4Future program and a strong deal pipeline.
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Google's Gemini App Might Be Updated With Brighter UI, Redesigned Layout on Android: Report
Google is reportedly testing a refreshed and more vibrant design for its Gemini app on Android, hinting at a broader effort to improve usability and visual appeal. The update appears to focus on simplifying navigation while making the interface feel more modern and engaging. As Google continues to refine its AI offerings, these changes could help Gemini feel more polished and intuitive for everyday use, especially as competition in the AI assistant space grows across platforms and devices.
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RBI Said to Evaluate Cybersecurity Risks Linked to Anthropic’s Mythos Amid Concerns of Unauthorised Access
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is said to be holding talks with global regulators, domestic lenders, and government officials to assess potential risks linked to Anthropic's new artificial intelligence (AI) model, Mythos. According to a report, RBI's preliminary assessment points towards Mythos potentially raising cybersecurity concerns by expediting the discovery and exploitation of software vulnerabilities. The development comes following reports of unauthorised personnel gaining access to Anthropic's Mythos, which is touted to be “so powerful that it could enable dangerous cyberattacks”.
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Google Unveils New Gemini-Powered Features, Workspace Intelligence and More at Google Cloud Next 2026
Google has unveiled a broad set of updates for its Google Workspace at Google Cloud Next 2026, with a strong focus on AI-powered productivity and smarter collaboration. The company introduced Workspace Intelligence, a system that can interpret relationships between files, projects, and collaborators across apps like Docs, Slides, and Gmail to enable more advanced, automated workflows. These updates are said to highlight Google's effort to make Workspace more intelligent and automated, though some features may continue to be updated before they are widely released.
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Deeptech's Hardware Problem: ‘Make in India’ Can't Survive Without Scale
India’s deeptech hardware ecosystem has largely been built on the assumption that domestic demand will follow innovation. But that is increasingly being challenged.
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India’s app market is booming — but global platforms are capturing most of the gains
India’s mobile app market is generating record revenue, with in-app purchases crossing $300 million in the first quarter, up 33% year-over-year, according to Sensor Tower — but much of that spending is flowing to global platforms. Non-gaming apps were the main driver of growth in Q1, generating over $200 million in in-app purchase revenue — rising 44% year-over-year and increasing their share of overall spending, Sensor Towersaidin its report. The gains were led by categories including utilities, video streaming, and generative AI. The progress reflects a broader shift in India’s app market, where annual in-app purchase revenue has risen from $520 million in 2021 tomore than $1 billion in 2025and is projected to reach $1.25 billion this year, per Sensor Tower. While downloads have stabilized at around 25 billion a year, time spent on apps continues to grow, pointing to deeper engagement and a greater willingness among users to pay for digital services. Much of India’s spending in Q1 was captured by global platforms, with Google One, Facebook, ChatGPT, and YouTube among the top earners. Domestic players were more prominent in video streaming, with JioHotstar and SonyLIV ranking highly. A similar pattern emerged in downloads, where ChatGPT, Instagram, and the Chinese short-drama app FreeReels led the market, followed by Indian apps including Story TV, JioHotstar, and Meesho. India’s app market has matured on the download side, but monetization is strengthening as usage deepens and digital payment habits become more embedded, Donny Kristianto, principal market insights manager at Sensor Tower, told TechCrunch. Despite the gains, India remains a relatively low-spending market, generating about $0.03 in revenue per download, compared with more than $0.20 in Southeast Asia and Latin America, Sensor Tower data shared with TechCrunch showed. While newer categories are driving growth in India’s mobile app market, spending remains concentrated in a handful of mature segments, particularly productivity, social media, and video streaming apps, which dominate the top rankings. Video streaming alone accounts for about half of the top 10 revenue-generating apps, underlining its outsized monetization power, the data showed. Even so, shifts in user demand suggest room for further growth. Generative AI apps saw downloads rise 69% year-over-year, with ChatGPT ranking among the top apps by both installs and revenue. India has long been ChatGPT’slargest marketby users, while other AI apps are alsogaining ground. Short drama platforms are growing even faster, with downloads up more than 400%, led by apps like FreeReels. The trend suggests India’s app market is still early in its monetization journey, even as new categories expand what users are willing to pay for.
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