Latest AI News
Apple sets June date for WWDC 2026, teasing ‘AI advancements’
Apple’s next Worldwide Developers Conference will be held from June 8 to June 12 online and at its headquarters in Cupertino, California, the companyannounced Monday. The iPhone maker said this year’s conference — in which it typically announces new software and features across its range of devices — will focus on “AI advancements” along with updates for platforms like iOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS, and new software and developer tools. The conference will stream live on theApple Developer app,Apple’s website, and the Apple DeveloperYouTube channel. In China, the conference will be streamed onthe Apple Developer Bilibili channel. Last year, Apple focused WWDC on its “Liquid Glass” interface design, with AI largely unmentioned. This conference will likely be different. Applehas been expectedto launch a new Siri with advanced AI capabilities, and earlier this year signed a deal with Google to use Gemini to power AI features on its platform. This year’s WWDC might finally show the revamped Siri with better personal context and on-screen awareness. At last year’s conference, the company announcedApple’s Foundation Model frameworkwith AI models that could work offline and may announce advancements to it during this year’s event. The company had also brought models likeChatGPT for coding to Xcode. Earlier this year, Apple introduced agentic coding tools likeAnthropic’s Claude Agent and OpenAI’s Codex to Xcode.
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Vibe-coding startup Lovable is on the hunt for acquisitions
Lovable, the AI-powered app-building platform lastvalued at $6.6 billion, is on the hunt for acquisitions. On Monday, the startup’s co-founder and CEO, Anton Osika, announced on X that the company was looking for “more great teams and startups to join Lovable.” “Many of the people in key roles at Lovable were founders right before joining us,” he wrote in apost. “We’ve built our culture in a way that makes founder-types thrive internally, being able to act autonomously and drive initiatives.” Osika suggested that the opportunity would allow those working on interesting projects to continue to do so at scale and directed interested parties to reach out to the company’s M&A & Partnerships head,Théo Daniellot. Lovable’s desire to acquire teams or smaller companies arrives at a time when it’s racing against competition from other tools such as Cursor, Replit, and Bolt, as well as the coding powers of the AI models themselves. The company’s head of growth, Elena Verna, has previously said that Lovablefears the competitionfrom those larger AI labs like OpenAI and Anthropic. Despite these fears, Lovable is still seeing noteworthy growth, recentlyreportingthat it now has $400 million in ARR, up from $200 million at the end of 2025. It also now sees over 200,000 new vibe-coding projects created on the platform every day. This wouldn’t be the first time Lovable has engaged in M&A, havingpreviously acquiredthe cloud provider Molnett in November to grow its cloud infrastructure team. TechCrunch reached out to Lovable to see if the company would share more about the types of startups, projects, or teams it’s currently interested in.
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Sam Altman-backed fusion startup Helion in talks with OpenAI
Fusion startupHelionis reportedly in talks to sell power to OpenAI. Both companies are backed by Sam Altman. The deal, which wasreported by Axios, is in early stages, and it could guarantee OpenAI 12.5% of Helion’s production — five gigawatts by 2030 and 50 gigawatts by 2035. OpenAI partner Microsoftsigned a similar dealwith Helion in 2023 to buy power starting in 2028. If the figures in Axios’ report prove to be accurate, it suggests that Helion expects to be able to rapidly scale production of its fusion power plant. Helion has said that each of its reactors will generate 50 megawatts of electricity, meaning it will need to build and install 800 reactors by 2030 and an additional 7,200 by 2035. The company did not immediately reply to inquiries from TechCrunch. Helion is racing to build its first commercial-scale reactor by that time. If the startup is successful, it would place it years ahead of the competition, which is mostly targeting early 2030s for commercial operations. The startupraised $425 million last yearfrom investors, including Altman as well as firms Mithril, Lightspeed, and SoftBank. Most fusion startups are pursuingone of two approaches— harvesting heat from the fusion reactions and using a steam turbine to turn it into electricity. Helion is taking a different tack, developing a reactor design that would use magnets to convert fusion energy into electricity. Inside the hourglass-shaped reactor, fusion fuel is first turned into plasma at either end and then shot toward each other using magnetic fields. When they collide in the middle, another set of magnets compresses the merged plasma ball until fusion occurs. The reaction pushes back on the magnets, which can convert that energy directly into electricity. Helion is currently operating its Polaris prototype in advance of its push to commercial power. In February, the company generated plasmas inside the reactor thathit 150 million degrees Celsius,almost to the 200 million degrees Celsius the company thinks will be required for commercial operations. Though Altman has reportedly stepped down from his position as chair of Helion’s board and recused himself from the discussions, his fingerprints are all over the matchmaking. Last year, Altman stepped down as board chair of Oklo, a small modular nuclear reactor startup that had merged with his acquisition company, AltC. The move was intended to allow Oklo to explore strategic partnerships with leading AI companies, including potentially with OpenAI,” Caroline Cochran, Oklo’s co-founder and chief operating officer,saidin a statement given to CNBC at the time.
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Elizabeth Warren calls Pentagon’s decision to bar Anthropic ‘retaliation’
Anthropic is attracting an increasing number of supporters in its fight against the U.S. Department of Defense, which last monthdesignated the AI lab as a supply-chain riskafter it refused to make concessions on how its AI could be used by the military. In a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) equated the DoD’s decision with “retaliation,” arguing that the Pentagon could simply have terminated its contract with the AI lab,CNBC reports. “I am particularly concerned that the DoD is trying to strong-arm American companies into providing the Department with the tools to spy on American citizens and deploy fully autonomous weapons without adequate safeguards,” Warren wrote, per the report, adding that the barring of Anthropic “appears to be retaliation.” Warren’s words echo many other organizations that have spoken out against the Defense Department’s treatment of Anthropic. Several tech companies and employees — including fromOpenAI, Googleand Microsoft — as well as legal rights groups, have filed amicus briefs in support of Anthropic and denouncing the designation, which is usually applied toforeign adversariesand not U.S. firms. The dispute arose afterAnthropic told the Pentagonthat it did not want its AI systems to be used for mass surveillance of Americans, and that the technology wasn’t ready for use in targeting or firing decisions of lethal autonomous weapons without human intervention. The Pentagon contested that a private company shouldn’t dictate how the military uses technology, and soon after designated the company as a “supply-chain risk.” The label requires any company or agency that does work with the Pentagon to certify that it doesn’t use the designated company’s products or services — effectively barring Anthropic from working with any company that also works with the U.S. government. The letter from Warren comes a day before a hearing in San Francisco on Tuesday, when District Judge Rita Lin will decide whether to grant Anthropic a preliminary injunction that seeks to preserve the status quo while itscase against the DoDis litigated. While Anthropic is suing the DoD for infringing on its First Amendment rights and punishing the company based on ideological grounds, the Defense Department hasmaintainedthat Anthropic’s refusal to allow all lawful military uses of its technology was a business decision, not protected speech, and that the designation was a straightforward national security call and not punishment for the company’s views. The AI lab last week submitted two declarations to the court thatclaim the government’s logic is flawedas they depend on technical misunderstandings as well as points of concern that were not raised during the company’s negotiations with the DoD. Warren has also written to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, asking for details of thecompany’s agreement with the DoD, which came just a day after the Pentagon blacklisted Anthropic. Anthropic and the Defense Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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Short of Talent, GCCs Turn to Simulating Cyberattacks to Prepare for the Worst
Deloitte India unveiled ConnectSafe, a cybersecurity facility in Bengaluru that offers a live environment that simulates real‑world cyber‑threat scenarios
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Adobe Expands Firefly With Custom AI Models & Conversational Design Tools
With integrations across OpenAI, Google and others, Adobe is positioning Firefly as a unified AI studio for design, video and content creation.
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Acer’s Altos AI Server is 51% Made in India
MD Harish Kohli exclusively told AIM the company is building capacity for 5,000 servers in India and expects to ship over 3,000 units in the next year.
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Indian Workers Reluctant to Return From US Blame Pay Gap: Survey
Around 58% of Indian workers refuse to return within the next three years, prioritising high American compensation over domestic tech growth.
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Microsoft Has Three Problems: Copilot, OpenAI, and Mustafa Suleyman
Microsoft Copilot usage numbers remain relatively modest, especially compared to consumer AI chatbots.
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Mark Zuckerberg is Building an AI Agent to Manage CEO Tasks: Report
The agent retrieves answers that Zuckerberg would typically obtain through internal channels, reducing reliance on layers of staff.
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OpenAI to Nearly Double Headcount to 8,000 Employees: Report
OpenAI is reportedly preparing for rapid growth, planning to add roughly 12 employees per day this year.
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Razorpay, Sarvam Enable Voice-First Conversational Commerce in India; Swiggy Joins as Early Adopter
The companies have piloted a voice assistant for The Derma Co website, allowing users to browse products and complete purchases through voice commands.
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