August 13, 2025

The road to artificial general intelligence

Artificial intelligence models that can discover drugs and write code still fail at puzzles a lay person can master in minutes. This phenomenon sits at the heart of the challenge of artificial general intelligence (AGI). Can today’s AI revolution produce models that rival or surpass human intelligence across all domains? If so, what underlying enablers—whether…

August 2025

Only 2 days left to save $675 on your TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 ticket

August 5, 2025
TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 marks 20 years of driving the startup world forward — and you’ve got just two days left to join the movement and save up to $675 on your ticket. From October 27–29, Moscone West becomes the home base for over 10,000 movers and makers in the tech world. Join us in San […]

The Download: AI agent infrastructure, and OpenAI’s ambitions

August 5, 2025
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. These protocols will help AI agents navigate our messy lives A growing number of companies are launching AI agents that can do things on your behalf—actions like sending an email, making a document,…

A glimpse into OpenAI’s largest ambitions

August 5, 2025
OpenAI has given itself a dual mandate. On the one hand, it’s a tech giant rooted in products, including of course ChatGPT, which people around the world reportedly send 2.5 billion requests to each day. But its original mission is to serve as a research lab that will not only create “artificial general intelligence” but…

AI-powered fintech Alaan raises $48M, one of the largest Series A rounds in MENA

August 5, 2025
When Parthi Duraisamy was a consultant at McKinsey’s Dubai office, he discovered that the American Express cards his company relied on for corporate expenses were rarely accepted in the Middle East. This forced Duraisamy to cover significant travel expenses out of pocket and file endless expense reports. “It was a constant pain,” Duraisamy explained on […]