Yann LeCun’s second attempt at a VC fund lands with $100M and Gemini’s co-lead as a partner
A venture capital fund called 224 Ventures launched with over $100 million in assets under management, with Yann LeCun and Oriol Vinyals as partners. Vinyals previously served as Gemini's co-technical lead at Google DeepMind before joining the new firm.
A startup that slashes AI agent bills just raised $35M. Anthropic is a backer.
Sapiom, a startup positioned between AI agents and the models they operate on, raised $35 million in Series A funding led by Dragonfly. The round brings total funding to $50 million across a seed and Series A completed within 17 months of the company's launch.
Washington Commanders to sign four-time Pro Bowl receiver Stefon Diggs
Stefon Diggs agreed to join the Washington Commanders on a deal worth up to 12 million dollars. The 32-year-old four-time Pro Bowl receiver posted his seventh 1,000-yard season in the past eight years with the New England Patriots last season.
NASA’s IXPE May Have Proven 90-Year-Old Theory
NASA's IXPE conducted over 140 hours of observations of a magnetar and detected X-ray polarization patterns matching predictions from nearly a century-old physics theory. The results, published in Nature, represent the first direct measurement of empty space exhibiting the theoretically predicted behavior.
Google is cutting 52 jobs in Washington the same week it lost four star researchers
Google is permanently laying off 52 employees in Washington state. The company provided no reason for the cuts and stated they did not result from work relocation or outsourcing.
Anthropic built an inspection layer that lets enterprises block sensitive data before it reaches Claude
Anthropic launched inference hooks for Claude Enterprise that route every prompt through a customer's security server for inspection before Claude processes it. The system checks both prompts and tool calls, blocking sensitive data if the security server returns a deny verdict.
Used for Centuries as Poison, Larkspur, Wolfsbane May Become Medicine After Lab Breakthrough
Researchers synthesized medicinal compounds from toxic plants wolfsbane and larkspur in a laboratory for the first time. These plants have traditionally been used to treat pain, malaria, cancer, and pests despite their poisonous properties.
Wordsmith Extends Series B With $14 Million to Scale AI for In-House Legal Teams
Wordsmith AI secured a $14 million Series B extension led by Intact Private Capital to help in-house legal teams use AI for work traditionally outsourced to external counsel. New investors FT Ventures joined existing backers Highland Europe and Index Ventures in the funding round.
Jamie Dimon recruits bank and IT leaders to tackle AI risks
Jamie Dimon is recruiting banking and IT leaders to form an industry group addressing AI risks from rapid corporate adoption. The group aims to tackle challenges posed by widespread AI implementation across the business sector.
‘Flat housing market’ forces Zillow layoffs: Real estate company sheds 7% of jobs in second round of cuts this year
Zillow laid off over 500 employees, representing 7% of its workforce, citing a flat housing market and need for cost efficiency. This marks the company's second round of cuts this year, following a 3% workforce reduction in January.
IEEE Course Teaches How to Use AI to Modernize Power Grids
Millions of digital sensors and smart meters generate continuous data streams that human operators cannot process fast enough, requiring automated computer analysis. Texas's largest power transmission utility reported 220 gigawatts of new connection requests, driven largely by data center energy demands.
Reddit’s new Rules Hub uses AI to enforce moderation by intent, not keywords. Automod’s other features stay.
A moderation system called Rules Hub uses large language models to evaluate whether posts match community rule intent rather than keywords. The system works alongside Post & Comment Guidance and Safety Filters to replace Automod's enforcement capabilities while keeping Automod's other features.
Google named the new boss of Gemini 4. Both of Gemini’s co-leads quit the same day
Jeff Dean and Sanjay Ghemawat departed Google after 27 years to start a new company called Discovery Loop. Google appointed a new leader for Gemini while two co-leads of Gemini also quit the same day.
Artemis III Orion Crew and Service Models Joined
The Orion crew and service modules were joined together on July 30, 2026, at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The crew module will carry four astronauts: three NASA astronauts and one ESA astronaut named Luca Parmitano.
Google is killing Assistant on phones September 4. Gemini is the only option left.
Google is discontinuing Assistant on Android phones starting September 4, replacing it entirely with Gemini. The shutdown process will take several weeks to complete across all devices.
Anthropic Puts Inline Data Loss Prevention Inside Claude Enterprise
Every employee prompt in Claude Enterprise now routes through an organization's security server for approval before reaching the model, using inference hooks launched August 5, 2026. This inline data loss prevention system applies to chat, Claude Code, and Claude Cowork sessions through a single organization-level configuration.
Tour de France Femmes: Vollering victorious on stage five as Ferrand-Prévot’s defence unravels
Demi Vollering won stage five of the Tour de France Femmes by outsprinting Marlen Reusser on Mont Brouilly's final gradients. Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, the defending champion, lost significant time to the three leaders who broke clear of the peloton in the Beaujolais vineyards.
GPU prices are approaching 2.5x their launch cost. Asus and Gigabyte just made it official with a second 2026 price hike.
GPU manufacturers Asus and Gigabyte announced their second price increase in 2026, raising RTX 50-series and Radeon RX 9000 cards by $207 to $666 per model. The RTX 5090D V2 saw the largest increase, with Gigabyte raising channel prices $592 and Asus raising them $666.
Jeff Dean Leaves Google to Automate the Scientific Method With Discovery Loop
Jeff Dean departed Google after 27 years to co-found Discovery Loop, a startup aiming to automate experimental loops in scientific research. Google confirmed it will serve as a founding investor and Cloud partner for the new venture.
The Shai-Hulud npm worm didn't fake its security check — it earned a legitimate one
An attacker compromised the GitHub account of keyv's maintainer and distributed poisoned versions across at least 868 packages with 1,381 total versions, accumulating over two billion monthly installs. The malicious releases carried valid provenance signatures that were legitimately earned rather than forged, presenting a new threat to supply chain security infrastructure.
Peer-Reviewed Studies Tie Ambient AI to More Surgeries at Houston Methodist
Ambient AI in Houston Methodist's operating room was associated with a 7% increase in surgical case volume, or approximately 25 additional cases per month in a cardiothoracic suite. The study analyzed 5,417 surgical cases over 16 months using Apella's computer-vision platform.
AI startup Hark unveils first product: an affordable, fast computer use agent Hark Handoff
A computer use agent called Handoff scores 97.7 on the Online-Mind2Web benchmark, outperforming OpenAI's GPT 5.4 at 92.8 and other competing models. The agent costs $0.18 per million input tokens and $2.37 per million output tokens with 0.8 seconds per-turn latency, and operates through a dedicated virtual computer with its own browser and file system.
UN Summit on HIV/AIDS Shows Incredible Progress in Infection Rates, Deaths, Treatment Access
New HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths reached their lowest levels in over 30 years according to a UNAIDS report. Seven countries including Benin, Eswatini, Kenya, Lesotho, Nepal, Rwanda, and Zimbabwe achieved nearly equal rates of new infections and people receiving treatment.
NASA’s Perseverance Captures Phobos and Earth
NASA's Perseverance rover captured images of Earth passing behind the Martian moon Phobos on July 2, 2026, using its Mastcam-Z instrument on the mission's 1,907th sol. The composite of seven images shows Earth as a small bright dot moving behind Phobos against a black background.
NASA’s Perseverance Rover Watches Earth Vanish Behind Martian Moon
NASA's Perseverance rover captured images of Earth disappearing behind the Martian moon Phobos, marking the first time this phenomenon was photographed from Mars's surface. Earth appears as a point of light in the Martian sky as it passes behind Phobos, the larger of Mars's two moons.
Beyond ReAct: Building the modern AI agent stack for massive tool ecosystems
Large language models struggle with decision-making accuracy when given thousands of tools due to context window limitations. Modern AI agent systems use optimized planning and selective tool routing to improve performance without overwhelming the model's available context.
Advanced Mini-laboratories Automate Space Station Research
Redwire's ADvanced Space Experiment Processors automatically conduct science experiments on the International Space Station to reduce crew time requirements. Each ADSEP facility contains multiple automated devices designed to handle experiments that would otherwise consume hours of astronaut work.
Inspiring CEO Gives Company to Charity After Working 80-hour Weeks for 58 Years, Saving it from Bankruptcy
Eddie Smith Jr. worked 80-100 hour weeks for 58 years to transform the near-bankrupt boat builder Grady-White into a nine-figure company. He then gave the company to charity after decades of personal sacrifice.
Mastercard Extends Crypto Credential to Cross-Border Stablecoin Payments in Borderless.xyz Pilot
Mastercard is testing cross-border stablecoin payments through a pilot program with three initial participants that verifies compliance once at the payment's origin rather than repeatedly. The pilot includes Infinia, Walapay, and Koywe as participants in the Borderless.xyz network of stablecoin payment providers.
Sitting up straight may improve your mood and decision-making
Sitting upright caused participants to report more pride and take more successful risks in a virtual balloon game compared to hunching over. Most participants did not realize their posture had been manipulated, suggesting the effect was not based on their expectations about how posture should affect them.