Google’s AI cited Facebook 19.5 million times, new research finds
Google's AI cited Facebook posts 19.5 million times when generating answers to user queries. BrightEdge research shows social platforms have become primary sources for Google's AI responses, with users often never visiting the original platforms where the information originated.
Google is building a chip with Gemini baked into the silicon
Google is developing a chip called Frozen v2 that has Gemini's model architecture built directly into the hardware rather than loading the model onto a general-purpose chip. The approach differs from typical AI chips by embedding the model's blueprint into the silicon itself.
Watch Flock Safety CEO Garrett Langley discuss the future of surveillance at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026
Flock Safety's CEO Garrett Langley will discuss the balance between privacy and public safety at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026. The company operates surveillance technology at the center of ongoing debates about where regulatory and ethical boundaries should exist.
Some dinosaurs could rise like giants until they grew too big
Two elephant-sized South American sauropods possessed robust femurs that could handle enormous forces while standing on hind legs, especially when young. Digital tests demonstrated these dinosaurs' femurs managed stress better than those of larger species, potentially enabling them to reach treetops or display to potential mates.
China AI Sensation Moonshot’s Gamble on Big Models Pays Off
Moonshot's large language model achieved significant traction at China's tech summit, drawing larger crowds than established tech giants Alibaba and Tencent. The startup demonstrated its AI capabilities by attracting major attention at the event despite being relatively new to the market.
The Download: AI hiring biases, and weather data sabotage
AI systems are more likely than humans to develop biases during hiring decisions. Résumés may be screened by artificial intelligence before human reviewers evaluate them.
Banks are making a bigger play for the SMB back office
Banks are expanding their back office infrastructure to help small businesses manage ACH payments, international wires, and cross-border payments within unified platforms instead of switching between separate tools. This consolidation reduces workflow fragmentation and simplifies reconciliation for small business financial operations.
Bristol Myers Squibb Building Life Science Industry’s Most Advanced AI Factory on NVIDIA Vera Rubin
Bristol Myers Squibb is deploying a second NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD to expand its AI computing capacity for drug discovery and development work. The company already operates one of the largest AI clusters in life sciences and is doubling its computational infrastructure investment.
Alzheimer’s breakthrough: Scientists restore two hours of sleep without clearing brain plaques
Removing most brain immune cells called microglia restored over two hours of daily sleep in mice with Alzheimer's plaques, despite leaving the plaques intact. The overactive microglia had triggered inflammation that prevented deep, restorative sleep in affected mice.
US public health agencies to test OpenAI and Anthropic AI models
Ten state, local, tribal, or territorial jurisdictions will test generative AI models from OpenAI and Anthropic through a new program called PULSE. The initiative involves the Coalition for Health AI and Accenture to support public health departments in evaluating these AI tools.
Kimi K3 open-weight model: China’s biggest AI is a bet on memory, not compute
Moonshot AI released Kimi K3, an open-weight model with 2.8 trillion parameters, making it the largest open-weight model released to date. The model launched on July 16 and represents what the industry classifies as the 3T tier bracket.
AI is more likely than humans to form biases when hiring
Large language models develop biases when screening job applications, picking up prejudices from training data and creating additional ones independently. A study found AI systems show greater hiring discrimination than humans across multiple demographic categories in résumé evaluation.
AI confidence just dropped 17 points in six months. That’s actually great news.
IT leaders' assessment of their organizations' AI maturity fell from 40% to 23% over six months. Organizations deploying AI agents into production are revising downward because they encounter real-world operational challenges that pilots do not reveal.
World Cup final player ratings: Messi peters out as super-subs inspire Spain
Spain defeated Argentina 1-0 in the World Cup final, with Ferran Torres scoring the decisive goal. Lionel Messi had a subdued performance in what was reportedly his final World Cup match.
Underwater drones discover coral reefs off Benin, long presumed dead, teeming with life
Scientists discovered a deep-water coral reef off Benin's coast that was presumed dead since the 1960s, now found thriving using modern sonar and the Deep Sea Camera System. The reef, initially flagged in surveys focused on fishing areas, appears apparently healthy based on recent exploration technology provided by National Geographic's lab.
Félix Guillermo Moncada Gavilán helped move Cuba from sea turtle fishing to protection
Cuba shifted from harvesting sea turtles to protecting them, with legal fisheries previously landing an average of 836 metric tons annually in the 1980s. Green turtles were hunted for meat and hawksbill turtles for their patterned shells used in jewelry and ornaments.
Kalshi Adds 3 Million Users During FIFA World Cup Boom
Kalshi gained three million users while bettors traded over $1.2 billion on its FIFA World Cup winner market. The platform experienced this user growth during the World Cup betting event.
Rodri's unassuming brilliance wins out despite standing in contrast to star-driven 2026 World Cup
Rodri and Spain won the 2026 FIFA World Cup despite not fitting the star-driven profile that attracted record North American audiences. Spain's victory stood in contrast to the performances of other superstars who dominated the tournament's glamorous football.
Allbridge Core Pauses Protocol After Attacker Drains More Than $1 Million
An attacker exploited Allbridge Core's stablecoin liquidity pools, draining over $1 million, which prompted the protocol to pause operations. This incident occurred during a month when crypto protocol exploits resulted in $57.8 million in total losses.
Alpaca Secures $135M Funding Round to Expand AI-Driven Brokerage Platform for Tokenized Assets
Alpaca raised $135 million in equity funding led by Peak XV to expand its AI-driven brokerage platform for tokenized assets. The round included backing from Elefund, Opera Tech Ventures, and Unbound alongside existing investors.
Best Local LLMs You Can Run on a Single 24GB GPU in 2026: Qwen, Gemma, Mistral, DeepSeek Compared
Six open-weight models fit on a single 24GB GPU at Q4_K_M quantization, including Qwen3.6, Gemma 4, Mistral Small, gpt-oss-20b, and DeepSeek-R1-Distill. The guide evaluates each model's VRAM requirements, licensing terms, and performance strengths for local inference.
Medical AI Startup OpenEvidence Weighs $200 Million Funding Round
OpenEvidence considered raising $200 million at a $20 billion valuation but decided against it due to shareholder dilution concerns. The medical AI startup has simultaneously held acquisition discussions with potential buyers.
Creating a map of coral distribution with environmental DNA
Environmental DNA analysis has created a comprehensive map showing hard coral distribution across the Ryukyu Islands. The online resource reveals ecosystem composition based on extensive eDNA sampling to support conservation and track environmental change impacts.
Singapore-Founded Paymonade Secures Crypto Asset Services License in Europe
Paymonade obtained a Markets in Crypto-Assets license from Liechtenstein's Financial Market Authority, enabling the company to operate crypto-asset services across all 30 European Economic Area member states under one passportable license. This approval allows the Singapore-founded payments infrastructure provider to offer regulated crypto services throughout Europe with a single authorization.
Bank of America Promotes Execs to Champion AI and Crypto
Bank of America promoted Sonali Theisen to head of global digital-assets platform and Kevin Milsom to head of platforms AI transformation. These leadership changes were announced in an internal memo on July 17 to guide the bank's artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency initiatives.
Mbappe first to win Golden Boot twice as Rodri named World Cup's best player
Kylian Mbappe became the first player to win the World Cup Golden Boot twice, achieving this at the 2026 tournament. Spain's Rodri received the Golden Ball award for best player at the same World Cup.
Teleperformance Wants Entire BPO Staff to Be AI-Enabled by 2027
Teleperformance plans to integrate artificial intelligence into workflows across its 500,000-person workforce by 2027. The French outsourcing company aims to embed AI technology throughout its entire staff to accelerate adoption of tools reshaping the business process outsourcing industry.
TSMC’s $265 Billion US Spend Driven by Demand, Rivals, CFO Says
TSMC is adding $100 billion to its Arizona investments, bringing total US spending to $265 billion. The company cited strong demand from American customers and competition from rival chipmakers as drivers of the expansion.
Feyn AI Releases SQRL, a Text-to-SQL Model Family That Inspects the Database Before Writing a Query
SQRL, a text-to-SQL model family, inspects databases with read-only probes before generating queries. The flagship SQRL-35B-A3B achieves 70.6% execution accuracy on BIRD Dev and distills into smaller 4B and 9B self-hostable versions.
Spain win World Cup after Ferran Torres breaks 10-man Argentina’s resistance
Spain defeated Argentina in the World Cup final when Ferran Torres scored during extra time against the ten-man Argentine team. Argentina failed to attempt a shot on goal until the 115th minute of play.