Disney’s partnership with TikTok aims to blur the line between scrolling and streaming
Disney and TikTok announced a deal to bring fan-made TikTok videos to Disney+ through a pilot program launching in a few months, featuring short videos using scenes from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, and Star Wars. TikTok users share an average of 6.5 million pieces of movie and TV content daily, with nearly half of viewers watching shows or films after discovering them on the platform.
DeepSeek Resumes Funding Round to Raise $8 Billion
DeepSeek resumed its second funding round seeking approximately $8 billion at a valuation of about $74 billion. The Chinese AI startup's funding discussions are ongoing and details remain subject to change.
Wintermute Lands US Broker License and a 5-Year Plan to Rival Citadel
Wintermute's US division registered as a broker-dealer, enabling trading in commodities, crypto ETFs, and tokenized stocks. The company outlined a five-year strategy to compete with Citadel.
Anthropic’s Silicon Team Is Hiring for Tapeout and Production Ramp
Anthropic's custom silicon team is hiring engineers to develop chips from initial design through production manufacturing, including tapeout and first-silicon bring-up stages. The company posted job listings for a Silicon Engineer and Technical Program Manager to execute the complete program from architecture definition to production readiness.
Uniswap's New Launchpad Out-Launched Pons On Its First Day On Robinhood Chain
A launchpad called Pools.trade launched on August 5 with zero fees and created 10,506 tokens in one day, surpassing competitor Pons which created 7,210 tokens. PONS token declined 49% over the week following the new launchpad's debut on Robinhood Chain.
Why do people actually prefer AI-generated stories to human writing? New study reveals surprising insights
Participants in a Cambridge University study read six short stories and rated AI-generated versions as more engaging and higher-quality than human-written counterparts, despite showing preference when believing stories were human-authored. The study of 1,682 adults involved three human-written stories and three ChatGPT-generated stories with similar topics and styles.
Senate Whip Barrasso Becomes Latest Lawmaker to Support Crypto Clarity Act, But Time May Be Running Out
Senate Whip Barrasso joined other lawmakers in supporting the Crypto Clarity Act. Time remains limited before the Senate recesses, with Republicans pushing to pass the bill before that deadline.
a16z's Miles Jennings Says Banks Fighting the CLARITY Act Are 'Accelerating Their Own Obsolescence'
Six banking trade groups are pushing senators to tighten the CLARITY Act's prohibition on interest-like rewards for stablecoin holdings. Miles Jennings argues banks fighting the bill accelerate their obsolescence because such payments would continue under an alternative called GENIUS if CLARITY fails.
GUARDD Meets with SEC to Discuss Secondary Trading of Tokenized Exempt Securities
GUARDD met with the SEC to discuss secondary trading of tokenized exempt securities. Sherwood Neiss, GUARDD's founder and co-author of the JOBS Act, led discussions about facilitating token-based transactions for securities that qualify for regulatory exemptions.
Japanese Team Develops ‘Eco-Fireworks’ with Water-Soluble Shells to Cut Back on Debris
A Japanese university professor and fireworks company president developed water-soluble fireworks that dissolve in water to reduce debris. The eco-friendly fireworks represent what may be the world's first commercial water-soluble fireworks product.
SEC Boosts Enforcement Division With New Financial Reporting Unit
The SEC established a new Financial Reporting and Accounting Unit within its Enforcement Division to ensure alignment across all agency divisions in enforcing securities laws. The unit works across the agency to coordinate enforcement of SEC goals related to financial reporting and accounting matters.
From radar blobs to bird species, AI helps transform migration tracking
Scientists developed AI models to identify specific bird species from weather radar data that previously showed birds only as indistinct blobs. The system can now distinguish individual species during their annual migrations across the United States using radar reflectivity measurements.
Suno Lays Out AI Music Principles After Copyright Fight
Suno announced operating principles including artist imitation blocking, stricter download rules, and watermarking technology rollout within weeks. The framework was published August 6, 2026, as the company settled one major-label copyright lawsuit while facing additional legal challenges.
Solana (SOL) Real-World Assets (RWAs) Market Tops $3.73 Billion
The Solana blockchain's real-world assets market reached $3.73 billion in total value, marking a new all-time high. This expansion reflects growing institutional participation in the tokenization of traditional financial instruments on the network.
Qwen 3.8-Max and Claude Opus 5 show why raw benchmark scores don't predict the bill
Alibaba's Qwen 3.8-Max was tested with a five to sixteen hour timeout per run, while the independent VulcanBench harness used 45 to 60 minutes, explaining performance differences. Cost per successful task completed should replace price-per-token comparisons as the meaningful metric, with explicit time and token budgets specified upfront.
Locals Succeed in Tripling Protected Seascapes Along 300 Miles of Turkiye’s Breathtaking Coastline
Protected marine areas along 300 miles of Turkey's Mediterranean coast were tripled through collaboration between local conservationists, fishermen, and an NGO. The expansion built upon existing marine sanctuaries that previously lacked adequate funding and enforcement mechanisms.
Google’s AI leadership comes apart in a single morning
Demis Hassabis stepped down as CEO of Google DeepMind to become chairman, while chief scientist Jeff Dean departed after 27 years to co-found a startup. Koray Kavukcuoglu, the chief technology officer, assumed responsibility for all AI model development and developer teams reporting to CEO Sundar Pichai.
AI agents are part of your team now. Here’s how to secure all of them.
AI agents now outnumber human users in 83% of organizations, but only 21% have implemented governance controls for them. Most organizations lack complete inventories of their AI agents and have not established onboarding, ownership, or offboarding processes for these non-human identities.
Circle Reveals Institutional Validators for Arc Blockchain Ahead of September Mainnet Debut
Circle has announced institutional validators for its Arc blockchain ahead of the network's September 16, 2026 mainnet launch. The validators include established financial institutions selected to secure the blockchain network.
Nayax and Zaria file for bank charters
Nayax and Zaria Systems have filed applications to charter banks in the US. Nayax operates as an Israeli payments and loyalty platform, while Zaria Systems provides infrastructure for mark-to-market credit and structured finance.
Caitlin Clark and A’ja Wilson headline stacked USA roster for Fiba World Cup
Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, and Paige Bueckers will make their World Cup debuts for the US women's basketball team. The tournament will be held in Berlin from September 4-13, with the US seeking their fifth consecutive title.
DeepSeek Buys Into Unitree’s Shanghai IPO in Humanoid AI Pact
DeepSeek invested 140.8 million yuan for a 2.31% stake in Unitree Robotics Shanghai's IPO and signed a joint development agreement for humanoid robot AI models. The investment grants DeepSeek 933,399 shares and establishes a procurement pact linking their hardware and model roadmaps.
Circuit, DaLand Give Credit Unions a Direct Path to Bitcoin
Circuit and DaLand have created a production-ready system enabling credit unions to directly offer Bitcoin and digital asset services. Credit unions can now provide these services without depending on external platforms.
Pinecone’s Nexus Knowledge Engine for AI Agents Reaches General Availability
Pinecone released its Nexus knowledge engine on August 6, 2026, a system that organizes enterprise data into a structured layer for AI agents to query. The company benchmarked the engine against competitors, positioning the knowledge layer itself as the critical component determining agent performance rather than the underlying model.
Russian President Vladimir Putin Approves Framework for Digital Assets
Russia established comprehensive regulations for digital currencies and digital rights through legislation signed August 4, 2026. The framework creates operational standards for cryptocurrency exchanges and other digital asset market participants.
Coinbase Just Got Full UK Trading License, And Tokenized US Stocks With Dividends Are the Headline Feature
Coinbase received full UK trading authorization from the FCA, enabling equity and derivatives trading in the region. The company's headline feature includes tokenized US stocks that distribute dividends to holders.
Town’s Beloved Santa Claus Delivers a Very Special Present to Someone in Need–His Donated Kidney
Dave Bell, a man known for dressing as Santa Claus annually in central Virginia, donated one of his kidneys to someone in need. The donation occurred outside the typical Christmas season, delivering what he considered a special gift regardless of the time of year.
Into the Omniverse: How Open World Models Push the Frontier of Physical AI
More than 200 companies and organizations, including NVIDIA, signed an open letter in July stating that AI leadership should be measured by open ecosystem adoption across sectors rather than individual frontier models. The signatories argued that widespread implementation throughout industries, not single advanced models, defines competitive advantage in artificial intelligence.
Major study challenges long-held fears about acetaminophen and ibuprofen use in babies
A study of nearly 4,000 babies found that acetaminophen and ibuprofen were equally safe during infancy, with neither medicine linked to eczema or bronchiolitis. Researchers will continue monitoring the children through age six to investigate potential long-term effects.
Weight-loss drug Wegovy made Novo Nordisk Europe’s most valuable company. Finding its next blockbuster drug is proving difficult
Novo Nordisk's weight-loss drug Wegovy has made it Europe's most valuable company, but a clinical trial failure and U.S. competition have created challenges. The company is doubling down on innovation and weight-loss pills to drive future growth.