The Dell Laptop Buying Guide UK: Which Dell Laptop Should You Buy? When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. AI looms large in the big national conversation. Would I find any recognition of growing concern and cynicism at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026? I spoke 1-on-1 with startup founders, searching for signals of a new AI vibe. As I was developing my reporting plan for TechCrunch Disrupt last week, one key question loomed large in my head: Would I find any AI startups at this annual summit for fledgling tech companies? The conference is in San Francisco, after all, so finding AI tech might prove difficult. But I wanted to at least try.

Disney Asked Character.AI to Go Bankrupt for a Get-Out-of-Lawsuits Card The entertainment giant hopes to get trust and safety tech, among other IP, from a startup whose chatbots dozens of states allege encouraged minors to self-harm and kill their parents. This week, Character.AI declared bankruptcy. While some saw the fall of a chatbot platform as a harbinger for the industry, court filings indicate that the decision was actually a key part of a deal that has let Disney hire most of Character.AI's staff--including its now former CEO Karandeep Anand --potentially acquire most of Character.AI's technology, and avoid the beleaguered startup's many legal liabilities and obligations. In the past few years, Character.AI has faced multiple private lawsuits over the safety of its chatbots, as well as investigations from regulators around the world. In a declaration filed as part of the bankruptcy, Character.AI's newly appointed CEO explained that the goal of the bankruptcy was to reach a "consensual resolution" with personal injury claimants and a group of states investigating the company, while maximizing the value of the company's assets for shareholders.

The Saudi national accused of bugging OpenAI's headquarters booked a one-way flight to Saudi Arabia before his arrest, US prosecutors have alleged. Abdulrahman Alfozan, a former OpenAI engineer, had been scheduled to fly to Saudi Arabia with his wife and another family member on October 12, prosecutors said in a court filing unsealed on Wednesday. Alfozan, 35, has been charged with "using or endeavoring to use an electronic, mechanical, or other device to intercept oral communications". The offence carries a maximum punishment of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Prosecutors disclosed the alleged flight booking to a judge on October 8 in a motion seeking to seal the criminal complaint against Alfozan, arguing he had the "means - and will have an incentive - to flee" the United States.

A new industry is giving their data an afterlife in AI. When Keelan Miskell began winding down his crypto startup this year, he didn't think its data was worth much: the users were anonymous, the company just a few years old. But he's since turned the firm's digital archives into real money. He's netted roughly $25,000 for his code base and a still-pending amount (likely around $15,000) for the workspace data in Google, Notion, Figma, and Slack. "At least all that stuff we were doing for two and a half years is worth something to someone somewhere," he says. The sale was brokered by a company called SimpleClosure, part of a new growth sector in tech: businesses catering to dying startups.

Plus: Trump has unveiled a "Super Intelligence Force" to oversee AI. People really hate AI, so why can't they get enough? Over the summer I talked to the CEO of Springboards, a startup building an LLM designed to come up with a wide variety of responses . He said something that's been stuck in my head since: "We often say that we're a self-loathing AI company. We don't know if we really like what we're doing." "I guess that makes me a self-loathing AI journalist."

Over the summer I talked to the CEO of Springboards, a startup building an LLM that's designed to come up with a wider variety of responses than its mainstream rivals do. At the start of the call, he said something that's been stuck in my head since: "We often say that we're a self-loathing AI company. We don't know if we really like what we're doing." "I guess that makes me a self-loathing AI journalist," I replied.

Russian trolls push fake videos with our name on them in order to sow chaos ahead of the election. Trump hates scrutiny, so he cries "FAKE NEWS" and bans the free press from his briefings. And AI companies steal our reporting in the pursuit of power and profit. We're ready to keep uncovering the truth that those in power don't want you to know. But we need your support to do that.

Russian trolls push fake videos with our name on them in order to sow chaos ahead of the election. Trump hates scrutiny, so he cries "FAKE NEWS" and bans the free press from his briefings. And AI companies steal our reporting in the pursuit of power and profit. We're ready to keep uncovering the truth that those in power don't want you to know. But we need your support to do that.

The Biological Computing Company is bringing its AI tools to Amazon Web Services in a major boost for a once-fringe field that aims to marry nature with code. A scientist tracks real-time neural activity from a brain cell culture. A biological computing startup that uses neural patterns from rat brain cells to build artificial intelligence just got a major boost from Amazon. Starting Tuesday, select Amazon Web Services customers will gain access to The Biological Computing Company's "rat brain" AI model as part of a limited preview. The startup's technology is specifically designed to improve AI for generating videos.

Women hold some of the most consequential jobs in tech, but they're still not cult figures. Mira Murati was trying to speak. Giant piles of carved meat rested like sleeping babies on banquet tables draped in linens as red as a handmaid's robe. Bartenders served up a cocktail named Zero to One, a nod to the philosophy of Peter Thiel. It was a recent Saturday night in a converted church in San Francisco, and the Foundation for American Innovation, a center-right think tank, was hosting a black-tie affair to hype the new religion of AI. Murati, the founder and CEO of Thinking Machines Lab, was talking about the history of revolutions to a crowd of more than 350 people. The Albanian-born executive had for several years kept a relatively low profile as a VP and then CTO of OpenAI before participating in an unsuccessful coup against Sam Altman and then launching her own $12 billion AI startup. Now, with chatter bouncing off the church walls, Murati's efforts to get her points across were about as successful as that coup: No one seemed to be listening. The woman interviewing Murati asked more than once for people to stop talking or take their conversations outside. I whispered to the friend sitting next to me that this was the second time in a week that I'd seen a woman getting drowned out. Both of us were there to actually hear what Murati had to say. I tried to restrain myself from what I said next, but I sensed my friend was holding back too. "Her hair is amazing, though," I hissed. "Oh my God, I know," she replied immediately. Soon after, President Donald Trump's top science adviser, Michael Kratsios, took the stage.