Author: GT

Mistral AI has pulled back the curtain on Magistral, their first model specifically built for reasoning tasks.Magistral arrives in two flavours: a 24B parameter open-source version called Magistral Small that anyone can tinker with, and a beefier enterprise edition, Magistral Medium, aimed at commercial applications where advanced reasoning capabilities matter most.“The best human thinking isn’t linear—it weaves through logic, insight, uncertainty, and discovery,” explains Mistral AI.That’s a fair point, existing models often struggle with the messy, non-linear way humans actually think through problems. I’ve tested numerous reasoning models and they typically suffer from three key limitations: they lack depth in…

Germany, Lower Saxony, Grohnde, Grohnde Nuclear Power Plant.Westend61German start-up Proxima Fusion on Wednesday announced it had raised 130 million euros ($148 million) in a record funding round, with investors hopeful the company can soon develop the world’s first commercial nuclear fusion power plant.The Series A financing round, which was co-led by investors Cherry Ventures and Balderton Capital, represents the largest private fusion investment round in Europe to date.The buzz around nuclear fusion has kicked into overdrive in recent years. Advocates say the technology, which is the process that powers the sun and stars, can play a pivotal role in the…

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said today that the company’s social network Threads will finally begin testing a DM (direct message) inbox that’s separate from users’ Instagram DM Inboxes. This means Threads users won’t have to use Instagram or switch apps to chat with someone on the platform. The company will initially test this feature in limited geographies, including Hong Kong, Thailand, and Argentina, with plans to roll it out in other locations soon. The chat feature is currently limited to one-on-one conversations, not group messages. This will likely be seen as a positive development for Meta’s newest social network. As…

Hosting a Side Event around TechCrunch All Stage 2025 in Boston? Today is your last chance to get on the official calendar — and it’s not just for the day of our All Stage event on July 15. You can book a time during our full All Stage Week, from July 13 to 19, by sending in a submission right here. Whether it’s a happy hour, breakfast salon, off-the-record dinner, or a rooftop roundtable — we’re finalizing the list of affiliated side events now. These aren’t just fun extras. They’re a big part of what makes All Stage and the…

Snap is back with a new pair of AR smart glasses, and for the first time in years, it’s ready to sell them to consumers. The company plans to sell these new glasses, called Specs, to consumers starting in 2026, CEO Evan Spiegel announced on Tuesday during the Augmented World Expo in Long Beach, California. A Snap spokesperson tells TechCrunch the glasses will ship in 2026, as well. Snap’s Specs will feature many of the same augmented reality and artificial intelligence capabilities that are available on the company’s developer-facing smart glasses, the Spectacles 5. However, the company says the Specs…

Tech and startup events have a formula. You know it. We know it. We’ve all done it. But TechCrunch All Stage 2025, which we’re hosting July 15 at the SoWa Power Station in Boston, is designed to break out of that rinse-and-repeat model — and focus on what early-stage startups actually need to know, right now. Plus, you can still get some limited-time pricing discounts, with Investor passes coming in at a $200 reduction, Founder passes discounted by $210, and our special $99 rate exclusively for students. Move swiftly before those prices increase! This is a laser-focused day — there’s…

A day after Apple announced operating system overhauls at WWDC 2025, Google launched its own set of major software upgrades for phones. Starting Tuesday, a new release of Android 16 is rolling out to Google’s Pixel smartphone lineup. What’s more, it is adding group chat to RCS, AI-powered edit suggestions to Google Photos, and support for corporate badges in Google Wallet. The release also focuses on better accessibility support and improved customization for messaging and contacts. Separate from Android 16, Google also announced upgrades as a part of its regular feature updates for eligible Pixel phones, “Pixel Drop.” Android 16…

Some users and designers are already panning Apple’s new user interface dubbed Liquid Glass, even though it’s a bit early. There are reasons to think it might improve — but also valid critiques. While arguably the operating system design overhaul looks unfinished in many parts — notifications are too hard to read, and then there’s that monstrosity of the Control Center overlay — what Apple has shipped so far is the first developer beta, not a final release. There’s still time for many of the design systems’ current problems to be refined and corrected by the time Apple launches iOS 26…

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Elon Musk says Tesla is “tentatively” set to begin providing robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, on June 22.In a post on his X social media platform, Musk said the date could change because Tesla is “being super paranoid about safety.”Investors, Wall Street analysts and Tesla enthusiasts have been anticipating the rollout of the driverless cabs since Musk said earlier this year that the service would launch in Austin sometime in June. Last month, Musk told CNBC that the taxis will be remotely monitored at first and “geofenced” to certain areas of the city deemed the safest…

Mark Zuckerberg arrives before the inauguration of Donald Trump as the 47th president of the United States takes place inside the Capitol Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., Monday, Jan. 20, 2025.Kenny Holston | Via ReutersMark Zuckerberg is so frustrated with Meta’s standing in artificial intelligence that he’s willing to spend billions of dollars to convince Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang to join his company, people familiar with the matter told CNBC. Meta is finalizing a deal to invest $14 billion into Scale AI, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be named…