ChatGPT is getting a lot more visual, with the launch of a new interface

Plus more of TechCrunch's top stories this afternoon

View this email online in your browser  October 07, 2026 TechCrunch Top 3 ChatGPT is getting a lot more visual, with the launch of a new interface: OpenAI is launching a new user interface that will bring interactive visuals to ChatGPT. Read More CIA officer admits to creating fake top secret government program to steal over $190M, including gold bars: CIA officer David Rush, who worked on highly sensitive intelligence programs, reached a plea deal with U.S. prosecutors after he was caught siphoning money and gold with a fake government contract. Read More Greenairy is building smart plant towers to clean the air in your office: As it turns out, the cure for stuffy, chemical-infused office air might be a tower of leafy greenery. Read More A message from Virginia Tech Open House - Reserve Your Spot Meet Us in Alexandria: M.Eng Open House, Oct. 8 Join Virginia Tech's Master of Engineering programs for an in-person Open House on Thursday, October 8, 6–8 PM, at Academic Building One in Alexandria. Meet faculty, current students, and advisors from Computer Science and Applications and Computer Engineering, tour the facilities, and learn about scholarships for Spring 2027. Space is limited. Book Now Our biggest event of the year is coming next week, and now's the time to lock in your ticket to learning how to build successfully in the AI era. You'll get expert insights from leaders from Anthropic, Nvidia, OpenAI, Google Cloud, and hundreds of other sessions across three days.  Save 50% on a second ticket, or if you've been laid off recently, get an Expo+ Pass for just $75. Register Now Afternoon Must-Reads Bloom raises $3.6M to become the 'Alibaba' of American manufacturing: The Detroit startup has widened its scope beyond mobility to help drone and robotics companies find U.S.-based manufacturers, shippers, and more. Read More Meta rolls out new AI tools to detect ads that secretly lead to child sexual abuse material: Meta launches new AI tools after discovering ads on its platforms that may look normal but direct users to harmful content elsewhere online. Read More Another personal AI assistant has launched — Meet Tab, which emerged from stealth with a $300M valuation: A new personal AI assistant has arrived. Meet Tab, which announced Tuesday that it had officially emerged from stealth. Read More Healthleap raises $38M for its AI that flags hospital patients who may need a closer look: The financing includes an $8M seed round co-led by Sequoia Capital and First Round Capital, and a $30 million Series A led by Hummingbird Ventures. Read More SpaceX alumni nab $100M to rethink shipping with autonomous freight trains: Parallel Systems raised $100 million to scale production of its autonomous electric rail vehicle, which can shuttle thousands of pounds of freight up to 500 miles. Read More A message from RoMADE  Security guard firms still run on paper. Apseco fixes that Ghost shifts, uncovered posts, overtime that never reaches the invoice — most security guard companies still run on spreadsheets and WhatsApp. Apseco, from Romania, is one platform for scheduling, GPS-verified attendance and billing, configured around how each firm already works. Live today, seeking U.S. pilots and investors at Disrupt. See the platform Last but Not Least Microsoft releases new Nvidia-chip AI PCs with revamped Windows 11: Microsoft revealed the specs and price for its Surface Laptop Ultra, AI PCs that run on Nvidia chips that are designed to run AI models and agents. Read More Check out some of our other newsletters: StrictlyVC TechCrunch Events TechCrunch Mobility Want to adjust your daily newsletter schedule? You can do it right here Got a tip? Get in touch securely. Want to advertise on TechCrunch? advertise@techcrunch.com Has this been forwarded to you? Click here to subscribe to this newsletter. Unsubscribe Member Center Privacy Policy Copyright © 2026 TechCrunch Media LLC 501 2nd Street, Suite 650, San Francisco, CA 94107

New privacy settings for Search services and Google Play

deoreads@gmail.com Hello Deo, We’re updating our settings to give you even more control over saved history and personalized recommendations across Google Search services and Google Play. Search services include Search, Maps, Shopping, Hotels, Flights, Translate, and News. You’ll see this change in your Google Account in the next few days. What’s changing Previously, saving history and personalization were managed by Web & App Activity. Going forward, you can better tailor your Search services experience using your new Search Services History and Personalized Recommendations settings. These settings let you revisit your past searches and decide if you want your experience to be personalized. As people increasingly search in new ways, like searching a photo with Lens, Search Services History now includes media from your interactions, which you can stop saving at any time. For Google Play, you'll have new Play History and Personalization in Play settings, even if you’ve never used this service. You can turn these settings on or off at any time. How this affects your account New history and personalization settings: Your new settings for Search services and Google Play will reflect your most recent choices for Web & App Activity and Search Personalization settings. If Web & App Activity is currently off, these new settings will stay off. After the transition, the Web & App Activity setting will be separate from Search services’ and Play’s personalization and history settings. Changes to one setting won’t affect the others. Auto-delete: Your prior choice from Web & App Activity for how long your history is saved will also apply to Search Services History and Play History. As always, you can change how long history is saved, choose an auto-delete period, and review or delete history manually at any time. Your media is saved when Search Services History is on: Saved media includes your images, files, audio and video from your interactions with Search services to help improve your experience. For example, this lets you revisit your past visual searches with Lens or continue a Search Live conversation about a song you heard. To support these types of interactive product experiences, Google will now save your media to your Search Services History, applying robust privacy and security protections. Like your Search Services History, your saved media is also used to develop and improve Google services and technologies, including AI models and safety measures. With this transition, if your Web & App Activity setting is currently turned on, this new Save Media subsetting will also be turned on along with your Search Services History. You can turn off your Save Media subsetting at any time, and you can also delete individual pieces of media from your history. You can manage these preferences by visiting My Activity and your Personalization settings pages. Learn more about your Search services settings and Google Play settings.    © 2026 Google LLC 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043    You received this email to let you know about important changes to your Google Account and services.

Another personal AI assistant has launched — Meet Tab, which emerged from stealth with a $300M valuation

Plus more of TechCrunch's top stories to start your morning

View this email online in your browser  October 07, 2026 TechCrunch Top 3 Another personal AI assistant has launched — Meet Tab, which emerged from stealth with a $300M valuation: A new personal AI assistant has arrived. Meet Tab, which announced Tuesday that it had officially emerged from stealth. Read More Spotify expands audiobooks to over 180 markets: Spotify will make 350,000 titles available in over 120 languages for this expansion. Read More Silicon Valley's AI wunderkind launches Underdog, the most private Instinct/Muse competitor yet: Sigil Wen, backed by a Silicon Valley who's who, has built an on-device AI assistant that promises to be free, fully private, and capable for everyday tasks. Read More A message from R1 Healthcare's Revenue Black Box, Decoded The biggest opportunity for AI in healthcare isn't automation, it's observability. R1’s Payer Atlas analyzes payer behavior across millions of interactions to uncover hidden patterns and detect reimbursement risk, helping health systems move from reactive recovery to predictive action.  Discover Payer Atlas  Our biggest event of the year is coming next week, and now's the time to lock in your ticket to learning how to build successfully in the AI era. You'll get expert insights from leaders from Anthropic, Nvidia, OpenAI, Google Cloud, and hundreds of other sessions across three days.  Save 50% on a second ticket, or if you've been laid off recently, get an Expo+ Pass for just $75. Register Now Morning Must-Reads How AI decision models could change content moderation: On Tuesday, Musubi announced a lightweight decision model made for real-time moderation called PolicyLM-1.7B, released with open weights. Read More Google's new SynthID website can identify AI-generated media: Google on Tuesday launched a new site that lets anyone verify whether a piece of media, be it an image, a video, or an audio clip, is generated using AI. Read More Tony Fadell on why the first wave of AI gadgets failed — and what comes next: The “father of the iPod” says the first generation of AI gadgets failed to solve real problems — and the next wave will need to earn consumers’ trust. Read More Google experiments with an AI-powered gaming platform: Google Labs is working on a new AI-powered game-creation platform called Playground for users to build browser-based games using simple text prompts. Read More Ex-Ramp engineers raise $20M for platform Melius after scrapping their first product: Instead of helping marketers manage and optimize ad spend, the company is focusing on building the tools that generate the creative assets and campaigns. Read More A message from RoMADE See your attack surface before adversaries do Attackers map your exposed assets and target your people. Simulated Security, built in Romania, shows you what they see: attack surface discovery, dark web monitoring, multi-step phishing simulations (2FA bypass, vishing, quishing) and immersive training in one platform. Used by Beetroot, Mitek and Vroon. Meet the team at Disrupt 2026. Explore the platform Last but Not Least Apple is reportedly partnering with LG to launch a smart lock, thermostat, and doorbell: Apple appears poised to push into the smart home market with a slate of new devices and a key partner. Read More Check out some of our other newsletters: StrictlyVC TechCrunch Events TechCrunch Mobility Want to adjust your daily newsletter schedule? You can do it right here Got a tip? Get in touch securely. Want to advertise on TechCrunch? advertise@techcrunch.com Has this been forwarded to you? Click here to subscribe to this newsletter. Unsubscribe Member Center Privacy Policy Copyright © 2026 TechCrunch Media LLC 501 2nd Street, Suite 650, San Francisco, CA 94107