October 09, 2026

TechCrunch Top 3

Batteries are now cheaper than natural gas turbines used at many data centers: Batteries are now cheaper than natural gas turbines as the data center boom pushes prices up. Read More

An Anthropic AI model sent a false homicide tip to Philadelphia police: Anthropic did not discover this behavior until over two months after its AI submitted the false tip. Read More

LumenUs helps automate tedious paperwork in times of grief: "The day your loved one passes away, you also get this honorary badge of a project manager for a project you had no idea about," said founder Sara Tashakorinia. Read More

A message from Virginia Tech

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Afternoon Must-Reads

Surveillance company Flock cuts staff as privacy backlash grows: Flock would not say if CEO Garrett Langley would take a pay cut following the reduction in workforce. Read More

Remember Orkut? Its founder wants to bring it back: Orkut's founder is now taking aim at algorithms and AI-generated content. Read More

Automattic interim CFO resigns just weeks after boardroom shakeup: Automattic's interim chief financial officer Jeremy Klaperman has left the company less than a month after taking the role, TechCrunch has learned. Sources say his departure followed a demotion back to his previous position, marking another executive exit amid the organization's leadership turmoil. Read More

Xona's commercial GPS alternative is about to go live: Xona's precision timing and navigation service will enter beta testing after SpaceX launches six satellites designed by the company. Read More

President Trump awards Big Tech donors with nation's highest science prizes: Together, the awardees have donated nearly $6 billion to efforts tied to Trump and his administration. Read More

A message from RoMADE

Every hospital device, its full history, one QR scan away

Hospitals pay to service hundreds of devices yet can't say which were checked, where they are or who is responsible. MedTrackQR, from Romania's MedSys Innovation, puts a QR label on every device: any phone scans it, no app or account, and sees status, owner and full maintenance history. Audit registers build themselves. Meet them at Disrupt.

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Last but Not Least

Tesla renames 'Full Self-Driving' to 'Tesla Assisted Driving' in Europe: The name change is enough for Germany's transport minister to start advocating for Europe-wide adoption of the driver assistance software. Read More