India’s Avataar AI launches a video model that costs $0.005 per second, 27x cheaper than rivals
India’s Avataar AI launches a video model that costs $0.005 per second, 27x cheaper than rivals

Bangalore-based Avataar AI has launched Varya, one of India’s first homegrown video AI models. It generates video at roughly $0.005 per second, or 0.48 rupees. Founder Sravanth Aluru, a former Deutsche Bank investment banker and Microsoft and IIT Mumba…

SpaceX rented Colossus 1 to Anthropic because it couldn’t make the data centre work for Grok
SpaceX rented Colossus 1 to Anthropic because it couldn’t make the data centre work for Grok

SpaceX rented its Colossus 1 data centre to Anthropic not because it had surplus capacity, but because it could not make the facility work for its own AI models. Bloomberg reported on Friday that SpaceX encountered latency issues when trying to connect…

London Tech Week 2026: the AI billions, the US build-out, and a royal first
London Tech Week 2026: the AI billions, the US build-out, and a royal first

London Tech Week wrapped its 12th edition this week, after three days of main-stage programming at Olympia from 8 to 10 June, with fringe events running across the city through Friday. The festival drew more than 30,000 people from over 130 countries, …

Spotify is adding editor-hosted videos to New Music Friday so you can meet the people behind the playlist
Spotify is adding editor-hosted videos to New Music Friday so you can meet the people behind the playlist

Spotify is adding short-form videos from its editorial team to New Music Friday, its flagship weekly playlist for new releases. The videos feature Spotify’s curators sharing their picks, spotlighting rising artists, and explaining the stories behind so…

Firefox’s AI kill switch exists. Only 1% of users have flipped it.
Firefox’s AI kill switch exists. Only 1% of users have flipped it.

Mozilla built an AI kill switch into Firefox after its users demanded one. Only 1% have used it. Another 3% turned off some AI features selectively. The rest left everything on. CEO Anthony Enzor-DeMeo says the point is not the percentage but the choic…

Google sues Chinese cybercrime ring that used Gemini to build phishing sites and send 2.5 million scam texts
Google sues Chinese cybercrime ring that used Gemini to build phishing sites and send 2.5 million scam texts

Google filed a lawsuit on Friday to dismantle the infrastructure behind a Chinese cybercrime operation called Outsider Enterprise. The group used AI, including Google’s own Gemini, to generate phishing websites and send scam text messages impersonating…

IMF chief warns advanced AI models like Mythos “can be used to destroy the financial system”
IMF chief warns advanced AI models like Mythos “can be used to destroy the financial system”

The head of the International Monetary Fund warned on Wednesday that advanced AI models like Anthropic’s Mythos “can be used to destroy the financial system” if they fall into the wrong hands. IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva made the comment…

From AI deals to streaming fraud, the music industry is wrestling with four existential battles at once
From AI deals to streaming fraud, the music industry is wrestling with four existential battles at once

The music industry descended on New York this week for Indie Week and a flurry of parallel gatherings. The conversations kept circling back to the same handful of anxieties: generative AI, streaming fraud, underpaid songwriters, and the organisations m…

SpaceX IPO makes Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire, but your retirement fund is picking up the tab
SpaceX IPO makes Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire, but your retirement fund is picking up the tab

Elon Musk is now worth more than $1 trillion. The SpaceX IPO, which priced 555.6 million shares at $135 each on 12 June, valued the company at roughly $1.77 trillion and pushed Musk past a threshold no individual has ever crossed. His SpaceX stake alon…

Starlink is SpaceX’s cash machine, but the maths is getting harder
Starlink is SpaceX’s cash machine, but the maths is getting harder

SpaceX’s satellite internet service had 10.3 million subscribers at the end of the first quarter of 2026, more than double the 4.4 million it reported a year earlier. That growth rate is extraordinary by any standard in telecommunications, let alone fo…