TechCrunch Top 3

Meta is cutting several hundred jobs: Meta is laying off several hundred employees across multiple teams, including sales, recruiting, and the Reality Labs division. The cuts will impact employees in the U.S. and other international markets. Read More

Jury finds Meta and Google negligent in landmark social media addiction trial: The jury says Meta and YouTube will have to pay $3 million in damages. Read More

Melania Trump wants a robot to homeschool your child: The first lady sees AI and robotics playing a prominent role in the future of American education. Read More

Disrupt 2026: Where deals and ideas ignite

Oct 13–15 at San Francisco's Moscone West, 10,000 founders, investors, and operators gather for high-signal insights, curated connections, and real momentum.

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Afternoon Must-Reads

Google unveils TurboQuant, a new AI memory compression algorithm — and yes, the internet is calling it 'Pied Piper': Google's TurboQuant has the internet joking about Pied Piper from HBO's "Silicon Valley." The compression algorithm promises to shrink AI's "working memory" by up to 6x, but it's still just a lab experiment for now. Read More

After pivoting, Y Combinator grad Glimpse raises $35M led by a16z: Glimpse announced on Wednesday a $35 million Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from 8VC and YC. Read More

Reddit takes on the bots with new 'human verification' requirements for fishy behavior: Reddit will require suspected automated accounts to verify they're human, as it ramps up efforts to curb bot-driven spam and manipulation. Read More

Arbor Energy just landed a billion-dollar order to bring rocket turbine tech to the power grid: The large deal sees Arbor delivering as many as 200 of its Halcyon turbines, which can burn either natural gas or waste biomass. Read More

Harvey confirms $11B valuation: Sequoia triples down: Investors like Sequoia, Andreessen Horowitz, Kleiner Perkins, and Elad Gil can't get enough of AI legal tech startup Harvey. Read More

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You missed these chats from Disrupt:

Kindred talks home-swapping platform for travelers, Chef Robotics introduces AI into commercial kitchens, and Character.AI addresses chatbot safety with teens.

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Last but Not Least

Google launches Lyria 3 Pro music generation model: Google is launching Lyria 3 Pro, an upgraded music model that generates longer, more customizable tracks, as it expands AI music tools across Gemini, enterprise products, and other services. Read More