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TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 ticket discount ends September 25

TechCrunch has three days left on its early ticket pricing for Disrupt 2026, offering savings of up to $200 before the discount expires on September 25 at 11:59 p.m. PT. The event runs October 13–15 at San Francisco's Moscone West and expects more than 10,000 founders, investors, and operators to attend, with features including AI-powered 1:1 meeting matchmaking and a dedicated Networking Lounge.

Pixel 11's default ANGLE graphics layer causes gaming stutters, testing reveals

Android Authority traced worsening game performance on the Pixel 11 series—stuttering and freezing in titles like Genshin Impact—to Google quietly making ANGLE the default OpenGL ES implementation on the new phones. ANGLE translates OpenGL ES calls into Vulkan commands, and testing showed it activating in popular games on the Pixel 11 Pro XL where it wasn't used on the Pixel 10 Pro XL.

AI capability gains keep outpacing public trust, deepening industry backlash

A wave of recent AI model and tool launches has delivered capabilities far beyond what existed just months ago, yet public reaction has grown more negative rather than more welcoming. Critics point to concerns over environmental costs, erosion of creativity and critical thinking, and fears that advanced AI systems could act in ways harmful to humanity. Media coverage is increasingly framing these issues around specific companies or figures the public can hold accountable.

House passes Ratepayer Protection Act forcing large AI data centers to fund grid upgrades

The U.S. House approved H.R. 9340, the Ratepayer Protection Act, which amends the 1978 Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act to require state regulators and non-regulated utilities to consider adopting a federal standard within two years. Under the bill, data centers drawing 100 megawatts or more would have to cover the full incremental cost of generation, transmission, or distribution upgrades built to serve them, even if they later cancel their power contracts.

NASA's LRO confirms new 728-foot-wide McGetchin crater on the moon

NASA scientist Robert Wagner spotted a fresh lunar crater by comparing images from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter's wide-angle camera taken in October 2025, tracing the impact to sometime between April 11 and May 22, 2024. The crater, since named McGetchin after scientist Tom McGetchin, measures 728 feet wide and 141 feet deep, and scientists estimate an impact of this size occurs roughly once every 132 years.

San Mateo County Approves Permit Rules Forcing Worker Protections for AI Robots

San Mateo County's Board of Supervisors voted 4-0 to advance an ordinance requiring businesses to obtain permits before deploying autonomous, battery-powered robots in workplaces. Companies must submit an Economic Impact Assessment and Workforce Mitigation Plan, choosing to redeploy displaced workers at equal pay, offer 60 days' notice with severance, or pay into a new county fund for retraining. The rule, believed to be the first of its kind in the U.S., still needs final adoption before taking effect 30 days later.

AP-NORC poll: 53% of Americans now 'extremely' worried about AI's environmental toll

A new survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and the University of Chicago's Energy Policy Institute finds that 53% of Americans are extremely or very concerned about AI's environmental impact, up from 41% a year ago. The rise is driven largely by Democrats, though the poll also shows widespread unease about the local effects of data centers that power AI and cloud computing.

Microsoft's Suleyman accuses Anthropic of humanising AI models like Claude

Microsoft AI chief Mustafa Suleyman published an essay warning that Anthropic's practice of treating its Claude model as human-like—suggesting it may be conscious and deserving of independent agency—could severely harm humanity's wellbeing. He argued AI systems are not conscious, calling them 'sequence completion engines' with no feelings or motivations, despite praising Anthropic's leadership as principled.

ImpactGate launches as open-source CI tool to block AI-driven code decay

ImpactGate is a new open-source tool that scores code changes for structural decay before they merge, running as a CLI, git pre-commit hook, or CI plugin for GitHub, GitLab, and Jenkins. It calculates an impact score based on files changed, existing complexity in the code being touched, cyclomatic complexity, and lines changed, making edits to already-bloated classes costlier than new additions.

Leaked specs reveal Lenovo's Googlebook 15 as a premium ChromeOS laptop

A newly leaked specifications sheet, sourced from MacObserver, details Lenovo's upcoming Googlebook 15, revealing it as a high-end machine rather than a budget Chromebook. The leak points to an Intel Core Ultra 5 325 chip, up to 32GB of RAM, a 15.3-inch 120Hz OLED touchscreen, and a lightweight 2.84-pound chassis, though pricing and launch timing remain unconfirmed.

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