Silicon Valley's AI wunderkind launches Underdog, the most private Instinct/Muse competitor yet

Plus more of TechCrunch's top stories this afternoon

View this email online in your browser  October 06, 2026 TechCrunch Top 3 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 Mirror Particle is building a ‘world model’ of human behavior: Mirror Particle will launch at TechCrunch Disrupt's Startup Battlefield 200 with a world model built from scratch to predict human behavior, arguing that LLM role-play falls short for market research and brand strategy. Read More Furientis lands $25M from Benchmark to mass-produce low-cost missile interceptors: The storied Silicon Valley firm makes its first pure defense investment. Read More A message from Virginia Tech Study Where Technology Gets Built - Open House, October 8 2027 Meet Virginia Tech's Computer Science and Applications faculty in person at our Open House on Thursday, October 8, 6–8 PM, at Academic Building One in Alexandria. Ask about focus areas like applied AI, cybersecurity, and software systems, and learn about scholarships for Spring 2027. Explore the M.Eng 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 Anthropic is giving startups a free year of Claude Team and $1,000 in credits: "We created this program because we believe the benefits of AI will reach most people through the companies that build on top of models, rather than through the models alone." Read More Bluesky wants to give you your own domain on the open web: Bluesky says the process will still take 18-24 months, so don't expect your new, shortened 'bsky' handle any time soon. Read More Vinod Khosla believes ex-DeepMind engineer's Wajo will win agent market on trust: Wajo's Fo agent can hire humans to complete a task. Read More 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 Flai's AI dealership software is booking 50,000 appointments per month: Flai's revenue has grown 20x in a year, and the company just closed a $27 million Series A funding round. Read More A message from RoMADE From order to invoice, zero paper: freight on one platform Carriers, forwarders and warehouses still juggle separate tools for dispatch, stock, fleet and billing. Rapido, from Romania, connects TMS, WMS, ERP, CRM, eCMR and fleet on the same live data, so delivered trips become invoices in one click. Already live with a carrier and five manufacturers, it's raising €1.5M to scale across Europe and the U.S. Meet Rapido Last but Not Least AI computing startup Lambda to raise $4B ahead of planned IPO: Nvidia-backed Lambda is raising up to $4 billion at a $14.5 billion pre-money valuation ahead of a planned 2027 IPO, led by Coatue and Blackstone. 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

Bluesky wants to give you your own domain on the open web

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

View this email online in your browser  October 06, 2026 TechCrunch Top 3 Bluesky wants to give you your own domain on the open web: Bluesky says the process will still take 18-24 months, so don't expect your new, shortened 'bsky' handle any time soon. Read More Lucid Motors' EV output falls to lowest level in almost 2 years: The company is deliberately limiting production after years of struggling to find mass-market demand for its EVs. Read More Paramount closes historic Warner Bros. merger to form Skydance: The deal brings together two major streaming platforms, Paramount+ and HBO Max, along with networks including CBS, CNN, MTV, TBS, Comedy Central, and Food Network. 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 Uber is spending $2.3B to get into catering: It's the latest in a string of deals meant to grow Uber Eats into a food delivery behemoth. Read More Flai's AI dealership software is booking 50,000 appointments per month: Flai's revenue has grown 20x in a year, and the company just closed a $27 million Series A funding round. Read More Mistral’s new 1T model aims to leapfrog closed and open rivals: French AI lab Mistral AI has released Mistral Large 4, a new large multimodal model aiming to leapfrog both American and Chinese rivals. Read More Facebook tests going Reels-first in India: Meta is testing a new Facebook UX in India that sends some users directly into full-screen video when they open the app, putting Reels front and center. Read More Emmys will move from broadcast TV to Prime Video in 2027: Non-Amazon Prime subscribers will be able to watch the awards show on the platform. Read More A message from RoMADE The design agency turning MVPs into brands, live at Disrupt Great tech often ships with a forgettable brand. Clody.design, a Romanian creative studio founded in 2019, has built identities for the European Film Market, Marché du Film and TIFFCOM — and at Disrupt 2026 it's offering exclusive on-site logo concepting, turning MVPs into market-ready brands in real time. Find the team at Pavilion P99. See the portfolio Last but Not Least Get all your questions answered at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026: The full breakout session agenda revealed: Get all of your scaling and tech questions answered at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026. Here's the full breakout session agenda, happening October 13-15 in San Francisco. Register now to join and save up to $100, and get a second pass at 50% off. 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