Instinct’s powerful AI assistant is raising privacy and security concerns

Plus more of TechCrunch's top stories this afternoon

View this email online in your browser  August 24, 2026 TechCrunch Top 3 Instinct’s powerful AI assistant is raising privacy and security concerns: Early testers are raving about what Instinct can do, but some say the AI assistant’s sweeping access, broad terms, and ability to act on users’ behalf come with uncomfortable trade-offs. Read More Amazon hikes hardware prices by 60%, blaming memory shortage: As the memory shortage continues to cause trouble for hardware makers, Amazon says it is now being forced to pass on the costs to its consumers. Read More Alabama launches investigation into OpenAI's hack of Hugging Face: Weeks after OpenAI disclosed that one of its cybersecurity models had gone rogue and hacked AI dataset company Hugging Face, Alabama’s attorney general announced an investigation into the incident. Read More Afternoon Must-Reads Zillow and Redfin settle FTC antitrust case: Zillow and Redfin reached a settlement with the FTC, which requires Redfin to reenter the rental advertising business. Read More Hugging Face reportedly in talks to be acquired for $13B: Hugging Face has reportedly been fielding acquisition offers that would value the company at around $13B. But with the founders' feeling of responsibility to community, doubts arise as to whether a sale will happen. Read More Amjad Masad, CEO and co-founder of Replit, joins the Disrupt Stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 : At TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, Replit CEO Amjad Masad will share his perspective on the future of programming and Replit's role in developing it. Read More Apply now to host a Side Event at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026: Apply before September 4 to be a part of the TechCrunch Disrupt community by hosting your own Side Event. Read More Who's behind the new ‘stealth model’ Ox Alpha?: A mysterious new AI model called Ox Alpha has driven certain corners of the internet into a frenzy of speculation. Read More A message from ThoughtSpot Why Traditional Analytics Are Failing Modern Teams Your customers want answers inside your product, not another dashboard. Join ThoughtSpot on August 27 to see how top teams build AI-native analytics that tell users what to do next. Register Now Last but Not Least OpenAI is building AI agents for everything. Will everyone use them?: Inside the frontier lab’s push to bring AI agents from software engineers to the masses. 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