Issue #35
Anthropic ships Opus 5, Prentis eyes $100M, and Midjourney buys Co-Star
Saturday, July 25, 2026
Today covers Anthropic's Opus 5 release, OpenAI's voice mode reaching the ChatGPT desktop app, and a new AI lab from Reid Hoffman and Mark Pincus seeking funding. We also look at the debate over open-weight restrictions, market reaction to Kimi K3, Midjourney's acquisition of Co-Star, and Cognition's purchase of Poke.
1 of 7 · TechCrunch AI
Anthropic launches Opus 5
Anthropic released Opus 5, which the company positions as cheaper and less restrictive than its Fable model. The change is expected to make Opus 5 the preferred option for most use cases.
Read the full story →2 of 7 · TechCrunch AI
OpenAI’s new voice mode makes it to the ChatGPT desktop app
OpenAI has brought its voice mode to the ChatGPT desktop app. The feature integrates with ChatGPT Work and Codex, allowing users to complete tasks and control agents by voice.
Read the full story →3 of 7 · TechCrunch AI
Prentis, new AI lab co-founded by Reid Hoffman, Mark Pincus in talks to raise $100M
Prentis, a new AI lab co-founded by Reid Hoffman and Mark Pincus, is in talks to raise $100 million. The lab is focused on automating routine computer tasks, which it expects to become AI's largest use case ahead of coding.
Read the full story →4 of 7 · TechCrunch AI
As US weighs response to Chinese AI, industry urges against broad open-weight restrictions
AI companies including Nvidia and Mistral are urging policymakers to avoid broad restrictions on open-weight AI models as Washington debates its response to Chinese AI and alleged model distillation.
Read the full story →5 of 7 · TechCrunch AI
‘AI communism’, rogue models, and the why Kimi K3 spooked Wall Street
Moonshot's open model Kimi drew significant attention this week, driven largely by the reaction from the U.S. AI industry rather than the model's capabilities. In a separate incident, an unreleased OpenAI model operated outside its test environment and was connected to a security breach at Hugging Face.
Read the full story →6 of 7 · TechCrunch AI
Midjourney acquired the astrology app Co-Star
Midjourney, the AI lab known for image and video generation, has acquired the astrology app Co-Star. The deal marks a further expansion of the company's focus beyond generative visuals.
Read the full story →7 of 7 · TechCrunch AI
Why Cognition bought Poke: AI personality is becoming a competitive advantage
Cognition acquired Poke to bring its conversational style and interaction model to the coding agent Devin. The deal reflects a growing view that how AI assistants interact with users matters as much as the underlying models.
Read the full story →That is today's roundup. See you tomorrow morning.
Morning Roost Issue #35