AI News for November 13, 2026
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1TechCrunch05:35
The unfolding Jensen Huang scandal: a timeline
Jensen Huang resigned as Nvidia CEO after reports of multiple affairs, including one with a Megaspeed executive described as a suspected Chinese spy and another with a direct report. He co-founded the company in 1993 and was its only CEO, with no public succession plan, leaving the board to manage an abrupt transition. The Verge separately published Nvidia's internal emails on the handover and ran a podcast and analysis on what China may have sought from Huang.
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2Ars Technica03:23
Google rolls out Gemini 4 Hydrogen, finally replacing 3.8 Flash
Google released Gemini 4 Hydrogen as the replacement for 3.8 Flash, shipping it broadly rather than through the staged rollout used for Carbon and Argon. The model is available from today in Search's AI Mode, the Gemini app, and all Google subscription tiers, and Google says it handles multi-part questions, typo-heavy inputs, and highly specific requests better. The Verge and TechCrunch also covered the Search-side upgrade, which adds more relevant links and richer visual responses.
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3TechCrunch23:37
Jensen Huang is out at Nvidia — who is Colette Kress, his interim replacement?
Nvidia CFO Colette Kress has been named interim CEO following Huang's resignation. Kress has run the company's finances through the AI buildout and is now the executive facing customers, investors, and Washington during the transition. The board has not said when it will name a permanent successor.
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4TechCrunch02:39
Jensen Huang’s exit puts Nvidia’s support for open source in question
Huang personally drove Nvidia's open-weight model releases, its $12.9B acquisition of Hugging Face, and its lobbying against restrictions on open models, all of which now lack a clear internal champion. Hugging Face's CEO said in a separate TechCrunch interview that the company will keep fighting for open source AI regardless, while declining to resolve questions about the acquisition's future. Developers relying on Nvidia-backed open models have no commitment yet from the interim leadership.
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5TechCrunch06:42
Democrats launch Nvidia investigation, write scathing letter on Huang's 'scheme' with Trump
Congressional Democrats opened an investigation into Nvidia's China sales and the company's dealings with the Trump administration, accompanied by a sharply worded letter about Huang's conduct. It is the second congressional probe since reports of the alleged spy affair surfaced. The inquiry targets how export approvals and political access shaped Nvidia's China business.
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6TechCrunch00:36
Jensen Huang agrees to testify before Congress
Huang agreed to testify Wednesday after senior lawmakers threatened to subpoena him over the alleged affair with a woman suspected of spying for China. The hearing will put Nvidia's China sales and export-control compliance on the public record. He is appearing after being ousted as CEO, no longer speaking for the company.
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7TechCrunch04:26
Jensen Huang was having a third affair, Reuters reports
Reuters reported a third affair involving Huang, this time with another Nvidia employee whose name the outlet is withholding. The report follows the resignation and extends the board's exposure on how much it knew and when. Nvidia has not commented on the latest account.
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8TechCrunch00:12
Trump floats Apple chairman Tim Cook as Jensen Huang's successor
President Trump posted on Truth Social that Apple chairman Tim Cook is the only person who should replace Huang at Nvidia. The suggestion carries no formal weight, but it signals how closely the White House is tracking the succession at the company supplying most AI training hardware. Nvidia's board has named CFO Colette Kress as interim CEO.
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9TechCrunch05:27
Nebius tests the neocloud playbook with $40 billion in planned spending
Nebius plans to fund a $40B AI infrastructure expansion largely through customer prepayments and debt rather than equity. Delays at a Microsoft data center have raised questions about whether that financing structure holds if a major tenant slips. The approach is becoming the template for neocloud providers competing with hyperscalers on GPU capacity.
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10TechCrunch01:00
SoftBank’s billion-dollar loss may have put a cap on AI's natural gas ambitions
SoftBank lost more than $3B on natural gas turbines it preordered to power AI data centers. The write-down signals that securing dedicated gas generation ahead of demand is riskier than the buildout narrative assumed. It is likely to push other operators back toward grid contracts and existing power markets.
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11TechCrunch23:18
Norwest pushes deeper into AI with new $4B fund
Norwest closed a $4B fund, its largest to date, with AI as the central focus. The raise indicates limited partners are still willing to commit to large generalist vehicles aimed at the sector. It gives founders another source of growth-stage capital outside the AI-specialist firms.
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12Ars Technica06:28
FAA expands AI advice to manage air traffic congestion across entire US airspace
The FAA expanded an AI system that recommends how to manage congestion from regional use to the entire US airspace. Airlines backed the rollout, but the air traffic controllers' union says it was not consulted on the deployment. The dispute centers on how much weight controllers are expected to give machine-generated recommendations.
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13Ars Technica02:57
Google faces calls for AI moratoriums in schools after Gemini pilot backlash
Families are pressing schools to halt Gemini deployments on school-issued Chromebooks, following a teen's lawsuit that describes the assistant as a "suicide coach." Advocates are asking districts for moratoriums until safety requirements for minors are defined. The case puts age-appropriate safeguards for classroom assistants directly in front of school boards and regulators.
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14TechCrunch01:17
United Airlines blocks AI agents from booking flights, citing cybersecurity risks
United Airlines said customers may not use AI agents to book flights or manage reservations, citing cybersecurity risk. The policy is one of the first outright blocks by a major consumer brand against agentic browsing and checkout. It is a setback for agent vendors who have treated travel booking as a flagship use case.
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15TechCrunch23:02
Cyberattack on Fireworks AI allowed hackers to access Notion customers' chat transcripts
Attackers accessed chat transcripts belonging to Notion customers through a breach at inference provider Fireworks AI. It is Fireworks' second disclosed breach in two months. The incident shows how prompts and conversation logs held by a model-serving vendor become a shared exposure for every application built on top of it.
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16TechCrunch00:32
Five ways Jensen Huang’s ouster from Nvidia could damage the AI industry
TechCrunch argues Huang's removal matters beyond the scandal itself because he used his position to steer industry direction on supply allocation, open models, and policy toward China. The piece lays out five areas where his absence could change outcomes, from GPU access for startups to export-control lobbying. It is analysis rather than new reporting.
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17The Verge01:00
AI chatbots are recommending fake retail websites, study finds
A study by IP protection firm Podqi, shared with The Verge, prompted ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity with shopping questions and found they cited imposter and otherwise risky sites. The failure is in the citation layer rather than the answer text, so users following links can land on fraudulent storefronts. It raises the stakes for retrieval grounding and source vetting in consumer-facing assistants.
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18The Verge01:00
More game developers are starting to use generative AI
The GDC Festival of Gaming annual survey found 40 percent of game developers now use generative AI as part of their job, up from 36 percent in 2025. Usage was higher among developers at certain studio types, and the survey also tracks layoffs across the industry. The numbers give a rare measured baseline for adoption in a creative production pipeline.
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19The Verge03:42
No, AI agents did not discover a previously unknown Maya site
Google researcher Pietro Miotti claimed a team of AI agents had found a potentially unmapped Maya site in Mexico, but the site was already documented in an academic journal last year. Archaeologists criticized the claim online, and the episode illustrates how agent pipelines can produce confident findings without checking existing literature. It is a caution for teams presenting agent output as original discovery.
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20Ars Technica22:50
Google pushes privacy angle as Gemini-powered smartglasses debut starting at $395
The first Gemini-powered smartglasses launched at $395, built with Samsung, Gentle Monster, and Warby Parker. Google is leading its pitch with privacy controls, an acknowledgment of the backlash that has met camera-equipped eyewear. The devices put an always-available multimodal assistant in a consumer form factor at a mainstream price.
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21TechCrunch06:22
Muse can now place calls to US businesses — if you pay
Muse added outbound calling to US businesses, placing calls on a user's behalf to handle tasks like reservations and inquiries. The feature is restricted to paying users. It is another instance of assistants moving from text answers to actions that touch the real world on the user's account.
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22TechCrunch03:11
Nectar launches an AI agent to automate creator discovery and outreach for brands
Nectar launched an AI agent that handles influencer marketing workflows for brands, including finding creators, running outreach, managing partnerships, and tracking campaign results. It targets work currently done by agencies and in-house marketing coordinators. The product is an example of agents being sold against a specific operational job rather than as a general assistant.
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23TechCrunch01:00
Phota Labs uses AI to turn everyday photos into professional-looking shots
Phota Labs is automating the photo editing process rather than shipping another manual editor, aiming to improve everyday snapshots without user input. The bet is that consumers want results, not controls. It competes against editing features increasingly bundled into phone cameras.
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24The Verge02:06
Oh, Palantir is ‘progressive’ now, is it?
The Verge criticizes Palantir CEO Alex Karp's attempt to reposition himself politically after recent election losses for the right. The column argues the repositioning is at odds with Karp's own recorded statements. It is opinion, relevant mainly as a read on how AI and defense-data vendors are managing political exposure.
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