Call it AI, call it Super Intelligence, only 2% of consumers are buying it

This week, the White House got nearly every major tech CEO in one room — Zuckerberg, Bezos, Musk, and Anthropic’s Dario Amodei among them — to sign an AI safety pledge (techcrunch.com/2026/09/30/pledge-signed-by-pre…) that President Donald Trump called “morally binding.” Trump also signed an executive order (whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/09/in…) officially rebranding AI as “super intelligence,” and meanwhile, Meta and OpenAI are putting friendlier faces on their AI products (techcrunch.com/2026/09/29/openai-launches-dots…), even as the biggest money in AI still appears to be coming from the enterprise.

On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity (techcrunch.com/podcasts/equity) podcast, Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O’Kane dig into this week’s AI moves, the ugly economics of consumer AI (techcrunch.com/2026/09/30/the-ugly-economics-o…), plus the shifting IPO market and a handful of startup deals.

Listen to the full episode to hear more about:

• What Oura pulling its IPO (techcrunch.com/2026/09/29/oura-shelves-its-2-2…), plus Anthropic’s (techcrunch.com/2026/09/28/anthropics-prospectu…) leaked S-1 and OpenAI going back to private funding, says about how picky public markets have gotten

• Quartermaster’s $140M raise (techcrunch.com/2026/09/28/maritime-intelligenc…) to bring real-time sensors to an industry that AI basically hasn’t touched yet: maritime shipping

• Why Atomic (techcrunch.com/2026/09/29/ex-tesla-team-raises…), a supply-chain startup from ex-Tesla vets, is already running 90% of DoorDash’s purchasing

• How Startup Battlefield finalist Charter Space raised $5M to bring insurance to satellites

Speaking of Startup Battlefield, join us at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, where Equity will kick things off with a live show on the Builders Stage at 9 a.m. Get 25% off your tickets with code Equity25 (techcrunch.com/events/techcrunch-disrupt/?utm_…).

Subscribe to Equity on YouTube (youtube.com/@TechCrunch), Apple Podcasts (itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1215439780), Overcast (overcast.fm/itunes1215439780/equity), Spotify (open.spotify.com/show/5IEYLip3eDppcOmy5DmphC?s…) and all the casts. You can also follow Equity on X (twitter.com/EquityPod) and Threads (threads.net/@equitypod), at @EquityPod.

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