This prediction is based on several decades of research that my colleagues and I have been undertaking at the University of Oxford to establish what makes people willing to fight and die for their groups. We use a variety of methods, including interviews, surveys, and psychological experiments to collect data from a wide range of groups, such as tribal warriors, armed insurgents, terrorists, conventional soldiers, religious fundamentalists, and violent football fans.

We have found that life-changing and group-defining experiences cause our personal and collective identities to become fused together. We call it “identity fusion.” Fused individuals will stop at nothing to advance the interests of their groups, and this applies not only to acts we would applaud as heroic—such as rescuing children from burning buildings or taking a bullet for one’s comrades—but also acts of suicide terrorism.

Fusion is commonly measured by showing people a small circle (representing you) and a big circle (representing your group) and placing pairs of such circles in a sequence so that they overlap to varying degrees: not at all, then just a little bit, then a bit more, and so on until the little circle is completely enclosed in the big circle. Then people are asked which pair of circles best captures their relationship with the group. People who choose the one in which the little circle is inside the big circle are said to be “fused.” Those are people who love their group so much that they will do almost anything to protect it.

This isn’t unique to humans. Some species of birds will feign a broken wing to draw a predator away from their fledglings. One species—the superb fairy wren of Australasia—lures predators away from their young by making darting movements and squeaky sounds to imitate the behavior of a delectable mouse. Humans too will typically go to great lengths to protect their genetic relatives, especially their children who (except for identical twins) share more of their genes than other family members. But—unusually in the animal kingdom—humans often go further still by putting themselves in harm’s way to protect groups of genetically unrelated members of the tribe. In ancient prehistory, such tribes were small enough that everyone knew everybody else. These local groups bonded through shared ordeals such as painful initiations, by hunting dangerous animals together, and by fighting bravely on the battlefield.

Nowadays, however, fusion is scaled up to vastly bigger groups, thanks to the ability of the world’s media—including social media—to fill our heads with images of horrendous suffering in faraway regional conflicts.

When I met with one of the former leaders of the terrorist organization Jemaah Islamiyah in Indonesia, he told me he first became radicalized in the 1980s after reading newspaper reports about the treatment of fellow Muslims by Russian soldiers in Afghanistan. Twenty years later, however, nearly a third of American extremists were radicalized via social media feeds, and by 2016 that proportion had risen to about three quarters. Smartphones and immersive reporting shrinks the world to such an extent that forms of shared suffering in face-to-face groups can now be largely recreated and spread to millions of people across thousands of miles at the click of a button.

Fusion based on shared suffering may be powerful, but is not sufficient by itself to motivate violent extremism. Our research suggests that three other ingredients are also necessary to produce the deadly cocktail: outgroup threat, demonization of the enemy, and the belief that peaceful alternatives are lacking. In regions such as Gaza, where the sufferings of civilians are regularly captured on video and shared around the world, it is only natural that rates of fusion among those watching on in horror will increase. If people believe that peaceful solutions are impossible, violent extremism will spiral.

Samsung Unpacked’s “one more thing” was a bit of a weird one. After the presentation ended, the company rolled a brief pre-packaged video of the Galaxy Edge — not to be confused with the “Star Wars” theme park of the same name.

Though limited, the reveal was confirmation of earlier rumors that the hardware giant is working on an extra-thin version of its new S25 flagship. The Galaxy S25 Edge is, presumably, another tier for the line, slotting in alongside the S25, S25+, and S25 Ultra.

Key details, including pricing, availability, and actual thickness were not revealed, though the company did showcase what appeared to be dummy models at Wednesday’s event. Early rumors pointed to a 6.4 mm thickness, a considerable reduction from the base Galaxy S25’s 7.2 mm.

Samsung clearly wanted to avoid taking too much wind out of the Galaxy S25’s sails during the event, so it opted instead for a more cryptic reveal. Even so, the mere appearance of the device at Unpacked may be enough to keep early adopters from preordering the S25 ahead of its February 7 release.

After all, those are precisely the folks who get excited by things like a 0.8 mm profile reduction.

• GMKTec joins HP with a Ryzen AI Max+ 395 workstation mini PC
• The Max+ 395 is currently the world’s most powerful APU and could be a nuisance to Nvidia’s DIGITS GB10
• Expect products based on the 395 to roll out later in Q2 2025 after Chinese New Year

GMK, an emerging Chinese brand in the mini PC market, has announced (originally in Chinese) the upcoming launch of a new product powered by the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395.

The company claims this will be the world’s first mini PC featuring the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 chip. It also plans to offer versions with non-Plus Ryzen AI Max APUs.

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff was literally chuckling when talking to CNBC from Davos about the new rift in Microsoft’s relationship with OpenAI. As part of OpenAI’s plans to team up with SoftBank and Oracle on a $500 billion data center project called Stargate, Microsoft is no longer the exclusive cloud provider for OpenAI.

“I think it’s extremely important that OpenAI gets to other platforms quickly because Microsoft is building their own AI and I don’t think Microsoft will use OpenAI in the future. They’ll have their own frontier models,” Benioff predicted, laughing. “That’s why they hired Mustafa Suleyman. And Mustafa Suleyman and Sam Altman are not best friends.”

Benioff said their dislike was visible at the year-ago Davos show, “where Sam and Mustafa were on panels together and not getting along.”

The end of Microsoft exclusively hosting OpenAI was destined to happen. Microsoft invested $1 billion in OpenAI in 2019 — years before OpenAI released ChatGPT at the end of 2022. Now, OpenAI appears bound for its own tech giant status, perhaps one day to rival Microsoft. OpenAI has also blamed a lack of available compute for product delays, indicating it needs more data center capacity than Microsoft can (or perhaps wants to) provide. And OpenAI’s exclusive agreement with Microsoft was to end whenever OpenAI achieved what they both agreed was AGI. To hear Sam Altman tell it, AGI is possible now. 

Some reports indicate tension between the two companies has been building since at least mid-2023, after OpenAI released its own, competing enterprise product. After Altman was fired and reinstated as OpenAI CEO in late 2023, employees from both companies told Business Insider they really don’t like working together. OpenAI’s folks tended to look down on those at Microsoft, some employees said.

Just a few months later, in early 2024, Nadella thumbed his nose back by hiring DeepMind and Inflection co-founder Mustafa Suleyman to lead Microsoft AI. (Microsoft has not yet responded to our request for comment.)

While Benioff may hope that Microsoft will fully abandon OpenAI in the future, that could be wishful thinking, although Microsoft is reportedly working on its own LLM called MAI-1. Still, when Microsoft announced earlier this month a new AI group led by Jay Parikh that will build AI agents and apps, the post didn’t even mention OpenAI.

This latest fissure in the partnership is good news for Benioff. Salesforce also uses OpenAI’s enterprise models, and is an investor in OpenAI rival Anthropic.

Even so, Benioff’s observations about Suleyman aren’t completely off. Suleyman has been known to dismiss Altman’s vision especially around AGI, and admitted last month in an interview with The Verge that the OpenAI partnership has “little tensions here and there.”

TechCrunch has an AI-focused newsletter! Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Wednesday.

Amid the Cold War, the possibility of a nuclear attack was deeply feared, yet at the same time, weirdly unimaginable. The stark terror of nuclear disaster persisted for years, highlighted in the 1984 BBC drama film “Threads”.

The film explored the hypothetical event of a nuclear bomb being dropped on a British city, and the societal breakdown that followed. People were horrified by the film, and it showcased everyone’s deepest and darkest fears around nuclear fallout.

After a turbulent few years for companies operating in the real estate market, Divvy Homes announced Wednesday that it is getting acquired by a division of Brookfield Properties for “a total consideration” of about $1 billion.

The outcome may not be the fire sale as previously described in other reports, although it is less than the $2.3 billion that Divvy was last publicly valued at in 2021. The deal is expected to close in mid-February. (Reporter’s note: After this story was published, TechCrunch learned that some Divvy shareholders may not receive proceeds from the acquisition, according to a letter from CEO and co-founder Adena Hefets that was viewed by TechCrunch.)

Divvy operated a rent-to-own model in which it worked with renters who wanted to become homeowners by buying the home they wanted and renting it back to them for three years while they built “the savings needed to own it themselves,” it said.

The company ran into some hiccups when mortgage interest rates began to surge in 2022, conducting three known rounds of layoffs in a year’s time.

Founded in 2016, the once-buzzy startup had raised more than $700 million in debt and equity from well-known investors such as Tiger Global Management, GGV Capital, and Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), among others. Divvy’s last known funding occurred in August 2021 — a $200 million Series D funding led by Tiger Global Management and Caffeinated Capital. The Series D round was announced just six months after a $110 million Series C. 

Maymont Homes, the Brookfield unit that is buying Divvy, operates in over 40 markets across the United States. In a written statement, Divvy said it has “created 2,000 homeowners to date.”  

Want more fintech news in your inbox? Sign up for TechCrunch Fintech here.

Want to reach out with a tip? Email me at maryann@techcrunch.com or send me a message on Signal at 408.204.3036. You can also send a note to the whole TechCrunch crew at tips@techcrunch.com. For more secure communications, click here to contact us, which includes SecureDrop and links to encrypted messaging apps.

• The team behind Nord Security, Tesonet, Hostinger, Oxylabs launches AI orchestration platform
• The orchestration platform aims to resolve a major pain point, deploying AI LLMs at scale seamlessly
• $8 million raised to help enterprises handle the mounting amount of LLMs, with more than 200 now supported

As artificial intelligence tools rapidly evolve, businesses face growing challenges in managing AI models, balancing costs, and ensuring reliable performance.

Nexos.ai, a new unified AI orchestration platform from the founders of business VPN vendor Nord is designed to help enterprises deploy AI at scale by addressing these challenges; providing access to over 200 AI models to simplify their integration into enterprise

I don’t know if you’re like me, but one of my favorite ways to treat myself is with products that I know will help me better my body and ease any pain. Therabody has a slew of truly great products to help with everything from sore muscles, to aches and pains, and even has a full-on total body recliner, eyemasks to relieve headaches, and a LED skincare mask to keep you looking your best. Although these products can be expensive, they are a truly invaluable way to keep yourself looking and feeling good (plus, this helps to avoid even more expensive hospital visits down the line). Not sure where to start? We have a Therabody tools guide to help you find which product is right for your needs. And lucky for you, once you’ve found the right product, you can save big with our Therabody promo code.

Get 10% Off Bestsellers With a Therabody Discount Code

Been eyeing a trendy TheraFace Pro or popular Theragun Pro, but getting cold feet about the price? I have good news for you. You can now get 10% off best-sellers with a Therabody discount code when you sign up for email and texts. First, input your information and sign up to receive emails. You’ll receive a discount code for 10% off in your inbox. Enter the discount code at checkout to receive 10% off, and watch the price melt away (just like your aches and pains!). The Therabody promo code expires 30 days following receipt of the discount code, so don’t forget to use it once received.

Shop Therabody’s Gift Guide

Not sure about which Therabody products will be best for those on your Valentine’s Day or birthday gift lists (or let’s be honest, yourself)? Therabody’s got you. They’ve created gift guides for men, women, athletes, snoozers, and even have one for those who have everything. Be sure to peruse Therabody’s gift guide to get great ideas on the often stressful task of holiday shopping.

Other Ways to Save up to 30% at Therabody

There are additional ways to save at Therabody. You can even use your FSA/HSA card or dollars on some qualifying products. Military personnel, healthcare workers, and first responders all get a 20% off Therabody promo code; you’ll just need to verify your status through ID.me.

If you’ve been wanting to try these health-forward trendy devices, but don’t know where to start, shop at the Therabody Outlet, where you can get huge discounts on certified refurbished devices. They also have tons of last chance offers on a select few iconic early gen devices. At the outlet, you can find discounts of up to 30% off, including certified refurbished products like the Theragun, TheraFace, SmartGoggles, RecoveryAir Jetboots, and more top bestsellers.

An Indian tribunal on Thursday suspended restrictions that would have barred WhatsApp from sharing user data with its parent company Meta, delivering a significant victory for Mark Zuckerberg’s social media empire in its largest market by users.

The ruling by the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal temporarily lifts a five-year ban imposed by India’s antitrust regulator, which had accused WhatsApp of abusing its market dominance through its 2021 privacy policy.

India is the largest market for Meta and WhatsApp. More than 700 million users in India use WhatsApp each month, according to insights from Sensor Tower.

In November, the Competition Commission of India determined that WhatsApp’s “take-it-or-leave-it” privacy update constituted an abuse of Meta’s dominant position by forcing users to accept expanded data collection without an opt-out option.

At the time, the watchdog found Meta was dominant in two key markets in India: a so-called “over-the-top” messaging apps through smartphones, and online display advertising.

While staying the ban on Thursday, the tribunal ordered Meta to deposit about $12.35 million — half of a larger penalty — within two weeks. The court will next hear the case on March 17.

The tribunal, led by Justice Ashok Bhushan, expressed concern that the five-year ban could threaten WhatsApp’s business model, which provides the messaging service free to users.

Meta’s lawyers argued that India’s forthcoming digital privacy law, expected to go into effect later this year, should govern such matters rather than competition rules.

“We welcome the NCLAT’s decision to grant a partial stay on the Competition Commission of India’s (CCI) order. While we will evaluate next steps, our focus remains on finding a path forward that supports millions of businesses that depend on our platform for growth and innovation as well as providing high-quality experiences that people expect from WhatsApp,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement.

The dispute began when WhatsApp required users to accept expanded data sharing with Meta’s platforms or risk losing access to the messaging service. While European users can opt out of such sharing, Indian users cannot — a distinction that regulators found problematic.

Good morning! Let’s play Connections, the NYT’s clever word game that challenges you to group answers in various categories. It can be tough, so read on if you need clues.

What should you do once you’ve finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I’ve also got daily Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too, while Marc’s Wordle today page covers the original viral word game.