TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 promotes five AI safety sessions and a high-stakes physical AI panel with Shield AI, Waabi, and GM

TechCrunch is promoting Disrupt 2026 (October 13–15, San Francisco) with five AI safety sessions on agents, enterprise deployment, and robotics, plus a physical AI panel featuring Shield AI, Waabi, and General Motors; discounted passes were available before…

In announcements dated September 22 and September 24, 2026, TechCrunch promoted AI programming for its Disrupt 2026 conference, scheduled for October 13–15 in San Francisco, with discounted passes available before September 25. The AI safety track spans five sessions: Anthropic's applied AI lead will discuss moving Claude from pilots into production and why some enterprise deployments stall; Okta and NanoCo will address agent access and permission weaknesses; and AWS, Luta Security, and other security leaders will cover cloud security and governance for autonomous enterprise AI. Separate autonomy and robotics sessions feature Shield AI, General Motors, Waabi, and NVIDIA on physical safety testing, safety validation, and robotics training data gaps. A highlighted panel on deploying physical AI where failure is costly features Shield AI CTO Nathan Michael, Waabi CEO Raquel Urtasun, and GM robotics director Mikell Taylor, covering validation, regulation, and trust. The announcements include funding context: Shield AI's Hivemind software was selected in February for the U.S. Air Force Collaborative Combat Aircraft program, and the company later raised $1.5 billion in a Series G at a $12.7 billion valuation; Waabi raised $1 billion in January and partnered with Uber to support 25,000 or more robotaxis, though its trucks still require full validation before driverless deployment. Both reports are largely promotional in nature; the two sources do not disagree on any facts.

• TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 runs October 13–15 in San Francisco, with discounted passes offered before September 25.
• Five AI safety sessions are promoted, announced September 22, 2026.
• Anthropic's applied AI lead will discuss moving Claude from pilots into production and why some enterprise deployments stall in pilot.
• Okta and NanoCo will discuss agent access and permission weaknesses.
• AWS, Luta Security, and other security leaders will cover cloud security and governance controls for autonomous enterprise AI.
• Autonomy and robotics sessions feature Shield AI, General Motors, Waabi, and NVIDIA on physical safety testing, safety validation, and robotics training data gaps.
• The physical AI panel features Shield AI CTO Nathan Michael, Waabi CEO Raquel Urtasun, and GM robotics director Mikell Taylor, covering validation, regulation, and trust for high-stakes AI.
• Shield AI's Hivemind software was selected in February for the U.S. Air Force Collaborative Combat Aircraft program.