# WhatsApp Subscriptions, Autonomous Robotics, and NSA AI Integration

**Podcast:** TechCrunch Daily Crunch
**Published:** 2026-04-21

## Transcript

This is TechCrunch.
Streaming war noch nie so wow.
NSA spies are reportedly using Anthropics Mythos.
I'm Imran Shaikh, and your Tuesday Daily Crunch starts right now.
Attention all messaging app fiends out there, WhatsApp is testing a new subscription tier similar to Instagram Plus and Snapchat Plus that lets users pay for customized icons, themes, ringtones, and a whole lot more.
Now, before you get too excited, the paid plans features are largely cosmetic, I have to tell you.
Users don't get many additional functional features, you see.
WhatsApp Plus has been spotted by many users, though, including social media consultant Matt Navarro.
And no, these aren't just baseless rumors because the company confirmed the test to TechCrunch in a statement.
Now, while the company didn't specify pricing, WA Beta Info noted that the plan might be priced at 249 euro per month in Europe and 229 Pakistani rupees, that's 82 cents in American dollars, in Pakistan.
The blog noted that the company is also offering a one-month free trial to users.
You see, in addition to features like custom themes and ringtones, the company will also allow users to pin up to 20 chats instead of the current free tier limit of 3.
Subscribers will also be allowed to apply certain themes, ringtones, and notification tones to chat lists.
Now, notably, there's no mention of ad removal from the status feature here, which the company began running ads on last year.
It's hard to believe but more than a decade ago, WhatsApp charged a $1 subscription fee in some regions but after being bought by Facebook, the company ditched the fee in 2016.
Since then, it's built its business around allowing companies to reach users on WhatsApp and letting them create click-to-WhatsApp ads.
As WhatsApp Plus is an early test on limited markets, only a few of WhatsApp's 3 billion-plus user base will get to buy the paid plan.
That means it won't likely move the needle much on the company's balance sheets in the near term.
All hail our robot overlords.
The winning runner at a Beijing half marathon for humanoid robots finished the race today in 50 minutes and 26 seconds.
That's significantly faster than the human world record of 57 minutes recently set by Jacob Kaplimo.
Now comparing good old human and robot running times may seem a tad unfair.
One social media user observed, my car can outrun a cheetah too, still.
The winning time is a massive improvement over last year's race, remember that?
When the fastest robot finished in 2 hours and 40 minutes.
And get your, well, I guess they phoned this one home puns ready because the Associated Press reports that this year's winner was built by Chinese smartphone maker Honor.
And you know, it seems the winning robot wasn't actually the fastest, as a different Honor robot finished in 48 minutes and 19 seconds.
But that one, well, that one was remote-controlled.
The 50-minute, 26-second robot was autonomous and won due to weighted scoring.
About 40% of participating robots completed autonomously, while the remaining 60% were remote-controlled, according to Beijing's E-Town Tech Hub.
And, needs to be said, not all of them did as well as honors robots, with one robot falling at the starting line and another hitting a barrier.
NSA spies are reportedly using Anthropics Mythos, despite the Pentagon feud.
The National Security Agency is said to be using Mythos Preview, Anthropic's recently announced model that it withheld from public release Axios reports.
Now, the news comes weeks after the NSA's parent agency, the Department of Defense, labeled Anthropic a supply chain risk after the company refused to allow Pentagon officials unrestricted access to its model's full capabilities.
Well, Anthropic announced Mythos earlier this month as a frontier model designed for cybersecurity tasks, but claimed the model was too capable.
of offensive cyber attacks to be released publicly.
As a result, the AI firm limited access to Mythos to around 40 organizations, of which it has publicly named only a dozen.
The NSA appears to be among the undisclosed recipients and is said to be using Mythos primarily for scanning environments for exploitable vulnerabilities.
And not to be outdone, the UK's AI Security Institute has also confirmed it has access to Mythos.
The U.S.
military's expanding use of Anthropic's tools comes perplexingly as it simultaneously argues in court that those tools can threaten national security.
The Pentagon's dispute originated when Anthropic refused to make Claude available for mass domestic surveillance and autonomous weapons development.
The NSA's access to mythos comes as Anthropic's relationship with the Trump administration appears to be thawing.
You see, last Friday, Anthropic Chief Executive Dario Amadei met with White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and Secretary of the Treasury Scott Besant.
The White House reportedly called the meeting productive.
TechCrunch has reached out to the NSA for comment, and Anthropic declined to comment.
And folks, that's your Daily Crunch.
Today's stories are reported by Ivan Mehta, Anthony Ha, Rebecca Balan and more awesome TechCrunch journalists.
We'll see you here tomorrow.
Same Tech Time, same Crunch Channel.
And until then, remember, you can find us at TechCrunch.com.
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