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Quick Hits
AI frenemies: Microsoft vs. OpenAI.
Audio boom: ChatGPT grows.
API anxiety: Yelp angers devs.
Br-ai-nstorm: YouTube adds Gemini.
Chat, later: OpenAI exec defects.
Coffee spies: China probes data spills.
Fallen stars: Techstars lays off 17%.
Free games: Roku streams sports.
Groq grows: Chip maker amasses $1B.
Hungry Llama: Meta needs 10x power.
India invests: VCs launch $250M fund.
Jakarta rocks: Builds EV anode plant.
‘Quasi-merger’: Brits eye Amazon-Anthropic.
Reward withdrawal: TikTok ends Lite.
Scrape scrap: YouTuber sues OpenAI.
Space tourism: Saudi Arabia plans test flight.
Thank memes: Robinhood soars.
VR venture: Meta deals with India’s Jio.
Trending Startups
AI generates unicorns
Most of the 38 startups that reached “unicorn” status so far this year have some sort of AI play. There’s plenty of cybersecurity, healthtech, and fintech, too. Among the mix are humanoid robots, Web3 social media, online drugs, genetic tests, fertility tracking, and a therapist finder.
AI heats up Olympics
A French data center converts hot air waste to a heat source for the Olympic Aquatics Center in Paris, adding new currents to debates over AI’s environmental impact.
‘We don’t think it’s going to get any worse’
Tech hiring hit a trough, though not an inflection point, says the CEO of a global staffing firm. "We don't think it's going to get any worse” in the U.S., the exec tells Reuters.
Hearing AI-d
A Swiss company developed the world’s first real-time AI sound processing chip for its latest hearing aid, using 22M sound samples in training.
Up-leveling wage workers
New York’s Bandana helped 10k+ hourly workers find jobs with better perks—short commutes and health benefits are popular asks—with an eye on longterm job satisfaction and is expanding with fresh funding.
Recently Funded
- Australia's Graceview Raises $1.5M for Generative AI Compliance
- Mumbai-based FINQY Secures $2M for B2B2C
- India's Juleo Secures $2.5M for Innovative Online Dating
- U.K.'s Phinxt Robotics Raises $2.5M for AI-led Robotics
- San Francisco's Skillfully Secures $2.5M for Simulation-Driven Hiring
- UAE's stabble Raises $2.5M for Financial Efficiency Protocol
- Canada's Perceptive Space Raises $2.8M for Space Weather Predictions
- Denver's Growlink Secures $2M for Farm IoT
- New Mexico’s Nob Hill Therapeutics Secures $3M for Respiratory Medical Devices
- India's EtherealX Raises $5M for Reusable Rockets
- Cartridge Secures $7.5M for Onchain Game Development
- India's Agrizy Secures $9.8M Series A for Agritech Solutions
- Hedra Launches with $10M Seed for AI Video Creation
Weekly Pulse
Post of the Week
What We’re Reading
This Week in AI: OpenAI’s talent retention woes (TechCrunch)
AptDeco’s CEO takes our career questionnaire (Fast Company)
‘The Blair Witch Project’ Brings Up a Riddle That Looms 25 Years Later (NYT)
Will A.I. Kill Meaningless Jobs? (NYT)
Poll of the Week
Podcasts of the Week
Debra Squyres: The Power of Feedback (Pozcast)
Three Behaviors to Cultivate as a Human-First Leader with Paul Wolfe (HR Superstars)
Bright Data CEO Or Lenchner - Why Meta Lost the Web-Scraping Battle (World of DaaS)
Startups Hiring Now
ValsAI: Benchmarking LLMs on Enterprise-Specific Tasks || 4 open roles
Dandy: The digital dental lab of the future | 31 open roles
Cohere Health: Simplifying Healthcare for Patients and Doctors | 22 open roles
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