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Buff bot: Penn State researchers pioneer “artificial muscle” to improve robots, medical devices.
$1B bot: AI startup Anthropic raises $1B to launch ‘safer’ chatbot named Claude.
School robocops: New Mexico district tests out robot surveillance on school campuses.
VCs (heart) AI: Investors pour billions into generative AI startups like Alphabet’s new darling Alphasense.
Altman goes nuclear: OpenAI’s founder took nuclear energy company Oklo public.
Shadow library: Comedian Sarah Silverman sues OpenAI and Meta claiming copyright infringement over so-called “shadow libraries.”
Snapback: Snap lures creators back with more generous ad sharing offers.
Controlled Discord: Messaging app popular with teens adds parental controls.
Generative GIFs: Shutterstock feeds OpenAI with training data in exchange for exclusive access to tech, generative AI capabilities for Gify.
Big Tech’s ax: Microsoft cuts more jobs after axing 10k positions in January, mirroring trends at Google and others.
AI in the office
It seems just about every kind of company is looking into what generative AI can do for them. A slew of tech companies are competing to meet that demand. In the past few months, Amazon, Box, Cisco, Oracle, and Salesforce unveiled plans for generative AI-powered products that do everything from summarizing meetings to producing code and improving marketing campaigns. “I think this is a complete breakthrough in enterprise software,” Box’s CEO said.
Killer Threads
Mark Zuckerberg’s “Twitter killer” amassed 100M users in its first 5 days. Elon Musk calls it “cheating” and threatens to sue. Others say it’s doomed to fail like Google+.
Baseball embraces drones, AR
This week’s MLB All-Star game in Seattle featured a 600-drone light show featuring a larger than life replica of star Julio Rodriguez. Fans followed the action with unique drone footage provided by Los Angeles-based Beverly Hills Aerials. MLB also launched an app with an augmented reality (AR) feature that provided the launch angle, direction, and landing spot of hits during the homerun derby.
AI isn’t killing jobs … yet
Three in five workers are worried about losing their jobs entirely in the next decade, and three-quarters say AI has increased work intensity. A new report from the OECD might give them reason to relax a bit. It concludes that AI’s impact on employment is limited so far, although there’s potential for significant displacement in the future. “Occupations in finance, medicine, and legal activities which often require many years of education, and whose core functions rely on accumulated experience to reach decisions, may suddenly find themselves at risk of automation from AI,” according to the report.
Easing AI fear-mongering
Bill Gates took to his personal blog this week to ease disaster daydreaming happening around AI. A few weeks back he’d joined dozens of others calling to make “mitigating the risk of extinction from AI” a global priority. This week he strikes a less doomsday tone: “Whether we reach that point in a decade or a century, society will need to reckon with profound questions. What if a super AI establishes its own goals? What if they conflict with humanity’s? Should we even make a super AI at all? But thinking about these longer-term risks should not come at the expense of the more immediate ones.”
Trending on Wellfound
This week’s trending companies share one thing in common. That’s right—AI. The generative AI boom of 2023 continues, giving a lift to startups of many different stripes. San Francisco-based Hive develops enterprise software to power the next wave of intelligent automation. Boston-based Consensus uses AI to help people find answers, while California-based Polycam uses AI and computer vision to help them digitally re-construct their physical worlds. New York-based Frontrow uses predictive AI to help budding film investors monetize shows they discover on the platform. And though they don’t say it explicitly, we imagine TravelBank is using AI to help companies shave 30% of their travel budget.
The Weekly Pulse
Up-skilling to retain top talent
Want to retain top talent? Consider what new skills employees can learn. According to a Gallup survey of 15k workers, 61% say that the opportunity to learn new skills is an extremely or very important factor in deciding whether to stay at their current job.
Tweet of the Week
Poll of the Week
Podcast of the Week
Back to Work: The Evolution of Social Recruiting
Geek Wire: What Generative AI Means for Cities
What We’re Reading
Generative AI will improve efficiencies and spark creativity in the workplace (VentureBeat)
Sapphire Ventures to invest over $1 billion in enterprise AI startups as AI boom picks up steam (Tech Startups)
Dropbox’ New AI and ML Lead the Company’s Evolution (BuiltIn)
Google quietly ditched plans for an A.I.-powered chatbot app for Gen Z (CNBC)
Instant payments are coming to a bank near you (Morning Brew)
EU Watchdog Calls for Early Adoption of Stablecoin Standards (U.S. News)
Startups Hiring Now
Moxie: We help nurses launch, run, and grow their own, independent business | 14 open roles
D2iQ: The Leading Independent Kubernetes Platform | 6 open roles
HealthSherpa: Find an affordable health care plan today | 10 open roles
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