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Is AI magic? Canva says so
Easter egg Mac mystery
The Internet loves a mystery. Last week, the former CTO of Kickstarter discovered a doozy: A copy of a famous 2008 white paper by Satoshi Nakamoto—the pseudonym of the still-unidentified Bitcoin creator—made its way onto millions of Macs shipped since 2017. The paper, "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System," offers a thesis for a decentralized cash based on a public ledger. Adding to the mystery is the fact that the discovery was made on Nakamoto’s purported birthday. Binance’s CEO offered to buy the unknown hero a drink.
AI is ‘magic’ to Canva
Canva, the popular web design tool with 125M users, is the latest tech company integrating AI and machine learning tools into its offerings. Only, Canva chooses to have a bit more fun than others and calls it “magic.” There’s Magic Write, Magic Edit, Magic Design, and Magic Eraser. Amazon, too, is getting into the generative AI game along with its Big Tech competitors.
YC doubles down on domestic startups
With a new CEO at the helm and continued turbulence in funding markets, Y Combinator is shifting its investment strategy to focus more on U.S.-based startups while encouraging founders to keep pushing for high valuations. Just 21% of publicly announced startups in the winter 2023 batch are based internationally, compared to 42% in the prior batch, according to TechCrunch. “Value investing in venture is like restricting your search for your lost keys under only brightly lit street lamps”, CEO Garry Tan tweeted in response to VC grumbling about high valuations.
Move over, Dolly
It’s been 25 years since Scottish scientists freaked us all out with Dolly the Sheep, the first widely known example of animal cloning. Now, scientists in China say they’ve done something just as remarkable. They created synthetic monkey embryos and successfully implanted them in an adult female—though they didn’t make it to full term. “It’s the first time I’ve seen [synthetic embryos] developed so far, and with such good quality,” said a Dutch biologist involved with the project.
The Weekly Pulse
Dive Deeper
- The bitcoin whitepaper is probably on your Mac (Quartz)
- Synthetic embryos have been implanted into monkey wombs (MIT Tech Review)
- Why Canva isn’t describing its new AI tools as AI (Quartz)
- We’re still talking about Y Combinator valuations (TechCrunch)
- In the new normal for VC, builders will win (TechCrunch)
Tweet of the Week
Trending in Tech
Top 5: Self improvement
People are always looking to improve themselves in various ways, and there’s plenty of emerging tech to help them. Startups disrupting the industry include Calibrex, Growthday, Taste, Transcend Technologies, and Ubego.
T op 5: Personal finance
We could all use our own financial sidekick, but that’s just a dream. Or is it? Startups shaping this industry include Shift Technology, TaxDeferredSales, DataHive, Pie Systems, and Gerald Technologies.
Top 5: Music
Everyone loves music, right? Some startups are reshaping the way we think about music. Music-obsessed tech companies shaking things up include HotDrop, stu., RockBot, MusicU, and Audioms.
What We’re Reading
- NPR quits Twitter after being falsely labeled as 'state-affiliated media' (NPR)
- With Bedrock, Amazon enters the generative AI race (TechCrunch)
- Robot Lawyers Are About to Flood the Courts (Wired)
- When Your Boss Is an App (New York Times)
- New rules aim to make the auto industry go electric (Morning Brew)
- Bitcoin price rises above $30,000 for first time since June 2022 (The Guardian)
- Don’t tell anything to a chatbot you want to keep private (CNN)
- Elon Musk: What it's like to interview the billionaire Twitter boss (BBC)
Companies in the News
London-based Juro, a legal contract workspace, raised a $23M Series B led by Eight Roads. They’re hiring front/backend engineers, product designers, and marketing managers.
New York-based education platform Parallel Learning raised a $20M Series A led by Tiger Global. They’re hiring psychologists, social workers, and pathologists.
Atlanta-based Stord, a digital supply chain firm, raised a $120M Series D led by Franklin Templeton. They’re hiring software engineers and accountants.
Startups Hiring Now
- Optivolt, a technology company providing resilient, sustainable energy for humans with Pulse, their patented power electronics architecture.
- Clearcover, a digital car insurance carrier that cuts costs by eliminating wasteful spending and implementing advanced technology, all while promoting transparency to help consumers make informed decisions.
- Nova Credit, the premier cross-border credit reporting agency. Nova’s goal is to increase immigrant’s access to capital after their move.