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Quick Hits
Drone dog rescue: Heat camera finds missing pet.
Classroom AI: University enrolls virtual students.
Augmented vision: Apple's headset coming Feb. 2.
Bot bazaar: OpenAI opens store for AI bots.
Copy conundrum: Training requires protected works.
Chatty cars: VW adds OpenAI bot.
Delivery expansion: Walmart takes to Texas skies.
Flying vehicles: Hyundai plans 2028 air taxi launch.
AI discovery: New material could cut lithium use.
SEC shift: Agency greenlights Bitcoin funds.
Crypto buyback: Logan Paul offers partial refund.
Deepfake detector: McAfee stops fake audio.
Faux endorsement: AI fakes Taylor Swift.
Genesis revival: Hyperkin makes new retro handheld.
Google goodbyes: Company lays off 1k workers
Prime cuts: Amazon lays off video, studio staff.
Contract cuts: Duolingo lays off 10% of contractors.
Trending Startups
Youth embrace AI-assisted therapy
A growing number of young people are embracing AI chatbots for mental health support. San Francisco-based Character.ai reports 78M messages for its "Psychologist" bot so far. As human therapy remains expensive and limited, ventures like New Zealand-founded Replika offer 24/7 text conversations.
Hello, robot
Stanford's new ALOHA robot demonstrates some serious multi-tasking skills with minimal training—frying eggs, vacuuming, and doing laundry with ease. The dexterous bot can replicate a range of delicate cooking preps to household chores after capturing just 50 teleoperated demo sessions.
Sustaining high-performance AI
Sustainable AI presents a growth avenue for up-and-coming tech talent and companies confront AI's growing energy appetite. There’s innovation to be had with optimized models, liquid-cooled data centers, hardware-aware software, and other methods to reduce AI’s climate footprint, a growing concern among AI young users, particularly the youngest.
3 hot climate techs
Top climate-advancing breakthroughs to look for in 2024 and beyond include highly efficient perovskite solar cells, expanded geothermal, and heat pumps everywhere, experts told MIT.
Weekly Pulse
NYC hearts women startup founders
Nearly a quarter of VC funding in 2023 went to female-founded companies in the U.S., according to a new Pitchbook analysis. Startups led (or co-led) by women raised $44B out of the $171B in VC funding. The most popular category was software, where around $8B was invested, followed by B2B, SaaS, and healthtech bio. New York City took the top spot for where women received the most deals, followed by the Bay Areas and Los Angeles.
Poll of the week
Recently Funded
- Shimmer, a Platform for 1:1 Personalized ADHD Coaching, Raises $2.2M
- Health in Her Hue Closes $3M Seed
- Web3 AI Data Marketplace Ta-da Raises $3.5M to Expand Operations
- Generative AI Startup Ask-AI, Which Breaks Down Data Silos for Customer Service Teams, Raises $11M
- Former Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal Secures $30M for Stealth AI Startup
- Luma Raises $43M to Build AI that Crafts 3D Models
- Perplexity AI Raises $74M to Take On Google and Microsoft Bing
- Quora Raises $75M, Led by A16z, for Its Poe AI Chatbot Creator Program
Post of the Week
What We’re Reading
OpenAI and journalism (OpenAI)
How Adobe is managing the AI copyright dilemma, with general counsel Dana Rao (The Verge)
It’s No Wonder People Are Getting Emotionally Attached to Chatbots (Wired)
Why Everyone Is Obsessed With the Kid Who Beat Tetris (Wired)
I Finally Figured Out Who ChatGPT Reminds Me Of (NYT)
Podcasts of the Week
Learning digitally - how ed-tech is boosting accessibility of education in Africa (Disrupt Podcast)
Our science predictions for 2024 (The Guardian)
Startups Hiring Now
Abridge: Helps people stay on top of their health, one conversation at a time | 14 open roles
Vannevar Labs: Defense for the digital domain | 21 open roles
Forerunner: Forerunner helps communities prepare for climate change | 3 open roles
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