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Quick Hits
Raining electricity: Researchers harvest electricity from raindrops.
Power pleas: Elon Musk urges urgency for all-electric future.
Vegas loop: ‘Sin City’ approves 68 miles of underground transport tunnels.
Drive-thru robots: Fast food joints replace pimply teens with AI chatbots.
Medical breakthrough: Researchers penetrate blood-brain barrier.
Chatting, profits: Uber develops AI chatbot after posting first-ever profit.
No ‘Orb’: Kenya bans WorldCoin’s eyeball scanner.
Layoffs, then IPO: Crypto-adjacent fintech Figure plans IPO. But first, layoffs.
News blackout: Meta blocks Canadian news on Facebook and Instagram.
Study: AI does job of 2 radiologists
AI screening is as good as two radiologists working together, halving the workload of breast cancer screenings, according to preliminary results of the largest ever study of its kind. Researchers are comparing AI-supported screening directly with standard care for 80k women in Sweden. Final results aren’t expected for years.
Edtech embraces back-to-school AI
London-based edtech Pearson is racing to integrate generative AI in its study tools for higher education in time for the school year. ChatGPT-style tools will provide personalized support in online textbooks and assessments and are already versed in the Socratic method. Competitor Chegg stirred panic earlier warning that AI chatbots threatened its homework-help services.
Founder wants to make women rich
Orlando, Fla.-based Stax Payments is the rare fintech unicorn with a woman founder. It’s now doubly rare, having handed the CEO reins to a Black woman. Dubbed the “Netflix of credit card processing,” Stax was one of the first subscription-based credit card processors. American-Pakistani entrepreneur Suneera Madhani started the company with $500k from friends and family and recently departed to coach other women to become CEOs. The motto of her school: “Nothing bad happens when women make more money.”
Ads—not AI—lead Big Tech surge
Big Tech companies are talking a lot about generative AI. But it’s the return of advertising revenue that has their investors feeling authentically smart. Ad revenue is up for Google search and YouTube, and Meta expects to get back to double-digit growth driven by social media advertising.
First ‘smart gun’ hits market
Colorado-based startup Biofire is one of the first to bring a so-called “smart gun” to market. The 9mm handgun packs a fingerprint reader and facial recognition camera, so that it can only be fired by its owner. Kansas-based Free State Firearms is developing another model using a radio-frequency ID ring worn by the gun owner. A 2003 study found that over one-third of accidental shootings could have been prevented with such tech. New Jersey mandates that all gun stores offer a smart gun option once they hit the market.
The Weekly Pulse
Shortened workweek gains momentum
A report by nonprofit advocacy group 4 Day Week Global finds that the longer people work a shortened week (with the same pay as before), the more productive they get. Workers managed to shave 4 more hours out of the week after 6 months and an additional hour after a year on the new schedule, according to the study.
Poll of the week
Companies in the News
Chicago-based healthtech AMOpportunies raised a $2M “Series A2” round to help solve the U.S. physician shortage with its training platform for medical schools and hospitals.
London-based cosmetics marketing company Odore raised a $5M seed round led by Fuel Ventures.
Denver-based Opolis, a blockchain-based employment platform, raised a $6.6M funding round led by Berlin-based crypto investment firm Greenfield.
San Francisco-based Functional Finance, a data and reporting platform for insurance companies, raised an $8M seed round led by New Enterprise Associates.
New York-based GlassPoint, an energy startup producing solar-generated steam, raised an $8M Series A led by 300PM with participation from former Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull.
Tweet of the week
Podcasts of the Week
Learning From and With AI: Duolingo’s Zan Gilani (MIT)
What We’re Reading
Workers to Employers: We’re Just Not That Into You (WSJ)
Crypto Is Illegal in China. Binance Does $90 Billion of Business There Anyway. (WSJ)
How MIT’s Liquid Neural Networks can solve AI problems from robotics to self-driving cars (VentureBeat)
Mustafa Suleyman: My new Turing test would see if AI can make $1 million (MIT)
Here’s what we know about lab-grown meat and climate change (MIT)
Movie extras worry they'll be replaced by AI. Hollywood is already doing body scans (NPR)
Tired of Dating Apps, Some Turn to ‘Date-Me Docs’ (NYT)
Startups Hiring Now
- Vise: Customized, intelligent investing | 4 open roles
- Canary Technologies: Easy, intuitive, and secure hotel solutions | 29 open roles
- Prelude: Technology company that hardens cybersecurity defenses | 4 open roles
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