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- 10/17/23
10/17/23
AI Agents are the future of work? SEC Targets AI, WSJ Tech Live, NYC AI Action Plan Spotify Merch, Berkeley Space Quest, and latest deals...
Alpha
October 17, 2023
∆ Tech in the News
SEC Targets AI - Committee Chairman Gary Gensler warns centralized models and cloud providers could trigger a financial crisis without adequate regulation.
AI Takes The Stage - The WSJ Tech Live conference this week includes Sam Altman, Deepmind’s Mustafa Suleyman, and Roblox CEO David Baszucki.
New York v AI - City officials unveiled an AI Action Plan to promote responsible use and guide city agencies adoption, a first for a US City.
From Music to Merch - Spotify unveils a hub for in-app artist merchandise, extending product suggestions like T-shirts and vinyl to users.
Berkeley's Space Quest - The UCB unveiled plans for a $2B aerospace education and research hub at NASA's Silicon Valley grounds.
[POLL] Would you trust your job to an AI? |
˚The hottest thing in tech this week
AI Agents The Future of Work?
The NYT just published a piece outlining How ‘A.I. Agents’ That Roam the Internet Could One Day Replace Workers. It describes how researchers are transforming chatbots into online agents that play games, query websites, schedule meetings and soon… do your job! How realistic is this claim? Already, Google Bard can schedule meetings, and ChatGPT Plugins can edit files, analyze data, and build charts etc, but eventually, AI may be your PA across the internet.
We aren’t quite there yet, but it’s coming fast. Startup Imbue recently raised $220M to develop AI that can reason, with a focus on removing key blockers to AI agents. AutoGPT just raised $12M for its open-source future of work agents. Another start-up called Adept, builds agents that use common websites and apps. Pathlight’s AI agents will perform customer research 24/7. Sam Altman recently backed Induced AI’s $2.5M Seed round to build AI browser automation agents. Dropzone AI raised $3.5M in August to develop AI security agents. And, as we featured a few editions back, Startup CRE Hawk has built an AI agent automating a range of important tasks to increase revenue opportunities for Commercial Real Estate professionals.
Would you trust an AI agent to do parts of your job?
"This is a huge commercial opportunity, potentially trillions of dollars… This has a huge upside — and huge consequences — for society”
News Bytes
BTS AI sky scanning tool detects its first supernova
Ukraine may have used AI Killer Drones in a concerning development
LinkedIn cuts 668 jobs and eyes AI talent acquisition
Deals We’re Watching
Founders to Watch and Opportunities to Catch
Open Deals:
Parigot - Revolutionizing microservices while cutting operational costs. Parigot’s cloud infrastructure tools help developers increase productivity and make more choices about how their software is deployed. Schedule with CEO Ian Smith
Rare Liquid Society - An exclusive community of premium wine and spirit enthusiasts building a network of verified cold storage facilities and providing solutions to key market problems. Watch this video or schedule with CEO Mike
Wozniak, Alphabet Backed - Ripcord's GenAi robotic archive digitization is used by IRS, U.S.A.F. and Wells Fargo. A new round at $110M pre-money valuation is nearing closure with $20M secured and potential to extend to $35M
Closed Deals:
The Future's Bright - Deep tech startup Xpanceo secured $40M to engineer smart contact lenses with night vision and AR for 2025-2026 release
Global Expansion - U.S. Startup Alpaca just raised $15M from Japanese financial services company SBI ((~$2.67B AUM) after receiving a Japan broker license.
Real-time Data Monitoring - Pantomath closed a $14M Series A led by Sierra Ventures. The platform flags data quality hitches and scrutinizes across platforms.
“Everyone's an AI Engineer” - AutoGPT raised $12M to democratize the future of work by becoming the largest open-source project in history.
On The Rise - Urban Sky closed a $9.75M Series A to scale Earth-imaging operations using reusable hot-air balloons.
AI Meets E-commerce - Creative Force gained $8.9M in Series A funds to expand its U.S. presence and integrate genAI optimizing retail content creation.
Companies to Watch:
Ongoing Chip Demand - AI chip reseller and renter Together raised $50M in a round led by Kleiner Perkins reflecting sustained rental demand led by LLM use.
Tidal, Meet Hifi - Block (Square) has acquired musician-focused fintech startup Hifi to add to its expanding music streaming, payments and web3 offerings.
RealAssetX - PGIM Real Estate, the US$210B real estate investment manager, launched an innovation lab to research, develop and invest in real asset tech.
Rho Eyes Creative Juice - The banking startup with $200M raised and projected revenue growth, is actively pursuing MrBeast's Creator finance platform
10,000 Molecules P/sec - Palo Alto startup Aionics pioneers AI-powered ‘quantum’ battery tech, with $3.5M raised and a Porsche Cellforce partnership.
Tools
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The Tech Buzz Team+