Humane’s Ai Pin, The Future or Flop?

∆ Tech in the News

Actors’ Strike Ends - SAG-AFTRA actors' union and major studios may have finally agreed - studios cannot use AI scans of deceased actors without consent.

AI in Politics - From 2024, Meta will require disclosure when AI has been used to alter or create political, social or election-related ads on FB and Instagram.

24/7 Healthcare - Amazon dropped prices for its One Medical primary care service to $99 per year + $66 per year for family members.

Going Deeper - Google and Anthropic expand their partnership by leveraging Google's Cloud AI chips and large-scale data analysis infrastructure.

Forgetting The Hindenburg - Google co-founder Sergey Brin starts testing the Pathfinder 1 electric airship, the largest aircraft in 100 years.

˚The hottest thing in tech this week

Humane’s AI Pin, Future or Flop?

Reaction to the most hyped device reveal of the year has been mixed. The Ai Pin launched yesterday promising an ‘ambient computing’ future for $699 (plus $24 a month). But is ambient computing really the future? And if so, are we ready for it yet? The small standalone device magnetically attaches to you, collecting data via an on-board camera and mic, powered by a Qualcomm chip and leverages an OpenAI and Microsoft partnership “to integrate AI into the fabric of daily life.” Tidal is the company’s first software partner, for an “AI-driven music experience.”

It’s an open question whether users are ready for a touchscreen-free interface via BT audio, gestures and ‘laser ink’ projection onto surfaces or your hand. To be a sceptic, glasses-based cameras seem much simpler to control with the head than where the pin happens to be pointing. Wardrobe malfunctions no doubt await. Another issue is the public reaction to being recorded, with privacy advocates already sounding the alarm. The Pin does have a ‘trust light’ to signal if it’s recording, but that seems easy to hide. We will eventually move beyond screen-based computing, but it’s unclear if the Ai Pin has enough to break that barrier.

Is the world/the tech ready for the ambient computing revolution?

News Bytes

• Meta users can now buy on Amazon directly via Instagram ads

• Samsung to integrate its ‘Gauss’ LLM across the range of its devices

• NVIDIA Smashes it’s own AI training record with Eos Supercomputer

Deals We’re Watching

Founders to Watch and Opportunities to Catch

Open Deals:

Beewise - A startup using AI and robots to manage bee colonies, is seeking between $50M and $100M in Series D funding, per Axios.

All That Shines - Chinese fast fashion startup Shein is eyeing an $80B-$90B valuation at its upcoming U.S. IPO listing per Bloomberg.

Mane Hook-Up - A EU beauty tech platform helping afro hair stylists find customers online, featured in Vogue, now expanding to the US and seeking Angel Investors.

Closed Deals:

“Investing Millions” - Amazon is reportedly training its 2T parameter "Olympus" LLM to power its products, devices, cloud unit, and online retail store.

“Key Role in Decarbonization” - BlackRock plans to invest $550M in Occidental's direct-from-air carbon-capture project in Texas

FDA-Cleared AI Tech - Boston’s Elucid closed an $80M Series C round to support its AI-powered imaging analysis software for medical applications.

Designing RNA Editors - Biotech startup Ascidian Therapeutics extended its Series A adding $40M from Apple Tree to continue its work on genetic disease.

Out of Stealth - DeepInfra raised an $8M seed to provide cheaper AI inferences by offering CPUs and a low-cost way of deploying trained ML models.

Personalized Advice & Automation - AI-powered wealth management platform, Era, has launched with a $3.1M seed round led by Northzone.

Companies to Watch:

May Make It - May Mobility raised a $105M Series D backed by Toyota and BMW Venture arms for its self-driving systems for municipal and business clients.

Financial Services AI - Fintech AI Black Ore secured $60M from a16z, General Catalyst, Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, and a PayPal co-founder.

“Digital Admin” for Investments - Fintech start-up Arch serves ~200 financial firms, including “one of the largest US banks” and closed a $20M Series A led by Menlo Ventures.

Simple AI Editing- Startup Ozone launched its cloud-based AI video editing platform with $7.1M raised from YC, and Dropbox and Tinder founders.

Virtual Intensive Care - Nema Health closed a $4.1M seed for its virtual trauma therapy offered with insurers including UnitedHealth and Oxford Health Plans.

The Funding Buzz

IBM Enterprise AI - IBM has earmarked $500M for its AI Venture Fund to invest in "a range of AI companies – from early-stage to hyper-growth startups”.

Meta’s Station F - The social media giant and Hugging Face have launched an accelerator to support startups innovating in the open-source AI model space.

01 Advisors - a VC firm founded by an ex-Twitter CEO and COO raised $395M toward a fund backing Series B business enterprise software and fintech startups.

Founder Collective - Secured $95M toward its fifth and largest fund. Has nine $1B+ company exits and led Shield AI’s $2.7B valuation in October.

Tools

Figma - FigJam gets new genAI tools for collaborative idea generation.

Oral-B iO 10 - An AI toothbrush that improves brushing with real-time feedback.

GitHub Copilot - MS's AI coding tool has seen a 40% rise to 1M+ paid users.

Pixelcut - Free image upscaling, background remover, magic eraser, & more!

Harmonic AI - A startup discovery tool trusted by VCs and sales teams like Accel, YC, Brex and hundreds more.

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The Tech Buzz Team