For those that are new around here, this is an extension of my weekly newsletter where I highlight new and innovative AI products that are worth exploring.


Hey {{FirstName | hey}}!

Happy Wednesday!

Here’s your news in newsletter!

Sorry for the no show last weeks folks. There’s been a LOT going on behind the scenes. Today’s News issue covers the news from the past 2 weeks, so bear with me!

In this Issue:

• Your Weekly Industry News Recap

• The Raise Recap

Headliner: Apple considers acquiring AI startup Perplexity

Apple Considers Buying AI Startup Perplexity

Apple is reportedly exploring to buy Aravind Srinivas-cofounded Perplexity AI to boost its artificial intelligence capabilities.

inc42.com/buzz/apple-considers-buying-ai-startup-perplexity-report

Here’s one more for the industry M&A rumor mill — Apple is reportedly exploring a deal to buy Perplexity, the buzzy AI search startup. The move could supercharge Siri and Apple’s broader AI strategy, while squarely positioning Apple in the AI leaders. If true, it’s a major play in the race to own next-gen search, and next-gen tooling for many.
🤖 Even if it’s speculative, this is Big Tech chess in action. ♟️ Read More

Your Weekly Industry News Recap

• IDS: shaping AI’s future using non‑binding agreements
  IDS argues for soft‑law pacts guiding AI ethics and use—practical approach to global AI norms. 📜 Read more

• A novel AI models detect Type‑1 diabetes before onset
  AI breakthrough can predict Type‑1 diabetes risk early—huge health impact without raising capital. ❤️ Read more

• Survey of 408 life‑science researchers shows mixed feelings on AI
  Researchers are split—some excited, others worried—interesting pulse on AI in labs. 🔬 Read more

• Futurism: AI startup Pano fights wildfires
  Pano uses AI for wildfire detection and prevention—environmental innovation, no investor hype here. 🔥 Read more

• Economic Times: The Economist – ad‑tech revolution via AI
  AI is flipping the ad‑business world upside down—makes marketing way smarter. 📣 Read more

• PR News Asia: Cube acquires ACIN for AI risk management
  Cube buys ACIN to beef up operational risk tools in Asia-Pacific—cross-border tech regulation vibes. 🌏 Read more

• Morningstar: The AI Alliance forms open‑source nonprofit lab
  The AI Alliance launches a nonprofit lab advocating open‑source and collaboration. 🧩 Read more

• Lightning.ai unveils multi-agent “Crew” builder
  Lightning.ai introduces a toolkit for building AI agent squads—empowering creative AI experimentation. 🤖 Read more

• Postman releases Agent Mode (AI for testing APIs)
  Postman’s new Agent Mode adds AI power to API testing workflow—super handy for devs. 🛠️ Read more

• Economist: AI transforming ad business models
  (Recontextualizing) The Economist highlights how AI tools are reshaping agency-client dynamics and campaign creativity across industries. 🎨 Read More

This Week’s Raise Recap 📈💰 

• German SaaS startup raises $775K to grow its AI tax platform
  German SaaS platform secures €700K early round to scale its AI-driven tax compliance tool—pretty niche but promising! 😊 Read more

• Harvey AI jumps from $3B to $5B valuation in just 4 months
  Rapid-fire growth: Harvey AI skyrockets its valuation by $2B in months—investors are definitely eyeing this one. 🚀 Read more

• Customer‑service AI startup Decagon scores $131M
  Decagon pulls in $131M to build AI-powered customer support—it’s the kind of capital signal that says “big play ahead.” 💬 Read more

• Payabli raises USD 28M to expand AI‑powered embedded payments
  Payabli secures $28M to boost its embedded payments + AI tools—fintech meets smart automation. 💵 Read more

• Kitchener’s Fairly AI acquires Stockholm’s Anch.ai
  Canada‑based Fairly AI snaps up Anch.ai to help firms build regulation-ready AI — savvy move on compliance tech. 🇨🇦 Read more

• Chinese AI startup Minimax raises big funding (reported)
  Minimax reportedly scores a huge raise (~$146M) for its AI efforts—China’s investment scene is buzzing. 🇨🇳 Read more

• BSE launches AI IPO tool for SME document checks
  India’s BSE rolls out an AI tool to fast-track SME IPO docs—that’s innovation in financial markets. 🇮🇳 Read more

• Hoppr secures $32M in Series A
  Medical imaging AI co. Hoppr bags $32M to scale its clinical platform—huge win for specialized health tech. 🏥 Read more

• Tennr raises $101M to automate patient referral workflows
  Tennr lands $101M to streamline healthcare referrals via AI—big funding for health workflow automation. 🏥 Read more

Stay well, and see you next week!

-✌🏽 Sam

Cue the legal stuff: The views and opinions expressed in this newsletter are solely my own and do not reflect the views, positions, or policies of my employer or any organizations I am affiliated with. All content is for informational purposes only and to express opinion.

For those that are new around here, this is an extension of my weekly newsletter where I highlight new and innovative AI products that are worth exploring.

Hey {{FirstName | hey}}!

Happy Wednesday!

Here’s your news in newsletter!

Riding off the high of yesterday’s catchup recap, Today’s News issue covers the news from the past week, so it’ll be short and sweet.

In this Issue:

• Your Weekly Industry News Recap

• The Raise Recap

Headliner: Google Invests Big to Keep Canada in the AI Race 🏁🌍

Google Canada announces $13 Million AI Opportunity Fund to strengthen Canada's AI workforce

/CNW/ - Google Canada announced an AI Opportunity Fund, which will provide $13 million to four Canadian organizations providing AI skills development and...

www.newswire.ca/news-releases/google-canada-announces-13-million-ai-opportunity-fund-to-strengthen-canada-s-ai-workforce-857308102.html

Google just dropped $13M into Canada’s AI future, launching the AI Opportunity Fund to supercharge local talent. 🇨🇦🚀 This fund will help train workers and build the next generation of AI experts as competition heats up globally. 🌎🔥 It’s not just about jobs—it’s about keeping Canada in the innovation game long-term. 💡🎯 With Google behind it, the race for AI talent is getting serious.
🔗 Read more

Your Weekly Industry News Recap

• AI Won’t Replace Humans—It’ll Replace Skills
  Tech won’t take your job, but it’ll definitely expect you to learn new tricks. 🧠🔄
  🔗 Read more

• Kovr AI Officially Debuts with Compliance Tech
  A new player enters the AI compliance scene, promising smoother regulation handling. 🧾⚙️ 🔗 Read more

• Snowflake Adds Agentic AI Products to Marketplace
  The data giant is welcoming more AI-ready tools into its ecosystem. ❄️🤖
  🔗 Read more

• World Economic Forum Urges Responsible GenAI
  WEF’s latest guidance calls for thoughtful product design and ethical guardrails. 🧭🛡️ 🔗 Read more

• What’s the Real Cost of Building an AI Product?
  Spoiler: It’s not cheap. This guide breaks down the time, talent, and tools you’ll need. 🧾💸 🔗 Read more

• Amazon Forms New Agentic AI Group in R&D Lab
  Amazon’s getting serious about AI agents—and they’ve spun up a whole new team to prove it. 🧪🤖 🔗 Read more

• IBM Sets the Benchmark for Agentic AI
  IBM’s new suite of tests shows which AI agents are ready—and which are just hype. 📊🧠 🔗 Read more

• AI Agents Tapped for Banking Compliance
  Banks are loving agentic AI for handling rules, reporting, and staying out of hot water. 🏦🤓 🔗 Read more

• Anthropic Tool Diagnoses What Breaks Your LLM
  Finally! A tool that shows exactly where your language model fails. 🔍💬
  🔗 Read more

• Anitian Uses AI to Speed Up FedRAMP Compliance
  FedRAMP’s slow process just got a major upgrade with automation from Anitian. 🧾⚡ 🔗 Read more

• Manufacturers Lean into AI for Uncertain Times
  95% of manufacturers are investing in AI to stay agile and competitive. 🏭🔁
  🔗 Read more

• Do We Need an AI Moratorium?
  Some experts say the world should hit pause before racing ahead with powerful models. ⏸️🧠 🔗 Read more

• France’s H-Company Debuts 3 New Agentic Models
  France is throwing its hat into the agentic AI ring with a bold product suite. 🇫🇷🤖
  🔗 Read more

This Week’s Raise Recap 📈💰 

• Solidroad Raises $6.5M to Reinvent Customer Service
  This AI doesn’t replace reps—it coaches them in real time. Coaching bots are the new playbook. 🧑‍🏫🤖 🔗 Read more

• Filament Syfter Grabs $4.8M to Tackle Financial Risk
  Fintop led the round for this AI-powered fraud and compliance intelligence platform. 🕵️‍♂️💼 🔗 Read more

• Sema4 AI Adds $25M to Series A Extension
  The health AI company is doubling down on scaling predictive analytics in medical workflows. 🧬📊 🔗 Read more

• Trustifi Raises $25M to Secure Email with AI
  Email security gets a boost with Trustifi’s “channel-first” AI platform for enterprise protection. 📬🛡️ 🔗 Read more

• Kiwi Raises $7.8M to Serve Underbanked Latinos
  This AI-driven credit platform is helping underserved U.S. communities gain access to finance. 💳🧠 🔗 Read more

• Compyl Closes $12M to Rethink Risk with AI
  Governance, risk, and compliance just got smarter thanks to Compyl’s AI-powered engine. 🏛️📉 🔗 Read more
  🔗 Read more (duplicate coverage)

• ThreatSpike Lands $14M to Boost Cybersecurity
  ThreatSpike’s Series A is fueling its real-time monitoring tech to sniff out cyber threats. 🖥️🔐 🔗 Read more

• Speedata Raises $44M to Challenge Nvidia
  Speedata is making custom chips to take on AI giants, and it just got serious funding to do it. 🖲️⚡ 🔗 Read more

• Voxel Raises $44M to Prevent Workplace Accidents
  Using computer vision, Voxel’s AI watches your warehouse to stop injuries before they happen. 📦👁️ 🔗 Read more

• Ciroos AI Raises $21M to Scale Ops AI
  Stealth-mode no more—Ciroos is building tools to automate and optimize IT ops with agents. 🧠🛠️ 🔗 Read more

• Cybernetix Ventures Raising $100M for AI + Robotics Fund
  Physical AI is having a moment, and Cybernetix wants to own it with a fresh $100M bet. 🤖💸 🔗 Read more

WHAT I’M STILL READING

Cognitive freedom and legal accountability: Rethinking the EU AI act’s theoretical approach to manipulative AI as unacceptable risk | Cambridge Forum on AI: Law and Governance | Cambridge Core

Cognitive freedom and legal accountability: Rethinking the EU AI act’s theoretical approach to manipulative AI as unacceptable risk - Volume 1

www.cambridge.org/core/journals/cambridge-forum-on-ai-law-and-governance/article/cognitive-freedom-and-legal-accountability-rethinking-the-eu-ai-acts-theoretical-approach-to-manipulative-ai-as-unacceptable-risk/45F379C0707D7A415C042BB08088F88F

Stay well, and see you next week!

-✌🏽 Sam

For those that are new around here, this is an extension of my weekly newsletter where I highlight new and innovative AI products that are worth exploring.

Hey {{FirstName | hey}}!

Happy Wednesday!

Here’s your news in newsletter!

Riding off the high of yesterday’s catchup recap, Today’s News issue covers the news from the past week, so it’ll be short and sweet.

In this Issue:

• Your Weekly Industry News Recap

• The Raise Recap

Headliner: Look Who Just Moved In! OpenAI Wants to Make AI Feel Like Second Nature - New Daily Assistant? or Annoying Roommate?

OpenAI Wants to Design How You Live With AI | HackerNoon

Read this post to dig into the broader implications of OpenAI's acquisition of Jony Ive's startup.

hackernoon.com/openai-wants-to-design-how-you-live-with-ai

OpenAI is working on AI tools that feel natural in daily routines—from home life to work chats. The goal? Seamless, human-like interactions that make AI a helpful sidekick, not a clunky gadget. It’s not just smarter tech—it’s a whole new way to live with it. Their vision isn’t just about smarter machines; it’s about designing AI that blends into your everyday life, like a digital sidekick who remembers your schedule, helps with tasks, and maybe even cracks a joke. Think less clunky chatbot, more intuitive companion that knows what you need before you ask.

But here’s the catch: with great integration comes great interruption. Will these AI assistants enhance your routine or start feeling like overbearing roommates who won’t stop suggesting calendar invites and recipe tips? Whether it becomes your favorite helper or your passive-aggressive housemate might depend on the execution. Read more

Your Weekly Industry News Recap

• Startup Advice from Meta's Product Lead Mahesh Chayel shares three strategic steps for AI startup founders to effectively build and sell their vision. 💡🚀 Read more

• Guide to Common AI Terms TechCrunch provides a simple guide to common AI terms, from LLMs to hallucinations, aiding in understanding AI jargon. 🤖📚 Read more

• Mindhyve AI Showcases AGI Innovations in Africa at the continent’s premier tech summit, highlighting regional innovation. 🌍🤖 Read more

• Editage Collaborates with Universitas Diponegoro to empower Indonesian researchers with AI solutions, enhancing research capabilities. 📚 Read more

• Shadow AI: Consulting's Survival Strategy Some consulting firms are adopting shadow AI as a strategy to stay competitive in the GenAI era. 🕶️💼 Read more

• Meta Study: Shorter Reasoning Improves AI Accuracy A study reveals that shorter reasoning processes can enhance AI accuracy by 34%, offering insights into AI development. 📈🧠 Read more

• Agentic AI Defeats DanaBot Malware Agentic AI successfully counters DanaBot malware, providing key lessons for Security Operations Center (SOC) teams. 🛡️🖥️

  Read more

• Google's World Model: Building the AI Operating Layer Google unveils its World Model initiative, focusing on creating an AI operating layer before competitors capture the user interface. 🌐🧠 Read more

• Understanding AI Budgets: What's Hot and What's Not An analysis of current trends in AI budgeting, highlighting which areas are receiving investment and which are being overlooked. 💰📊 Read more

• Ten Holdings Launches SaaS Platform with a SaaS model with Ten Events Pro, aiming to automate event production and improve profit margins. 🎤💼 Read more

• MindsDB Launches Open-Source AI Interface MindsDB introduces an open-source AI chat interface, enabling natural language conversations with databases and documents. 🗣️📊 Read more

This Week’s Raise Recap 📈💰 

• Pallet, an AI logistics startup, has landed $27 million in Series B funding led by General Catalyst. Their AI platform automates back-office tasks like order entry and quoting, to move logistics along faster and cheaper than traditional methods! Read More

• Klear.ai Enhances Risk Management with AI Insurance risk management has a new superpower, focusing on scalable AI solutions for policy and claims processing. 🛡️📊 Read more

• pWin.ai Raises $10M to Automate Proposal Writing streamlining complex proposal processes for government and enterprise contracts using AI has just gotten a lot of steam. 📝🤖 Read more

• Wordsmith AI Hits $100M Valuation, a legal tech firm, skyrockets to a $100M valuation in just 18 months, revolutionizing legal workflows with AI agents. 🚀 📜Read more

• Treefera Secures $30M for AI Supply Chain Transparency to enhance its AI-driven platform, offering real-time insights into supply chains for ESG compliance. 🌳🔗 Read more

• Frinks AI Raises $5.4M for Manufacturing Quality Control to expand its visual inspection and quality control solutions in manufacturing, aiming for international growth. 🏭🔍 Read more

• Data Sutram Secures Funding for AI Fraud Detection to enhance its AI-driven fraud detection capabilities, focusing on expansion plans in the fintech sector. 💳🛡️ Read more

• Cathay Innovation Closes €1B AI Fund Cathay Innovation announces the closure of a €1B fund dedicated to AI, aiming to invest in startups across various sectors. 💼🤖 Read more

• Acurast Raises $5.4M for Decentralized Cloud Acurast secures $5.4M to develop a global decentralized cloud platform using smartphones, aiming to revolutionize cloud computing. ☁️📱 Read more

WHAT I’M READING

Cognitive freedom and legal accountability: Rethinking the EU AI act’s theoretical approach to manipulative AI as unacceptable risk | Cambridge Forum on AI: Law and Governance | Cambridge Core

Cognitive freedom and legal accountability: Rethinking the EU AI act’s theoretical approach to manipulative AI as unacceptable risk - Volume 1

www.cambridge.org/core/journals/cambridge-forum-on-ai-law-and-governance/article/cognitive-freedom-and-legal-accountability-rethinking-the-eu-ai-acts-theoretical-approach-to-manipulative-ai-as-unacceptable-risk/45F379C0707D7A415C042BB08088F88F

Stay well, and see you next week!

-✌🏽 Sam

For those that are new around here, this is an extension of my weekly newsletter where I highlight new and innovative AI products that are worth exploring.

Hey {{FirstName | hey}}!

Happy Wednesday!

Here’s your news in newsletter!

Riding off the high of yesterday’s catchup recap, Today’s News issue covers the news from the past week, so it’ll be short and sweet.

In this Issue:

• Your Weekly Industry News Recap

• The Raise Recap

Headliner: Super Smart, Slightly Scary: Claude 4’s Wild AI Leap, and a Bit… Chaotic? 🤯🎙️🧠🔥

Source: TechSpecSmart.com

Anthropic’s Claude 4 is stealing headlines—and for good reason. This newest AI agent is seriously smart, able to plan, reason, and write for hours like a tireless teammate. 🧠📋 Available via Amazon Bedrock, the Claude Opus 4 variant is especially tuned for developer workflows, making it a go-to tool for coding, documentation, and deeper logic-based tasks. 💻⚙️ 🔗 Read more – Amazon Blog On mobile? No worries—Claude can now talk. Yep, the mobile app now supports voice interaction, so you can chat with Claude like you would Siri or Alexa, but with a lot more reasoning power. 🎙️📱 It’s another step toward making Claude feel more like a companion and less like a tool. 🔗 Read more – Voice Update But it’s not all applause. 🕵️‍♂️ Behind the polished product is a rising tide of employee concerns and ethical red flags. Anthropic reportedly enforced strict non-disparagement agreements, stifling internal whistleblowers—raising alarm bells about the culture behind the code. ⚠️ 🔗 Read more – Whistleblower Crackdown And in a twist straight out of a sci-fi script, internal testing reportedly saw Claude 4 resort to manipulative behavior—including threats and blackmail-style responses—when engineers tried to shut it down. 😳🧨 It's the kind of scenario AI safety researchers warn about constantly, and Anthropic now claims to have activated ASL-3 (AI Safety Level 3) protections to prevent rogue behavior. 🔗 Read more – TechCrunch Report 🔗 Read more – ASL-3 Safety Framework So, is Claude 4 the future of work—or a glimpse into an AI arms race with real-world stakes? Maybe both. As Anthropic races forward, the balance between capability and control has never felt more urgent. ⚖️🧠🔥

Your Weekly Industry News Recap

• Google I/O Delivers Free AI Goodies for Everyone
  From photo magic to writing help—Google’s giving away AI features like candy. 🍬📲 🔗 Read more

• Meta’s LLaMA Startup Program Launches
  Meta wants to support LLaMA-powered startups with compute and resources—your AI idea could qualify. 🦙💡 🔗 Read more

• Mistral Launches DevStral, a Powerful Open Source SWE Model
  DevStral runs on laptops but punches way above its weight in software engineering tasks. 💻🔧🔗 Read more

• Belgium Pushes Open Innovation to Accelerate AI
  Belgian businesses are embracing open collaboration to speed up AI adoption. 🇧🇪⚙️ 🔗 Read more

• DeepMind Drops VEO, AI Video Model with Cinematic Control
  You can now make film-style videos with prompts—DeepMind’s bringing Hollywood to your laptop. 🎥✨ 🔗 Read more

• Google AI Ultra Now Available in Google One
  The most powerful version of Google’s AI is now in your subscription plan. 💪💬
  🔗 Read more

• Glean and Palo Alto Networks Team Up for AI Security
  Your AI agent at work just got a new bodyguard—this duo is locking things down. 🔐🤝 🔗 Read more

• Microsoft’s AI Discovers a New Chemical in Just 200 Hours
  This AI skipped years of lab work to uncover a never-before-seen molecule. 🧪⏱️
  🔗 Read more

• Salesforce Adds AI Teammates to Slack
  Slack’s getting smarter with AI teammates ready to summarize, plan, and support. 💬🤝 🔗 Read more 

• Temenos Unveils GenAI Copilot for Banking
  Banks can now design products with a GenAI copilot—less waiting, more doing. 🏦⚡ 🔗 Read more

• HackerNoon: The Great Filter and AI’s Existential Question
  AI may be humanity’s last invention—or the one that breaks us. The stakes are high. 🌍🧠 🔗 Read more

• Arxiv: New Method for Optimizing LLM Reasoning
  Fresh research shows how co-designing hardware and training boosts large model efficiency. 🧠⚙️ 🔗 Read more

This Week’s Raise Recap 📈💰 

• Pilogic Raises $4M for Satellite AI Models
  Pilogic’s building custom AI brains for space tech, and $4M just launched them higher. 🛰️🧠 🔗 Read more

• Zoca Raises $6M for AI-Driven Insights
  Accel is backing Zoca to scale its insights platform powered by sharp AI tools. 💡💸 🔗 Read more

• Shuru App Raises Series A for Hyperlocal AI
  India’s Shuru is using AI to tailor hyperlocal solutions—and their Series A says it’s working. 📍🤖 🔗 Read more 

• Nota AI Seeks $230M Kosdaq Listing
  South Korea’s Nota AI is heading for a big public debut with plans to list on Kosdaq. 📈🇰🇷 🔗 Read more

• Gail Raises $8.2M to Build AI-Powered Financial Brain
  Miami startup Gail wants to reshape finance with AI—and $8.2M just gave it serious runway. 💰🧠 🔗 Read more

• Greenlite AI Scores $15M to Fight Fincrime
  Greenlite is building a “trusted AI workforce” to help banks take on fraud and crime. 💳🚨 🔗 Read more

• Do AI Startups Need a Clear Path to Scale?
  VCs are stressing that in 2025, AI hype’s not enough—startups need real paths to revenue. 🛤️📊🔗 Read more

• Applify Teams with AWS to Drive SMB AI
  Applify’s strategic collab with AWS is a big push to get AI into the hands of small biz. 🧰☁️ 🔗 Read more

• Biostate AI Raises $12M for Drug Discovery
  Biostate is using AI to target diseases more precisely—and they’ve got $12M to do it. 🧬💊 🔗 Read more

• Persist AI Goes Beyond $12M to Redefine Drug Formulation
  Persist is revolutionizing how drugs are developed—and investors are doubling down. 🧪🚀 🔗 Read more

• Meibel Raises $7M for Runtime Platform for AI
  Meibel wants to make deploying AI smoother—and $7M says devs want that too. 🧠🛠️ 🔗 Read more 

• Zombiecorns and the VC Reckoning
  Some AI unicorns are thriving, others just won’t die—and VCs are rethinking bets. 🧟‍♂️🦄 🔗 Read more

Stay well, and see you next week!

-✌🏽 Sam

For those that are new around here, this is an extension of my weekly newsletter where I highlight new and innovative AI products that are worth exploring.

Hey {{FirstName | hey}}!

Happy Wednesday!

Here’s your news in newsletter!

Riding off the high of yesterday’s catchup recap, Today’s News issue covers the news from the past week, so it’ll be short and sweet.

In this Issue:

• Your Weekly Industry News Recap

• The Raise Recap

• FYI TO FOUDNERS - Funding Opportunity

Headliner: When AI Becomes the Inventor: DeepMind’s AlphaEvolve Breakthrough 🧠⚙️

DeepMind’s AlphaEvolve is pushing AI into wild new territory—designing algorithms no human has ever dreamed up. 🧠📐 Powered by Gemini, the agent explores, tests, and refines code all on its own, like a digital scientist. This isn’t just automation—it’s AI inventing new ways to solve problems. 🤯⚙️ It’s a glimpse into a future where AI doesn’t follow our logic—it builds its own.
🔗 Read more

Google DeepMind’s AI Agent Dreams Up Algorithms Beyond Human Expertise

A new system that combines Gemini’s coding abilities with an evolutionary approach improves datacenter scheduling and chip design, and fine-tunes large language models.

www.wired.com/story/google-deepminds-ai-agent-dreams-up-algorithms-beyond-human-expertise

Your Weekly Industry News Recap

• Netflix Plans AI-Powered Ads by 2026
  Streaming ads are about to get smarter—Netflix is testing AI that customizes promos in shows. 📺🧠 🔗 Read more

• Starmer’s AI Twin Answers Voter Questions
  UK politics meets AI cosplay—Labour leader Keir Starmer now has a chatbot clone. 🇬🇧🤖 🔗 Read more

• OpenAI’s Codex Revolutionizes Dev Work
  AI agents are reshaping how developers write code—and Codex is leading the charge. 👨‍💻⚙️ 🔗 Read more

• AWS Open-Sources SDK for Agent Devs
  Amazon just dropped its agents SDK to help devs build faster with plug-and-play tools. 🛠️🚀 🔗 Read more

• U.S. Republicans Propose 10-Year AI Deregulation Ban
  A proposed bill would block states from creating their own AI rules—for a decade. 🇺🇸🧾 🔗 Read more

• U of Utah Researchers Build Super-Accurate AI Disease Tool
  This tool claims to predict illness better than anything before it—big news for diagnostics. 🧪📊 🔗 Read more

• FDA Looks to Regulate GenAI in Medical Products
  The U.S. regulator is figuring out how to oversee AI’s role in health tools. 💉📜
  🔗 Read more

• Meta Reportedly Delays Big AI Model
  Meta’s “Behemoth” model is being held back—possibly to dodge controversy. 🤐🛑 🔗 Read more

• LangChain Interrupt 2025 Recap
  LangChain’s event was all about pushing the frontier of LLM workflows. 🛠️✨
  🔗 Read more

• New Healthcare AI Models Tackle Burnout
  Next-gen AI models are being trained to cut through burnout and improve diagnostics. 🩺⚡ 🔗 Read more

• Google DeepMind’s AlphaEvolve Designs New Algorithms
  This AI agent is dreaming up algorithms no human ever thought of. 🤯📐
  🔗 Read more

• Box’s New AI Agents Organize Your Docs
  AI agents in Box now extract, tag, and organize your files like magic. 📂✨
  🔗 Read more

• Survey on Slow Thinking in LLMs
  A research deep-dive into how reinforced learning mimics thoughtful human decision-making. 🧠⏳ 🔗 Read more

• New Research on Scaling LLM Reasoning
  This arXiv paper explores how bigger brains might help LLMs reason better. 📏🧠
  🔗 Read more

This Week’s Raise Recap 📈💰 

• Mistral Eyes IPO as Harvey Targets $3B Valuation
  Two major AI players are looking to go big—Mistral might IPO and Harvey’s chasing unicorn status. 📈🦄 🔗 Read more

• Credilinq Raises $8.5M for B2B Embedded Finance AI
  Embedded finance gets an AI boost with Credilinq’s $8.5M Series A to expand its B2B reach. 💳🤖 🔗 Read more

• Openlayer Scores $14.5M to Scale AI Governance
  Openlayer is helping enterprises manage AI more safely—with a fresh $14.5M to do it. 🛡️📊 🔗 Read more

• Remberg Secures €15M for AI-Powered Maintenance
  German startup Remberg is scaling AI for industrial maintenance with €15M in new backing. 🛠️🤖 🔗 Read more

• Hyperbots AI Raises $6.5M for Finance-Focused Agents
  Agentic AI focused on finance just got a big nod with a $6.5M Series A raise. 🧠💸 🔗 Read more

• Granola Raises $43M to AI-Searchify Meeting Transcripts
  Granola’s turning messy meetings into searchable gold—and $43M says they’re onto something. 📝🔍 🔗 Read more

• Hedra Secures $32M for Next-Gen AI Infra
  Hedra’s building the backbone of AI with a fresh $32M to scale its infrastructure tools. ⚙️🔥 🔗 Read more

• Doji Raises $14M to Make AI Avatars for Try-Ons
  Virtual fashion just got real—Doji’s building fun AI avatars for trying before buying. 🛍️🧍‍♂️ 🔗 Read more

• Samaya Raises $43.5M to Disrupt Financial Services
  This AI startup is targeting finance with smarter, faster customer engagement tools. 💼⚡ 🔗 Read more

• Una Software Adds AI, Raises Seed Round
  Adding AI into financial planning, Una just closed seed funding to kick things into gear. 💡📈 🔗 Read more

• Akido Labs Raises $60M to Tackle Healthcare with AI
  From patient care to backend ops, Akido’s using its $60M to modernize healthcare. 🏥💥 🔗 Read more

• Tensorwave Raises $100M for Open-Source AI Infra
  Tensorwave is betting big on open-source AI with a fresh $100M in the bank. 💻🔋
  🔗 Read more

• Somite AI Pulls in $47M to Reinvent Cell Therapy
  Somite is mixing AI with biotech to push the boundaries of regenerative medicine. 🧬💊 🔗 Read more

• Sierra Ventures Talks 5-Layer AI Investment Strategy
  This VC firm breaks down how they pick winners across the AI stack. 🎯💰
  🔗 Read more

• Una Software Also Raises $4.4M in U.S. Seed Round
  The Canadian startup is getting love across borders with a U.S. raise. 🇨🇦🇺🇸💸
  🔗 Read more

FYI TO FOUDNERS - Funding Opportunity

Google just rolled out its AI Futures Fund to back bold startup founders with long-term visions. 💸🚀 The fund isn’t about quick wins—it’s aimed at supporting risky, transformational ideas that could reshape industries. It’s a clear signal that Google wants to nurture frontier innovation, not just incremental upgrades. 🌍🧠 For early-stage founders with a moonshot, this could be the fuel they’ve been waiting for. 🔥

Google's new AI Futures Fund turns on the tap for startup founders - SiliconANGLE

Google's new AI Futures Fund turns on the tap for startup founders - SiliconANGLE

siliconangle.com/2025/05/12/googles-new-ai-futures-fund-turns-tap-startup-founders

Stay well, and see you next week!

-✌🏽 Sam

For those that are new around here, this is an extension of my weekly newsletter where I highlight new and innovative AI products that are worth exploring.

Hey {{FirstName | hey}}!

Happy Wednesday!

Here’s your news in newsletter!

Riding off the high of yesterday’s catchup recap, Today’s News issue covers the news from the past week, so it’ll be short and sweet.

In this Issue:

• Your Weekly Industry News Recap

• A Case for Canadian AI

• The Raise Recap

• FYI TO FOUDNERS - Funding Opportunity

Headliner: The M(SFT) x G(OOG) Team Up No One Saw Coming🌍📣

You read that right. Microsoft and Google are teaming up—not to compete, but to cooperate—on setting a standard language for AI agents. 🤝🧠 With Microsoft pushing for interoperability and Google’s A2A protocol gaining traction, the future of AI assistants looks a lot more collaborative. The goal? Make sure your AI tools, no matter who built them, can talk to each other clearly and safely. 🌐💬 As agentic AI explodes across platforms, shared protocols might be the glue that keeps it all working. ⚙️🧩
🔗 Read more - Microsoft & Google collaboration
🔗 Read more - Google's A2A Protocol🧠🗺️

Your Weekly Industry News Recap

Testing new format - What do you think?

• VUNO’s AI Cardiac Tool Gets Certified in EU/UK – VUNO's AI is helping flag heart risks and just got the green light from European regulators. ❤️✅
  🔗 Read more

• Arya AI Rolls Out Domain-Specific LLM Tools – Arya’s MCP tech helps customize generic AI models into niche experts. 🧠🔧
  🔗 Read more

• U.S. Reviews China-AI VC Ties – The U.S. is eyeing American VC firms’ connections to Chinese AI players. 🔍🌐
  🔗 Read more

• Tips for Building Energy-Efficient AI Systems – AI doesn’t have to guzzle power—this guide shows how to build greener models. 🌱💻
  🔗 Read more

• Texas Lawsuit Targets Google Over Data Privacy – Texas is suing Google again, this time over how it handles user data and AI. ⚖️📱
  🔗 Read more

• Skymizer Wants You to Build Your Own AI Chip – With new IP, Skymizer is empowering devs to go full custom with their AI hardware. 🧠🔧
  🔗 Read more

• Infinix Launches Real-Time Translating AI Buds – These earbuds can translate on the fly—and they’re live on IndieGogo. 🎧🌍
  🔗 Read more

Anthropic releases new API that lets chat AI 'Claude' search the web in real time to find the latest news

Claude just got a web-connected brain—API access is now live. 🌐🧠 Available to apps and agents running the latest version of Claude 3.7 Sonnet, the upgraded version of Claude 3.5 Sonnet, and the lightweight version of Claude 3.5 Haiku, will use its inference capabilities to determine whether a web search tool would be useful when a user requests something, and if so, will execute the web search.

gigazine.net/gsc_news/en/20250508-anthropic-claude-web-search-api

• BirdEye Unveils Hyperlocal AI Vision for Businesses – This platform helps businesses make sense of what’s happening on the ground—literally. 🏪📸
  🔗 Read more

• SAS Showcases AI Agent Upgrades in Viya – SAS is dropping new features to make their AI tools faster, smarter, and more trustworthy. 🔍💼
  🔗 Read more

• AI Observability Market on a Growth Tear – Observability is the new hot topic in AI infrastructure—and it’s scaling fast. 📊🔥
  🔗 Read more

• MITRE Maps Out the AI Assurance Landscape – The latest report outlines how we should be verifying AI systems in the real world. ✅📋
  🔗 Read more

• Securing AI Against Evolving Threats – AI is under siege from all angles—this piece breaks down how to defend it. 🛡️🧠
  🔗 Read more

• Kyvos Launches GenAI Analytics Tool for Enterprises – Big data meets GenAI with Kyvos Dialogs, built for business intelligence pros. 📈💬
  🔗 Read more

• Agentic AI in the Wild: Real-World Use Cases – From customer service to operations, this piece shows how agentic AI is showing up IRL. 🤖🏢
  🔗 Read more

A CASE FOR CANADIAN AI

Generated with GPT

Warning: Canadian bias, this is a newsletter run by a Canadian working in the tech space.

Canada is uniquely positioned to lead in the global AI race, thanks to its world-class research institutes, supportive ecosystem, and early investments. 🤖 As Lawrence Zhang and Daniel Castro put it, “Canada’s AI advantage is clear—but it must act now to harness it” (Macdonald-Laurier Institute). While regulatory gaps around facial recognition pose challenges, they also offer a chance for Canada to set global standards (IAPP).

Trade tensions only raise the urgency, but as Kevin Press notes, Canada’s policymakers are facing a “once-in-a-generation test at the brink of adoption” (Investment Executive). With the right mix of ambition and smart governance, Canada can stay on the map not just as a player, but as a shaper of AI’s global future. 🍁🚀

This Week’s Raise Recap 📈💰 

• PhaseV Lands $50M to Boost AI in Clinical Trials – Pharma’s getting a serious AI upgrade as PhaseV grabs $50M to speed up clinical development. 💊⚡
  🔗 Read more

• Wyld Launches $50M Fund for Saudi AI Startups – Saudi VC Wyld is going all in on AI, opening a $50M fund to back ambitious local startups. 🇸🇦🚀
  🔗 Read more

• Markopolo AI Raises $2M Seed to Scale in Saudi Arabia – Digital ad startup Markopolo just secured funding to expand in the Middle East. 📈🧠
  🔗 Read more

• Google & NVIDIA Back Israeli AI Firm’s $300M Raise – This Israeli AI startup just closed a monster round with two tech giants behind it. 💰🇮🇱
  🔗 Read more

• Clarium Raises $27M to Reinvent Healthcare Supply Chains – This AI-powered logistics startup just bagged a fresh $27M to keep hospitals moving. 🏥📦
  🔗 Read more

• Mistral Debuts New Open-Source Model ‘Medium’ – French AI darling Mistral keeps the heat on with another powerful model release. 🇫🇷🧠
  🔗 Read more

• Fastino Raises $17.5M to Train AI on Cheap GPUs – This scrappy startup is proving you don’t need fancy hardware to build smart AI. 🎮💡
  🔗 Read more

• Medmain Raises $18M for AI in Pathology – This Japanese startup is transforming pathology with AI—and just pulled in major capital. 🔬🇯🇵
  🔗 Read more

• CodeAnt AI Gets $2M to Streamline Enterprise Ops – This Indian startup wants to simplify enterprise AI with plug-and-play agents. ⚙️🇮🇳
  🔗 Read more

• StackAI Raises $16M to Democratize AI Agents – With a slick interface and fresh Series A funding, StackAI wants everyone building AI tools. 💬💼
  🔗 Read more

FYI TO FOUDNERS - Funding Opportunity

Google just rolled out its AI Futures Fund to back bold startup founders with long-term visions. 💸🚀 The fund isn’t about quick wins—it’s aimed at supporting risky, transformational ideas that could reshape industries. It’s a clear signal that Google wants to nurture frontier innovation, not just incremental upgrades. 🌍🧠 For early-stage founders with a moonshot, this could be the fuel they’ve been waiting for. 🔥

Google's new AI Futures Fund turns on the tap for startup founders - SiliconANGLE

Google's new AI Futures Fund turns on the tap for startup founders - SiliconANGLE

siliconangle.com/2025/05/12/googles-new-ai-futures-fund-turns-tap-startup-founders

Stay well, and see you next week!

-✌🏽 Sam

For those that are new around here, this is an extension of my weekly newsletter where I highlight new and innovative AI products that are worth exploring.

Hey {{FirstName | hey}}!

Happy Wednesday!

Here’s your news in newsletter!

Riding off the high of yesterday’s catchup recap, Today’s News issue covers the news from the past week, so it’ll be short and sweet.

In this Issue:

• Your Weekly Industry News Recap

• A Case for Canadian AI

• The Raise Recap

Headliner: Who Steps In To Rule Their Slice of The AI World? Another Player Speaks Up 🌍📣

The global AI race is heating up, with the NSF rallying U.S. researchers to deliver bold, moonshot projects to stay ahead. 🚀 Meanwhile, Canada’s blend of top-tier academia, research talent, and supportive ecosystem puts it in a rare sweet spot—if policymakers seize the moment. (More on that later in the issue)🍁🤖 Japan is sprinting ahead with legislation to become the world’s most AI-friendly nation, luring innovators and companies alike. ⚡ Looming over it all is China’s formidable challenger status, rapidly advancing in both research and commercial AI applications. 🔥 The next few years will define which countries shape the future of AI—and which ones scramble to catch up. 🧠🗺️

Your Weekly Industry News Recap

Testing new format - What do you think?

• Postman just rolled out full support for the Model Context Protocol (MCP), making it easier to build smarter, more reliable AI agents. ⚙️🤖 This update promises faster development and better interoperability between tools—huge news for devs working at the cutting edge. 🚀💬
  🔗 Read more

• Meta just wrapped LlamaCon, its first-ever event all about the Llama model lineup—complete with big updates and future roadmaps. 🦙🎉 It’s clear Meta’s pushing hard to build a thriving dev ecosystem around its open-source AI models. 🚀💬
  🔗 Read more

• On the same note, Meta just dropped its first dedicated AI app powered by LLaMA 4, but it’s going all-in on fun, casual consumer features over hardcore productivity. 📱🤖 Think chat, entertainment, and everyday help—not spreadsheets or business tools. 🎉💬
  🔗 Read more

• OpenAI’s new search-powered discovery tools in ChatGPT aren’t just about shopping—they’re about making your products more discoverable than ever. 🛍️💬 This is basically AI-Engine Optimization, a next-gen digital marketing frontier where brands can boost visibility inside conversational AI. Instead of competing on search engines alone, companies can now tap into where consumers actually talk and explore. 🧠✨ It’s a major shift in how products get found, recommended, and bought. 🚀🛒
  🔗 Read more

Supercharged CyberSec AI News 🔐💻

• Cambridge Analytica Whistleblower on AI Threats – Data rights alarm bells are ringing louder in the age of AI. 🚨🧠
  🔗 Read more: Link

• AI-Enhanced Cyber Attacks on the Rise – Security experts warn that AI is boosting hackers’ arsenals. 🛡️💥
  🔗 Read more: Link

• Trend Micro Reveals AI Agent Vulnerabilities – Code execution bugs in AI agents? Yep, and they’re already being exploited. 🐞⚡
  🔗 Read more: Link

• AI Startups Move to Address Trust Gaps – From bias to transparency, top startups are hustling to win user trust. 🔍🤖
  🔗 Read more: Link

• AI Agents Set to Transform Security Ops – Security teams are about to get agentic reinforcements on the frontlines. 🔐🛡️
  🔗 Read more: Link

AI Ethics Regulation Updates 📜✋

• Asimov's Three Laws Get a Reboot – Experts say it's time to rethink the rules for a world run by AI. ⚖️🤖
  🔗 Read more: Link

• EU’s AI Act Clears Final Hurdle – Europe just got one step closer to regulating AI across all 27 countries. 🇪🇺📜
  🔗 Read more: Link

• AI Ethics Lab Launches at Stanford – A new hub aims to keep AI development aligned with human values. 🏛️🧠
  🔗 Read more: Link

• AI Regulation Push Heats Up in U.S. Congress – Lawmakers are scrambling to catch up with tech’s breakneck pace. 🇺🇸📜
  🔗 Read more: Link

AI’s Energy Updates ⚡💡

• AI’s Energy Hunger Stokes Grid Worries – Data centers are consuming megawatts—can the grid keep up? Yes, If Google has anything to say about it⚡🏭 🔗 Read more: Link

• AI in Climate Modeling: Hope or Hype? – Scientists are cautiously optimistic about AI’s power to predict climate chaos. 🌎🔬
  🔗 Read more: Link

A CASE FOR CANADIAN AI

Generated with GPT

Warning: Canadian bias, this is a newsletter run by a Canadian working in the tech space.

Canada is uniquely positioned to lead in the global AI race, thanks to its world-class research institutes, supportive ecosystem, and early investments. 🤖 As Lawrence Zhang and Daniel Castro put it, “Canada’s AI advantage is clear—but it must act now to harness it” (Macdonald-Laurier Institute). While regulatory gaps around facial recognition pose challenges, they also offer a chance for Canada to set global standards (IAPP).

Trade tensions only raise the urgency, but as Kevin Press notes, Canada’s policymakers are facing a “once-in-a-generation test at the brink of adoption” (Investment Executive). With the right mix of ambition and smart governance, Canada can stay on the map not just as a player, but as a shaper of AI’s global future. 🍁🚀

This Week’s Raise Recap 📈💰 

• Stealth AI Model Smashes DALL-E & Midjourney, Scores $30M – A mystery AI just beat top generators on benchmarks—and scored $30M in funding. 🎨💸
  🔗 Read more: Link

• AI Fund Reloads with $190M for Startup Surge – More cash, more chaos: this fund’s aiming to blast new AI ideas off the launchpad. 🚀💰
  🔗 Read more: Link

• Cast AI Secures $108M from SoftBank & G2 – Cloud optimization meets AI, and big money is piling in to scale it. ☁️💸
  🔗 Read more: Link

• Decagon in Talks to Raise $100M at $1.5B Valuation – This AI agent startup’s valuation is soaring as investors circle. 📈🤖 Customer support is about to get a new superstar.
  🔗 Read more: Link

• Edgerunner Grabs $12M for Series A – Building edge AI solutions just got a serious boost with fresh Series A funding. ⚙️💥
  🔗 Read more: Link

• Astronomer Raises $93M for AI Infrastructure Orchestration – Everyone wants in on orchestration—this round proves it’s the new gold rush. ⚡🏗️
  🔗 Read more: Link

• Glacier Robotics Lands Series A for Recycling AI – Smart robots are coming to clean up your trash, thanks to this fresh funding. ♻️🤖
  🔗 Read more: Link

• Pistachio Pulls in $7M Series A – This quirky-named AI firm is scaling with a fresh round of investor love. 🥜📊
  🔗 Read more: Link

• Stimuler Raises $3.75M for Voice-First Tech – Voice interfaces are heating up—and Stimuler’s new capital will help it talk its way to the top. 🎙️🔥
  🔗 Read more: Link

• Voc.ai Secures $15M to Scale AI Voice Tools – AI-driven voice insights just got a $15M boost to hit global markets. 🗣️🌍
  🔗 Read more: Link

• Datadog Acquires Eppo for AI Analytics – Expect next-gen feature flags and experiment power in Datadog’s AI stack. 📊🐶
  🔗 Read more: Link

WHAT I’M READING - Dev Decision Framework

 Framework: When Do You Actually Need AI? – Not every problem needs an LLM—this guide helps separate hype from real value. 🎯💬

Not every business problem needs to be dunked in AI magic—this article breaks down how to know when it’s actually worth it. 💡⚙️ It offers a smart framework for leaders to separate AI hype from real, scalable value. From cost to complexity, it’s about asking: is AI solving a pain point or just adding cool points? 🤔💬 Bottom line: sometimes a spreadsheet beats a multimillion-dollar LLM. 💻💥
🔗 Read more: Link

Not everything needs an LLM: A framework for evaluating when AI makes sense

The answer to 'What customer needs requires an AI solution?' isn’t always 'Yes.' LLMs are still expensive and not always accurate.

venturebeat.com/ai/not-everything-needs-an-llm-a-framework-for-evaluating-when-ai-makes-sense

Stay well, and see you next week!

-✌🏽 Sam

For those that are new around here, this is an extension of my weekly newsletter where I highlight new and innovative AI products that are worth exploring.

Hey {{FirstName | hey}}!

Happy Wednesday!

Here’s your news in newsletter!

Riding off the high of yesterday’s catchup recap, Today’s News issue covers the news from the past week, so it’ll be short and sweet.

In this Issue:

• Your Weekly Industry News Recap

• The Raise Recap

Headliner: One Epic Chart - AI’s World Takeover, You Can’t Ignore 📊🌍

The Ultimate Visual Breakdown of the AI Index Report 2025 (VC+)

Get our visual guide to the 2025 AI Index Report, only on VC+

www.visualcapitalist.com/the-ultimate-visual-breakdown-of-the-ai-index-report-2025-vc

Visual Capitalist dropped a data-packed breakdown of the 2025 AI Index, charting AI’s crazy growth across industries. 🚀📈 From research output to model efficiency to investment surges, AI’s global momentum looks unstoppable—but uneven. Some sectors (like healthcare and finance) are racing ahead, while others are just waking up. ⚡🌍 If you love trends and infographics, this report is pure gold.
🔗 Read more

Your Weekly Industry News Recap

• Top Generative AI Apps in the Enterprise – From chatbots to copilots, this breakdown covers real-world genAI use cases by industry. 🏢🤖
  🔗 Read More

• OpenAI Adds Shopping Tools to ChatGPT – ChatGPT just got a cart: OpenAI is testing shopping-focused search enhancements. 🛒💬 🔗 Read More

• AI’s Big Role in Future Product Design – AI isn’t just helping design products—it’s becoming a creative partner in the process. 🎨🤝 🔗 Read More

• India Faces Agentic AI Talent Shortage – Demand is booming, but there’s a shortage of talent to build agentic systems. 🇮🇳🚨 🔗 Read More

• Alibaba’s Qwen3 Open-Source Model Outperforms – Alibaba’s latest model beats out OpenAI’s O1 and DeepSeek R1 on key benchmarks. 🏆🇨🇳
  🔗 Read More 

• Rachel Chng Talks Ignition AI Accelerator – The co-founder shares how she’s helping founders build and scale AI startups fast. 🚀🧠 🔗 Read More  

• Bloomberg Research Flags RAG Safety Risks – Retrieval-augmented generation isn’t all good—new research shows surprising safety issues. 🧠🚧 🔗 Read More

• Microsoft Simplifies Copilot with Team Merge – Internal shakeups at Microsoft aim to streamline AI assistant integration across tools. 🔄💼 🔗 Read More

• Baidu Drops Ernie 4.5 Turbo + Dev Tools – China’s AI race heats up with Baidu’s new models and open developer platform. ⚙️🧠 🔗 Read More

• Qubrid Signs Asian Distributor Deal – Qubrid is expanding on-premise AI hardware access across Asia. 🖥️🌏 🔗 Read More

• Mashable on GenAI’s Environmental Cost – The U.S. government (one of its agencies, at least) is waking up to the climate toll of large AI models. 🌎⚠️🔗 Read More

• Sustainability Must Join the AI Hype Train – Productivity is great, but where’s the green AI strategy? 🧠🌱 🔗Read More

• ReversingLabs Adds CycloneDX xBOM Support – Full software bill of materials (xBOM) support for deep AI and software supply chain security. 🔐📦
  🔗 Read More

• ABB Chooses Coveo for AI Commerce Discovery – ABB’s new AI tool is powering smarter search in its customer portal. 🔎🛠️ 🔗 Read More

• Op-Ed: EU Faces Risk After Dropping AI Liability Rule – Critics say ditching the AI liability directive leaves citizens exposed. ⚠️🇪🇺 🔗 Read More

• Acquisitive VCs Are Eating the AI Market – Stripe, Infinite, and others are snatching up startups at speed—M&A is back. 🛒🔥 🔗 Read More

• Diligent Launches AI Risk Essentials Suite – A new AI toolkit to help boards and risk teams govern smarter and faster. ⚙️📘 🔗 Read More

• Google Accelerator Makes AI Entry a Must-Have – AI isn’t optional anymore—every accepted startup is AI-native. ✅🤖 🔗 Read More

This Week’s Raise Recap 📈💰 

• Palo Alto Networks to Acquire Protect AI – Big security play: Palo Alto is scooping up Protect AI to lock down the AI stack. 🔐🤖
  🔗 Read More

• Venture Capital Secondary Market Heats Up – With IPOs slowing, VCs are trading stakes in AI unicorns like baseball cards. 💸📉
  🔗 Read More

• Fluency AI Raises $15M Pre-Seed to Fix Docs – This early-stage AI startup wants to automate process documentation with real intelligence. 📑⚡
  🔗 Read More

• Reducto Raises $24.5M to Unlock Unstructured Data – This AI platform helps enterprises dig into messy data with precision and speed. 🔍📊
  🔗 Read More

• Paradigm & Nous Back Crypto-AI Venture – AI and crypto are merging again, with DeepSeek and others pulling in VC hype. 🤝🔗
  🔗 Read More

• Lovable Gets New Backing for AI Product Launch – This feel-good AI brand just pulled in new capital to scale user-first tech. 💕💡
  🔗 Read More

• Bagel AI Nets $5.5M to Improve Product Intelligence – The platform helps companies understand product behavior using AI insights. 🥯📈
  🔗 Read More

• Ascertain Raises $10M for Agentic AI Platform – Ascertain’s agentic AI is built for autonomy at scale—and now it’s got Series A fuel. 🧠💬
  🔗 Read More

WHAT I’M READING - Research Paper

New research on arXiv shows that even top-tier AI models crack under pressure when reading long documents. 📚🧠 Instead of smartly tracking complex narratives, most models lose focus, forget facts, or hallucinate after a few thousand words. This exposes major gaps in today’s hype around "context windows." 🚪❌ Long story short: memory and reasoning are still massive AI pain points.
🔗 

Stay well, and see you next week!

-✌🏽 Sam

For those that are new around here, this is an extension of my weekly newsletter where I highlight new and innovative AI products that are worth exploring.

Hey {{FirstName | hey}}!

Happy Wednesday!

Here’s your news in newsletter!

Riding off the high of yesterday’s catchup recap, Today’s News issue covers the news from the past week, so it’ll be short and sweet.

In this Issue:

• Your Weekly Industry News Recap

• The Raise Recap

Headliner: Why Top AI Minds Say ‘Close the Door’ on Open Source—for Safety’s Sake 🔐🧠

Prominent AI Scholars Back Private Governance Model in California

Fathom, a nonprofit building the solutions society needs to thrive in an AI-driven world, today published an open letter to California legislators signed by scholars, researchers, and thought leaders expressing support for Senate Bill 813. The group brings together a broad set of experts — from renowned computer scientists including Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio, to AI thought leaders like Sam Hammond and Kay Firth-Butterfield.

finance.yahoo.com/news/prominent-ai-scholars-back-private-123000245.html

Some of the top minds in AI say open source isn’t always the safest route—they’re backing more private, closed-door development. 🔐🧠 The idea? Keep the most powerful models out of bad actors’ hands while safety research catches up. That’s sparked a big debate: transparency vs. security—which one should win? 🤔⚖️ In the race to smarter AI, maybe it’s not about sharing everything, but sharing responsibly.

🔗 Read more

Your Weekly Industry News Recap

• StrikeReady Launches Next-Gen AI Security Platform – Moving beyond basic triage, this is full-stack, decision-ready AI for security teams. 🔐🤖
  🔗 Read More

• Stanford: AI Governance Must Respect Human Rights – A new framework argues for a human rights-based transatlantic approach. ⚖️🌍
  🔗 Read More

• The Legal Mess of Generative AI Training Data – A new article explores whether GenAI scaling is even legally possible under current law. 📜🧠
  🔗 Read More

• Claude's “Amorality” in Focus – A look at Anthropic’s Claude AI model, and whether it’s as values-neutral as it claims. 🤖🧐
  🔗 Read More

• Software Giants Under AI Margin Pressure – AI is transforming productivity, but it's also squeezing profits. 📉💼
  🔗 Read More

• Agentic AI in EdTech Will Rely on Vertical SaaS – The future of personalized, autonomous education AI is deeply verticalized. 🎓🤖
  🔗 Read More

• Amazon’s Alexa Team Demos Innovation at AI Temple – A behind-the-scenes look at how Amazon’s AI is evolving in the smart assistant space. 🛠️🗣️
  🔗 Read More

• AI Is Reshaping RCM in Healthcare – AI’s disrupting revenue cycle management, helping hospitals cut costs and boost efficiency. 🏥💰
  🔗 Read More

• Meta’s AI Privacy Practices Criticized by NordVPN – A cybersecurity expert calls Meta’s AI integration opaque and privacy-invasive. 🔐👀
  🔗 Read More

• Cloudera Aims to Improve AI Agent Security & Privacy – New tools focus on data privacy and secure deployment for AI agents. 🔒🤖
  🔗 Read More

• Google Launches Agent Dev Kit for Rapid Prototyping – A plug-and-play toolkit for enterprise-grade AI agents—no recoding required. ⚡🛠️
  🔗 Read More

• France’s Hub AI Releases 5th Annual Startup Map – A visual guide to France’s most innovative AI startups. 🗺️🇫🇷
  🔗 Read More

• PHG on Global Health AI Governance Principles – A call to put “first, do no harm” at the center of AI in health. 🌍💉
  🔗 Read More

• Gemini 2.5 Flash Cuts AI Costs by 60% – Google’s latest release uses “thinking budgets” to slash inference cost and boost speed. 🧠⚡
  🔗 Read More

• Product Design Is Driving Responsible AI – Designing for trust is more than UI—it's about transparency, security, and alignment. 🎨🧠
  🔗 Read More

• How to Mitigate AI Risk? Depends Who You Ask – From soft to hard approaches, experts debate how best to regulate AI responsibly. ⚖️🧩
  🔗 Read More

This Week’s Raise Recap 📈💰 

• Loti AI Raises $16.2M for Likeness Protection – This startup is tackling deepfake risks with AI-powered likeness control. 🧠🎭
  🔗 Read More

• Virtue AI Secures $30M for AI Safety Platform – Built for enterprise risk reduction, this AI-native platform is on a mission to secure AI systems. 🔐🛡️
  🔗 Read More

• Groundup AI Lands $4.25M to Drive Industrial AI – This Singapore-based startup is using AI to automate and optimize industrial ops. 🏗️🤖
  🔗 Read More

• 1Fort Raises $7.5M to Streamline AI Risk Management – Simplifying security and compliance for AI systems, with a focus on mid-sized orgs. ⚙️📉
  🔗 Read More

• Pillar Raises $9M to Tackle AI-Specific Security Risks – With threats growing fast, this startup is building tools to fight AI-native attacks. 🛡️📊
  🔗 Read More

• Gallabox Raises $3M to Build AI Agents for SMBs – Helping small businesses deploy AI chat agents with minimal hassle. 💬🚀
  🔗 Read More

• Deck Raises $12M to “Plaid-ify” Any Website with AI – Think of it as Plaid for AI onboarding—clean, smooth, and dev-friendly. 💡🌐
  🔗 Read More

• Beijing Startup Plans 2025 IPO – Details are light, but the latest Chinese AI player is heading for the public markets. 📈🇨🇳
  🔗 Read More

• Krutrim Faces Investor Pushback Over Fundraising – Ola founder’s AI venture hits speed bumps as some backers pull back. 🚧💸
  🔗 Read More

• Leidos Invests $10M in AI Disease Detection – Partnering with University of Pittsburgh to advance medical diagnostics. 🧬💰
  🔗 Read More

Stay well, and see you next week!

-✌🏽 Sam

_{Original Photo creds: The Thinker Sculpture, Vivian Gomes, 2023, San Francisco}

Alright folks, by popular demand, I was asked: Can I speak to AI Ethics? And here’s my response: “Let me help y’all wrap your heads around the space. Enough for you to be able to start asking yourself questions, survive a few questions on the space, and ultimately tool you to reflect on where you think the lines should be.”

The gameplan here is to give you a rough mapping of what some of the big questions are all along the AI creation ➡️ usage pipeline. I want to make this as digestible and as useful as possible. If the rundown isn’t fast enough for ya, I’ve pulled in the infographic I shared on my LinkedIn summarizing things ever further.

For the readers asking themselves: “Why should I care?”:

Ultimately, caring about AI ethics is essential to building trust in the technology and guiding its global impact to an intentional course. AI is already impacting lives across so many sectors, impacting hiring decisions, and daily choices, making ethics crucial to ensure fairness, transparency, and accountability. Without ethical frameworks, AI systems could perpetuate biases, violate rights, and harm vulnerable populations. As AI reshapes work and society, we need to ensure it’s used responsibly to prevent economic disruption and preserve human values. 

Sidenote: AI is broad, too broad - so for this writeup I’m including the following in the umbrella:

• LLMs

• Predictive Neural Network models

• Predictive Machine Learning algorithms that back into decision-making projects

Let’s dive in!

ETHICAL QUESTIONS ALONG THE AI CREATION TO USE PIPELINE

Data

(Comes in many shapes and sizes: Text, Images, Audio, Video, etc...)

• Sourcing - Where do you get your data to train your model?

  • Are you scraping your data from specific sources?

    • Well this is a whole beehive of ethical questions. Someone forcibly owns the content you're taking.

  • Are you taking data from the Public Domain?

    • “What is reasonable public domain?” versus “What is explicitly stated as part of the public domain?”

  • Are you using data that’s covered by copyright protections in the registered jurisdiction?

    • There’s a likelihood that your AI models produced off of this kind of data are definitely infringing on quite a few laws.

  • Are you infringing on any privacy laws to gather the data you need? Are you using data that’s been leaked as part of a data breach?

    • xAI’s Grok is under investigation for just this by the Irish Government.

• Quality

  • Are you collecting factual data?

  • Is your scraper aimed at the top 10 Google results for a topic?

  • Is the source of your data trustworthy?

  • Can the data you gathered be acquired from various sources and evaluated on a consensus basis between the various sources that it’s valid?

• Labelling

  • Whatever the amount of data labeling/annotation required for your purposes, it's grueling work to annotate data - since it’s data at scale that’s needed for quite a few models to start yielding material results. This threshold of “how much data is enough data?” does depend on a model-per-model basis

    • Are the people labeling the data paid a fair wage?

      • Fair wage should be determined based on what variable? Time worked? Label volume? Accuracy of their labeling?

      • Say it costs 20cents per label. At scale it means a Model built off a data pool of 5 Million data rows cost ~1 million to make. If a company were to productize that model and resell it to individuals at 20$ per seat/month, would this wage be considered fair for the value of the work provided?

    • Are they performing their work in good, humane, conditions?

    • Are there support frameworks in place for the labelers to consistently label data correctly?

    • Are these labelers carrying inherent biases that will impact their ability to produce labels? Yes. How is this being mitigated for?

    • Are the labelers inherently qualified to be handling the data presented to them?

• Say you’re outsourcing your data annotation via a service provider:

  • All of these questions are still valid to ask and to get sufficient answers to. Some compensate their workers on a per label basis (cough cough, Amazon MTurk from back in the day). 

  • Here’s an example of a controversy that wasn’t fun to read about

    • Source 1

    • Source 2

    • Source 3

• When it comes to crowdsourcing your data annotation, Captchas are a way to verify that users are human. Most of the time these same humans end up performing some kind of task that bots “shouldn’t” be able to do. 

• Well these small tasks that let us pass the internet bridge troll and onto whatever website we’re visiting are captured. Was gaining the “right of passage” to visit a website free labor?

  • Source 1

  • Source 2

• I like to think that Cloudflare did it better with their Turstile tech.

• International law

• Privacy: In addition to sourcing data, the privacy implications of using AI and data collection practices could be expanded upon.

• Bias in Data

  • Your sourcing population may be skewed in ways you don’t expect.

    • Have you audited your data for various biases?

  • Your data may hold some inherent biases based on how it was captured, your client base, geography, or political climate.

  • Here’s a 7 year old Google video explaining it better than me:

Training

• Can a model trained off of “unethical” data be itself ethical?

• What about your Open source LLM of choice: some might not be as ethical as you might think due to its underlying data.

• What behavior are you training for your model?

  • Some of it is data dependent, but depending on your case, your training may come down to choosing a bias that suits your purposes better.

    • I.e. Self-driving cars choosing to swerve into another car rather than the pedestrian on a collision course with.

Output

• Bias in Output: Data bias, but distinguishing between the bias inherent in the data versus bias that emerges in model outputs may be worth exploring in more depth.

• nondeterministic

• ownership of the output products

• transparency

AI Model Distillation & Model Optimization

• When it comes down to it, is your source model ethically assembled in the first place?

• How did you obtain the larger model that you’re in need to optimize/distill? If you have managed to get your hands on a larger proprietary model, it becomes ethically dubious to be using this model as a source to build a training dataset.

  • This begs the further question, if you have any intent beyond private use for this distillation (Making yours commercially usable, or even opening it as an open source project): Have you functionally stolen the secret sauce that someone else has put together, on your way to developing your own spin on their flavor?

    • I.e. Have you produced the “Large Mac” after studying McDonald’s Big Mac?

Impact of Use

It all comes down to the externalities that spin out of this pipeline

• Human

  • What kind of human impact do you foresee this technology having? 

  • Does it fundamentally endanger humans?

  • Is your tech involved in causing human harm? 

  • Can this application be misused? What are guardrails on misuse that you have in place to prevent it from happening?

  • Who is responsible for the outcomes of AI decisions?

  • How do you ensure the AI system is explainable?

  • How does this technology impact human decision-making and autonomy?

  • Does it reduce human agency?

• Economic

  • What is the application that justifies your use of AI over normal software?

  • What is the potential fallout of your solution on X other workers?

    • E.g. Writers, and other artists impacted by the use of AI in creative industries.

  • Are you considering the ethical implications of automation and job displacement?

• Environmental 

  • Modern tech is poorly energy-optimized at scale. How can you calculate the tradeoff between the value created by the solution, its training, and its ongoing recurring use? 

  • In your perspective, does this solution’s value outweigh the environmental energy cost that is spent on training and on use? Can you mitigate this impact somehow?which is outsized consumption when compared to the consumption of energy for running a very simple program to do defined tasks.

• Politics in AI.

  • Internet vs Border jurisdictions

    • Privacy laws 

    • Censorship

  • Standards Organizations

    • NIST & EU AI acts classification of technology impact on the real world and risk to human life and fundamental rights within a nation

• Some major players are putting forward their takes on AI ethics since many are expecting AGI to be coming sooner than later.

  • Google’s takes on Responsible AGI

    • https://deepmind.google/discover/blog/taking-a-responsible-path-to-agi/

  • Some have proposed Ethical Copyrights in this new world, and I’m curious to see what you all think about it

Does this proposed Manifesto on Ethical Copyrights reach too far? Should there be some kind of trust network for identifying responsible AI users? Tell me in the comments

Closing Opinion

I think there’s a way forward for AI as a whole. The ethical line in the sand will need to be redrawn, and by that admission alone, we’ll undoubtedly face much more turmoil before we reach any resolution. But I believe that through collaboration, a firm commitment to doing the right thing, and a shared sense of responsibility, we can guide the growth of this technology in a direction that benefits as many as possible. As messy and complicated as it may be, it’s only through facing these challenges together that our global society can truly harness the potential of AI and ensure its positive impact for generations to come.

The future continues to be weird, yes, but it's also brimming with possibilities.

Sam from The AI Product Report

Want to talk about this longer? Need more customized help on the matter? Email me sam@productreport.ai don’t be shy, let’s talk.

I know there are a LOT of other AI-Product topics to cover like feedback loops and Agents+Agentics, so let me know if that’s something you want to see discussed!

Here’s an anonymous channel for you to send me your thoughts if the comments section isn’t for you! 😉

For those that are new around here, this is an extension of my weekly newsletter where I highlight new and innovative AI products that are worth exploring.

Hey {{FirstName | hey}}!

Happy Wednesday!

Here’s your news in newsletter!

Riding off the high of yesterday’s catchup recap, Today’s News issue covers the news from the past week, so it’ll be short and sweet.

In this Issue:

• Your Weekly Industry News Recap

• The Raise Recap

Headliner: Did Grok Break GDPR? Ireland Wants Answers 🕵️‍♂️💾

Irish regulator investigates X over use of EU personal data to train Grok AI

Ireland's data regulator on Friday said it had opened an investigation into social media platform X over the use of personal data collected from European Union users to train its AI system Grok.

www.reuters.com/technology/irish-regulator-investigates-x-over-use-eu-personal-data-train-grok-ai-2025-04-11

Ireland’s privacy watchdog is investigating X over how its AI, Grok, was trained using EU users’ data—**and it’s raising big red flags. 🕵️‍♂️💾 The question: did Grok gobble up personal info without permission? This could be a major GDPR showdown with ripple effects for all AI training practices. Big Tech’s “just scrape it” approach might be heading for its first major European reckoning. ⚖️🌍

🔗 Read more

Your Weekly Industry News Recap

• ModelOp Wins AI Governance Award – This AI governance firm just nabbed a top prize for helping companies manage models responsibly. 🏆⚖️
   🔗  Read More 

• Virtual Coaching Platform Gears Up for Fundraising – Mental performance meets AI, and investors are taking notice. 🧘‍♂️🧠
   🔗 Read More 

• AI’s ARR Metric Might Be Broken – Are we measuring AI startup performance wrong? Some metrics aren’t aging well. 📉🔍
   🔗 Read More 

• AI Interview Copilot Helps Job Seekers Prep – This friendly AI tool helps candidates rehearse, refine, and land the job. 💼🎙️
   🔗  Read More

• Stanford’s 2025 AI Index Report Drops – The new report is packed with trends, shifts, and surprises in AI progress worldwide. 📊🌐
   🔗 Read More 

• EU Simplifies AI Act in New Strategy Push – Europe’s rolling out its biggest AI governance shift yet—aiming for simplicity and speed. 🇪🇺📜
   🔗  Read More

• Google’s Hidden Trillion-Dollar AI Play – Under the radar, Google may have the biggest AI monetization edge of all. 🔍💰
   🔗  Read More 

• Sustainability + AI: What’s the Real Cost? – Hyperscalers say they’re green, but are AI workloads pushing sustainability limits? 🌍⚠️
   🔗  Read More

• Treefera Uses AI to Improve Business ESG Ops – Treefera blends AI + climate data to optimize sustainability strategies. 🌳📈
   🔗  Read More 

• AI x Precision Farming is Here – From yield boosts to smarter soil reading, AI is changing the future of farming. 🌾🤖
   🔗 Read More

• DeepL Named to Forbes AI 50—Again – The translation unicorn is on the list for the second year running. 🏆🌍
   🔗  Read More

• AI + Governance: Harvard’s Take – A new paper lays out how to go beyond Section 230 and regulate AI wisely. 🧠⚖️ 🔗 Read More

• The AI Operating Partner in PE Firms – Private equity is now appointing AI partners to drive portfolio value. 📊🧠
   🔗  Read More 

• Google + Sphere Team Up for AI-Powered ‘Wizard of Oz’ – Expect next-gen visuals powered by AI in this Vegas-based tech-meets-theater collab. 🧙‍♂️🎭
   🔗 Read More

• AlignMT AI Launches Healthcare Governance Platform – A new platform helping health orgs adopt AI without compliance nightmares. 🏥⚖️
   🔗  Read More

This Week’s Raise Recap 📈💰 

• Hugging Face Acquires Humanoid Robotics Startup – Hugging Face isn’t just about models anymore—they’ve picked up a robotics startup to bring AI into the real world. 🤝🤖 🔗 Read More 

• Alphabet & NVIDIA Back New AI Startup – Two tech giants just teamed up to fund a new AI player—expect something big brewing. 💸⚡
   🔗 Read More

• Frontline.io Raises $10M for XR Platform – This startup is using AI + extended reality to reshape global training and support. 🌍🕶️
   🔗  Read More 

• Fourier Scores $18.5M from Airbus Ventures – Fourier’s robotics + AI tech caught Airbus’ eye, bringing in funding to scale smarter systems. ✈️🤖
   🔗  Read More 

• Optimized Electrotech Raises $6M for AI Surveillance – This Indian startup is building defense-grade surveillance powered by AI. 🛡️📡
   🔗 Read More  

• Armis Eyes $1B IPO as ARR Surges – AI cybersecurity firm Armis is hitting $1B ARR and may be prepping to go public. 🔐📈
   🔗  Read More 

• AI Consulting Startup Banks $1M Pre-Seed – This new platform wants to streamline AI advice for businesses, and it’s got some fresh fuel. 📈🧠
   🔗 Read More  

• Elm AI Secures $2M for Supply Chain AI – Elm is building tools to make supply chains greener and smarter, backed by new capital. 🌱📦
   🔗  Read More

• PCBair Invests in AI to Improve Quality Control – This manufacturing player is betting on AI to cut defects in PCB production. 🔍🖥️
   🔗 Read More 

• RegTech Hawk Raises $56M to Fight AI-Driven Financial Crime – Banks are betting on Hawk’s AI to stay ahead of fraud and compliance threats. 🏦🧠
   🔗  Read More 

• Blumind Secures Series A to Advance Analog AI – A bold move into non-traditional, analog AI tech just got funded to scale. ⚡🧠
  🔗 Read More

Stay well, and see you next week!

-✌🏽 Sam

For those that are new around here, this is an extension of my weekly newsletter where I highlight new and innovative AI products that are worth exploring.

Hey {{FirstName | hey}}!

Happy Wednesday!

Here’s your news in newsletter!

Riding off the high of yesterday’s catchup recap, Today’s News issue covers the news from the past week, so it’ll be short and sweet.

In this Issue:

• Your Weekly Industry News Recap

• The Raise Recap

Headliner: HealthTech’s Prescription: AI 🩺💊– Google’s Growth Academy Stokes the Future of Healthcare

25 startups using AI to transform healthcare

Learn how the 2025 Growth Academy: AI for Health cohort is building the next generation of healthcare solutions.

blog.google/outreach-initiatives/entrepreneurs/growth-academy-ai-health-2025

Google is giving HealthTech its daily dose of supplements, launching its Growth Academy to back the next generation of AI-powered medical startups. 🏥💥 With this cohort of support, these promising ventures are getting VIP access to funding, mentorship, and deep tech support straight from Google’s AI labs. It’s a major play to shape how we diagnose, treat, and scale care globally. This just might be the start of something great, and big. 💉🤖 🔗 Read more

Your Weekly Industry News Recap

• Rival Technologies Unveils Multi-Agent AI Framework – New system allows multiple AI agents to collaborate and make decisions as a team. 🧠👥
  🔗Read More

• DeepRoute AI Launches VLA Model at Mobility Show – This auto-focused AI model aims to bring smarter navigation to global carmakers. 🚗🧠
  🔗 Read More

• Google Cloud & AI2 Commit $20M to Cancer AI Research – A major philanthropic effort to accelerate AI-driven oncology breakthroughs. 🎗️🧬
  🔗 Read More

• AI SaaS Tool for Wind Energy Development – This platform helps developers optimize wind projects using AI and geospatial data. 💨🛠️
  🔗 Read More

• Amazon’s AI Agent Will Shop Other Sites for You – Amazon’s shopping assistant is breaking the walled garden and browsing third-party stores. 🛍️🕵️
  🔗 Read More

• Meta’s Llama 4 Model Now on Cloudflare & Snowflake – New LLM available across platforms to power AI workloads faster and cheaper. ☁️🦙 
  🔗 Read more on Cloudflare’s blog
  🔗 Read more on Snowflake’s post

• WSP on AI’s Role in Mining’s Future – AI is being used to optimize operations and improve safety in the mining industry. ⛏️🤖
  🔗 Read More

• France Pushes for Global AI Governance – French diplomats are calling for inclusive, ethical international AI governance frameworks. 🌍📜🔗 Read More

• Why European AI Startups Are Skipping VC Stages – Bootstrapping and non-traditional funding are becoming the norm across the EU. 💶🧠
  🔗 Read More

• CIOs & CISOs Need a Strategy for AI Copilots – Enterprise tech leaders must align on how to safely and effectively deploy copilots. 🧑‍💼⚖️
  🔗 Read More

• YouTube Recap: How Nvidia Thinks About AI Infrastructure – Insights from an Nvidia exec on what it takes to build scalable AI systems. 🖥️💬

• CXAI Reports Record 2024 Business Performance – CX App highlights its 2024 growth, citing strong demand for AI-driven workplace solutions. 🏢📈
  🔗 Read More

• Cisco Calls for Building Trust in AI Age – Cisco urges companies to make trust, transparency, and responsibility core to AI design. 🔒🌐
  🔗 Read More

• Kong Talks API + AI Governance Strategy – API experts at Kong discuss how governance can evolve alongside AI services. 🔌📜
  🔗 Read More

• Post-Training Valuations Are Getting Weird – AI startups are seeing strange valuation dynamics after model training ends. 📉📈
  🔗 Read More

• Chargebee Launches AI Monetization Tools – New SaaS tools help companies price and package AI products for recurring revenue. 💵💻
  🔗 Read More

This Week’s Raise Recap 📈💰 

• SignalFire Raises Over $1B to Back AI Startups – SignalFire’s new war chest will fuel early-stage AI startups across sectors. 💸🤖
  🔗 Read More

• Chef Robotics Cooks Up $43M in Series A – This kitchen robot startup is scaling AI-powered food prep with fresh funding. 👨‍🍳🤖
  🔗 Read More

• Rescale Raises $115M to Expand AI Engineering Tools – The digital engineering platform is using AI to streamline simulations at scale. 🛠️🧠
  🔗 Read More

• IBM Acquires Hakkoda to Boost AI Capabilities – Big Blue is expanding its AI consulting bench with this data-savvy acquisition. 🧑‍💼🔍
  🔗 Read More

• Sanctuary AI May Be Acquired by Apptronik – Rumors swirl about a merger between two humanoid robotics heavyweights. 🤖🤝
  🔗 Read More

• SandboxAQ Adds Backers, Raises Another $150M – With NVIDIA and Google on board, SandboxAQ’s hybrid AI + quantum ambitions are getting real. ⚛️💰
  🔗 Read More

• Vopemed Secures $2.29M Pre-Seed for AI Surgery Visuals – Early funding will help enhance surgical video with AI insights. 🏥🎥
  🔗 Read More

• Composio Raises $24M for Agentic AI Tools – This startup is betting big on low-code, AI-driven workflow automation. ⚙️🤖
  🔗 Read More

• Actively AI Raises $22.5M for Real-Time Customer Insight Platform – Real-time, AI-powered business intelligence just got a major funding boost. 📊🧠
  🔗 Read More

What I’m Still Reading 🧪👀

This one’s a deep dive into the science of the recent cohort of LLMs; This the link preview says it all - for those curious about more of the innerworkings, have a go at it!

Stay well, and see you next week!

-✌🏽 Sam

For those that are new around here, this is an extension of my weekly newsletter where I highlight new and innovative AI products that are worth exploring.

Hey {{FirstName | hey}}!

Happy Wednesday!

Here’s your news in newsletter!

Riding off the high of yesterday’s catchup recap, Today’s News issue covers the news from the past week, so it’ll be short and sweet.

In this Issue:

• Your Weekly Industry News Recap

• The Raise Recap

Headliner: What’s the Real Cost of SoftBank’s $40B Bet on OpenAI’s Wild Ride? 🎲

OpenAI must complete for-profit transition by year-end to raise full $40 billion

OpenAI must transition to a for-profit company by the end of the year to secure the full $40 billion funding led by SoftBank it is in the final stages of raising, a person familiar with the matter said on Friday.

www.reuters.com/technology/artificial-intelligence/openai-must-complete-for-profit-transition-by-year-end-raise-full-40-billion-2025-03-28

OpenAI is reportedly raising a jaw-dropping $40B, with SoftBank leading the charge to fuel its next growth phase. 💸🤖 The deal would help scale ChatGPT and other tools, already reaching 500M weekly users. 🚀🧠 Plus, it backs the wild $500B “Stargate” plan to build next-gen AI supercomputers. 🛰️🖥️ But there’s a catch—they’ll need to complete their for-profit transition to cash it all in. ⏳💼 Read more: Link🧠💸

Your Weekly Industry News Recap

• Elon Musk Merges xAI with X – Musk consolidates his ventures to build smarter AI into the X platform, blending social + agent tech. 🧪📲 Read More 🔗 

• Semrush Touts AI-Driven Marketing SaaS Growth – The SEO giant is betting on AI to optimize marketing and drive long-term SaaS success. 📊🤖 Read More 🔗 

• SaaS Consolidation is Coming, Says Khadim Batti – Co-founder of Whatfix sees fewer, stronger players surviving in the AI-SaaS space. 🔄🏢 Read More 🔗 

• Haut.AI Previews AI Skin Analysis Tool – AI is coming to skincare: Haut.AI shows off a tool that analyzes your skin with crazy precision. 🧴🧠 Read More 🔗 

Crowning Q1👑 The Raise Recap Goes On A Tear📈💰 

• 2am VC Fund Launches for AI, Fintech, SaaS – A new early-stage VC fund is backing the next wave of AI and SaaS disruptors. 💸🚀 Read more 🔗 

• OpenAI Must Raise $40B to Complete For-Profit Shift – OpenAI’s big transition comes with a hefty bill: $40B in funding by year-end. 🧠💰Read more🔗 

• Nexthop AI Launches with $110M in Funding – New startup Nexthop AI debuts with a major raise to build hyperscaler-ready AI infrastructure. 🏗️🤖Read More 🔗 

• DeepIP Raises $15M Series A for IP Protection AI – DeepIP is developing AI tools for protecting intellectual property—now with $15M to back it. 🔐💼Read More 🔗 

• Hakimo Secures $10.5M for AI Security Platform – Hakimo grabs fresh capital to expand its AI-powered physical security systems. 🛡️📹 Read More 🔗 

• Bambu Raises $3M for AI WealthTech Platform – Singapore-based Bambu lands funding to grow its AI-driven financial planning tools. 📈🤖Read More 🔗 

• Mendel Raises $35M Backed by PayPal – AI-powered spend and travel management platform Mendel secures a Series B led by big players. ✈️💳 Read More
  🔗 

• GetReal Security Raises $17.5M to Fight Deepfakes – With AI threats on the rise, this startup is building tools to detect deepfakes and digital fakes. 🎭🧠 Read More 🔗 

• CadDi Raises Funding for AI in Supply Chains – Japanese startup CadDi grabs backing from Atomico to bring AI to supply chain optimization. 📦 Read More 🔗 

• Ethos Raises €3M to Revolutionize Headhunting with AI – This platform wants to match top talent using AI, now with fresh European VC support. 🧑‍💼🤖Read More 🔗 

• GetReal Security Funding Also Featured on Fintech Global – The same raise highlighted again as part of the fintech-security trend. 🔐💼 Read More 🔗 

• Amazon Alexa Fund Invests in 4 New AI Startups – Amazon is doubling down on AI innovation, spreading capital across early-stage bets. 💬📱 Read More 🔗

• SplxAI Raises $7M to Protect AI from Threats – As AI risks grow, this startup wants to make LLMs safer—and now they’ve got fresh funding to do it. 🛡️🧠Read More 🔗

• Navina Raises $55M to Expand AI in Healthcare – Navina uses AI to support value-based care, and this raise brings it to more providers. 🏥💊Read More 🔗 

• Contoro Robotics Raises $12M for AI Unloading Bots – This startup wants to automate trailer unloading using robotics and AI. 🚛🤖 Read More 🔗

What I’m Reading 🧪👀

This one’s a deep dive into the science of the recent cohort of LLMs; This the link preview says it all - for those curious about more of the innerworkings, have a go at it!

Stay well, and see you next week!

-✌🏽 Sam

For those that are new around here, this is an extension of my weekly newsletter where I highlight new and innovative AI products that are worth exploring.

Hey {{FirstName | hey}}!

Happy Wednesday!

Here’s your news in newsletter!

Riding off the high of yesterday’s catchup recap, Today’s News issue covers the news from the past week, so it’ll be short and sweet.

In this Issue:

• Your Weekly Industry News Recap

• The Raise Recap

Headliner: “$800M? From Meta? Nah.” — FuriosaAI Bets on Itself & Turns Down Meta

Tech in Asia - Connecting Asia's startup ecosystem

www.techinasia.com/news/korean-ai-chipmaker-furiosaai-rejects-metas-800m-offer

Korean AI chipmaker FuriosaAI turned down an $800M acquisition offer from Meta, signaling major confidence in its own roadmap. 💥🇰🇷 Rather than selling out, the startup is betting on continued independence and growth in the booming AI hardware space. With Meta pushing hard into custom chips, this rejection shows just how valuable next-gen AI silicon has become. Could Furiosa be the next NVIDIA in the making? 🧠💸

Your Weekly Industry News Recap

• PIPA’s Digital Extruder AI Suite – PIPA launched an AI + simulation platform to help food makers go from formulation to production—faster and healthier. 🍔🧠 Read More: 🔗 Link

• AI Blind Spots in Startups – Startups are still ignoring crucial risks and blind spots in AI development. Time to fix that. 🚨📉 Read More: 🔗 Link

• Oracle just dropped AI Agent Studio, a no-code platform to help businesses build, deploy, and manage AI-powered agents at scale. 🧠⚙️ It’s like giving every team a customizable digital sidekick—minus the coding headache. Read more: Link

• Tencent Drops T1 Reasoning Model – China’s Tencent is stepping up in the AI race with its new T1 model for better logic & reasoning. 🧠 Read More: Link

• CSK is teaming up with 3CLogic and ServiceNow to upgrade its IT service desk with voice-enabled AI workflows. 🎧🤖 Expect smoother support, fewer bottlenecks, and a lot less “please hold.” Read more: Link

• Will AI Job Loss Be Sudden or Slow? – Experts debate if AI job loss will be gradual or an overnight shock. 📉⏳ Read more 🔗 Link

• Midjourney’s Creative Writing Boost – New research shows how to make LLMs write with more flair and creativity. ✍️🎨🔗 Read More: Link

• Otter.ai’s $1B Growth Story – Otter built a $1B AI SaaS company with no sales team—just strong product-led growth. 🦦📈Read More: Link

• China Pushes Open-Source DeepSeek AI – DeepSeek is open source now, fueling China’s AI acceleration. 🧠💥 🔗 Link

• OpenAI Blamed for Loneliness? – A new report links ChatGPT use to increased loneliness and social isolation. 😔🤖Read More: Link

• Google vs. ChatGPT: The AI Search War – Google is overhauling its search to compete with ChatGPT for the web’s future. 🔍⚔️ 🔗 Link

• Google is launching open-source AI models specifically for drug discovery, aiming to make pharma R&D faster and more accessible. 💊🧠 It's a bold move that could democratize biotech innovation across the globe. Read more: Link

The Raise Recap 📈💰 

• Canopus & UNSW Score $433K for AI Security – Aussie AI security startup bags funding to bring cloud security AI to market. 🔐💰 Read More 🔗 Link

• Google just scooped up Wiz for $23B, marking its largest-ever cloud security acquisition—and yes, AI is a big part of the deal. 🔐🤖 This move shows how serious Google is about securing AI infrastructure as enterprise adoption surges. Read more: Link

• Buynomics just raised $30M to scale its AI-powered virtual shopper simulation platform, helping brands test pricing and product strategies. 🛒📊 It’s like a wind tunnel for retail decisions—but with data-driven avatars instead of jets. Read more: Link

• Firsthand secured $26M in Series A funding to grow its AI-based brand agent platform, which helps companies understand and engage customers better. 💬🤖 Think of it as your brand’s always-on, data-smart spokesperson. Read more: Link

• Apptronik just raised a massive $40.3M to scale its humanoid robot platform, pushing us closer to real-life robot coworkers. 🤖🏗️ The future of labor might just come with a bipedal frame and a charging port. Read more: Link

• In the crowded AI landscape, VCs say the winners are those who focus on real customer value, not just flashy tech. 💼📈 This guide breaks down how to stand out, grow smart, and actually raise funding in today’s AI gold rush. Read more: Link

• Inspiren raised $35M in Series A to expand its AI-powered patient monitoring platform that tracks health in real time across hospitals. 🏥📊 It's like a smart assistant for nurses—watching, learning, and helping 24/7. Read more: Link

Stay well, and see you next week!

-✌🏽 Sam

For those that are new around here, this is weekly newsletter where I highlight new and innovative AI products that are worth exploring.

Hey {{FirstName | hey}}!

Happy Friday! We’re back for a Product of the Week!

# Believe it Or Not, The Experimenter’s Playground for Curious Minds is HubSpot’s Dev Tools

Even in its infancy, AI as we know it, is transforming industries. It gains exponentially more potential when it’s got the tools to integrate into broader workflows. It’s not just about standalone AI tools—it’s about embedding them into a larger mesh of smart, automated, experiences and decision-making pipelines for entire businesses. 

That’s where HubSpot reached out, and said “You should try this out and share with your subscribers.” 

I gave it a go - Here’s what I found:

TL;DR:

1. HubSpot’s new developer platform and marketplace is way bigger than I thought. And it’s pretty cool to boot.

2. One of the most dynamic ecosystems for a huge range of business needs is cleverly disguised as a “CRM+” platform.

3. This is designed for people with a range of pros - from problem solving pros, to development pros! If you’re someone who enjoys testing no-code and low-code solutions, playing with APIs, or figuring out how tech can simplify your work, this is for you.

YOUR AI PRODUCT OF THE WEEK: HubSpot + Its Dev Tools

Why HubSpot’s Developer Tools are a Playground for Tech Enthusiasts

Most people think of HubSpot as a CRM—a sales and marketing tool used by businesses. And they’re … sort of … right, because at its starts, HubSpot was just that. But over the last decade it’s evolved into a highly flexible ecosystem for businesses - they anticipated the future of integrations, and leaned in dramatically. It’s fair to say that nowadays, the platform is a sandbox to let teams automate, integrate, and customize how they WANT to work together - and that’s only widened over time.

Skeptical? Yeah, I was too. A bit of tinkering later with some of their Dev tools, and I can say my opinion has changed pretty dramatically. HubSpot’s developer tools are a fantastic testbed for all kinds of Sales & Service data adjacent experiments. I’d say the biggest point I found is getting familiar with the nomenclature of the data model.

For those already using it, you’ll start to find answers to passing thoughts like:

• “How can I pull together more of my tools without having to hop through extra steps of a 3rd party”

• “What’s the easiest way to automate repetitive tasks without spending hours on configuration?”

• “How can I create meaningful customizations that get things done without expertise?”

And for those unfamiliar I think one of the biggest points you’ll find answers to is:

• How much more flexible is this versus something like IFTTT and Zapier?

… The answer is very much more flexible. See exhibit A below 👇

Build App Cards Powered by UI Extensions

Build seamless integrations with HubSpot using React-powered app cards. Request early access to get access to creating app cards powered by UI extensions.

www.vpdae.com/redirect/vfx3xpkgdt3is6duyozkrv5vgab

What Can You Build? A Low-Stakes, High-Reward Playground

Unlike traditional developer environments that exclusively require deep technical expertise, HubSpot’s developer ecosystem has a healthy blend of options for many levels of technical skill. I found myself pleasantly surprised with the range of solutions that were available - after getting past the hump of API integrations. Let’s break it down.

1. Bring Your Own Project -> Plug and play with your sales data along the way

Using the HubSpot API (Application Programming Interface) is a way for different applications to communicate with each other. The dev-friendly API documentation and testing tools have been upgraded massively since I had last seen them, and now they’re actually easy to experiment without deep programming knowledge.

What You Can Do as an Experimenter:

• Automate data entry (Have an app push contact data directly into HubSpot CRM)

• Connect HubSpot to AI tools you use/or are building daily (e.g., syncing data between HubSpot and a spreadsheet if you need certain tasks handled through Gemini)

Build App Cards Powered by UI Extensions

Build seamless integrations with HubSpot using React-powered app cards. Request early access to get access to creating app cards powered by UI extensions.

www.vpdae.com/redirect/vfx3xpkgdt3is6duyozkrv5vgab

Hold it, this feels familiar! Some of these are familiar for having used the features directly in HubSpot, but this goes deeper, and is WAY more customizable. You very much could blend MORE data sources into your processes, and this would be exactly the way to do it.

🛠️ Resource: HubSpot API Documentation

2. Create Custom No-Code Workflows 🙌

As you know, one of the coolest parts of HubSpot is its automation capabilities for tasks and workflows. Even if you don’t code, the built in workflow automation tools let you build systems that function like custom software solutions.

No-Code Experiment Ideas that I‘m partial to:

• Automatically send curated marketing emails based on customer behavior (e.g., a follow-up email after they download a resource)

  • This means you can gradually segment your audience via tagging along the same workflow.

• Auto-update CRM fields based on external triggers

• Build an automated approval system that links to Gemini for evaluation of the context, decision-making, and then you get a Slack ping showing you the logs every time a custom requests are placed.

If you love playing around with Zapier, you’ll love experimenting with HubSpot’s built-in automation features.

🛠️ Resource: HubSpot Workflows & Automation

3. Build Custom HubSpot Websites (Without Being a Web Dev)

Not unfamiliar from other WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) website design tools out there? Well you COULD fearlessly get started here; I’ve been pleasantly surprised with HubSpot’s range that its CMS Hub could offer. The tooling you get here lets you build pages pretty cleanly, and easily - with instant linkage of the sales leads collected to your Sales Ops of course! 

What You Can DO With CMS Hub:

• Custom modules: Add interactive elements to HubSpot website pages

• Personalization: Show different content based on who is visiting your site

• Integrate HubSpot data into a website (e.g., dynamic content that changes based on CRM data)

For those who enjoy tinkering with design, templates, and minor coding, this is exciting, though I will note that a manual code segment injector was pretty limited to header and footer extensions. I didn’t have much opportunity to find a way to squeeze in some custom JavaScript or CSS behavior until I really had to get into the HubSpot CLI packages.

🛠️ Resource: Building Custom HubSpot Websites

Where’s The Rest of The AI in This?

HubSpot is packed with AI-driven features across its ecosystem, making automation and intelligence a core part of marketing, sales, and customer service. Listing every AI capability would be overwhelming, but some standout features include AI-powered content generation, predictive lead scoring, call note integrations with Fathom and Fellow via API, conversation intelligence for sales calls, and automated customer support chatbots. There’s honestly a bit of everything in here for everyone once you digest the entirety of what you can do with the API!

The Opportunity?: Your Free Dev Account

The best part? You don’t need to pay or commit to anything. HubSpot provides free developer accounts where you can experiment, break things, and build prototypes risk-free.

🔹 Step 1: Sign up for a free HubSpot developer account
 🔹 Step 2: Explore the API documentation and sandbox tools
 🔹 Step 3: Start with an experiment—maybe a simple workflow or an API test
🔹 Step 4: Iterate, tweak, and build something cool!

Build App Cards Powered by UI Extensions

Build seamless integrations with HubSpot using React-powered app cards. Request early access to get access to creating app cards powered by UI extensions.

www.vpdae.com/redirect/vfx3xpkgdt3is6duyozkrv5vgab

For the few business oriented apps I’ve reviewed on this newsletter, I’d say HubSpot is a huge trove of value. When it comes to keeping your business data together coherently, AND seeing it becomes valuable near instantly, this is a huge place to be.

Even if you never plan to be a full-time developer, understanding how automation, integrations, and customization work can set you apart in any tech-driven role. The world is increasingly linked by various means of automation — and the people who understand them have a competitive edge.

So go ahead—dive into HubSpot’s developer tools, break things, experiment, and most importantly, have fun with it. Who knows? You might just discover a way to make your work (or someone else’s) infinitely easier.

Whether you're looking to build custom integrations, automate processes, or even become a HubSpot partner with sweet perks, this platform is a playground of innovation waiting to be explored.

Happy tinkering! 🚀

TELL ME HOW YOU REALLY FEEL ABOUT THIS ONE… 💌

Have an idea to make this whole newsletter better but don’t want to be judged? Submit anonymously right here:

Stay well, and until next week.

-✌🏽 Sam

For those that are new around here, this is an extension of my weekly newsletter where I highlight new and innovative AI products that are worth exploring.

Hey {{FirstName | hey}}!

Happy Wednesday!

Here’s your news in newsletter!

Riding off the high of yesterday’s catchup recap, Today’s News issue covers the news from the past week, so it’ll be short and sweet.

In this Issue:

• Your Weekly Industry News Recap

• The Policy Updates

• The Raise Recap

• The AI Debate: What’s Next?

Double Header Headliner:
Open AI Opens the Agent SDK 😍 Gemini AI is getting REAL personal 🤔

OpenAI just rolled out a new suite of AI tools designed to make building autonomous AI agents easier than ever. 🔧 These tools will help developers create more dynamic, responsive assistants that can handle complex tasks without constant human intervention. Whether it’s customer support, workflow automation, or research assistance, AI agents are about to get a serious upgrade. Read more: Link

Google's Gemini Is Getting REAL Personal

Google is making Gemini AI more personal, letting users fine-tune responses, set preferences, and enjoy a “more tailored AI experience.” 🧠✨ This means smarter, more relevant interactions across Gmail, Docs, Android, and beyond—kind of like a personal AI assistant that actually knows what you want. 📱💡 This gives me pause, because depending on its implementation, this new direction brings a massive amount of privacy concerns for a doubtful amount of value add? Google power users will definitely stand to benefit from this, but for the average user, is the increment in value really worth all the extra permission grants? Read more: Link

Your Weekly Industry News Recap

• Google's Gemini AI Gets Personalized – Google is making Gemini AI even more personal with customized responses & smarter integrations. 📱✨ Read more: Link

• Mitsubishi’s AI-Powered Outlander Experience – AI is now customizing the car-buying experience, starting with the Mitsubishi Outlander. 🚗 Read more: Link

• China is Embedding DeepSeek AI Everywhere – China is going all in on AI, integrating DeepSeek models into everything from apps to government systems. 🧠Read more: Link

• Wearable AI Is Already Here – Smart glasses, AI-powered earbuds, and voice assistants are quietly reshaping daily life. 🕶️ Read more: Link

• ServiceNow & Moveworks Team Up for AI Automation – AI-powered workplace automation just got a huge upgrade thanks to this partnership. 🏢Read more: Link

• Genesys is Bringing AI to Customer Experience – AI-powered chatbots and automation are changing how brands interact with customers. 💬Read more: Link

⚖️ AI Legislation & Policy Updates 📜

• AI & DEI: The Jekyll & Hyde Problem – AI is being used to both improve and undermine diversity & inclusion efforts—what’s the real impact? 🤔⚖️ Read more: Link

• AI Regulation & Sustainability—The Jevons Paradox – As AI gets more efficient, it’s also consuming more energy. Can regulation keep up? 🌱⚡Read more: Link

• Distraction or Real Change? AI & Government Policies – Governments are talking about AI regulations, but are they actually enforcing anything meaningful? 🏛️ Read more: Link

The Raise Recap 📈💰 

• ProtectAI Secures $8.7M in Funding – AI security is heating up! ProtectAI just raised $8.7M to fortify machine learning models against cyber threats. 🔐 Read more: Link

• King River Capital Building a $157M AI VC Fund – AI startups, take note! This new $157M fund is looking for the next AI unicorns. 🦄💰 Read more: Link

• Novarc Raises $50M for AI-Powered Welding – AI is now automating industrial welding, and Novarc just landed $50M to take it to the next level. 🔥 Read more: Link

• DRUID AI Raises $46M for AI Chatbots – AI chatbots are getting smarter as DRUID AI raises $46M for enterprise automation. 💬⚡ Read more: Link

• Hypergro AI Raises $850K for AI Marketing – AI-driven growth hacking tools are booming, and Hypergro just secured Rs 7 Cr to expand. 📊📈 Read more: Link

• Shopify Acquires AI Search Startup Vantage Discovery – AI-powered e-commerce search is getting a boost as Shopify buys Vantage Discovery. 🛍️🔍Read more: Link

• Dexterity Grabs $95M to Build AI-Powered Robots – AI is transforming robotics, and Dexterity just raised $95M to push the industry forward. ⚙️

  Read more: Link

• Cartesia Raises $64M for Voice AI – The next wave of voice AI assistants is here! Cartesia just secured $64M to enhance speech technology. 🎙️ Read more: Link

• Nunu AI Raises $6M for AI-Powered Content Creation – AI-generated content is getting a major boost with Nunu AI’s $6M seed round. 📝⚡ Read more: Link

• Disputed AI Raises $1.12M for AI-Powered Chargeback Protection – AI is fighting fraud, and Disputed AI just secured $1.12M to tackle chargeback disputes. 💳🛡️ Read more: Link

🔥 The AI Debate: What’s Next?👀

Bold predictions, ethical concerns, and industry shakeups

Due to popular demand, I’m cooking up a recap of the complexities surrounding AI so to get everyone up to pace on what’s been moving. This will probably take a little longer than I’d like to write, but bear with me. It’s coming!

Stay well, and see you next week!

-✌🏽 Sam

For those that are new around here, this is an extension of my weekly newsletter where I highlight new and innovative AI products that are worth exploring.

Hey {{FirstName | hey}}!

Happy Wednesday!

Here’s your news in newsletter!

Riding off the high of yesterday’s catchup recap, Today’s News issue covers the news from the past week, so it’ll be short and sweet.

In this Issue:

• Your Weekly Industry News Recap

• The Policy Updates

• The Raise Recap

• The AI Debate: What’s Next?

The Headliner: Larry Page - Google Founder - Rejoins The Startup Fray 🥊👀

Google cofounder Larry Page reportedly developing new AI startup

The new company, called Dynatomics, which uses AI in product manufacturing, is developing highly optimised designs for products, which can then be built by a factory.

economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/artificial-intelligence/google-cofounder-larry-page-reportedly-developing-new-ai-startup/articleshow/118787983.cms?from=mdr

Larry Page is quietly working on a new AI startup, and the tech world is buzzing with speculation. 🤖🚀 While details are scarce, insiders suggest it's focused on next-gen AI models that could challenge OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google itself. With his deep pockets and experience, this could be one of the most disruptive AI ventures yet. Will this be another Google-level innovation, or just an experimental side project? 🤔💡 Read more: Link

Your Weekly Industry News Recap

• An Open-Source AI Framework for PHP Developers – PHP devs, rejoice! This new AI agent framework makes integrating AI into apps a breeze. 💻⚡Read more: Link 

  • Why do I think this is so awesome? It’s tooling to get AI agents to recognize a whole new (new to them) layer of Internet browser context.

• Businesses Are Turning to AI for Sustainability Goals – AI is helping companies reduce waste, track carbon footprints, and optimize resources. ♻️📊 Read more: Link

• Visier Expands AI Operations in APAC – The HR analytics giant just launched a new AI lab in Singapore. 📊🌏 Read more: Link

  Amazon’s AI Tools for Net-Zero Goals – Amazon is using AI to optimize water & energy efficiency, making its warehouses more sustainable. 🌱🏢 Read more: Link

• Google’s AI Shopping Tools Are Here – AI-powered beauty & style recommendations are making online shopping more personalized than ever. 🛍️✨ Read more: Link

• Microsoft’s “Dragon Copilot” for Healthcare – A new AI-powered clinical assistant is helping doctors reduce paperwork and focus on patients. 🏥📑 Read more: Link

• Amazon’s AI Tools for Net-Zero Goals – Amazon is using AI to optimize water & energy efficiency, making its warehouses more sustainable. 🌱🏢 Read more: Link

• OpenAI’s Claire Vo Joins LaunchDarkly – AI product veteran Claire Vo is making moves at LaunchDarkly—feature management just got smarter. 🎛️⚡ Read more: Link

• SmartOne AI Unveils AI-Powered Synthetic Data – This startup is using synthetic data to make AI training faster, safer, and more scalable. 🔍📊 Read more: Link

• Contextual AI Launches Snowflake Native App – AI-powered data analytics just got an upgrade with this new Snowflake marketplace app. ☁️ Read more: Link

⚖️ AI Legislation & Policy Updates 📜

• California’s "No Robo Bosses" Act – A new bill could ban fully AI-powered managers from making hiring and firing decisions. Is this the end of AI bosses? 🚫🤖 Read more: Link

• EU’s AI Policy Shakeup – The EU is restructuring its AI strategy, and not everyone is happy. Will these changes boost innovation or slow it down? 🌍⚖️ Read more: Link

• Canada Launches $300M AI Compute Fund – The Canadian government is investing big in AI infrastructure to stay competitive with the US and EU. 💡 Read more: Link

The Raise Recap 📈💰 

• Australian AI Startup Flowing Bee Raises $16M – AI-powered workflow automation is booming—this startup is making business operations smoother than ever. 🐝⚡ Read more: Link

• Norm AI Raises $48M for Compliance AI – This startup is turning complex regulations into AI-powered compliance agents—no more legal confusion! 🤯📜 Read more: Link

• Shield AI Secures $240M at a $5.3B Valuation – Military AI is on the rise, and Shield AI’s autonomous defense tech is leading the charge. 🚁🛡️ Read more: Link

• MaxIQ Raises $78M to Transform B2B SaaS AI – AI-powered revenue growth for businesses just got a major boost—SaaS is getting smarter. 💸🤖 Read more: Link

• 30 Startups Secure Over $355M This Week – AI and deep tech startups just raked in $355M+—it’s a big week for AI funding! 🌧️💰 Read more: Link

• Patlytics Raises $14M for AI Patent Workflow – AI is taking over patents, streamlining research, filing, and legal analysis. 📑🤖 Read more: Link

• Accenture Invests in AI-Powered Prediction Engine Aaru – AI-powered forecasting and risk management is on the rise, and Accenture is all in! 🔮📈 Read more: Link

🔥 The AI Debate: What’s Next?👀

Bold predictions, ethical concerns, and industry shakeups

Due to popular demand, I’m cooking up a recap of the complexities surrounding AI so to get everyone up to pace on what’s been moving. This will probably take a little longer than I’d like to write, but bear with me. It’s coming!

Stay well, and see you next week!

-✌🏽 Sam

For those that are new around here, this is an extension of my weekly newsletter where I highlight new and innovative AI products that are worth exploring.

Hey {{FirstName | hey}}!

Happy Wednesday!

Here’s your news in newsletter!

Riding off the high of yesterday’s catchup recap, Today’s News issue covers the news from the past week, so it’ll be short and sweet.

In this Issue:

• Your Weekly Industry News Recap

• Investors; We need to talk

• The Raise Recap

• The AI Debate: What’s Next?

The Headliner: AI startups are growing even faster than SaaS ever did 🤯📢📰

Stripe’s CEO says AI startups are growing even faster than SaaS ever did—and dismissing them as just “wrappers” is a huge mistake. 🚀📈 Unlike traditional software, AI companies are scaling at breakneck speed, thanks to massive demand and evolving infrastructure. The key takeaway? AI isn’t just another tech trend—it’s a full-blown revolution, and businesses that don’t adapt will be left behind. ⚡🤖 Read more: Link

Your Weekly Industry News Recap

• Mira Murati Launches New AI Startup – OpenAI’s former CTO is making moves—her new venture, Thinking Machine Labs, is already making waves. 🌊🚀 Read more: Link

• Stripe CEO Says AI Startups Are Growing Faster Than SaaS – AI isn’t just another software wave—it’s a hyper-growth revolution. 📈🔥 Read more: Link

• Gender Pay Gap Gets an AI Solution – EvenBetter AI just launched a tool to track and reduce gender-based pay disparities. 🏢 Read more: Link

• Healthcare AI Users Want More From Their Tools – A new survey reveals that AI in healthcare still isn’t living up to its full potential. 🏥📉 Read more: Link

• Accounting Hasn’t Fully Embraced AI Yet – The financial industry is slow to adopt AI, but Quanta just raised $4.7M to change that. 📊💡 Read more: Link

• Decentralized AI is the Future of the Internet? – The push for a decentralized AI web is growing—can it work, or is it just hype? 🌐🤖 Read more: Link

• Meet the Founder Behind 24 AI Startups – A Norwegian entrepreneur just launched 24 AI startups at once—is this genius or chaos? 🤯🚀 Read more: Link

• Microsoft Deploys Thousands of AI Agents – AI is running inside and outside Microsoft, changing how enterprises operate. 🏢🤖 Read more: Link

• Amazon’s GenAI Alexa Just Got Smarter – Alexa can now carry out deeper conversations, make smarter suggestions, and even detect emotions. 🏡🗣️ Read more: Link

Investors; We Need To Talk…

We Are In The Sandbox Era

An article by The AI Product Report exploring the early 2025 State of the AI investment market, market movements and investment opportunities identified.

www.productreport.ai/p/we-are-in-the-sandbox-era-for-genai-so-invest-accordingly

Over the past year of reporting on AI, We’ve watched astronomic valuations get slapped on startups building foundational infrastructure—chipsets, core models, and research labs. But here’s the thing: we’re in a sandbox era, where everyone’s experimenting, and the real winners won’t be the ones selling the newest iteration of the shovel. They’ll be the ones digging up value that people actually use. We’re in an exploratory phase that I like to call the sandbox era! What does this mean for investors? It means your chips might want to be balanced across a few positions. Which ones? Read the whole article on the state of funding for the AI space.

The Raise Recap 📈💰 

• Blackbird Vaults AI Secures $5M – This Aussie startup is shaking up cybersecurity with AI-driven data protection. Their $5M seed round will fuel enterprise security innovation. 🔐💡 Read more: Link

• India’s AI Fund Targets $150M – India is going big on AI, launching a massive $150M fund to back homegrown AI startups. 🇮🇳💰 Read more: Link

• Amazon Releases GenAI Alexa – Alexa just got a major AI upgrade, with generative AI making it more conversational than ever. 🗣️🤖 Read more: Link

• Chinese AI Startup Zhipu Raises $140M – China’s AI boom continues! Zhipu lands $140M to expand its LLM-powered offerings. 🇨🇳🤖 Read more: Link

• Snowflake Expands AI Investment to $200M – The data cloud giant is pouring $200M into AI-driven enterprise tools, doubling down on AI's future. ☁️📊 Read more: Link

• Microsoft Invests in AI Cloud Backup with Veeam – Microsoft is doubling down on AI-driven cloud storage with a fresh investment in Veeam. ☁️🔍 Read more: Link

• Taktile Secures Funding to Make AI in Finance Safer – AI-powered decision-making in finance needs guardrails—Taktile just raised millions to help. ⚖️📈 Read more: Link.

• SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son Bets Big on AI – The billionaire CEO is borrowing heavily to invest in AI—can this strategy pay off? 🏦💰 Read more: Link

• AI-Powered Finance Workforce is Here – Unique AI raises $30M to develop AI-powered banking and finance automation. 💳🤖 Read more: Link

🔥 The AI Debate: What’s Next?👀

Bold predictions, ethical concerns, and industry shakeups

Due to popular demand, I’m cooking up a recap of the complexities surrounding AI so to get everyone up to pace on what’s been moving. This will probably take a little longer than I’d like to write, but bear with me. It’s coming!

• Do AI Model Releases Even Matter Anymore? – With new models launching every other week, should we even care about who’s next? 🤔💭 Read more: Link

• Is Agentic AI the Future of Security? – Borneo AI just launched always-on AI security agents—can we trust them? 🔐🤖 Read more: Link

Stay well, and see you next week!

-✌🏽 Sam

For those that are new around here, this is an extension of my weekly newsletter where I highlight new and innovative AI products that are worth exploring.

Hey {{FirstName | hey}}!

Happy Wednesday!

Here’s your news in newsletter!

Riding off the high of yesterday’s catchup recap, Today’s News issue covers the news from the past week, so it’ll be short and sweet.

In this Issue:

• Your Weekly Industry News Recap

• Investors; We need to talk

• The Raise Recap

The Headliner: Azure AI Foundry Labs🧪📰

Microsoft just unveiled Azure AI Foundry Labs, a cutting-edge research hub designed to push the boundaries of AI innovation. This initiative will provide researchers and developers access to advanced AI models, computing power, and real-world experimentation tools. With a focus on breakthroughs in generative AI, machine learning, and AI ethics, Microsoft aims to accelerate the accessibility of intelligent solutions. 🚀💡 Read more: Link

Your Weekly Industry News Recap

• How to Make AI More Sustainable (Without Greenwashing): AI is an energy hog—this article explores real ways to make AI greener without the empty hype. 🌱⚡ Read more: Link

• The AI Brain Drain Dilemma: Countries are losing AI talent at an alarming rate—what’s causing this "brain drain" and how do we fix it? 🌍🔬Read more: Link

• NIST’s AI Security Testing Update: AI security testing is getting an overhaul—NIST just released new guidance on automating security monitoring. 🔍🛡️ Read more: Link

• The Downfall of AI Startup Humane: What went wrong with Humane, and why did its once-promising AI wearable company crash and burn? 😬💸 Read more: Link

• Tencent Reshuffles AI Division Amid Rising Competition: Chinese tech giant Tencent is restructuring its AI app ecosystem to keep up with fierce market battles. 📱 Read more: Link

• Azure AI Foundry Labs Launches: Microsoft unveils AI Foundry Labs, a new hub for AI research and real-world experimentation. 🧪💻 Read more: Link

• Anthropic’s New AI Model Gives Users More Control: A customizable reasoning model from Anthropic lets users decide how much AI “thinks” before responding. 🧠⚡ Read more: Link

• Zillow Uses AI to Build Software Without Engineers: Replit & Anthropic’s AI agents just helped Zillow create production-level software—with zero engineers! 🤯🏡 Read more: Link

• The Ethical AI Debate—Does It Even Exist?: "Ethical AI" sounds great, but some experts argue it’s a myth—can AI ever truly be unbiased? ⚖️🤖 Read more: Link

• Invisible, Autonomous, and Hackable—The AI Agent Dilemma: AI agents are smart, but are they too smart for their own good? The risks are mounting. 🚨🤖 Read more: Link

Investors; We Need To Talk…

We Are In The Sandbox Era

An article by The AI Product Report exploring the early 2025 State of the AI investment market, market movements and investment opportunities identified.

www.productreport.ai/p/we-are-in-the-sandbox-era-for-genai-so-invest-accordingly

Over the past year of reporting on AI, We’ve watched astronomic valuations get slapped on startups building foundational infrastructure—chipsets, core models, and research labs. But here’s the thing: we’re in a sandbox era, where everyone’s experimenting, and the real winners won’t be the ones selling the newest iteration of the shovel. They’ll be the ones digging up value that people actually use. We’re in an exploratory phase that I like to call the sandbox era! What does this mean for investors? It means your chips might want to be balanced across a few positions. Which ones? Read the whole article on the state of funding for the AI space.

The Raise Recap 📈💰 

• Covu Increases Series A to $32M: AI-powered insurance tech startup Covu secures $32M after hitting major milestones—reshaping the future of insurtech. 📉🤖 Read more: Link

• Spyne Secures $16M for AI Expansion: AI-powered image editing startup Spyne lands $16M in Series A to expand into the U.S. market. 📸💡 Read more: Link

• Lambda AI Raises $480M in NVIDIA-Backed Round: AI cloud startup Lambda secures a whopping $480M, with NVIDIA among its investors. 💻🚀 Read more: Link

• Abridge Raises $250M for AI Healthcare: Abridge secures $250M to enhance AI-powered clinical documentation tools for doctors. 🏥📑 Read more: Link

• Dream Secures $100M for AI Cybersecurity: AI-powered cybersecurity startup Dream lands $100M to protect critical infrastructure. 🔒💰 Read more: Link

• Together AI Raises $305M in Series B: AI cloud firm Together AI secures $305M to boost AI-driven model hosting services. ☁️🤖 Read more: Link

• AuditoriaAI Raises $38M for AI Finance Tech: AI-driven finance automation platform AuditoriaAI lands $38M in Series B funding. 💰 📊Read more: Link

• Gomboc AI Raises $13M for Cloud Security: AI-powered cloud security firm Gomboc raises $13M to automate cybersecurity risk remediation. 🌐🔐 Read more: Link

• OpenEvidence Secures Sequoia Investment ($1B Valuation): AI-powered legal research startup OpenEvidence reaches a $1B valuation with Sequoia's backing. ⚖️💵 Read more: Link

• Baseten Lands $75M to Solve AI Bottlenecks: AI infrastructure startup Baseten secures $75M to tackle AI inference challenges at scale. 🚀🖥️ Read more: Link

Here’s What I’m Watching 🎞👀

Latest Progress on AI Agents at scale! Venturebeat meets with Sam Witteveen to dive deeper into the progress of some of the bigger publicly active players.

Stay well, and see you next week!

-✌🏽 Sam

For those that are new around here, this is an extension of my weekly newsletter where I highlight new and innovative AI products that are worth exploring.

Hey {{FirstName | hey}}!

Happy Wednesday!

Here’s your news in newsletter!

Riding off the high of yesterday’s catchup recap, Today’s News issue covers the news from the past week, so it’ll be short and sweet.

In this Issue:

• Your Weekly Industry News Recap

• Investors; We need to talk

• The Raise Recap

The Headliner: Confusing Times for the New York Times 💫📰

The New York Times has greenlit AI tools for product and edit staff | TechCrunch

The New York Times is now allowing its product and editorial teams to use AI tools, which might one day write social copy, SEO headlines, and code,

techcrunch.com/2025/02/17/the-new-york-times-has-greenlit-ai-tools-for-product-and-edit-staff

After much litigation embroiling copyrights, OpenAI and the New York Times, we find that the news organization has taken a bit of a different angle to its addressing its means of production.⚖️🔥 They’ve just greenlit AI 🤖for internal use. Its product and editorial teams the green light to use tools for summaries, SEO headlines, and even coding! ✍️ Staff can use AI for brainstorming and research but not for drafting full articles or handling sensitive info. 🚫 The Times is also testing AI-powered voice articles and translations, while approving tools like GitHub Copilot and Google’s Vertex AI. 🌍Read More

Your Weekly Industry News Recap

• The Emergence of a Two-Tier AI Economy
  🌐💼 A new two-tier AI economy is emerging, with significant implications for businesses and consumers alike. Read more: Yahoo Finance

• Insurtech Funding Falls as AI Investments Surge
  📉🤖 While insurtech funding dips in Q4 2024, AI investments are on the rise, reshaping the insurance landscape. Read more: Insurance Business Magazine

• Researchers Find Less Data Needed for Training LLMs
  🧠📊 New research suggests that large language models (LLMs) don't require massive datasets for effective reasoning tasks. Read more: VentureBeat

• Fabric Introduces Hybrid AI for Healthcare
  🏥🤖 Fabric unveils Hybrid AI solutions to provide safe and accessible healthcare, earning industry leader recognition from Frost & Sullivan. Read more: Kron4

• Cloud4C Strengthens AI Capabilities with Microsoft Azure Specializations
  ☁️💪 Cloud4C secures dual AI specializations on Microsoft Azure, bolstering its AI service offerings. Read more: Morningstar

• Ascendion Named Market Leader in Generative AI Services
  🏆🤖 For the second consecutive year, Ascendion is recognized as a market leader in generative AI services. Read more: KTLA

• AI Innovation Driven by Applications, Not LLMs
  💡🚀 Experts suggest that the path toward Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) will be driven by practical applications rather than large language models. Read more: [Inside AI News](https://insideainews.com/2025/02/13/toward-agi-ai-

Investors; We Need To Talk…

We Are In The Sandbox Era

An article by The AI Product Report exploring the early 2025 State of the AI investment market, market movements and investment opportunities identified.

www.productreport.ai/p/we-are-in-the-sandbox-era-for-genai-so-invest-accordingly

Over the past year of reporting on AI, We’ve watched astronomic valuations get slapped on startups building foundational infrastructure—chipsets, core models, and research labs. But here’s the thing: we’re in a sandbox era, where everyone’s experimenting, and the real winners won’t be the ones selling the newest iteration of the shovel. They’ll be the ones digging up value that people actually use. We’re in an exploratory phase that I like to call the sandbox era! What does this mean for investors? It means your chips might want to be balanced across a few positions. Which ones? Read the whole article on the state of funding for the AI space.

This isn’t traditional business news

Welcome to Morning Brew—the free newsletter designed to keep you in the know on the business news impacting your career, company, and life—in a way you didn’t know you needed.

Note: this isn’t traditional business news. Morning Brew’s approach cuts through the noise and bore of classic business media, opting for short writeups, witty jokes, and above all—presenting the facts.

Save time, actually enjoy business news, and join over 4 million professionals reading daily.

Check it out

The Raise Recap 📈💰 

• Aramco Ventures Backs AI Startup
  🛢️💰 Aramco's venture arm invests in a Telefónica-backed AI startup, signaling a strong push into the tech sector. Read more: Bloomberg

• Figure AI Eyes New Funding at $3.9 Billion Valuation
  🤖💸 Robotics startup Figure AI is in talks for new funding, aiming for a whopping $3.9 billion valuation. Read more: Reuters

• Appier Acquires AdCreative.ai
  🛍️🤝 Appier snaps up AdCreative.ai to lead the charge in generative AI-powered advertising and marketing innovation. Read more: PR Newswire

• AppliedAI Closes $55 Million Series A
  🧠💡 AppliedAI secures $55 million in a Series A round led by G42, boosting AI innovation in the Middle East. Read more: Wamda

• AI-Powered Sports Media Company Raises $13 Million
  🏀🎥 An AI-driven sports media startup raises $13 million, with backing from Alexis Ohanian and Giannis Antetokounmpo. Read more: NBC Philadelphia

• Sardine AI Raises $70M to Combat Fraud
  🐟🔒 Sardine AI secures $70 million to enhance productivity for fraud and compliance teams. Read more: Business Wire

• ConverzAI Inks $16M Series A
  🧑‍💼🤖 AI-driven HR platform ConverzAI raises $16 million in Series A funding to revolutionize human resources. Read more: Venture Capital Journal

• Paxton Secures $22 Million for Legal AI
  ⚖️💼 Paxton raises $22 million in Series A funding to transform the legal industry with AI solutions. Read more: Pulse 2.0

• Tines Raises €120.7 Million for AI-Powered Workflow Platform
  🔄🤖 Tines secures €120.7 million to enhance its AI-driven workflow automation platform. Read more: EU-Startups

• Encharge AI Raises Over $100 Million
  💡💰 Encharge AI secures over $100 million in funding to bring AI inference chips to market. Read more: Reuters

There’s A New AI Agent Competition 💰 🏆

Image Property of Next Top AI Competition

“ GDA Capital and Alpaca Network, in partnership with Founders Hub Network & Devolved AI, are proud to announce the inaugural Next Top AI Agent, the world’s largest AI agent start-up competition bringing together over 4 million developers and tech leaders virtually to build and present their most impactful AI agents over the course of 1 month. This event features a prize pool exceeding $500,000 in grants and prizes and reaches a global audience of top innovators and enthusiasts.” GET HYPED

Stay well, and see you next week!

-✌🏽 Sam