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We’ve been in the AI news this week. Google I/O was setting the pace: During the two-hour keynote, the word “AI” appeared on average once a minute. Publishers! Here’s the DL on Google’s AI plans.
OpenAI has just released GPT-4o – an AI model that is ChatGPT on steroids. This recent “omni” wunderkind handles text, speech and video like a multitasking wunderkind hopping on an espresso. OpenAI co-founder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever also decided to leap ship. The guy who principally helped build the brains of our future AI overlords goes on a quest for “personally significant” rainbows.
Meanwhile, OpenAI is currently considering AI-generated pornography. Yes, you read that right – it looks like our future involves robots with an artistic flair for NSFW content. The company desires to generate clear images and text “responsibly” without violating regulations or laws. Between you and me, letting Skynet have fun with adult entertainment doesn’t seem responsible, but I assume you may have to remain tuned for more updates on this rollercoaster because it looks like we’re heading towards an X-rated technological dystopia faster than you may tell “algo-rotica”.
Oh, and it is also value noting that Anthropic has allowed kids to hitch the AI party, but only if developers follow the company’s policies. Teens can access third-party apps using Anthropic’s AI – not Anthropic’s own apps – so long as those apps include safety features like age verification and content filtering, in addition to a wall of “comply with COPPA” signs taped to every surface .
Has something happened to AI land? Sure, let’s take a look…
The most interesting startup stories of the week
Ready to provide your love life to a robot? Bumble’s Whitney Wolfe Herd thinks it is time for bots thus far other bots, all in the name of fostering “healthy and equitable relationships.” Imagine this: an AI “dating concierge” criticizes your insecurities and then sends its own bot to check with one other bot. If sparks fly, you may strike a match! It’s principally Tinder meets the Black Mirror episode “Hang the DJ” without the dystopian charm. While some people chuckle, others wonder if living vicariously through digital avatars is worse than swiping right on someone just because they have a cute dog in their profile picture. Truly, the most recent of romances.
- Ring, ring, who is it? Your creaking bones: Ready to feel old? The recent features of the Oura smart ring promise to inform you how senile your heart is by measuring your cardiovascular age. It’s like a magic mirror, but for your arteries.
- From cradle to cradle: Gather around, exhausted parents and eco-warriors! Alora Baby is here to save lots of you from the countless parade of baby gear ending up in landfills. The startup has decided that your little angel’s leftover crib shouldn’t have a one-way ticket to Trashville. Instead, these are pioneering “remanufactured” products that are pretty much as good as recent (or so they claim).
- Domo Arigato: Kyle Vogt, the man who, with Cruise, brought us self-driving cars that sometimes forget that pedestrians exist, is back with a recent enterprise: robots that may do your chores. Vogt’s latest enterprise, Bot Company, has already raised $150 million in funding. One can only hope that these bots have higher spatial awareness than his last design.
The most interesting collections this week
Have you ever lost a bet and began a company? Nicholas Johnson did, and now he’s here to save lots of residential EV owners from the slow death of 120-volt outlets. Enter Orange Charger and sell $750 smart stores that may improve your driving experience without owners worrying about installation costs. The company raised an oversubscribed seed round of $6.5 million
In a plot straight out of a Silicon Valley soap opera, Permira takes Squarespace private in a $6.9 billion deal. The website builder you most likely used to start out your now probably abandoned blog has just been taken over by some very serious people with very deep pockets. After riding the stock market’s rollercoaster and seeing the stock yo-yo prefer it was auditioning for Cirque du Soleil, Squarespace will once again be hidden from the market’s prying eyes.
- Layer? I barely know anything!: QuickBooks, meet your recent nemesis: Layer. This San Francisco-based startup just raised $2.3 million to dethrone the accounting giant by embedding accounting tools directly into platforms like Square and Toast.
- Spicy nomes: In a world where Sysco and US Foods reign supreme, Pepper is the feisty underdog shaking up the B2B food e-commerce scene. With a fresh $30 million money injection led by ICONIQ Growth, Pepper is giving small distributors solid technology muscle to take on the big boys.
- Won’t you be my neighbor?: Welcome to the world of PayHOA, where Kentucky charm meets SaaS brilliance. The once-startup just poured in a cool $27.5 million in Series A funding — it looks like even your local HOA needs cloud-based financial wizardry as of late.
Other stories you may’t miss on TechCrunch…
In the latest episode of “Elon Musk Does Whatever He Wants,” the social media platform formerly often known as Twitter now labels the words “cis” and “cisgender” as slurs. Actually. While hate speech directed at marginalized groups stays unharmed, using a term recognized by medical and government authorities will result in a full-screen warning. It’s almost as if Elon is attempting to create a hostile environment at X for anyone who is not aligned with his recent group of extremist fans. Never mind that the overwhelming majority of people on the platform are cisgender – if you utilize that word (or you identical to basic human decency), take it as a signal to step left.
Oh, and as for Musk doing whatever he pleases… Guess what happens if you place Elon Musk and a profitable division in the same room? You fire it up, of course! Tesla’s Supercharger network – an electric vehicle owner’s dream with over 50,000 global charging ports – is currently in complete chaos after Musk fired the entire team.
- Will you follow my path?: Uber’s latest idea to unravel its traffic nightmare: shuttle buses. Inspired by its success in India and Egypt, Uber is launching a shuttle service in U.S. cities this summer for concert events, sporting events and airport rides because everyone loves being packed like sardines with strangers.
- A crushing disappointment: Buckle up, folks, because Apple’s latest try and promote the recent iPad Pro is a masterclass in the best way to alienate your creative fan base. In the “Crush” ad, they thought it will be cool to indicate an iPad destroying traditional art supplies into oblivion. Spoiler: It wasn’t.
- Are you here tonight?: Have you ever wondered the best way to manage a crowd of frontline staff without losing your mind? Enter Sona, the superhero workforce management platform that just raised $27.5 million to revolutionize shift scheduling and scheduling for everyone who keeps society running while we binge-watch Netflix.
- Zeekr and you will see that it: Zeekr, the Chinese luxury electric vehicle brand owned by Geely, entered the New York Stock Exchange with a bang, becoming the first major listed in China since 2021. Investors went crazy, sending Zeekr’s share price up 38% in a matter of minutes and valued it at a cool $7 billion.
- A light-weight solution to a difficult problem: In a world where everyone is either on fad diets or taking miracle weight-reduction plan pills, Sammy Faycurry decided to do something useful: create a startup that helps registered dietitians start their very own practices and get insurance.