Startup Cognition Launches AI Software Coding Engine Devin

Months-old startup Cognition AI has emerged from stealth mode with Devin, a generative platform it is calling “the world’s first fully autonomous AI software engineer.” Although Cognition has yet to make Devin widely available, much less allow independent testing, if its claims are true it would mark a turning point in the AI coding space, moving it from a field of AI assistants to a full-fledged AI engineer. Based on natural language instruction, Devin could potentially take a project from concept to execution rather than simply suggesting code snippets or offering barebones frameworks. Continue reading Startup Cognition Launches AI Software Coding Engine Devin

Semafor Teams with Microsoft on AI-Driven Newsfeed Signals

News site Semafor has teamed with Microsoft to create a new breaking news product called Signals it says is a template for “the newsroom of the future.” Using AI tools from Microsoft and OpenAI to assist its journalists, the multi-source Signals will offer “perspectives and insights on the biggest stories in the world as they develop,” Semafor says. Microsoft simultaneously announced deals with the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY and the Online News Association. “In a year where billions of people will vote in democratic elections worldwide, journalism is critical to creating healthy information ecosystems,” Microsoft says. Continue reading Semafor Teams with Microsoft on AI-Driven Newsfeed Signals

CES: A Look at the U.S. Security Risks of Foreign Investment

CTA Vice President of International Trade Ed Brzytwa discussed the sensitive topic of foreign investment transactions with U.S. Department of the Treasury Assistant Secretary for Investment Security Paul Rosen, who runs the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS). Rosen stated that CFIUS was established almost 50 years ago and has been reauthorized by Congress many times. “The mission is to review foreign investments that come into U.S. businesses for national security risks,” he said. “We’re looking to assess who’s getting access to sensitive U.S. assets or getting control of a U.S. company.” Continue reading CES: A Look at the U.S. Security Risks of Foreign Investment

CES: Rabbit Launches AI-Powered Pocket Controller for Apps

Santa Monica-based AI startup Rabbit Inc. is offering a virtual assistant in the form of a pocket device that the company says can improve upon mobile phones by learning to use your apps and running them for you. Heavily publicized at CES 2024 in Las Vegas this week, the initial run of the company’s r-1 units had as of Tuesday sold out at $199 each. The retro-looking device with a 2.88-inch touchscreen is continuing to take preorders; shipments are scheduled to begin in late March. The company says its proprietary Rabbit OS is the first operating system built on a Large Action Model (LAM) foundation. LAMs are LLMs trained on datasets of actions and consequences. Continue reading CES: Rabbit Launches AI-Powered Pocket Controller for Apps

Startup Flip AI Creates Custom LLM to Address Observability

Startup Flip AI has built a custom LLM to run its observability platform. Observability is the act of monitoring corporate IT systems, ferreting out issues or identifying potential problems before they occur. It’s a 24/7 process, and can slow down sites or apps, sometimes causing crashes. Not to be confused with the PDF reader app, Flip AI has trained an LLM specifically to monitor new and emerging challenges. Concurrently, Flip AI has announced $6.5 million in seed funding led by Factory with participation from Morgan Stanley Next Level Fund and GTM Capital. Continue reading Startup Flip AI Creates Custom LLM to Address Observability

Amazon Plans to Invest Up to $4 Billion in AI Startup Anthropic

Amazon has entered into a strategic investment in San Francisco-based Anthropic, founded by former members of OpenAI. The AI startup will train and deploy future models using AWS Trainium and Inferentia chips to train and deploy future foundation models with AWS as its primary cloud provider. In turn, Amazon says it will invest up to $4 billion in Anthropic, as it strives to compete with other technology firms in the race to develop generative AI, seeding growth for what is shaping up to be an entirely new economic and social landscape. Continue reading Amazon Plans to Invest Up to $4 Billion in AI Startup Anthropic

Gable.ai Aims to Reinvent How Data Engineers and AI Interact

Gable.ai is emerging out of stealth mode this week with $7 million in seed funding and a plan to bridge the gap between data gathering and the artificial intelligence applications that rely on that data to function. The startup’s approach is based on the premise that “data modeling is often an afterthought” at the AI stage, where software developers are stuck working with whatever the data crew has handed them. Gable.ai aims to create a more structured workflow between the two, where end-uses are taken into account at the front end resulting in clean data optimized for AI use. Continue reading Gable.ai Aims to Reinvent How Data Engineers and AI Interact

Sightful’s Spacetop AR Laptop Offers 100-Inch Virtual Display

A new $2,000 mobile device called “Spacetop” comes with its own augmented reality glasses that can create a 100-inch virtual display. Sightful, the Tel Aviv-based startup behind the new AR laptop, was co-founded by CEO Tamir Berliner and COO Tomer Kahan, both previously with Florida-based AR glasses firm Magic Leap. Spacetop utilizes a custom operating system that Sightful says is compatible with Web-based applications such as Google Workspace, Zoom and Figma. The glasses reportedly offer resolution of 1080p per eye, which Sightful says provides sub-pixel viewing resolution. Continue reading Sightful’s Spacetop AR Laptop Offers 100-Inch Virtual Display

Tech Leaders Map the Multiverse at ETC Digital Town Square

On March 2, an international gathering of media technology executives and startups spent an hour discussing “the multiverse” and related topics. It was part of a day-long SPROCKIT Sync and ETC@USC Multiverse Symposium co-sponsored by the ETC and SPROCKIT, with additional support from ETC member Ronin X Foundation. Moderated by ETC’s Phil Lelyveld and Ronin X’s Sandeep Casi, attendees debated how to define the metaverse; discussed how development would impact contracts, rights and payments; raised tech implications of free range experiences and dynamic storytelling on capture and distribution processes and infrastructure; and addressed mixed reality experiences being planned and tested for theme parks. Watch a 9-minute video highlight reel of the discussion. Continue reading Tech Leaders Map the Multiverse at ETC Digital Town Square

Runway Opens Waitlist for Its Gen 2 Text-to-Video AI System

New York-based Runway is releasing its Gen 2 system, which generates video clips of up to a few seconds from text or image-based user prompts. The company, which specializes in artificial intelligence-enhanced film and editing tools, has opened a waitlist for the new product that will be accessed through a private Discord channel by an audience grown over time. Last year, Meta Platforms and Google both previewed text-to-video software in the research stage, but neither detailed plans to make their platforms public. Bloomberg called Runway’s limited launch “the most high-profile instance of such text-to-video generation outside of a lab.” Continue reading Runway Opens Waitlist for Its Gen 2 Text-to-Video AI System

Venture Capital Investors Are Drawn to Generative AI Startups

Well-funded software startups are springing up to target the enterprise market with generative artificial intelligence technology of the type popularized by ChatGPT. In 2022, global venture-capital investors parked $1.3 billion in more than 78 generative AI startup deals, according to PitchBook Data. That’s nearly as much as the combined capital investment in other tech startups over the past five years, and it came at a time when the broader investment sector was experiencing a slowdown, PitchBook found. Two of Q4’s biggest venture deals were for the generative AI startups Jasper, based in Austin, Texas, and Stability AI, headquartered in London. Continue reading Venture Capital Investors Are Drawn to Generative AI Startups

Mintlify Leverages AI to Auto-Generate Code Documentation

A seed round by Ithaca, New York-based software firm Mintlify has raised $2.8 million led by Bain Capital Ventures. The startup uses artificial intelligence to automate software documentation. CEO and co-founder Han Wang says the funds will go to product development and hiring that will increase the company’s small staff. Mintify was launched in 2021 by Wang and Hahnbee Lee, a pair of software engineers who were driven to address a pressing industry need: quality documentation. A 2017 survey by GitHub found that 93 percent of developers listed incomplete or outdated documentation as an industry-wide problem. Continue reading Mintlify Leverages AI to Auto-Generate Code Documentation

HiDef and Unity Pursue Social Impact and Diversity in Games

Game studio HiDef has teamed up with San Francisco-based software developer Unity Technologies to work on a games-as-a-service project that focuses on games that “connect and entertain people through creative expression, competition, shared experiences, and cultural discovery.” The San Diego-based HiDef, founded by Anthony Castoro, Jace Hall, Rick Fox and David Washington in 2019, recently raised $9 million. HiDef said the first title is a metaverse mobile game using the Unity game engine, created in concert with Unity’s gaming services team. Continue reading HiDef and Unity Pursue Social Impact and Diversity in Games

Today’s Podcasts Are Finally Proving They Can Turn a Profit

Podcasts have the potential to be intimate, captivating and entertaining. The recent podcasting boom began in 2014 with “Serial,” a true crime drama that changed perceptions of how big podcasting could be. But it wasn’t profitable right away and took millions of downloads over time to get there. The question became: could podcasts similar to “Serial” be replicated on a commercial basis? It seems that they now have the potential. For example, news sources such as The New York Times and Vox are proving that there can be big money in daily news podcasting.

Continue reading Today’s Podcasts Are Finally Proving They Can Turn a Profit

Kickstarter Hires Reporter to Investigate Drone Startup Failure

Kickstarter has hired an investigative journalist to look into a recent case in which a successful fundraising campaign led to spectacular failure. British drone startup Torquing Group raised $3.4 million (£2.3 million) and, less than a year later, went down in flames. Its co-founder/chief executive Ivan Reedman left the company for “personal health issues and irreconcilable differences” and, a visit to the company’s Wales headquarters didn’t turn up a working prototype of the product due to ship within months. Continue reading Kickstarter Hires Reporter to Investigate Drone Startup Failure