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∆ Tech in the News

'Secure By Design' - The U.S., UK, and 16 other Countries agreed to promote AI systems that prioritize security via various approved steps.

“Replicator” Drones - The Pentagon is rushing its initiative to develop thousands of lethal, autonomous drones and weapons systems by 2026.

iRobot Challenges - The EU has raised competition concerns over Amazon's proposed acquisition of the Roomba maker.

Waiting Game - Nvidia has reportedly delayed the launch of its powerful new China-export-compliant AI chip to Q1 2024.

ProFound Findings - Research finds iCAD’s ‘ProFound’ AI system can predict the 1-2 year risk for Breast Cancer - the leading cause of death for U.S. women.

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˚The hottest thing in tech this week

Why Grok Will be Most Powerful AI Chat Bot

xAI’s Chatbot will launch to 𝕏 Premium Plus users this week and will be integrated into the 𝕏 platform via a dedicated Grok tab. Grok will handle queries roughly par to GPT 3.5.  However, the difference is it was trained on billions of tweets and has real-time access to 𝕏, so it can provide up-to-date info on current issues. New use cases that opens up include analyzing trending topics, content coaching, and social media sentiment analysis. If you are a content creator, Grok could just be about to become your best friend. Integrating Grok into Tesla cars (as has been hinted at) could also be a game-changer for in-car tech and autonomous driving with all the real data access that entails.

Grok AI will offer a dedicated “fun” mode giving Grok a touch of sarcasm and humor, and as Musk has said a less censored and politically biased approach. Users can give feedback on conversations to improve the bot over time. 𝕏 Premium Plus costs $16/mth including Grok access - a decent deal. xAI is moving super fast on Grok launching after only 3 months, so we can only expect it to get better and faster over the next few months leading up to wider public access. For example, xAI has also stated it will add multimodal audio and visual elements over time, an API is planned apparently, and Musk has even confirmed that 𝕏 Corp investors will own 25% of xAI.

News Bytes

• US Cyber Monday online sales cross a record $12B

• California Privacy Agency drafts regs on data in automated decisions.

• Meta sued over ‘Open Secret’ of its millions of underage users

• Foxconn to invest $1.5B in India to increase staff and market presence.

Deals We’re Watching

Founders to Watch and Opportunities to Catch

Open Deals:

MOOV - A super app/hub for school info + events in mobile-native student-friendly language. Traction: Bootstrapped to $106k ARR, 190k-student Philly District Pilot. Raising $500k with $100k committed. Watch Video and get in touch.

Pocket FM - Indian Audio entertainment startup with $160M ARR (up 6x in ‘23), has expanded into the U.S. and is raising $80M led by Lightspeed at ~$800M valuation.

Corover - Google is planning to invest $4M into the Indian AI startup on top of the $500k it invested earlier this year.

Closed Deals:

Neuralink - The Elon Musk-founded brain-chip interface company raised an additional $43M in venture capital, reaching a total of $323M.

Local Infusion - Tech-enabled infusion provider closed a $10M Series A to offer blood infusions outside of hospitals disrupting a $100B+ market.

Mozaic - Raised $20M in a Series A led by Volition to build a payment-splitting smart-contract API for creators using multiple platforms.

PhysicsX - This startup emerged from stealth with a $32M Series A for its AI-driven simulations for engineering sectors like aviation led by General Catalyst.

Antora - A Calif. startup received a $4M grant from the CEC, aiming to scale its carbon block “Thermal Battery” Storage Tech.

Companies to Watch:

Boom - With $700M raised recently from Saudi Arabia's Neom Fund, the US supersonic passenger jet startup aims for a demo flight by year's end.

ZeroAvia - The startup developing hydrogen fuel cell-powered aircraft closed a $116M Series C led by The U.K. Infrastructure Bank, Airbus, Barclays, and NEOM.

RepeatMD - A startup selling turnkey SaaS solutions for the aesthetics and wellness sector with 3,5k practices, 700k users, & 130%+ ARR has raised $40M.

Jona - Ex-Paige CEO Leo Grady's new venture raised $5M for its at-home AI microbiome profiling kit offering personalized health insights

Harmonic Health - The startup launched a comprehensive pilot program for its AI-powered risk assessments and centralized patient portal for dementia care.

The Funding Buzz

Venture Investors have plowed over $25B into AI startups this year, according to Crunchbase data.

Newlands - A secretive firm backed by WhatsApp billionaire Jan Koum, is quietly building a startup portfolio with investments in early-stage startups.

Berkshire Hathaway - Warren Buffet's investment firm exited its stake in Paytm parent One97 at a 40% loss on its initial investment.

Athena Capital - Raising a $500M equity and debt capital fund to invest in private and public mission-driven tech and ESG companies, takeovers and SPACs.

Tools

MagnificAI - Upscale feature completely re-imagines its images.

Tldraw - Possibly the best AI drawing and upscaling app out.

Amazon - New ‘thin’ clients offer enterprise users virtual access to WorkSpaces.

Runway - New AI motion brush is insane

ElevenLabs - Incredible new Speech to Speech feature!

If you have a deal or company that you would like to host on our next issue, drop us a line: [email protected].

Thanks for connecting with us.

The Tech Buzz Team