If you spend any amount of time online, you probably noticed that your user experience keeps getting worse. Websites are waterlogged with autoplay ads, pop-ups, and tracking scripts. Customer service chatbots are useless, despite the promises of generative AI. Social media algorithms boost rage-bait to keep you scrolling and engaged. Dating apps hide all the […]
Optifye.ai, a Y Combinator-backed startup, sparked massive social media backlash this week after its demo went viral. The video, which shows how the company’s AI-powered cameras track factory workers in real-time, quickly caught fire online, with criticism flooding in on X and Hacker News. In the clip, a supervisor calls out an underperforming worker, sparking
Every year, it seems like there’s at least one big YC controversy Read More »
“AI startups are like rockets — they need to launch fast, but they also need to be built to last,” says Gradient Ventures partner Eylul Kayin, who works on everything from seed-stage investments to helping companies scale. Today on Equity, Mary Ann Azevedo sits down with Eylul to explore the fast-evolving world of AI startups.
How Gradient Ventures is Shaping the AI Startup Landscape with Eylul Kayin Read More »
Humane’s Ai Pin, which promised to replace your smartphone with a sleek wearable device, is officially dead. After a rocky launch, negative reviews, and returns outpacing sales, the startup is shutting down and selling its assets to HP for $116 million — less than half of what it raised. But what’s next for Humane’s tech,
AI wearables 1.0: Was Humane’s Ai Pin too ambitious? Read More »
The team at early-stage VC firm Slow Ventures last week launched a $60 million fund entirely dedicated to investing in creators, with an eye towards helping them launch businesses. The idea is that the same entrepreneurial spirit and niche expertise that has helped creators build community is what would make them great founders. According to
How Slow Ventures is giving the creator economy a rebrand Read More »
Tensions are running high in the AI world this week after Elon Musk made a staggering $97.4 billion bid to buy OpenAI, a move that would mark one of the largest tech acquisitions in history – if it actually happens. OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman shut the notion down fast, even going so far as to
Elon Musk and Sam Altman are basically in a rap battle Read More »
“The fintech market is hot again,” said Sheel Mohnot, fintech investor and founder of Better Tomorrow Ventures (BTV). “And we are going to see some more exits in the near future.” According to recent reports, fintech funding is on the rise, with global investment hitting $60 billion in the first half of the year alone,
Sheel Mohnot says the fintech market is ‘hot again’ Read More »
Humanoid robotics company Figure raised eyebrows this week when it announced it would be stepping away from a partnership with OpenAI in favor of building its own in-house AI models. Figure CEO Brett Adcock alluded to a “major breakthrough” in their own process and plans to unveil “something no one has ever seen on a
Are companies falling out of love with OpenAI? Read More »
As the interest in both space and solar grows, one startup aims to merge the two industries. By tapping into the momentum of the commercial space industry and the increasing demand for renewable energy, Robinhood co-founder Baiju Bhatt is on a mission to make space-based solar power a reality with his latest startup: Aetherflux. Today
From fintech to space tech: Robinhood co-founder Baiju Bhatt is betting on space solar Read More »
DeepSeek is making waves in the AI world, grabbing headlines and taking over the app stores, even beating out OpenAI’s ChatGPT. But what’s really happening behind the hype? Today, on TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Max Zeff is talking about it all with Ion Stoica, Professor of Computer Science Division at UC Berkeley and the cofounder and
DeepSeek: Separating fact from hype Read More »
