Cloud Hosting

Image Credits: Tom Werner / Getty Images

Welcome to Startups Weekly. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Friday.

If youve been following along with this newsletter, youll have noticed that Ive been a little bit curious about AI especially generative AI. Im likely not the first person to make this observation, but AIs are extremely, painfully average. I guess thats kind of the point of them train them on all knowledge, and mediocrity will surface.

The trick is to only use AI tools for stuff that you, yourself, arent very good at. If youre an expert artist or writer, itll let you down. The truth, though, is that most people arent great writers, and so ChatGPT and its brethren are going to be a massive benefit to white-collar workers everywhere. Well, until we collectively discover that a house cleaner has greater job security than an office manager or a secretary, at least.

On that cheerful note, lets sniff about in the startup bushes and see what tasty morsels we can scare up from the depths of the TechCrunch archive from the past week....

I know, this happens every damn week: I start with the intention of writing this newsletter without going up to my eyelashes into the AI morass, and every week, yall keep reading our AI news as if your livelihood depends on it. Because, well, its entirely possible it does, I suppose.

The GPT Store, introduced by OpenAI, enables developers to create custom GPT-based conversational AI models and sell them in a new marketplace. This initiative is designed to expand the accessibility and commercial use of AI, similar to how app stores revolutionized software distribution. Developers can not only build but also monetize their AI creations, opening up a new avenue for innovation and entrepreneurship in the field of artificial intelligence. Of course, that little update and the platform now natively being able to read PDFs and websites is a substantial threat to startups that had previously filled this gap in ChatGPTs offerings, especially those whose business models are based on such features. Its a reminder that building a business around another companys API without a sustainable, stand-alone product is, perhaps, not the shrewdest business move.

AI is, of course, not just for startups. During Apples Q4 earnings call, the companys CEO, Tim Cook, emphasized AI as a fundamental technology and highlighted recent AI-driven features like Personal Voice and Live Voicemail in iOS 17. He also confirmed that Apple is continuing to develop generative AI technologies tellingly, without revealing specifics.

Heinlein would be horrified: Elon Musk announced that Twitters Premium Plus subscribers will soon have early access to xAIs new AI system, Grok,once it exits early beta, positioning the chatbot as a perk for the platforms $16/month ad-free service tier.

Brother, can you spare a GPU?: AWS introduced Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) and Capacity Blocks for ML, a new service that enables customers to rent Nvidia GPUs for a set period, primarily for AI tasks like training or experimenting with machine learning models.

From zero to AI founder in one easy bootstrap: In How to bootstrap an AI startup on TC+, Michael Koch advises founders on maintaining control over their startups strategy and product by bootstrapping yes, even in the oft-capital-intensive world of AI startups.

WeWork, once a high-flying startup valued at $47 billion, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, highlighting a staggering collapse. The company, which has over $18.6 billion of debt, received agreement from about 90% of its lenders to convert $3 billion of debt into equity in an attempt to improve its balance sheet and address its costly leases. On TC+, Alex notes what we kinda knew all along: that the core business just didnt make sense.

In other venture news...

Ex-Twitter CEO raises third venture fund: 01 Advisors, the venture firm founded by former Twitter executives Dick Costolo and Adam Bain, has secured $395 million in capital commitments for its third fund, aimed at investing in Series Bstage startups focused on business software and fintech services.

Happy 10th unicornaversary: Alex reflects on the tenth anniversary of the term unicorn, which was initially coined right here on TechCrunch, to describe startups valued at over $1 billion.

You get a chip! You get a chip!: In response to a shortage of AI chips, Microsoft is updating its startup support program to offer selected startups free access to advanced Azure AI supercomputing resources to develop AI models.

Look, Im not going to lie, I think most crypto is dumb, and Ive seen only a handful of startups that use blockchains in a way that makes any sense whatsoever most of them would have done just fine with a simple database so Ive been following Jacquelyns coverage of Bankman-Frieds trial with a not insignificant amount of schadenfreude. Its human to make mistakes, and startup founders are human, but if youre defrauding the fuck out of people, you deserve all the comeuppance you can get.

Sam Bankman-Fried was the co-founder and CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX and the trading firm Alameda Research (named specifically to not sound like a crypto company). He has been found guilty on all seven counts of fraud and money laundering.

The charges were related to a scheme involving misappropriating billions of dollars of customer funds deposited with FTX and misleading investors and lenders of both FTX and Alameda Research. After the five-week trial, the jury spent just four hours to reach its verdict.

The collapse of FTX and Alameda Research, which led to the indictment of Bankman-Fried about 11 months ago by the U.S. Department of Justice, was significant, with the executives allegedly stealing over $8 billion in customer funds.

Sentencing will happen next March, but if he gets smacked with the full weight of his actions, he will face a total possible sentence of 115 years in prison.

Jacquelyn did a heroic job covering the trial for TechCrunch, and its worth taking an afternoon to read through it all the details are mind-boggling.

The house sometimes wins: Mr. Cooper, a mortgage and loan company, experienced a cybersecurity incident that led to an ongoing system outage. The company says it has taken steps to secure data and address the issue.

Cant think of any downsides of the Hindenburg: The worlds largest aircraft, Pathfinder 1, is an electric airship prototype developed by LTA Research and funded by Sergey Brin. It was unveiled this week, promising a new era in sustainable air travel.

Arrivals departure: The EV startup Arrival, which aimed to revolutionize electric vehicle production with its micro-factory model, is now facing severe operational challenges, including multiple layoffs, missed production targets, and noncompliance with SEC filing requirements, resulting in a plummet from a $13 billion valuation.

Follow this link:

AI makes you worse at what youre good at - TechCrunch