Since the OpenAI-powered ChatGPT4 was released in November, generative AI seems to be the new season. Whether you consider this a breakthrough or just a passing fantasy, just like huge amounts of money chasing AI with his two letters on the first slide of an elevator pitch It doesn’t change the fact that you can see it.
Actually not! Companies dabbling in this technology seem to have suddenly caught the attention of investors who seem well-funded and comfortable with generative AI. A lot of money (around $1.3 billion) went into Inflection AI, a startup that aims to create personal AI for everyone.
Inflectional AI: The era of personalized AI has arrived
Because Bill Gates, Eric Schmidt, Reed Hoffman, Microsoft and Nvidia believe that human intelligence has reached its limits. just kidding! Google CEO Mustafa Suleiman, head of Google’s DeepMind AI Lab, plans to build and design an AI-powered personal assistant called Pi.
Inflation is currently valued at $4 billion based on the latest investment tranche. The Palo Alto-based startup has a small team of 35 members, and he launched Pi in May to provide information based on individual interests and needs. It’s now available through a web interface as well as messaging apps, acting as an AI-driven ‘assistant’.
Runway AI: Creating generative AI tools for content creators
Suffice it to say that an inflection can create an inflection point for the assistant. But on another page, Runway, a startup that develops generative AI tools for multimedia content creators, has raised his $141 million in Series C funding, again from Google, Salesforce, and Nvidia. The funds will be used to scale up internal research and expand the number of employees.
Founded in 2018, the team began building a suite of AI-powered tools for filmmakers, photographers, and cinematographers. We currently sell Gen-2, an AI model that creates videos from text prompts or existing images. The company founded Runway Studios to partner in video production for corporate clients.
Speakeasy: Simplify API creation and consumption
A third venture involves startups looking to automate the creation and distribution of APIs using generative AI. Speakeasy CEO Sagar Batchu said his company is building a suite of tools to facilitate this process. Batchu said developers are keen to create APIs that allow other companies to easily connect to their services.
Creating and documenting an API takes time, so the startup wants to make it easier by injecting a lot of automation into its activities. The company has received his $7.6 million seed investment that will be used to build tools that make it easier to create and distribute APIs. His ultimate goal is to create a platform, but now he’s starting with two tools. One helps in creating APIs and the other makes it easier for users to implement APIs.
script: Generative AI in storytelling and games
Another interesting effort in the AI space relates to Scriptic, an immersive storytelling platform looking to expand the phone-first interactive game library. It has secured $5.7 million in funding to bring in outside writers who will share and monetize their own smartphone-first stories on the platform using AI-powered creator tools.
Founded in 2018 by Nihal Talor and Benedict Tatham, the London-based studio was among the first to adopt generative AI tools for storytelling with ChatGPT and DALL-E in 2021. The company has secured $8.2 million so far, signaling a growing trend for generative AI tools. Utilization of AI in the field of mobile games. The company produced Crime Stories released on Netflix.
And finally, there is news that Chinese AI startup Guangnian Zhi Wai (Beyond Light Years) has been acquired by shopping platform Meituan in an all-cash deal for $233.7 million. Ironically, despite investors’ confidence in founder Wang Huiwen (who also founded Meituan) and his ingenuity, the company has yet to launch a product. For now, it looks like the digital retailer paid the latter to acquire his AI knowledge base.
