The haves and have nots of the AI gold rush

The haves and have nots of the AI gold rush

The vibes around the current AI boom aren’t great, even in the tech industry, according to a lengthy social media post from Menlo Ventures partner Deedy Das.  Das described San Francisco as “pretty frenetic right now,” as “the divide in outcomes is the worst I’ve ever seen.” Using a “back of the envelope AI calculation,”…

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Lovable just backed a company that’s looking to bring vibe coding to hardware

Lovable just backed a company that’s looking to bring vibe coding to hardware

Lovable, the AI-powered app-building platform, has backed Danish hardware startup Atech, which wants to introduce “vibe coding” to the process of creating hardware. Lovable was part of an $800,000 pre-seed round that also included a16z’s scout fund, Sequoia Scout Fund, and Nordic Makers.  In a chat with TechCrunch, Atech’s head of customer experience, Gustav Hugod,…

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Voice AI in India is hard. Wispr Flow is betting on it anyway.

Voice AI in India is hard. Wispr Flow is betting on it anyway.

India’s internet users already rely heavily on voice notes, voice search, and multilingual messaging. Turning those habits into a scalable AI business, however, remains difficult because of the country’s linguistic complexity, mixed-language usage, and uneven monetization patterns. Wispr Flow is betting the opportunity is worth the challenge. The Bay Area-headquartered startup, which builds AI-powered voice…

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Fintech startup Parker files for bankruptcy

Fintech startup Parker files for bankruptcy

Parker, a well-funded startup offering corporate credit cards and banking services for e-commerce businesses, has filed for bankruptcy and is widely reported to have shut down. The startup was part of Y Combinator’s winter 2019 cohort, and its Series A was led by Valar Ventures.  Parker came out of stealth in 2023, touting a corporate…

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