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Hello from a very rain-soaked, semi-gothic and sad Cure-themed Silicon Valley (Haje) and a beautiful, sunny and warm day (Christine). It’s hard to imagine one from the other, and so here we are, learning a lesson from empathy and realizing that our direct experience may not be universal. Wow. Didn’t expect that level of depth from your friendly neighborhood tech newsletter, didya? May we continue to surprise you for the rest of 2023. — Christine and Hey
Table of Contents
The businessroundups.org Top 3
- ChatGPT, but in a suit and tie: Kyle writes that OpenAI is looking for ways to monetize ChatGPT, its viral chatbot, and today we learned how it will do just that. The company is now testing a premium version called ‘ChatGPT Professional’. Benefits include no “unavailable” windows and unlimited messages. How much would you pay for it? Register on the waiting list and weigh in.
- Back in the air: The Federal Aviation Authority is likely breathing a sigh of relief after being able to return to normal operations earlier this morning. All US domestic flights were grounded when one of the main systems failed. Darrell reports.
- What did you say?: More companies are developing AI technology to help people communicate, and DeepL, an AI-based language translator for businesses, is the latest to benefit from investor hunger for these types of companies. Ingrid reports that DeepL has raised more than $100 million to value the company at more than $1 billion.
Startups and VC
Getting smart home devices to talk to each other has taken forever, but something has changed. Why now? Or, more explicitly, why did Matter’s rollout take so long? Brian questions. To begin with, the obvious problem referred to above is that most of these large companies would rather not work with their competitors if they can avoid doing so. As such, it’s a bit of a cat-herding scenario to get everyone on the same page about something like this. But we’re finally here, which is why the Matter logo was all over the place at CES 2023.
Venom Foundation and investment manager Iceberg Capital have partnered to launch a $1 billion venture capital fund, Jaquelyn reports. The $1 billion vehicle is a blockchain agnostic fund that will invest in web3 protocols and decentralized applications (dApps).
Okay, fine, you can have a handful of highlights from the past 24 hours:
Some investors are (cautiously) implementing ChatGPT in their workflows
Image Credits: Mary Ne (Opens in a new window) /Getty Images
Can AI create polite pitch rejection letters, automate aspects of due diligence, or create accurate market maps?
Some investors are already evaluating ways to integrate ChatGPT “into their workflows to do their jobs better, smarter, and maybe even cheaper,” report Natasha Mascarenhas, Christine Hall, and Kyle Wiggers.
They interviewed several VCs to learn about potential use cases, some early experiments, and the limitations of the technology when it comes to nuance and tone.
“It doesn’t automate the important conversations we have with journalists,” says Brianne Kimmel, founder of Worklife Ventures, “but I think it’s sufficient for things that are pretty simple.”
Three more from the TC+ team:
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Big Tech Inc.
It’s kind of a Meta day. First, what Meta gives, Meta takes away, like Amanda found out. First it was internships and now Meta is withdrawing some offers for full-time jobs. Meanwhile, a privacy rights group in Europe has published a lengthy series of documents related to privacy decisions the EU has made against Meta. Natasha L tells you what they said. And finally, Annie reports that Meta’s main content moderation partner in Africa has ceased operations.
We all have a lot of apps on our phones, but Sara reports that for the first time in a long time, the app economy slowed, with consumer spending in this category falling 2% to $167 billion. She elaborates on what happened and why.
Here are five more for you:
