Joyce Shen’s picks: musings and readings in AI/ML, January 5, 2026
5-minute weekly must-read on data science and artificial intelligence news, funding, and research, curated by Joyce J. Shen.
📌 Musings and Readings
“OpenAI Is Taking On Apple’s App Store. It’s Got a Long Way to Go.” (Link)
“In 2026, AI will move from hype to pragmatism” (Link)
“CES 2026: What to expect from the tech industry’s biggest show of the year” (Link)
“In China, A.I. Is Finding Deadly Tumors That Doctors Might Miss” (Link)
“OpenAI bets big on audio as Silicon Valley declares war on screens” (Link)
👏 Deals
Traini, a CA–based pet emotional intelligence startup using generative AI to analyze dogs’ behavior and emotions, offering an app, AI coaching, has raised $7.5m in funding.
Lemon Slice, a CA–based startup providing real-time, interactive video avatar technology turning a single image into a conversational digital character, has raised $10.5m in seed funding.
Dazzle AI, a CA–based AI consumer-focused AI startup building applications, has raised $8m in seed funding.
BriefCatch, a Washington, DC-based company providing legal-writing software, has raised $6m in Series A funding.
Miura Simulation, a France-based tech startup offering a data-centric platform to accelerate design, manufacturing, and AI-driven innovation, has raised €2m in funding.
Lucis, a Paris, France-based health-tech startup using AI to analyze blood tests and biomarkers, providing personalized insights, has raised $8.5m in seed funding.
Woodway Assurance, a Canada-based company providing AI-powered assessments to ensure de-identified and synthetic data comply with privacy standards, has raised $1m in seed funding.
StretchSense, an Edinburgh, UK-based wearable tech company developing sensor-equipped gloves and motion-capture systems to track hand and finger movements for extended reality (XR) training, has raised $2.3m in funding.
Marble Imaging, a German-based big-data Earth Observation company developing a constellation of high-resolution Earth observation satellites and AI-powered analytics to deliver geospatial data, has raised €5.3m in seed funding.
Mirelo, a Berlin, German-based startup using AI to automatically generate synchronized sound effects and music for videos and visual media, has raised $41m in seed funding.
ZeroPhase, a Munich, German-based defense tech startup developing adaptive, software-defined communication systems for secure and resilient data links in unmanned defense platforms, has raised €5.8m in seed funding.