Joyce Shen’s picks: musings and readings in AI/ML, July 28, 2025

📌 Musings and Readings

Robot, know thyself: New vision-based system teaches machines to understand their bodies (Link)

AI is designing proteins that could help treat cancer (Link)

Amazon acquires Bee, the AI wearable that records everything you say (Link)

Newly Announced U.S. AI Action Plan (Link)

China releases AI action plan days after the U.S. as global tech race heats up (Link)

SafeWork-R1, another model competing with Claude Opus 4 and GPT-4.1 (Paper)

Agentic AI framework for End-to-End Medical Data Inference (Paper)

👏 Deals

Litero AI, a NYC-based company providing an EdTech platform that helps students and researchers draft, cite, and refine essays, has raised $800k in pre-seed financing.

Radical AI, a NYC–based startup developing a platform to accelerate the discovery of advanced materials for industries like aerospace, energy, and semiconductors, has raised $55m in seed financing.

Nexxa.ai, a CA-based startup providing AI agents to automate industrial engineering workflows, has raised $4.4m in pre-seed funding.

CandorIQ, a CA–based startup offering an AI-powered platform that streamlines compensation, headcount planning, and workforce analytics, has raised 4.8m in seed financing.

Magentic, a London-based company developing an AI-driven platform that deploys virtual agents to automate procurement and supply chain tasks, has raised $5.5m in financing.

Spacely AI, a Bangkok, Thailand-based startup providing an AI-powered generative design platform that enables architects and interior designers to create, visualize, and deliver 2D-to-3D spatial designs, has raised 4.8m in seed financing.

Poseidon AI, a CA-based startup building a decentralized data infrastructure platform that leverages blockchain and smart contracts to turn real-world data into traceable, licensed, and monetizable assets for AI training workflow, has raised $15m in seed funding.

Octup, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based startup providing an AI-powered operations platform for 3PLs and e-commerce brands, unifying logistics and billing data into real-time insights, has raised $12m in seed funding.

Starseer, a TN-based AI cybersecurity company providing a management platform to analyze AI models and vulnerabilities, has raised $2m in seed funding.

Olto, a CA - based AI startup offering a demo automation platform that helps B2B sales teams deliver personalized, interactive product demos at scale, has raised $5m in pre-seed funding.

Supplied AI, an Amsterdam-based compliance startup that automates onboarding, verification, and regulatory reporting for digital marketplaces, has raised €1.6M in seed funding.

Memories.ai, a CA-based AI startup developing a Large Visual Memory Model (LVMM) that enables long-term video understanding and natural-language retrieval from video footages, has raised $8m in seed funding.

Lyra, a CA-based startup building an AI-powered video platform for revenue teams that transforms calls into interactive workspaces with real-time insights and automated follow-ups, has raised $6m in seed funding.