Joyce Shen’s picks: musings and readings in AI/ML, October 5, 2026
📌 Musings and Readings
“AI Now Writing Code That Humans Can’t Even Understand” (Link)
“New algorithm makes maps of gene activity easier to compare while preserving cell-level detail” (Link)
“Tongue and Facial Images Used to Detect Coronary Heart Disease” (Link)
“New AI Czar Unveils Goals, Members of White House Task Force” (Link)
“Musk says he will rename SpaceXAI to SpaceXSI” (Link)
“The AI industry is booming. Women are getting left behind” (Link)
👏 Deals
AI Hospitality Group, a Dallas, TX-based startup using AI agents to automate hotel back-office operations, has raised $7.5m in seed funding.
Dextr AI, a CA-based company building an AI-native hospitality automation platform to streamline guest engagement, reservations, and hotel operations, has raised $6.7m in seed funding.
Menos AI, a CA-based company developing an AI-native investment research platform to automate financial analysis and streamline research workflows, has raised $5.1m in pre-series A funding.
BlueFire AI, a Tokyo, Japan-based fintech company providing an AI-powered investment platform using proprietary technology to automate research, risk analysis, and portfolio management, has raised $9m in funding.
Rig Security, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based company building an identity security platform that helps enterprises discover, govern, and protect human, machine, and AI-agent identities across their environments, has raised $12m in seed funding.
Elio Mortgage, a NYC-based company offering an AI-native mortgage platform modernizing loan origination, has raised $5.1m in pre-seed funding.
RemoteThreat, a Fulton, Md-based company building an AI-native cybersecurity platform that automates offensive security operations, has raised $7m in pre-seed funding.
Inbolt, a Paris, France-based AI company developing an industrial robotics platform that enables robots to autonomously perceive, adapt, and execute complex manufacturing tasks, has raised €11m in funding.
Quotr, a CA-based company providing a construction platform automating the pre-construction workflow, has raised $4m in seed funding.
Tangent Robotics, a NYC-based company building a robotics platform for dexterous manipulation, enabling complex industrial tasks, has raised $4.5m in pre-seed funding.
Zenithon, a London, UK-based startup building AI world models to accelerate simulation and design optimization across fusion, aerospace, and semiconductor applications, has raised $10m in funding.
Osavul, a Luxembourg-based company providing a risk intelligence platform that helps governments and enterprises detect, assess, and respond to emerging cyber, information, and physical threats, has raised $10m in series A funding.
Deepslate, a Berlin, Germany-based voice AI company building an AI-native speech-to-speech platform for real-time, multilingual enterprise voice agents, has raised €7.7m in seed funding.
Photon, a CA-based company providing infrastructure and APIs that enable companies to build and deploy AI agents across messaging channels, has raised $4.5m in seed funding.
