Joyce’s picks: musings and readings in AI/ML, May 5, 2025
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📌 Musings and Readings
“Google Plans to Roll Out Its A.I. Chatbot to Children Under 13” (Link)
“The state of California is providing LA City and County a new AI-powered e-check software free of charge to speed the pace at which local governments are approving building permits.” (Link)
“Claude AI Exploited to Operate 100+ Fake Political Personas in Global Influence Campaign” (Link)
“Visa partners with AI giants to streamline online shopping” (Link)
“Duolingo Says AI Completed Work in 12 Months that Took Humans 12 Years” (Link)
Google’s AI Mode for Search (Link)
“Spill The Beans: Exploiting CPU Cache Side-Channels to Leak Tokens from
Large Language Models” (Paper)
👏 Deals
Elm AI, a New York-based company using large language models to help assist with the analysis of supplier audit reports and flagging non-conformances based on a company's code of conduct, streamlining sustainability due diligence, has raised $2m in financing.
Blue Water Autonomy, a Boston-based AI-driven defense technology company developing autonomous, crewless warships for scalable, long-endurance naval missions, has raised $14m in seed financing.
Collide, a TX-based startup building an AI platform focused on the oil and gas industry to offer an energy-specific AI tool enabling professionals to access accurate answers to technical questions, has raised $5m in seed financing.
TheStage AI, a Delaware-based startup focusing on automating and optimizing deep learning model deployment using its AI-driven Automatic Neural Network Analyzer (ANNA) to streamline neural network optimization through quantization, pruning, and sparsification, has raised $4.5m in financing
QWERKY AI, a SC-based startup developing customizable, personality-rich agents designed for natural, engaging real-world interactions, has raised $2m in seed financing.
Corvic AI, a CA-based startup using AI to transform complex enterprise data into actionable insights by orchestrating adaptive workflows and integrating machine learning and semantic retrieval, has raised $12m in seed financing.
Loti AI, a WA-based company leveraging machine learning and facial/voice recognition to monitor and protect digital identities, detecting unauthorized content and providing automated takedown services, has raised $16.2m series A financing.
Atomic, a New York-based startup building an AI platform to automate supply planning with demand forecasting, supply planning and financial forecasting to optimize inventory and streamline operations, has raised $3m in seed financing.
Scout AI, a CA-based defense tech company developing a vision-language-action model to enable autonomous robots to interpret visual data and natural language commands for real-time decision-making and coordination in GPS-denied environments, has raised $15m in seed financing.
Arcana Labs, a CA-based company building an AI platform to enhance creative production by automating image and video creation, upscaling, transforming storyboards and enabling custom model training for style consistency, has raised $5.5m in financing.
Foundation EGI, a CA-based startup using AI to streamline hardware engineering by codifying workflows into a domain-specific language, enabling natural language interaction and improving accuracy through learning from past projects, has raised $7.6m in seed financing.
Cy4Data Labs, a Ca-based company focusing on securing sensitive data across on-premise, cloud and SaaS environments, has raised $10m in financing.
Bauplan, a CA-and New York-based startup offering a serverless platform that streamlines AI workflows, allowing developers to build and deploy data pipelines directly on object storage with Python, has raised $7.5m in seed financing.
Trellis Health, a CA-based developing a digital platform that uses personalized medical data to support pregnancy and postpartum care, has raised $1.8m in pre-seed financing.
1Fort, a New York-based business insurance and risk management startup using AI to help provide the right coverage to businesses, has raised $7.5m in financing.
Epicore Biosystems, a MA-based startup developing soft, skin-worn microfluidic wearables that monitor sweat biomarkers in real time, has raised additional $6m in Series B in financing.
EdgeRunner AI, a Seattle-based company that is developing secure, air-gapped, on-device generative AI solutions, has raised $12m in Series A in financing.
Gruve.ai, a CA-based company offering AI services focused on data, infrastructure, and model solutions, has raised $37.5m in Series A financing.
Phoenix Tailings, a MA-based company focused on extraction of rare earth elements, from mining waste, utilizing clean energy and zero-waste processes, has raised $33m in Series B in financing.
Doppel, a CA-based AI-powered platform focused on protecting brands, executives, and employees by detecting and neutralizing digital threats across domains, social media, email, and the dark web, has raised $35m in financing.