Floating Point, an early-stage VC firm focused on startups in complex sectors, tells Axios that it's raised $70 million for its second fund.
The big picture: Its thesis is that there is still VC value to be found by supporting capital-intensive startups, but that the trouble came when firms began flooding money into startups that really were capital-light models.
As humanoid robots storm into the workplace, the company that pioneered them — Boston Dynamics — is taking a wait-and-see approach, though there are hints that could change.
Why it matters: Shippers and manufacturers want human-shaped robots that can lift heavy boxes and handle dangerous tasks, but it's not clear yet if they're going to be the right answer.
AI startup Anthropic says its language models have steadily and rapidly improved in their "persuasiveness," per new research the company posted Tuesday.
Why it matters: Persuasion — a general skill with widespread social, commercial and political applications — can foster disinformation and push people to act against their own interests, according to the paper's authors.
Artificial intelligence is ushering in a "new world" as swiftly and disruptively as atomic weapons did 80 years ago, Margrethe Vestager, the EU's top tech regulator, told a crowd Tuesday at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey.
Threat level: In an exclusive interview with Axios afterward, Vestager said that while both the A-bomb and AI have posed broad dangers to humanity, AI comes with additional "individual existential risks" as we empower it to make decisions about our job and college applications, our loans and mortgages, and our medical treatments.
Media veteran Campbell Brown is joining TollBit as a senior adviser, Brown told Axios. The startup is building a marketplace between AI companies and media outlets.
Why it matters: Brown was highly sought after following her exit from Meta last year, given her experience brokering news partnerships.
Alethea Group, an AI-powered social media monitoring platform, has secured a $20 million Series B round led by Google Ventures, the startup first tells Axios.
Why it matters: Alethea is one of the few cybersecurity companies able to raise money during an ongoing investment drought.
LinkedIn unveiled a new verification process today for job recruiters amid a rising number of scams targeting users.
Why it matters: Generative AI tools have made it easier for scammers to reach out to unsuspecting users about fake job offers to collect sensitive financial information.
Congress has just 10 days to renew a key government surveillance program before it expires, and a committee vote on Tuesday will set the course for how lawmakers proceed.
Why it matters: Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) has helped intelligence agencies collect data as part of counterterrorism, cybercrime, drug trafficking and several other types of investigations.
Gaming is a key testbed for AI technologies and the values society is embedding in digital worlds, a top gaming industry executive and AI researcher argues in a new book.
Why it matters: Gaming, AI and other tech industries continue to be dominated by men — even though plenty of women are avid gamers, and women are more likely than men to be exposed to AI in their work.
Google is launching a new effort Tuesday that will let businesses use results from its flagship search engine to help "ground" the results of generative AI queries.
Why it matters: The tendency of large language models to hallucinate, or make things up, is a key hurdle to broader business adoption of generative AI.
AI companies dominate this year's list of top startups focused on selling technology to businesses, according to the latest Enterprise Tech 30 list compiled by venture capital firm Wing and shared first with Axios.
Why it matters: Businesses have been investing heavily in generative AI over the past two years, though the jury's still out on how much the technology will boost productivity or profitability.
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