(Re)Share | #19 - Investing in: Authentic(AI)tion
AI Chemists | Failed Submersibles | AI Regulation | Green Aircraft | Lunar Power Grids
The AI investment boom is in full effect with a steady supply of $105M “seed” rounds and $21M per employee acquisitions coming through every day. This has given ammunition to both sides of the VC debate -“We’re back baby!” vs. “You hype-driven f**ks never learn…”, which is fun. AI opportunity / risk is a common topic of (Re)Share, and while I should pen a view on the current market this week I collected my thoughts on what I think is one of the most promising investment areas to lean into…
Shameless plug
My latest blog post featured another work-in-progress investment thesis - Investing in: Authentic(AI)tion (see what I did there?), which focuses on building safety and control systems that can govern foundational models. A lot of anti-AI ink has been spilled on the risk of societal collapse. Historically this argument found home in robotic enslavement by Skynet, paperclip-driven eradication or an unemployment dystopia. But more recently, vocal dissension has emerged from inside the technologist camp who see the real manifestation of AI danger: weaponized disinformation. Releases over the last 12 months have completely reframed what was thought possible. AI has taken center stage in the years-brewing techno-political zeitgeist - making a new threat and political opportunity.
Stuff worth sharing
Down where it’s wetter, not always better - Literally everyone has been talking about OceanGate’s inspiring but ultimately tragic Titan expedition. Clearly massive shortcuts were made to an almost comical level and while the technical ambition is notable the Theranos-of-the-sea moniker doesn’t seem far off. Multiple reports of a fired whistleblower have since come out so you have to seriously question the risk / reward of a tourist expedition especially since fish are, and this is scientifically verified, gross.
Positive bio on Stockton Rush, the “daredevil inventor”
Disturbing explanation of the human body at 3,800 meters by a mortician
Grading on a curve - Question: Do foundation model providers comply with the EU AI Act? Answer: No, not at all. A Stanford research group recently conducted a comprehensive analysis of how ten major foundation models would perform against the draft legislation. The results were pretty bleak across the board, though performance across requirement varied. Despite the nascent area of study this group provided pretty actionable recommendations.
My what big wings you have - Super cool prototype aircraft designed by NASA and Boeing. The X-66A, a transonic, “truss-winged” aircraft designed specifically to achieve net-zero goals and can provide to a 30 percent reduction in emissions.
Dr. Honeydew fires Beaker - LLMs and Gen AI have permeated loads of creative and administrative tasks but the realms of scientific discovery have remained relatively untapped. A recent paper aimed to overcome this discipline gap by creating an LLM-powered chemistry engine, ChemCrow, which augmented GPT-4 with a modular scaffolding of 17 chemistry task-specific expert models. ChemCrow beat general GPT-4 in multiple head-to-heads, providing promising support for deep scientific discovery much to the chagrin of lab assistants everywhere.
What dark side of the moon? - Lunar lander company, Astrobotic, has designed a network of solar-power generating stations for installation and continuous operation on the moon. The LunaGrid system has been designed to provide 24/7 power to the permanent moon base that NASA hopes to establish by 2030.
Through the upside-down looking glass - The history of photolithography and the man who invented it, Jay Lathrop. His simple idea of flipping over a microscope lens, gave rise to the entire compute industry and has evolved into most complex manufacturing process ever designed.
UKGMI - a16z is the latest US venture firm to throw its hat in the UK ring but in typical contrarian fashion this London outpost will only focus on crypto investments. I’m sure this will change over time, but I have to applaud their commitment to the Web3 movement when so many other funds have lost their nerve. I have limited exposure to Web3 in my own sourcing but I can attest to the level of EU talent and the need for deep belief capital.
Portfolio flex
Autonomous truck OS company, Fernride, announced a $31 million Series A. Fernride allows vehicles to operate at Level Four autonomy, within a defined area - more specifically private industrial yards.
Cakewalk, one of our newest portfolio companies, announced their €3 million seed round, which Fly Ventures proudly led. Cakewalk exists to enable the easiest and most secure method of employee access control for SaaS apps.