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Sanctuary secures $30 million from Canada’s SIF to build robots with human-like intelligence (BETAKIT)
The investment is aimed at supporting Sanctuary’s $120.8 million project to develop what the startup claims to be the “world’s first functioning human-like intelligence in general-purpose robots.”
GPT-4 is coming, but OpenAI is still fixing GPT-3 (MIT TECHNOLOGY REVIEW)
The San Francisco-based company has released a demo of a new model called ChatGPT, a spin-off of GPT-3 that is geared toward answering questions via back-and-forth dialogue. In a blog post, OpenAI says that this conversational format allows ChatGPT “to answer follow-up questions, admit its mistakes, challenge incorrect premises, and reject inappropriate requests.”
Looking for examples of ChatGPT’s offering? Check out this thread, which includes an AI-generated skit involving Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio.
Private AI secures $10.7 million CAD to protect personal data from privacy breaches (BETAKIT)
“Private AI exists in a data-driven world where information is the most valuable currency,” said Michelle Scarborough, managing partner, Thrive Venture Fund at BDC Capital. “We are excited to support Private AI’s mission to empower businesses to harness the full value of their data – creating the highly personalized experiences customers expect – while respecting their privacy.”
Locus raises another $117M for its warehouse robots (TECHCRUNCH)
Stay at home orders fueled adoption in the early days of the pandemic, as some retailers stayed open after being labeled “essential businesses.” Even after things began reopening, those roles have remained difficult to fill, leading many firms to look toward robotic help.
Companies located in Western Canada are invited to apply for the 5th annual OKGN Angel Summit.
This 10-week program is designed to train entrepreneurs and newly accredited angel investors on the capital-raising process through active participation. It all culminates in a public finale on March 16, 2023 where one company will be awarded the fund of up to $250K.
Applications close December 16, 2022.
What Coconut Software CFO Matt Petrow learned while raising a Series B (BETAKIT)
Matt Petrow, CFO of Coconut Software, said it’s about more than simply knowing your numbers and taking the best term sheet available.
Defense tech startup Anduril raises massive $1.5B round at $8.5B valuation (CRUNCHBASE)
The Costa Mesa, California-based startup locked up a Series E worth nearly $1.5 billion that values the company at $8.5 billion. That nearly doubles the company’s previous valuation in June 2021.
Durable aims to help solo entrepreneurs launch service-based businesses with AI (BETAKIT)
“The bottom line is it’s still way too hard to start a business, specifically a service-based company,” said Durable founder and CEO James Clift.
Autonomous trucking software upstart embark has quietly gone from $5B+ to basically worthless (CRUNCHBASE)
The San Francisco-headquartered company, which develops autonomous driving technology for the trucking industry, has presided over a roughly 98% share price decline since going public a year ago. In the process, it’s wiped out close to $5 billion in market capitalization.
How to keep yourself safe from cyber threats (BETAKIT)
In a BetaKit Live, Leigh Tynan, the Director of TELUS Online Security; Jeff Bonvie from the RCMP’s Cybercrime Coordination Centre; and Matthew Moniz, entrepreneur and Content Creator of Moniz Media, shared their insights on the current state of cybercrime and the secret to staying safer online.
Your creativity won’t save your job from AI (THE ATLANTIC)
Robots were once considered capable only of unimaginative, routine work. Today they write articles and create award-winning art.
RailVision Analytics closes $5.5 million CAD to cut train emissions by curbing fuel consumption (BETAKIT)
Despite the rail industry’s importance, RailVision founder and CEO Dev Jain believes many people have a “weak perception” of how it works given that so much of its operations take place “at night and out of sight.” Jain told BetaKit in an interview, “it’s an industry that things just show up on their doorstep and they have no clue how it got there, but it’s responsible for moving more or less everything around.”
Cambridge the gateway as Canadian antibody AI player moves into UK (BUSINESS WEEKLY)
A global leader in machine learning applications for novel medicine development, Toronto-headquartered BenchSci was recently ranked 31st on the Deloitte Technology Fast 50™ and 192nd on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500™ rankings of North America’s fastest-growing technology, media, telecoms, life science, FinTech and energy tech companies.
Nortel alum-turned-mystery novelist combines her tech and writing background with Fictionary (BETAKIT)
“We’re trying to help the average person who doesn’t have an ‘in’ in the publishing industry get a really good book out there, get an agent, or get a publisher,” said Fictionary co-founder and CEO Kristina Stanley.
Physicists Create a Holographic Wormhole Using a Quantum Computer (QUANTUM MAGAZINE)
The unprecedented experiment explores the possibility that space-time somehow emerges from quantum information, even as the work’s interpretation remains disputed.