DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ A wave of AI 'acquihires' is coming. Here's who could be looking for deals.
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-30 | by ( Rebecca Torrence | Riddhi Kanetkar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

But the tech giant's play underscores the market's demand for tech talent — and venture capitalists expect a wave of "acquihires" to hit the AI ecosystem later this year. M&A dealmaking among AI startups is already off to a strong start this year, with 55 exits recorded in Q1 of 2024, per Crunchbase data. AdvertisementThe majority of AI startups are overpriced, said Konstantin Vinogradov, general partner at Runa Capital. AI startups with revenue in the single-digit millions that raised money at unicorn valuations, Dash said, might not even have that option. Those deals don't make sense for buyers, he said, which could lead Big Tech companies or other AI startups to poach their talent instead.

Persons: —, Inflection's, Ayangar, Konstantin Vinogradov, Somesh Dash, overshadowing, Shmuel Chafets, Sivesh Sivakumar, Shaun Johnson, Naveen Rao, Sivakumar, Johnson, PhotoRoom, Aravind Srinivas, Mike Smeed, Chafets, Dash, they'll Organizations: Service, Microsoft, Business, Investors, Runa, Big Tech, Apple, Target, Ventures, Accenture, Boston Consulting Group, Intuit, Nike, American Express, Safeway, InMotion Ventures, Disney, Netflix Locations: OpenOcean, Snowflake, Databricks

☆ Inflection AI has a new game plan after Mustafa Suleyman defected to Microsoft
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-22 | by ( Jyoti Mann | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Inflection AI unveiled a new strategy to focus on building empathetic chatbots for businesses. It comes after Mustafa Suleyman resigned as CEO and joined Microsoft with most of the team. The startup's new leadership team told VentureBeat that it's "well funded for 18 months." The startup laid out a rehashed strategy following its partial implosion about two months after CEO Mustafa Suleyman decamped to Microsoft along with most of its 70 staff. Inflection's executive team told VentureBeat that its new plan of action is focusing on business-centric "empathetic" chatbots to help stand out in the highly competitive AI sphere.

Persons: Mustafa Suleyman, VentureBeat, —, Mustafa Suleyman decamped Organizations: Microsoft, Service, Business

☆ Microsoft's in-house AI model, reportedly called MAI-1, is a chance for CEO Satya Nadella to prove he doesn't need OpenAI
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-06 | by ( Aaron Mok | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Microsoft is building its own AI model dubbed MAI-1, The Information reported. It's a sign Microsoft is ready to depend less on the ChatGPT maker as the AI wars heat up. AdvertisementMicrosoft is reportedly working on its own AI model separately from OpenAI — a chance for CEO Satya Nadella to prove his company doesn't need the ChatGPT maker to get ahead in the AI wars. Microsoft is working on building an in-house large language model model it calls MAI-1, The Information reported earlier this week. That's on top of the smaller, less advanced models Microsoft is developing for smartphone apps, reflecting the tech titan's multi-pronged approach to developing advanced AI.

Persons: Mustafa Suleyman, It's, —, Satya Nadella, Nadella, Google's DeepMind, Kevin Scott, Scott, it's, Microsoft didn't Organizations: Microsoft, Service, MAI, Meta, Business, Microsoft's Locations: ChatGPT, Seattle

☆ Satya Nadella just tried to show everyone who's boss in AI, again
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-18 | by ( Hasan Chowdhury | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Satya Nadella is hoping to prove he's the shrewdest dealmaker in AI. Microsoft just put $1.5 billion in UAE firm G42 while getting it to divest its China ties. G42 has been linked to a chip venture led by Microsoft's other main AI bet, OpenAI. Last month, Nadella pulled off a big coup by hiring Mustafa Suleyman, a DeepMind cofounder and Inflection AI CEO, and several of his software engineers to head up a new AI division at Microsoft. InflectionThe move involved a $650 million payment to Inflection AI that would also allow Microsoft to license Inflection's AI models.

Persons: Satya Nadella, —, Redmond, Peng Xiao, hasn't, Sam Altman, Nadella, Brad Smith, who's, …, Altman, Mustafa Suleyman, Mistral Organizations: Microsoft, Service, OpenAI, Huawei Locations: UAE, China, Abu Dhabi, DarkMatter, Beijing, @G42ai, OpenAI, Paris

☆ Disney proxy battle is about a lot more than just two board seats
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-03 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

As for the newsletter, in today's big story, we're breaking down Disney's big proxy fight . Activist investor Nelson Peltz's proxy fight against Disney for two seats on the company's board comes to a head at its annual shareholder meeting today. The total amount spent between Disney and its rivals wrangling votes is estimated to be at least $70 million, a record for a proxy fight. The statue of Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse at Cinderella Castle at the Magic Kingdom, at Walt Disney World, in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. 3 things in businessWin McNamee/Getty Images; Chelsea Jia Feng/BIIn other newsAdvertisementWhat's happening todayThe Walt Disney Company's annual meeting will be held today.

Persons: —, Congrats, ya, Bob Iger, Nelson Peltz, Neilson Barnard, David A, Grogan, Nelson, Madeline Berg, BI's Peter Kafka, BI's Grace Eliza Goodwin, Walt Disney, Mickey Mouse, Joe Burbank, Rowe Price, Peltz's Trian, Neuberger Berman, Peltz, It's, Trian, they're, Stocks, Ray Dalio, it's, Quincy Krosby, Jeffrey Buchbinder, Alyssa Powell, Win McNamee, Chelsea Jia Feng, Dan DeFrancesco, Jordan Parker Erb, Hallam Bullock, George Glover Organizations: Business, Service, National, Getty, Disney, Magic, Walt Disney World, Orlando Sentinel, Tribune, Wall, BlackRock, Peltz's Trian Partners, California Public Employees, Financial Times, DuPont, Fed, JPMorgan, Bridgewater Associates, Astera Labs, Arm Holdings, LPL Financial, Apple, Nvidia, BI, Walt Locations: —, Virginia, Lake Buena Vista , Florida, China, Haiti's, New York, London

☆ The next phase of AI is here — and it's not looking pretty
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-26 | by ( Hasan Chowdhury | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

AI companies run into hurdlesOne of the more eye-opening developments of this new phase came last week from a barely two-year-old OpenAI rival named Inflection AI. Related storiesIt has quickly become apparent that Inflection AI wasn't the only one struggling, however. Stability's Mostaque, meanwhile, seems to have conceded that Big Tech companies wield unassailable power in AI. In a post on X, he said that centralized AI was not going to be beaten with "more centralized AI". Not going to beat centralized AI with more centralized AI.

Persons: —, Bill Gates, Mustafa Suleyman, DeepMind, Suleyman, Reid Hoffman, Gates, Eric Schmidt, Emad Mostaque, Googlers —, Ali Barr, Pi, Cohere, Stability's Mostaque, ike C oatue Organizations: Service, Nasdaq, Business, Big Tech, Microsoft, Nvidia

REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File PhotoJune 29 (Reuters) - Inflection AI, a startup backed by several Silicon Valley heavyweights, said on Thursday it had raised $1.3 billion from investors including Microsoft and Nvidia, amid a boom in the artificial intelligence (AI) sector. Inflection released its chatbot Pi last month. Pi uses generative AI technology, similar to ChatGPT, to interact with users through dialogues, allowing people to ask questions and share feedback. Palo Alto, California-based Inflection AI has about 35 employees. Nvidia (NVDA.O), which has stepped up its AI investments recently, Hoffman, Bill Gates and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt also participated in the latest round, Inflection said.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Google DeepMind, Mustafa Suleyman, Reid Hoffman, Pi, Suleyman, OpenAI, Hoffman, Bill Gates, Eric Schmidt, Niket, Krystal Hu, Vinay Dwivedi, Conor Humphries Organizations: REUTERS, Microsoft, Nvidia, Google, LinkedIn, Collision, Thomson Locations: Alto , California, Greylock, Bengaluru, Toronto

☆ Bill Gates says an under-the-radar startup could be the biggest winner in AI. Check out its free app, and you'll see why.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-24 | by ( Matt Turner | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Bill Gates said the winner in AI will be the company that creates a personal digital agent. Gates added that it's 50-50 as to whether the AI winner behind the digital agent will come from Big Tech or the startup world. The startup was founded by LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman, Deepmind cofounder Mustafa Suleyman, and Karén Simonyan, and describes itself as an "AI studio creating a personal AI for everyone." And Pi is still a ways away from what Bill Gates is imagining, a personal AI that can do your shopping and help read your emails. But Pi is the best conversational AI I've used so far, and everyone I've spoken to who has used it has been impressed.

Persons: Bill Gates, Pi, it's, Gates, I'd, I'm, I've, Reid Hoffman, Mustafa Suleyman, Karén, Matt Turner, we've, It's, there's, Spriha Srivistava, that's, Brad Davis, Brad, ChatGPT Organizations: Microsoft, Google, Big Tech, CNBC, LinkedIn, Pi Locations: San Francisco, Instagram

☆ Reid Hoffman's new AI startup Inflection launches ChatGPT-like chatbot
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Krystal Hu | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

May 2 (Reuters) - Inflection AI, the AI startup founded by LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and former Deepmind (GOOGL.O) researcher Mustafa Suleyman, has released its first AI chatbot product, the company said on Tuesday. Similar to the viral chatbot ChatGPT, Inflection's AI chatbot, named Pi, uses generative AI technology to interact with users through conversations, in which people can ask questions and share interests. Inflection AI said it developed the technology in-house and its Pi chatbot is built on prioritizing human conversations with a high level of emotional intelligence. Pi uses user data, including conversational content, to train its AI systems, according to its terms of service. Chatbot powered by generative AI technology has become a crowded field since OpenAI's ChatGPT burst into the scene last November.

Search resuls for: "Inflection's"

9 mentions found