AI

• U.S. Air Force confirms the first successful AI dogfight.

• OpenAI announced a Japan office, along with GPT-4 tailored for Japanese.

• Apple's first AI features in iOS 18 will not use cloud servers like Google as some predicted it would.

• GPT-4 exceeds unspecialized doctors' abilities to assess eye problems. 

New Tech

• Anduril released Ghost Shark, an extra-large autonomous undersea vehicle.

• NASA confirmed its nuclear-powered Dragonfly drone is going to Titan.

Patent Filings

• Apple filed a patent for an “enhanced meditation experience” using “bio-feedback.”

• Airbus filed a patent for an “aircraft sound diagnostic method” that classifies abnormal sounds or noise levels throughout an aircraft during inspection.

Venture Capital

• a16z on Friday closed $7.2B for its new funds.

• 37% of VCs who raised a first fund will not be able to raise a second.

• Ramp raises another $150M co-led by Khosla and Founders Fund at a $7.65B valuation.

Other Headlines

• 2017 tax law is coming back to haunt startups by taxing R&D even if the company isn’t profitable. 

• Google merged the Android, Chrome, and hardware divisions.

• Musk’s Boring Co dug too close to a supporting column of the Las Vegas monorail last year.

• US homebuilding saw the biggest monthly drop in March (-15%) since Covid hit.

• New nuclear warhead is being built by the U.S, the 1st in 40 years.

• Acorn’s savings card adds on average $43 per customer per month into savings from rounded-up purchases.  

Space

• AstroForge will mine asteroids to extract valuable minerals in space.

• Astromecha is developing an electric jet engine that is efficient at every speed. 

• Max Space is building inflatable and expandable habitats for space.

• Dark Space is building an interceptor to remove space debris and enemy systems in orbit. 

AI

• Limitless built a voice-first AI assistant clip-on device like the Humane pin.

• StockNews uses AI to filter through relevant news related to the stocks you chose. 

• SWE-Agent is an open source software engineering LLM from the creators of Devin.

Robotics

• Allen Control Systems is a defense company that makes an anti-UAV autonomous gun turret.

• MenteeBot is building a humanoid robot designed for the home.

• K-Scale Labs built an open-source humanoid robot that anyone with a 3D printer and some time can build on their own.

Climate & Energy

• Breaking developed a microorganism capable of degrading various plastics into organic matter. 

• Swtch Energy installs and manages EV charging systems for multi-unit buildings and offices. 

• Quilt is an all-in-one smart home climate system.

• Captura is removing CO2 from seawater to amplify the ocean’s natural removal of carbon from the atmosphere. 

• WeatherBuild provides precise weather data for construction teams.   

• Remora makes a device that captures a semi-truck's carbon emissions directly from the tailpipe.

• Juice Fuel is a gas station that comes to your driveway. 

Consumer

• Airchat is a social app built around talk created by Naval.  

• Pocket Pod generates a daily custom podcast of news tailored for you.

• ShareThat lets you get paid for sharing other people's content. 

Other Startups

• Cape is America’s first privacy-first mobile cellular carrier. 

• Revideo lets you create and edit videos with code.

• Kard is a rewards-as-a-service platform that simplifies loyalty programs for cardholders, financial institutions, and merchants.

• CleanBands make bands to track when employees should wash their hands.

• Avive makes the lightest, smallest, and most portable FDA-approved AED available.

• Zeus is a cross-chain communication protocol that helps to build applications fluidly between the Solana and Bitcoin ecosystems.

• Inside hard tech startups with Y Combinator. YOUTUBE

• The invisible seafaring industry that keeps the internet afloat. VERGE

• Mark Zuckerberg on Llama 3, $10B models, Caesar Augustus, & 1 GW datacenters. PODCAST

• A Vietnamese billionaire was sentenced to death after swindling nearly 3% of Vietnam's GDP ($12.5B) in one of the biggest frauds in history. FORTURE

• Trader Joe's white labels several brands including Naked Juices, Wonderful Pistachios, Stacy’s pita chips, Tate’s cookies, Tribe Hummus, and others. 

• NBA player was banned for life after betting on games.

• Turnitin has identified millions of papers as AI-generated.

• Caitlin Clark is reportedly finalizing an eight-figure endorsement deal with Nike.

• This 1000 piece Venerati Poker chip set seems cool to have.

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