FTC orders seven AI giants to reveal how their companion chatbots affect children after teen suicide cases involving ChatGPT and Character.AI. Meta faces particular scrutiny over internal docs permitting romantic chats with minors.
Large U.S. companies just hit the brakes on AI—adoption fell from 14% to 12% in two months, the first decline since tracking began. MIT research explains why: 95% of enterprise pilots deliver zero ROI. The gap between AI hype and workflow reality is widening.
Ditto just raised $82 million to turn your smartphone into a mini data center. The San Francisco startup helps companies ditch expensive edge servers by transforming everyday devices into data-processing powerhouses.
The company's secret sauce? It lets apps talk directly to each other using built-in Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, creating mesh networks that work even when the internet doesn't. Delta Airlines already uses Ditto to keep flight attendants connected at 30,000 feet – because apparently, cloud computing hits turbulence too.
CEO Adam Fish claims their software-first approach beats traditional hardware solutions hands down. "We replace hardware with software – a no-brainer choice," he says. The market seems to agree: Ditto's customer base doubled last year, and revenue shot up 250%.
The U.S. Air Force loves it too, handing Ditto a $950 million contract in 2022. Turns out, military operations don't always have the luxury of perfect Wi-Fi coverage. Who knew?
The Series B round values Ditto at $462 million, more than double its previous valuation. Top Tier Capital Partners and Acrew Capital led the investment, joining a crew of venture firms betting big on edge computing's future.
Why this matters:
Traditional edge computing required expensive servers and on-site tech support. Ditto just killed that model by turning the devices you already own into edge computers.
As AI applications demand faster processing and better privacy, Ditto's approach could become the new normal. Because sometimes, the best server is the one already in your pocket.
Tech translator with German roots who fled to Silicon Valley chaos. Decodes startup noise from San Francisco. Launched implicator.ai to slice through AI's daily madness—crisp, clear, with Teutonic precision and sarcasm.
E-Mail: marcus@implicator.ai
Anthropic's $13B raise triples its valuation to $183B in six months, powered by revenue jumping from $1B to $5B. But the real story is developer economics and enterprise AI splitting from consumer markets.
Sam Altman's OpenAI is backing a $250M brain-computer startup to directly compete with Elon Musk's Neuralink. The rivalry moves from AI models to neural interfaces—whoever controls how humans connect to AI systems wins the future.
Berlin's n8n just jumped from €300 million to nearly $3 billion valuation in four months. Ten VCs are fighting over the AI automation startup that's building the nervous system for enterprise agents. At 75x revenue, there's no room for error.
OpenAI closes $8.3B funding round months early, led by Dragoneer's record $2.8B single check. Early investors got squeezed as demand hit 5x capacity. Revenue jumped to $13B while Microsoft negotiations loom over IPO future.