What we still don't know about how AI is trained

OpenAI is facing a new complaint to the Federal Trade Commission that urges the agency to investigate the group and suspend its commercial deployment of large language models. Made public by the nonprofit research group Center for AI and Digital Policy on Thursday, the complaint accuses OpenAI of violating Section 5 of the FTC Act, which prohibits unfair and deceptive business practices, and the agency’s guidance for AI products. The group says the large language model fails to meet the agency’s standards for AI to be “transparent, explainable, fair, and empirically sound while fostering accountability.” CNBC has more here.

The closure of crypto-friendly Silvergate Capital and seizure of Signature Bank has "left crypto firms struggling to find new banks for depository and payment services. While there’s no blanket ban on serving crypto clients, financial firms are imposing lengthy application procedures, turning away smaller companies and some retail platforms, and in some cases shutting the door on crypto businesses altogether, according to industry participants, investors and bank executives." In Bloomberg.

The number of news organizations saying "nein" to Twitter Blue keeps growing, including The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Vox and Politico. More here. The WSJ reports separately on celebrities who are threatening to leave the platform, given that, as of tomorrow, it will far easier for impersonators to flourish, aided by a blue check mark that they can purchase for $8 per month.

As mentioned last night, The Information published a report yesterday including allegations from a former Google AI researcher that the company used responses from OpenAI's ChatGPT to train its own chatbot, Bard. Google didn't respond to the report, but now it tells the Verge that "Bard is not trained on any data from ShareGPT or ChatGPT." Perhaps tellingly, Google's spokesman, Chris Pappas, isn't saying whether Google had ever used ChatGPT data to train Bard in the past. “Unfortunately, all I can share is our statement from yesterday,” he tells The Verge.

Silvergate Bank, Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank—all three gone within the span of a week. What do you think this could mean for the venture capital industry at large? We want to know how venture professionals like you plan to tackle the challenges, both known and unknown, of 2023. Take Juniper Square’s State of Venture Capital survey now, and get first access to the final report.

Dunzo, a nearly nine-year-old Bengaluru-based hyperlocal delivery startup, is reportedly in late-stage discussions to secure about $50 million in a new financing round, with two of its earlier backers -- Reliance Retail and Google, two existing backers of Dunzo -- among those holding discussions with the outfit to invest in the new round. TechCrunch has more here.

EigenLabs, a two-year-old crypto startup that says its mission is to make Ethereum as fast and flexible for developers as centralized networks of servers like Amazon Web Services, raised a $50 million Series A round led by Blockchain Capital, with additional participation from Coinbase Ventures, Polychain Capital, Hack VC, and Electric Capital. CoinDesk has more here.

Ledger, a nearly nine-year-old French startup whose main products are hardware crypto wallets that offer a high level of security (its current devices are shaped like USB keys and feature a tiny screen to confirm transactions on the device), has closed on €100 million in extended Series C funding that it's tacking on to a €356 million round that it closed in 2021. The company's valuation remains the same at €1.3 billion.  New investors in the company include True Global Ventures, Digital Finance Group and VaynerFund. Some earlier backers also joined the round, including 10T, Cité Gestion Private Bank, Cap Horn, Morgan Creek, Cathay Innovation, Korelya Capital and Molten Ventures. TechCrunch has the story here.

Dragonfly, a one-year-old Tel Aviv startup that has designed a database to replace the open-source database Redis, says it has raised $21 million in funding. Redpoint led the seed round, while Quiet Capital led the Series A. TechCrunch has more here.

Effy, a four-year-old French startup that helps consumers improve the energy efficiency of their homes, raised a $22 million round. Felix Capital was the lead investor. TechCrunch has more here.

Fixie, a one-year-old Seattle startup that aims to help companies fuse large language models into their own software stacks, raised a $17 million seed round led by Redpoint, with Madrona Venture Group, Zetta Venture Partners, SignalFire, Bloomberg Beta, and Kearny Jackson also piling on. The company has raised a total of $45.3 million. GeekWire has more here.

Florence, a seven-year-old London startup that allows patients to keep track of their progress in emergency rooms and other medical sites via their smartphones, raised a $20 million seed round co-led by Thrive Capital, GV, and Salesforce Ventures, with Vast Ventures, BoxGroup, and Atento Capital also contributing. More here.

Orb, a San Francisco startup whose pricing platform helps companies automate a range of different billing types (e.g. usage-based or subscriptions), raised $19.1 million in seed and Series A funds. Greylock led the former, while Menlo Ventures led the latter. TechCrunch has more here.

Parloa, a six-year-old Berlin startup that uses a combination of conversational AI tech and low-code tools to help companies lighten the load on their contact center employees, raised a $21.8 million Series A round led by EQT Ventures, with Newion and Senovo also taking part. TechCrunch has more here.

Autio, a six-year-old Santa Barbara startup co-founded by actor Kevin Costner whose app serves up stories based on a user's location, raised a $5.9 million round. iHeart Media led the deal. The company was previously called HearHere. TechCrunch has more here.

Dashbot, a seven-year-old San Francisco startup that provides bot-specific analytics and tools to enable brands and developers to increase user acquisition, engagement, and monetization, raised a $6 million Series A round. ff Venture Capital led the round, which included participation from Bessemer Venture Partners, Samsung Accelerator, Scrum Ventures, Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments, and Rembrandt Ventures. The company has raised a total of $25.8 million. More here.

Flowla, a one-year-old London startup that helps sales teams manage their B2B correspondence, raised a $1.3 million pre-seed round co-led by Antler, Fuel Ventures and ScaleX, with Logo Ventures also participating. Tech.eu has more here.

Impact Observatory, a three-year-old startup based in Washington, DC, that applies AI to satellite imagery for mapping and monitoring, raised a $6 million seed round. Esri International was the only named investor in the round. SpaceNews has more here.

Jigso, a Tel Aviv startup that is building an AI assistant to answer employee questions and search requests, raised a $7.5 million seed round. General Catalyst, Entree Capital, and Jibe Ventures were the co-leads. TechCrunch has more here.

Polytrade, a two-year-old web3 protocol focused on global trade (we think the idea is to make supply chains more efficient through real-time data), raised a $3.8 million seed round led by Alpha Wave, Matrix Partners, Polygon Ventures, and CoinSwitch Ventures, with Singularity Ventures and GTM Ventures also chipping in. TechCrunch has more here.

Spera, a Palo Alto startup that provides businesses with tools to protect themselves from identity-driven threats, raised a $10 million seed round. YL Ventures was the deal lead. TechCrunch has more here.

Stratyfy, a six-year-old New York startup that helps financial institutions use machine learning to make credit and risk decisions, raised a $10 million round co-led by Truist Ventures and Zeal Capital Partners; Mendon Venture Partners, The 98, and FIS also participated. More here.

True I/O, a startup based in Carlsbad, Ca., that leverages the blockchain to provide supply chain security for mobile or embedded devices, raised a $9 million Series A round. Deal Box Ventures was the deal lead. SecurityWeek has more here.

Out today: Affinity’s 2023 investment benchmark report: Global unicorn edition! Get an in-depth look at the current unicorn landscape and what top private capital firms are doing to source the highest quality deals before their competition.

EQT Life Sciences yesterday announced the close of its debut LSP Dementia Fund, with €260 million in capital commitments. This is the first dementia-focused fund ever raised entirely by a venture firm, says Axios, and the backing, says FierceBiotech, comes from the Alzheimer’s Association and European Investment Fund, among others. More here.

Virgin Orbit, a nearly six-year-old company within the Virgin Group that provided launch services for small satellites and was taken public through a SPAC in 2021, looks to be going out of business. Virgin Group's billionaire founder Richard Branson was the outfit's largest shareholder, with a 75% stake in the outfit; Mubadala, the Emirati sovereign wealth fund, held the second-largest stake, at 18%. TechCrunch has more here.

Sam Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty in New York federal court today to five additional charges related to the collapse of his former crypto exchange FTX and hedge fund Alameda Research. Bankman-Fried’s team will argue that someone extradited under the U.S.-Bahamas treaty can only be tried on the charges they were extradited for, reports CNBC. More here.

Elon Musk tried engaging with the Federal Trade Commission as the agency intensified an investigation into Twitter’s privacy and data practices, according to documents reviewed by The New York Times. Musk reportedly asked to meet with Lina Khan late last year but was rebuffed. More here.

Manhattan’s office-vacancy rate is at a record high as new developments add even more space to the struggling market. More than 16% of space was empty as of the first quarter, according to brokerage Jones Lang LaSalle, which tracks about 470 million square feet of Manhattan offices. Leasing is at its lowest levels since the second quarter of 2021. Bloomberg has the story here.

An entrepreneur in Budapest offers a "brutally honest" review of Y Combinator after going through the accelerator's program last winter. (TLDR: He thinks it has lost its value.) Whatever you make of his assessment, it's worth noting that YC has downsized since last winter, when it accepted 414 (🤢) companies.

What we still don't know about how AI is trained.

Want to make money off YouTube and TikTok? Get behind the camera.

"The Gap," by Ira Glass.

Kieran Culkin bares his soul.

What your favorite New York Times columnist says about you.

Justice for Gwyneth, and the end of a case that captured way too much of everyone's attention.

FoundRae jewelry (also on show at the obsessively-covered Gwyneth Paltrow trial and fine, maybe we were also curious, so sue us!).

A San Juan Islands property hits the market with a high price tag.