Brinc’s new 911 response drones | Sen. Cantwell unveils AI education bill

Drones as first responders: Seattle-based Brinc unveiled a new drone designed to respond to 911 emergencies, estimating that it can resolve about 25% of calls without dispatching police officers. It's part of a larger movement to use drones to improve public safety, while filling some of the gaps caused by widespread police staffing shortages. Read more. 

“Demand for AI expertise is already high and will continue to grow,” Sen. Maria Cantwell said as she introduced bipartisan legislation packed with initiatives to strengthen American education and workforce training in artificial intelligence and quantum computing. Read more.

Averlon, a new Seattle-area startup using AI to help overwhelmed security teams identify high priority security flaws and mitigate threats, raised $8 million.

• Related: See all recent fundings across the Pacific Northwest

A new LEGO skyscraper exhibit at Seattle’s Museum of History and Industry features 18 structures from around the world, utilizing half a million of the colorful building blocks. LEGO and architecture fans can go hands on and construct their own creations. Read more.

Artificial intelligence is being used to diagnose cancer in a new model built by researchers at Microsoft, Providence Health System and the University of Washington. The AI uses an analysis of more than a billion images of tissue samples from more than 30,000 patients. Read more.

Seattle-based peer-to-peer laundry startup Loopie sold part of its business to two other wash-and-fold providers, HappyNest and Rinse. Read more.

Hot Links:

• Portland, Ore.-based Hydrolix raised $35 million to boost its data logging and storage platform. (TechCrunch)

• A massive Microsoft outage impacted Bing.com, Copilot for web and mobile, Copilot in Windows, ChatGPT internet search and DuckDuckGo. (BleepingComputer)

• Capital gains tax collections in Washington state fell to $433 million in payments in April, down from $786 million in 2023. (KUOW)

• In a bid to break up Live Nation and Ticketmaster’s alleged monopoly over the entertainment industry, Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson joined 29 other AGs in an antitrust lawsuit. (Office of the Attorney General) 

• The Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post is going to lean into AI everywhere in the newsroom as part of a strategy to reverse financial turmoil. (X)

• There’s a “mighty-middle” segment of startups in between venture unicorns and small businesses that require unique support, according to a University of Washington business school professor and his brother, a serial entrepreneur. (Harvard Business Review)