šŸ§  Amazonā€™s Alexa division just cuts hundreds of jobs

Author

Alex Gutscher
December 19, 2023

Welcome, AI enthusiasts.

Rare turn of events today as we are highlighting some companies that are scaling back some of their AI projects.

Plus we dive into the enigmatic AI startup that AirBnB just purchased for $200 million! Letā€™s dive in.

In todayā€™s AI rundown:

  • Amazonā€™s Alexa division just cut hundreds of jobs šŸ˜µ

  • Discord pulls the plug on Clyde āœŒļø

  • Weekly AI fundraising wrap-up šŸ¤‘

  • 4 trending AI Jobs šŸ’¼

  • 3 curated AI tools šŸ› ļø 

Read time: 4 minutes

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

It looks like Amazon's chopping block just hit Alexa's team, axing 'several hundred' jobs.

Why? They're shifting gears, focusing more on stuff like generative AI (along with most of the world).

It's a tough call, but they're trying to stay in the AI race. This is especially true due to ChatGPT turning heads with all of its recently announced features.

Alexa's not out though; they're cooking up something called "Let's Chat" for deeper, context-savvy conversations.

Letā€™s also keep in mind: that Alexa feeling the heat. Amazon's been trimming down across the board, including music and gaming.

Tough times, but hey, it's all about staying ahead, right?

Ok everyone, time to say goodbye to Clyde...šŸ˜¢

Starting December 1st, Discord's AI chatbot is going offline.

The company tested it using OpenAI's tech, aiming to make Clyde a big part of its chat experience. But now, they're pulling the plug without a clear reason.

Still, Clyde may come back. And although heā€™s heading out, Discord's still big on AI (can't forget about those AI-generated chat summaries). They're even wooing AI developers with resources!

Clyde's just one piece of a bigger puzzle, and that puzzle has yet to be fully seen.

šŸ¤‘ AI FUNDRAISING WRAP UP

  • GamePlanner.ai: Airbnb announced its acquisition of this enigmatic AI startup. The deal is reported to be valued at approximately $200 million (although this hasnā€™t exactly been confirmed yet).

    So what exactly does GamePlanner.ai do? Wellā€¦thatā€™s a great question! No one exactly knows, and that seems to be the point for now. All we do know is that it was co-founded by Adam Cheyer (who co-launched Siri) and Siamak Hodjat.

  • Menlo Ventures: This one doesnā€™t center around an AI startup, but rather around a VC firm that is looking to heavily fund some. Menlo Ventures just raised a whopping $1.5 billion ā€œto support the forthcoming generation of AI startupsā€.

    This bullish VC firm has funded companies like Abnormal, Anthropic, Cleanlab, Pinecone, and others. Theyā€™re certainly putting their money where their mouth is, and weā€™re excited to see who else it ends up going out to.

  • Character.ai: According to Reuters, Google is negotiating to invest a substantial sum into Character. AI. The amount? Weā€™re talking potentially hundreds of millions of dollars.

    This rapidly expanding AI chatbot startup is seeking funding to enhance its model training and meet the increasing demand from users.

    Established by ex-Google staffers Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas, Character.AI enables users to interact with digital renditions of famous personalities such as Billie Eilish or anime characters. Itā€™s gotten a fair amount of attention over the past year and continues to be a highly anticipated AI startup.

TRENDING TOOLS

šŸ› ļø AI TOOLS (TO SUPERCHARGE YOUR WORK)

šŸ“£ Marketing:

  • Glorify: Create beautiful product marketing assets at scale

šŸ¤– Chatbot Assistants:

  • BoostBot: Your personal AI-powered influencer marketing assistant

šŸ¤Ŗ Just-For-Fun

THATā€™S A WRAP

Thatā€™s it for todayā€™s news in the world of AI!

If you have anything interesting to share, please reach out to us by sending us a DM on Twitter: @SavvyDispatch

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