Automation is taking over in retail 📦, the RISC-V startup map, and self-driving’s marketing problem
October 21, 2018 Issue
The AI and Robotics Newsletter from Comet Labs. Subscribe here. Past issues here.
👋 Hi!
We’re nearly ready to head over to China for our latest Assessing China — Chipsets program. If you’re interested in joining, this is your last chance!
You can find out more about the companies we’re visiting, including…
🚗 the AI lab of a major rideshare company
📱 two of the country’s largest phone brands
💻 and one of the largest electronic devices manufacturers in the world
Head over to our website here to check out the schedule and apply.
We also have a new startup map to share with you, looking at a new technology that you might never have heard of: RISC-V. Check it out below and let us know what you think.
Have a great Sunday, and enjoy these reads from the team!
Follow Comet Labs for more stories and thoughts about the impact of AI and robotics.
💬 THIS WEEK AT OUR LUNCH TABLE:
The story of Pepper the robot giving a testimony in Parliament has ignited a fierce debate in the AI community, and we’re wondering what you think. Considering Pepper gave little more than pre-programmed answers, was it a valuable example of robotics and AI? Or was it nothing more than a poorly planned marketing stunt?
It was a marketing stunt we should simply ignore.
It negatively impacted public perception of robots and was a bad idea.
It was harmless and perhaps even entertaining.
I wasn’t aware of the story.We asked you last week about up-and-coming entrepreneurship hubs around the world, and the top two answers were: Tel Aviv and Nairobi. Have you visited either? Let us know what it was like!
💡 NEW FROM COMET:
The Next Silicon Innovation Era — Andrew Byrnes, Investment Director
Our latest startup map takes a look at a very exciting movement that’s flown under the radar: RISC-V. Learn more about how this open-source ISA is inspiring entrepreneurs to innovate with semiconductors again.
📚 FEATURED ARTICLE:
How Robots and Drones Will Change Retail Forever — Wall Street Journal
The “physical cloud” is an appropriate term used to describe the increasingly complex system of robots and other physical automation behind the scenes of some of the largest retailers, including Amazon and Walmart. And while this has allowed the retailers to hire more in the short run, they are continuing to invest in more sophisticated automation solutions to make their workforce as lean as possible.
📹 WATCH THIS:
📖 WORTH READING:
The AI-first SaaS Funding Napkin — Machine Learnings
Louis Coppey of Point9 Capital puts forward a compelling definition of the next wave of SaaS companies driven by AI, outlining his investment thesis in the space. We couldn’t agree more!
Venture capital investment in US companies to hit $100B in 2018 — TechCrunch
Given the sharp increase in the number of billion-dollar startup unicorns that we’ve seen in the past few years, $100B in VC investments doesn’t feel like a surprise. Another interesting finding? The median deal size for early-stage startups is now $7 million.
Leaked Transcript of Private Meeting Contradicts Google’s Official Story on China — The Intercept
Project Dragonfly is the controversial search engine that Google has been working on for specifically for the Chinese market, and now Google is struggling to find the right messaging.
Fear and loathing in venture capital — Max Niederhofer
We really appreciated this honest and true look into the job of a VC from Max Niederhofer, a veteran investor at Sunstone Capital.
Uniqlo replaced 90% of staff at its newly automated warehouse with robots — Quartz
As automation technology continues to advance, we’re likely going to see many more retailers follow suit in implementing back-of-the-house solutions to improve efficiency and reduce cost.
Big e-commerce embraces old retail — Axios
In a surprising turn of events, more retail stores actually opened than closed this past year, though the nature of stores is changing. Retailers, including e-commerce brands, are betting on customers connecting with a unique in-store experience to help boost their brand.
The UK invited a robot to ‘give evidence’ in Parliament for attention — The Verge
Seemingly like nothing more than a publicity stunt, it’s difficult to see what benefit for the AI community could be gained from this. At worst, it’ll lead to some terribly inaccurate headlines. Let us know what you think in our poll above.
Introducing Our First Chinese Member to the Partnership on AI — Partnership on AI
Baidu is the first Chinese company to join the Partnership on AI which strives to bring together global leaders in technology to work together in ensuring the benefits of AI on society. This is an important development as Chinese and US companies continue to compete more intensely in this space.
Drivers Wildly Overestimate What ‘Semi-Autonomous’ Cars Can Do — WIRED
Technical challenges aside, autonomous cars also have a marketing problem: consumers risk thinking that the earliest self-driving cars will do way more than they can. And that’s very dangerous.
👏 PORTFOLIO NEWS:
Proving Them Wrong, with Greg McNeal — AirMap
Greg McNeal, co-founder of AirMap, chats with Joe Blair, investor at Obvious Ventures, on his Epic Human podcast. Listen to learn more about his path to entrepreneurship from Professor of Law and Public Policy.
If farms are to survive, we need to think about them as tech companies — Iron Ox
Contrary to popularly held opinion, there’s actually a serious labor shortage in agriculture. Iron Ox is working to solve that with their autonomous indoor farm. Learn more in this piece from Brandon Alexander, co-founder and CEO of Iron Ox.
Robot Restaurants: The Good Versus the Gimmicks — Creator
The WSJ reviewed four popular robot-powered food and beverage businesses, and was impressed with Creator’s $6 gourmet burger. Check it out!
🛠 STUFF YOU CAN USE:
Microsoft open-sources its patent portfolio — ZDnet
This move will bring over 60,000 patents to the Open Invention Network, giving up billions of dollars of potential revenue in patent licensing fees in what appears to be a “fundamental philosophical change” for the company.
Nvidia launches Rapids to help bring GPU acceleration to data analytics — TechCrunch
In another big win for open-source, Rapids works with existing open-source libraries and platforms to help users run algorithms with GPUs to achieve greater performance than with CPUs.
📣 HIRING:
Mobile Engineer — doc.ai
The team at doc.ai is on a mission to revolutionize the use of healthcare data with blockchain and AI, and they’re looking for a mobile engineer to join the team.
Several Positions Available — Creator
From engineering to design, on both hardware and software teams, Creator is looking for talented folks for many different roles.
Several Available Positions — Grabango
Grabango, our portfolio company providing technology for checkout-free shopping, is looking for new members to join its stellar team.
And that’s it for this week! Find us on Twitter to stay updated with the latest news in AI and robotics.
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