🕶️ Open AI is changing AI training forever

Six bullets of updates

1. 👨‍⚖️ TikTok sues U.S. government over forced sale or ban, citing First Amendment violations and challenging feasibility within set timeline.

2. 💼 DocuSign acquires AI startup Lexion for $165M, enhancing its contract management capabilities and technological portfolio.

3. 📸 VSCO launches a new marketplace, VSCO Hub, to bridge connections between photographers and brands.

4. 🤰 Fertility startups Ovom, Elixir Health, and Freya Biosciences turning heads with investors in Europe, raising $394m between '21-'23.

5. 🍄 Startup Mycocycle secures funding to turn waste into sustainable materials using fungi, aiming to rival major chemical companies.

6. 🚗 Motional delays its commercial robotaxi launch to 2026 amid restructuring, despite a recent $1 billion boost from Hyundai.

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The ethical puzzle of defense tech investments

Defence tech is the new darling of venture capitalists (VCs), according to a recent Sifted article. Many are drawn to "dual-use" technologies, which have both military and commercial applications. However, they're also facing a moral conundrum as almost all dual-use tech could potentially inflict harm if weaponized.

This defense boom has VCs scrambling to decipher the ethical implications of their investments. Some, like Christian Saller of German VC firm HV Capital, are navigating these murky waters by focusing on unarmed dual-use technologies.

Interestingly, the rise of defense tech investments appears to be tied to geopolitical events, such as Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine. This uptick is also prompting VCs to renegotiate terms with their Limited Partners (LPs), who traditionally have clauses against investing in controversial areas like weapons. Keep reading!

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Startup Events and Deadlines

1. Crash Course in Financial Modeling | May 13 | Webinar

2.  Special Benefit for Startup Club Subscribers | SaaStock: USA | Conference | May 13-15 | Austin, TX

3. Beloved Tech Brands: San Francisco | May 15 | San Francisco

4. Financial Modeling Course | May 20 - 24 | Bootcamp

5. Propel24 | May 21 | Conference

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These companies just raised money

1. 🚗 London-based startup Wayve nets a whopping $1bn, marking Europe's largest AI funding round, to advance its autonomous vehicle tech.

2. 📚 Definely, the legaltech startup, nets $7m in Series A funding to boost its AI-based software and expand US operations.

3. 🚁 Lucid Bots gets cleaner with $9.1M Series A funding, adding flat-surface cleaning to its drone capabilities.

4. 🌱 Alternative protein pioneer, Meati Foods, bags an extra $100M in funding, hitting the shelves in 7K stores nationwide.

5. 💷 Monzo secures $190M at a $5.2B valuation, fueling plans for U.S. expansion.

6. 🔍 Checkfirst raises $1.5M pre-seed for AI-driven remote inspections and audits.

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OpenAI's bold move to align AI training with creator rights

OpenAI is working on a novel tool called Media Manager, which will empower creators to decide if and how their content is utilized in AI training, slated for release by 2025. This development comes amidst increasing legal and public scrutiny over OpenAI's data sourcing methods, which have involved extensive scraping of public data for AI model training—a practice critiqued for not compensating the original content creators.

The new tool reflects a broader effort by OpenAI to balance innovation with ethical considerations, offering a more structured way for creators to manage their rights and potentially preventing misuse of their work in AI developments. This initiative is part of OpenAI’s broader strategy to adapt to regulatory expectations and enhance fairness in AI technology deployment.

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Beyond the pitch deck: master storytelling for closing a round