A Few Startups

Zander Huff
March 18, 2024

Happy Monday from us to you! We’re covering a few startups in the space today, so you'll have a headstart the next time you hear about a crazy new innovation rolled out by these guys. Let’s get started!

Joke of the Day

DarwinAi

Groq (not Grok)

Cognition

Joke of the Day
Why did the AI cross the road?

It was following its machine learning path to become more “street-smart”! It got hit by a car.

DARWIN AI
Apple’s Latest Purchase

In our newsletter yesterday, we discussed Apple's purchase of DarwinAi and how that affects Apple, but not DarwinAi. Let’s pivot to what DarwinAi is and why it was purchased.

DarwinAi, a company based at the University of Waterloo in Canada, will look to bolster Apple’s presence in the AI Space.

Headed up by Co-Founder Alexander Wong (who in 2021 was voted by Stanford University as one of the leading scientists in the world) has now taken over the entire AI department at Apple.

DarwinAi created an AI model that many manufacturing plants have used, including BMW.

Apple purchased Darwin AI to integrate into its production lines to speed up and eliminate mistakes, specifically for the hardware it’s producing. Not only will your iPhone be better when it arrives, but Apple also looks to utilize the brain talent being brought in for immediate benefits in its race for generative AI.

DarwinAI had previously raised over $15M in funding across various rounds from investors.

GROQ
Process my Prompt Faster!

Groq originally started in 2016 (being the first platform to have that name - tough with Elon Musk’s Grok all over the media), is a new way to process information about AI.

It makes speed in generative AI crazy fast, allowing a 4,000-word essay to be created in a little over a minute.

Groq has raised $367M, with its last $300M round, led by Tiger Global and D1 Capital, in 2021.

They believe an LPU (Language Processing Unit) is better than a GPU specifically for generative AI because it knocks out the two LLM bottlenecks: compute density and memory bandwidth.

This company has been around since 2016, but what I find funny is that OpenAI's marketing has just demolished other companies like this. If you’re not in the news, it will be hard for people to know about you.

Try out their interface here.

COGNITION
Do you remember Devin?

Last week, we covered Cognition Lab’s latest rollout of Devin, an AI tool that generates an app for you from a prompt. But we didn’t necessarily cover the team behind the remarkable invention.

On initial arrival at https://www.cognition-labs.com/, the website is bleak. Seemingly simple - how they like to operate.

Their one-sentence description is: “We are an applied AI lab focused on reasoning, and code is just the beginning.”

They have small teams in New York and San Francisco. You would think their “about us” page would say more, but nope.

On the blog, they have the introduction of Devin and a blog post about their accomplishment in SWE.

Their CEO is Scott:

Scott formerly launched Launchclub, an AI platform that makes introductions for 1:1 video meetings lightning-fast and easy.

Cognition Labs has raised over $21M dollars, led by Founders Fund.

Expect to see continuing development on their way to building tools for everyone.

CONCLUSION
Wrap it Up

That’s all we have for today. Give a couple of those companies a look as you go about your day. Big things are ahead in the space. Can’t wait to see you back here tomorrow!

See you tomorrow!

Zander