**Jenny Liu’s Visionary Fund: Empowering Underrepresented Wellness Startups** You might know Jenny Liu as the former CEO of Dogpound, the trendy health club that’s been a hub for wellness enthusiasts. But what you might not know is that she’s now on a mission to revolutionize the wellness industry by empowering underrepresented founders through her new fund, Crush It Ventures. As a former CEO of a health club, Liu had a front-row seat to the innovative ideas and passionate entrepreneurs that were reshaping the wellness space. And yet, she noticed that many of these founders – particularly women and minorities -…
Author: Naveed Ahmad
**From Bankruptcy to Breakthrough: General Fusion’s $1B Turnaround** You may remember General Fusion, a fusion energy startup that was on the brink of collapse just 12 months ago. They were forced to lay off a quarter of their staff and scramble for a lifeline, securing a paltry $22 million in funding to stay afloat. Fast forward to today, and the company is making waves with a bold new plan: a $1 billion merger with a SPAC called Spring Valley III, plus a whopping $335 million in additional funding from institutional investors. This deal is a massive vote of confidence in…
**Getting Personal with Google’s AI Mode: What’s Next?** Hey tech friends! So, you know how we’ve all been raving about Google’s conversational Search feature, AI Mode? Well, it just got a whole lot more interesting. Google’s just announced a new feature called “Private Intelligence” that’s about to take AI Mode to the next level of personalization. For those who may not be up to speed, AI Mode was first introduced last week in the Gemini app, allowing it to connect across your entire Google ecosystem – think Gmail, Photos, Search, and YouTube history. Now, with Private Intelligence, AI Mode is…
Invisible Cloaks and AI Power: How Neurophos is Revolutionizing Computing with Metasurface Modulators In the world of Harry Potter, an invisibility cloak is a magical device that allows its wearer to become, well, invisible. But in the world of materials science, a team of researchers at Duke University, led by Professor David R. Smith, created something almost just as impressive: a real-life invisibility cloak using synthetic composite materials called metamaterials. Fast forward to today, and a startup called Neurophos is building upon that research to tackle one of the biggest challenges facing AI labs and hyperscalers: scaling computing power while…
**The Future of AI Interfaces: Google DeepMind Acquires Hume AI’s Expertise** Big news in the world of AI: Google DeepMind has made a significant move to integrate emotionally intelligent voice interfaces into its systems. The company has poached the CEO and top engineers from Hume AI, a startup that’s been pioneering voice and emotional intelligence. As part of a licensing deal, Google DeepMind will tap into Hume AI’s expertise to create more empathetic and effective AI models. Imagine interacting with an AI that truly understands your emotions and responds accordingly. That’s the potential of this partnership, which has sent shockwaves…
**The Shift from Cloud AI to On-Device Inference: How Quadric is Riding the Wave** As I dove deeper into the world of AI, I came across a startup that’s making waves in the industry – Quadric. This chip-IP startup, founded by veterans of early bitcoin mining, is leading the charge in on-device inference, and it’s paying off in a big way. Headquartered in San Francisco and with an office in Pune, India, Quadric has already seen significant growth. In 2025, the company raked in $15-20 million in licensing revenue, a major jump from the $4 million in 2024. And, as…
Here’s the rewritten article: **The Battle Against AI-Written Content: Wikipedia’s New Plug-In to Make AIs Write More Like Humans** Ever tried to spot a piece of text written by an AI? It’s not as easy as you’d think. But now, thanks to a new open-source plug-in, the game’s afoot. Siqi Chen, a tech entrepreneur, has created a plug-in for Anthropic’s Claude Code AI assistant that tells the AI to dial down the robot speak and write more like a human. The idea behind this plug-in, called Humanizer, came from the Wikipedia community’s AI Cleanup project. French Wikipedia editor Ilyas Lebleu…
**Revolutionizing Education: How Sparkli is Making Learning Fun and Interactive** As a parent, have you ever found yourself stuck when your kid asks a question that leaves you scratching your head? You know, the ones that come out of nowhere and leave you wondering how you can possibly explain it? “How do cars work?” or “How does rain form?” Yeah, those ones. Well, three former Google employees, Lax Poojary, Lucie Marchand, and Myn Kang, all parents themselves, have been in your shoes. And they wanted to create a solution. The result is Sparkli, an innovative AI-powered learning app that’s about…
**Zipline Takes Off: Drone Supply Startup Raises $600M and Prepares for Nationwide Growth** You guys, I’m so excited to share the latest scoop on Zipline, the revolutionary drone supply startup that’s transforming the provision chain logistics recreation. The corporate simply introduced a $600 million funding spherical, bringing its valuation to a whopping $7.6 billion. And get this – they’re expanding their operations to two new cities: Houston and Phoenix this yr. However what does this imply for the drone supply trade? I caught up with Keller Cliffton, Co-founder and CEO of Zipline, and he informed me, “Autonomous logistics has been…
**The AI Song That Was Too Good (Or Not Good Enough?) for the Charts** Hey everyone, I’m still trying to wrap my head around this one – a Swedish song created by artificial intelligence, “Jag vet, du är inte min” by “Jacub”, has been disqualified from the country’s official charts despite racking up 6.9 million streams on Spotify. So, here’s the lowdown: the IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry) says that AI-generated music doesn’t qualify for chart eligibility. But wait, it’s still a hit – and fans are eating it up. I’ve given it a listen, and I can…