An AI-based “cloud waste” startup has raised $3 million in pre-Seed funding to help companies save billions on their cloud costs. The round for Optimaze was led by Arconic and The Innovation Club. The Sydney startup is currently in private beta, with a waitlist for preview access to the software. The funding is to expand… Read more »
Lucent, founded by 22-year-old Alisa Wu, has raised A$2 million in a quickly oversubscribed pre-seed to build behavioural datasets for browser agents, and will base itself in San Francisco over the next year.
Melbourne’s Affinda Group has acquired AI training firm Pathfindr for A$15 million, enabling it to pair automation tech with adoption services and scale AI transformation in organisations.
AWS has announced the 40 global startups chosen for its 2025 Generative AI Accelerator. The eight-week program, now in its third year, is designed to help early-stage startups scale foundational generative AI technologies.’ Participants will receive up to US$1 million in AWS credits, mentorship, and access to AWS’s full AI technology stack. “The pace of… Read more »
The electrification boom of the 1920s set the United States up for a century of industrial dominance and powered a global economic revolution. But before electricity faded from a red-hot tech sector into invisible infrastructure, the world went through profound social change, a speculative bubble, a stock market crash, mass unemployment and a decade of… Read more »
Artwork created by generative AI (genAI) and other software could be eligible for copyright protection, after a seven-year legal battle ended with a Federal Court ruling that gaming giant Aristocrat can patent game features created by its software without human input. The latest ruling – which follows years of appeals and counter-appeals between Aristrocrat and… Read more »
There are many claims to sort through in the current era of ubiquitous artificial intelligence (AI) products, especially generative AI ones based on large language models or LLMs, such as ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini and many, many others. AI will change the world. AI will bring “astounding triumphs”. AI is overhyped, and the bubble is about… Read more »
Balancing the merits of artificial intelligence with the risks it poses to workers and creatives is a debate which rages on, all while major US tech companies ramp up their public relations campaigns — warning of the emergence of “two-tier” economies without greater AI take-up. Amazon recently laid out its vision for a future Australia… Read more »
Melbourne scaleup Heidi Health has raised US$65 million (A$98m) in a series B, just seven months after banking nearly $27m in a Series A top up. The round was led by New York hedge fund manager Steven A. Cohen’s VC arm, Point72 Private Investments, supported by exiting backers including local VC Blackbird, and US funds… Read more »
Australian creatives should be properly compensated when their copyrighted works are used to train artificial intelligence models, prominent musicians, writers, and industry groups told a Senate committee hearing last Tuesday. Artists fronted the inquiry as Australia’s Productivity Commission consults on whether a new “fair dealing” exception should be introduced to allow local companies to use Australians’ copyrighted… Read more »
Last week Disney, Universal Pictures and Warner Bros Discovery jointly sued MiniMax, a Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company, over alleged copyright infringement. The three Hollywood media giants allege MiniMax (which operates Hailuo AI and is reportedly valued at US$4 billion) engaged in mass copyright infringement of characters such as Darth Vader and Mickey Mouse by… Read more »
Cloud-based insurance software-as-a-service scaleup Javln has raised A$6 million for its Australian expansion. The round was led by boutique fund manager Microequities Asset Management and alongside crossing The Ditch, will be used for R&D and entry into other markets New Zealand entrepreneur Dale Smith founded Javln in 2011. It simplifies clients, policies, claims, and document management… Read more »
Amazon Web Services CEO, Matt Garman, said recently that using AI to replace junior workers is “the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.” He’s right. And the fact that some executives are even considering it, is a symptom of a much larger problem: CEOs are letting the wrong people drive their AI transformations. Why junior roles… Read more »
Indi, an AI-powered co-pilot app helping parents of children with complex care needs, has raised $1.46 million. The round was led by Giant Leap and supported by Antler, along with several strategic angel investors. The capital will be spent on talent to accelerate platform development and expand partnerships with allied health clinics and families. Indi… Read more »
A Brisbane startup hoping to unleash the unrealised productivity gains of workplace artificial intelligence has raised $2.3 million in pre-Seed funding to help people refine ideas and inspiration using AI. The round for Enhance Labs was led by Blackbird Ventures with support from QIC Ventures. Enhance was cofounded by former Amazon engineer Haziq Nordin, former… Read more »
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