Enterprise Weekly #426: Call for AI Regulation, Corporates Talk LLMs, and More
Another week of AI hype.
This week, ChatGPT announced a new web-browsing feature and its roll out for iOS. Meanwhile, Amazon’s new job postings hinted that they’re building a new search functionality for their own web store.
But the biggest news was that Sam Altman, OpenAI’s CEO, spoke in front of Congress on his concerns for better AI regulation.
In what is considered the first step in the government’s understanding of the recent advancements in AI, the conversation ranged from AI’s possible influence on elections and disinformation to Altman’s proposed three-point plan for regulation including the formation of a new government agency, a new set of safety standards, and the creation of external audits.
“For a very new technology, we need a new framework. Certainly, companies like ours bear a lot of responsibility for the tools that we put out in the world, but users do as well.” -Sam Altman
We touched on similar topics at our May NY Enterprise Tech Meetup on “LLMs in the Enterprise" this Tuesday where we heard both the startup and the corporate buyer point of view on the space.
🎥 Watch the full recording here
💻 Read a recap from Information Week here or on Twitter here
TL;DR: With new tech, comes new risks. One of the most pressing factors Fortune 500s assess across any new technology is its operational and reputation risk. To mitigate these risks, corporates are asking questions to get inside the black box of AI, including: What data sets is the model trained on? How is this data used, stored, and erased? Does our organization have the appropriate infrastructure in place to implement this? How will we govern this LLM versus traditional statistical models?
Adam Wenchel, Co-Founder and CEO of Arthur, said on the panel that he believes regulation needs to define a clear standard for accountability. Meaning, whether you buy or build models, whoever deploys them should be responsible and accountable for the risk accrued. During customer conversations, Adam has noticed most are rushing to get models into production, but quickly running into new sets of challenges unique to generative models, including hallucinations, toxicity, and leaking sensitive data. However, in order to monitor risk in production, a model must already be in production. This chicken and egg problem is why they recently built Arthur Shield, the first firewall for LLMs.
Enterprise Weekly will be taking off next week to get a head start on MDW 🏖️ Hope everyone has a great holiday weekend!
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May 23rd: Annual Developer Happy Hour
June 15th: NYC Enterprise Game Night: Settlers of Catan
All Summer Long: Infrasummer
📚 Read more news:
Crunchbase: Tiger Global Looking To Sell Off Startup Stakes
Fortune: Elon Musk names NBC's Linda Yaccarino as new Twitter CEO
Pitchbook: The Banks Scooping Up Ex-SVB Talent
TechCrunch: Emerging Managers Shouldn’t Rush a First Close – Even In This Market
WSJ: Cybersecurity Leaders Suffer Burnout as Pressures of the Job Intensify
WSJ: Not a Tech Firm? Snaring Top Laid-Off Tech Talent Won’t Be Easy
📚 Read top threads:
Company: Courier Health
Role: Software Engineer
Technology: Patient Engagement Platform
Funding: $4M from Work-Bench
🌟Company of the Week🌟
SapientAI raises $5M led by 8VC, Correlation Ventures and GTMfund
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Seed • Mountain View, CA
Founder: Rishi Singh (CEO)
Wrangle raises $2M led by Accomplice and Correlation Ventures
Collaboration / Productivity • Seed • Durham, NC
Hook Security raises $5M led by TampaBay Ventures
Risk / Security • Seed • Greenville, SC
RevenueHero raises $5.1M led by Stellaris Venture Partners and Together Fund
Sales / Marketing • Seed • Claymont, DE
Etched raises $5.4M led by Primary Venture Partners
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Seed • San Francisco, CA
Entro raises $6M led by StageOne Ventures and Hyperwise Ventures
Risk / Security • Seed • Tel Aviv, Israel
Lumeus.ai raises $6M led by Tola Capital
Risk / Security • Seed • San Jose, CA
Visual Layer raises $7M led by Madrona and Insight Partners
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Seed • Tel Aviv, Israel
Stacklok raises $17.5M led by Accel and Madrona
Risk / Security • Series A • Seattle, WA
Union AI raises $19.1M led by NEA and Nava Ventures
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Series A • Bellevue, WA
Together raises $20M led by Lux Capital
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Seed • Menlo Park, CA
Spiff raises $50M led by Salesforce Ventures
Sales / Marketing • Series C • Salt Lake City, UT
Huntress raises $60M led by Sapphire Ventures
Risk / Security • Series C • Ellicott City, MD
Instawork raises $60M led by TCV
HR / Tech • Series D • San Francisco, CA
Smart raises $95M led by Aquiline Capital Partners
HR Tech • Series E • London, UK
Zip raises $100M led by Y Combinator, CRV and Tiger Global
Future of Work • Series C • San Francisco, CA
IBM acquires Polar Security for $60M
Risk / Security • Acquisition • Tel Aviv, Israel