Nordic Data & AI Weekly: The first new UI paradigm in 60 years, Nordic investment rounds in EmbeDL, DTE, Utilifeed, Adamant Quanta, and Braviz, and all the latest news & resources
Recent funding, news, and resources for builders
A lot of what I believe is fascinating about the shifts enabled by AI is what one might call an interface revolution, and the changing ways in which humans and machines interact. We’ve talked about it here before, but if you read one thing this week, make it this article on AI being the first new UI paradigm in 60 years. The current chatbot UIs are surely just the beginning and likely not representative of how we’ll interact with this technology in the future, so it continues to be an interesting exercise to imagine how various user experiences will change as a result of the shift to “a new interaction mechanism where users tell the computer what they want, not how to do it”. The challenge of navigating these UI/UX developments is also why I believe that great product teams will create just as much value as great tech teams as the application layer emerges.
Quick reads on value creation
Things to know, whether you are building 🛠 or investing 💰
🗺 Everyone is mapping the emerging AI stack…
Sequoia’s take on the new language model stack, and how companies are bringing AI applications to life.
a16z’s slightly more technical look at emerging architectures for LLM applications.
Another view on the developing components of the generative AI stack.
🔍 Where Accel is focusing its AI investments —> applications and tooling.
🆚 A look at generative AI companies with own foundation models - mapping consumer vs. enterprise facing, niche vs. multi-purpose.
🏅 CBInsights has created its list of the 100 most promising AI startups of 2023. Spanning development tools, cross-industry applications, and industry-specific applications, companies are building generative AI infrastructure, emotion analytics, general-purpose humanoids, and more.
Recent AI funding in the Nordics & Baltics
🇸🇪 🇳🇴 🇩🇰 🇫🇮 🇪🇪 🇱🇻 🇱🇹 🇮🇸
🇸🇪 EmbeDL: Model Optimisation SDK enabling companies to deploy deep learning on less expensive hardware, use less energy and shorten the product development cycle. Raised $4.16m from STOAF - Stockholm Business Angels, Butterfly Ventures, Spintop Ventures, S-E Bankens Utvecklingsstiftelse, Chalmers Ventures, EIC Fund, and Almi Invest (link).
🇸🇪 Utilifeed: SaaS platform turning district energy utilities into smart control hubs for the whole energy system, by integrating data sources and applying ML to provide forecasting and optimised operations. Raised $1.98m from Hafslund E-CO, Proptech Farm, Klimatet Invest, and Eidsiva (link).
🇸🇪 Adamant Quanta: Innovative and multifaceted diamond-based IC microchips that can be employed for a range of time- and frequency-based applications. Raised $850k from Industrifonden, Navigare Ventures, and Almi Invest (link).
🇸🇪 Braviz: Building the augmented intelligence platform for Industries, using the power of AI and design thinking. Raised an undisclosed amount from Chalmers Ventures (link).
🇮🇸 DTE: Real-time intelligence from liquid metals by combining connected, real-time, chemical composition analysis from molten metals with an artificial intelligence-based cloud platform. Raised $10m from Brunnur Ventures (Framtak), EIC Fund, Chrysalix Venture Capital, Metaplanet Holdings, and Novelis (link).
If there is some relevant Nordic AI news or funding that is missing from this newsletter, feel free to share by replying directly or emailing nordicaiweekly@substack.com and I’ll look to spread the word next week. Thanks!
News from the wider world 🌍 🌎 🌏
👾 The importance of GPUs…
China's ByteDance has ordered $1 billion of Nvidia GPUs for 2023.
As the US looks to sanction the export of advanced chips to China, an underground market for Nvidia chips is emerging.
Meanwhile, rich VCs are buying Nvidia GPUs for the companies they invest in.
👀 Segueing onwards… lot has been said about the $113m raised by Mistral AI, and how much of that is needed to buy GPUs, but here apparently is the short deck the company used to present itself and raise that round.
On safety and regulation ⛑ 👩🏻⚖️
Given ongoing discussions regarding AI risks, the technical challenges to overcome to mitigate risks, and the pace of development of regulation, I think this is worth its own section.
🤓 Here’s a machine learning engineer’s guide to the EU AI Act, and what is helpful for a technical builder to understand from the regulations.
🧐 A Stanford study looking at whether any of the major foundation model providers currently comply with the draft EU AI Act. SPOILER: None of them do.
😬 From Forbes, why companies are vastly underprepared for the risks posed by AI - looking at accuracy, bias, security, culture & trust.
⚠️ Google has joined the likes of Amazon, Samsung, Apple, and Deutsche Bank in warning employees about chatbots and advising them not to enter confidential materials into them or directly use code generated by them.
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