The Flowlie Times #30
YouTube AI dubbing tool, AI companions, Harvard's CS50, fundraising, and more
Good day everyone,
This is the Flowlie newsletter with insights on VC & PE: from operations, tech, and tax matters to trends, notable guides, and news on recent capital raises. We hope you enjoy it and find some value!
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Articles we enjoyed:
1️⃣ YouTube is testing a new AI-powered tool in collaboration with dubbing service Aloud to help creators automatically dub their videos into different languages. Aloud transcribes and translates videos to simplify the dubbing process, which was previously time-consuming and costly for creators. YouTube plans to expand the tool to all creators and is working on improving the quality of the dubbed audio tracks to sound more natural and synchronized with the creator's voice.
About 20% of the world's population speaks English. So, for an English language creator, the new tool could potentially expand the market access by up to 5 times. Great news!
On the flip side, however, the same creator will now have to compete with other YouTubers from across the globe. Will the increased completion erode the advantage of expanded market access?
Overall, will this lead to more watch time on YouTube? Or will the lead to the reallocation of existing watch time to the best creators regardless of the language they speak? (e.g. instead of watching “the best Apple products reviewer in Germany”, Germans will prefer “the best Apple products reviewer in the World”)
2️⃣ A16Z doubles triples down on AI. Enjoy this Twitter thread on the best AI articles and resources.
The one that stood out the most is “It’s Not a Computer, It’s a Companion!” — The new wave of chatbots, like ChatGPT, can engage in free-flowing conversations, adapt to tone, and discuss a wide range of topics, making them indistinguishable from humans. As a result, some users are looking for AI companions. This trend can be attributed to societal changes such as delayed marriages, fewer serious relationships, and the prevalence of online relationships. Are we the only ones worried?
3️⃣ Harvard's flagship coding course, CS50, will introduce AI as a learning tool for students starting this fall. The AI will assist students in finding bugs in their code, explaining unfamiliar lines of code or error messages, and answering individual questions. CS50 professor David J. Malan stated that the integration of AI aims to enhance students' learning experience and provide personalized support, while still emphasizing critical thinking and ethical considerations.
Venture announcements that caught our eye:
1️⃣ Metal has raised a seed round of $2.5 million. The funding was led by Swift Ventures, with participation from Y Combinator and Chapter One. Metal aims to empower developers and leaders in utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) and large language models (LLMs) to build real-world applications. They provide a fully managed service that handles data transformation, indexing, and storage, along with simple APIs and developer-friendly tools.
2️⃣ WindBorne Systems, a weather and climate tech company, has raised $6 million in a seed round. The funding was led by Footwork and included participation from Khosla Ventures, Pear VC, and other investors. WindBorne utilizes balloon-based data collection technology to improve weather forecasting and fill the data gap for areas with inadequate weather data.
3️⃣ Captions, an AI-powered creative studio, has raised $25 million in Series B funding. The funding round was led by Kleiner Perkins, with participation from Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and SV Angel. The company leverages AI to enable customers to create high-quality videos directly from their mobile devices. It offers a range of features such as automated dubbing, viral clip extraction, voiceover generation, zoom incorporation, eye contact correction, and more.
Flowlie news 🎉
No major updates this week, but as always, you are welcome to check out Flowlie. We help investors with Deal Screening & Deal Management and founders with Deck Sharing & Fundraising Analytics.
As always, feel free to email us with any questions,
Mike from Flowlie