Google wants to use AI to spot infectious diseases

Top News

• Google takes on HealthTech: Google pairs up with Indian healthcare AI startup Salcit Technologies to detect early signs of tuberculosis, a treatable but often undiagnosed disease. Google’s foundation AI model was trained on 300 million audio clips, including coughs, sniffles, sneezes, and breathing. It can be carried around on your smartphone, making it accessible in even the most remote locations. Expect more of this sort of work in the future as more data is fed into AI models.

• Indian AgriTech startup raises Series B: With $17.3 million in new capital, Agrim’s plan to create a more stable supply chain for farmers in India is heating up. TechCrunch reports that agriculture in India “provides livelihood support to over 42% of its population” while generating 18% of GDP, or just under one in every five rupees in the nation. That’s a massive TAM to sell into — and as Agrim could use technology to help those still dependent on the land, it’s doing well while doing business. We love that.

• Real estate startup emerges out of stealth: After the National Association of Realtors agreed to settle a suit regarding real estate agent business practices, old-fashioned fee schedules — including a 3% cut for the buyer’s agent — were expected to become historical relics. Landian, a startup that is now taking the wraps off its product, wants to take advantage of the new homebuying landscape to build a flat-fee model for folks looking to tour and buy a house. That one of the founders of Landian was a party to the suit that shook up the real estate agent model is icing on this particular startup cake.

Anthropic Makes Headlines Again

Anthropic made news earlier this week for sharing the system prompts that underpin its models. Now they’re making headlines again after Reuters reported that Amazon’s updated Alexa will be powered by Anthropic's Claude AI models instead of their own. Google and Amazon have previously invested in Anthropic.

That a tech giant is working closely with a large, private AI model company is hardly a unique event. Recall that Microsoft owns a huge piece of OpenAI’s commercial operations, and Apple is reportedly in the running for a chunk of the startup’s next fundraising round — a capital event that could affix a newly-raised $100 billion price tag on the company.

Amazon-Google-Anthropic, Microsoft-Apple-OpenAI, and Meta-Llama are the current battle lines in the closed-source AI model battle. That picture is too simple — Google and Microsoft are building models of their own, too — but it’s a big week for two of the TWiST500’s best-known companies.

A small reminder that I am heading out on parental leave for a bit, starting next week. You are in Erika’s capable hands. She’s been instrumental in keeping the TWiST500 newsletter on the rails this week. Onward! — Alex

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This Week in Startups

E1999: Jason sat down with another round of Founder University companies as they pitched for a chance to a $25K investment. Eric Gilbert-Williams of The Public Bored, Matt Schwed of Speed AI, and Joe Tannorella of PodEngine talked about what they’ve built and the progress they’ve made. If you love learning about up-and-coming startups, this one is for you.

E1998: Jason and Alex kick off the show with the arrest of Pavel Durov, discussing the legal implications and national security concerns, and perspectives from the French president. Other topics include global debates on encryption, privacy, the power of tech platforms, and U.S. law enforcement's approach to encrypted services and social media censorship. They wrap it up with a lightning round on G Squared's new fund and IBM's activities in China, followed by audience questions.

E1997: Sunny and Jason dive into AI demos, exploring AI market trends, consumer adoption, and AI's role in career trajectories. They also discuss the future of AI applications, including ChatGPT's efficiency, AI in operating systems, and the potential misuse of AI in elections.

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