Just Moltbook, it's cleaner

Top News

• Meta bought a social network for AI agents: The Facebook owner acquired Moltbook, a sort of “Reddit for AI Agents” that went viral last month after thousands of “Moltbots” joined and started interacting. Early attention focused on the suspicious and seemingly self-aware nature of the agents’ interactions, including suggestions that they were devising their own computer languages and plotting against their human masters. That is, until it was revealed that a lot of these posts were fraudulent and created by flesh-and-blood, sci-fi loving humans. So why does Meta want the company, and co-founders Matt Schlicht and Ben Parr, to join their team? A spokesperson told TechCrunch they’re hoping to “[open] up new ways for AI agents to work for people and businesses” in an “always-on directory” format.

• Nvidia invests in Thinking Machines: The chip maker announced a strategic multi-year investment in Mira Murati’s AI startup. To date, we still don’t have a very clear idea what Thinking Machines Lab actually does. Their only released product is Tinker, a training AI for fine-tuning custom models. Their website says they plan to make AI systems “more widely understood, customizable, and generally capable.” For now, much of the buzz around the company comes from the involvement of Murati, the former OpenAI chief technology officer who briefly served as “interim CEO” during Sam Altman’s brief ouster.

• Sandbar raises $23M for smart ring: We’ve been featuring the Plaud AI-powered note-taking pin on the show recently, but a startup named Sandbar is taking a slightly different approach. They’ve developed the microphone-enabled Stream ring, which can record voice notes, interact with your smartphone media via app. It also comes with its own AI assistant. For those with privacy concerns, the microphone is off be default, and must be activated by a touch panel on the ring. It’s worth noting as well that the ring’s microphone is a bit sensitive, requiring you to lift your hand up to your face when speaking, and giving the millennial phrase “talk to the hand” a whole new level of meaning.

TWiST 500

We’ve got trio of fresh TWiST 500 stories coming your way today.

• Superhuman: The company’s Grammarly proofreading app introduced a controversial new AI feature this week called “Expert Review,” offering writing advice “inspired by” experts like authors, academics, and journalists. Why is this controversial? Because the company never asked for these experts’ sign-off before using their names. Wired notes that much of the AI’s advice was inspired by the work of deceased people who have no ability to give their consent. Grammarly plans to keep the feature, despite the complaints, but will give experts “greater control over whether their name is used.”

• Mercor: A long read from The Verge takes readers inside the trenches at AI startup Mercor, which is employing a small army of white collar workers to help them train new models. Mercor reports that it’s paying around 30,000 professionals to work on its platform each week, while rivals Scale AI apparently run an AI training collective of more than 700,000 college graduates, grad students, and PhD’s. Not everything about the work itself sounds entirely gratifying. Several Mercor staffers report long days spent producing fake documents, attempting to stump models as they play out corporate simulations, marking up who said what on brief audio clips, and other tedious tasks, while many of the gigs themselves are low-paying and inconsistent.

• AMI Labs: One of the fresher startups on the T500 is former Meta AI researcher Yann LeCun’s AMI Labs, which designs AI world models that understand physical laws in three-dimensional space. The company raised $1.03 billion at a $3.5 billion pre-money valuation on Tuesday. World models are seen as an essential step toward Physical AI that can operate in our reality. They’re also essential for training robots and autonomous vehicles in “edge cases,” theoretically possible situations which occur too infrequently for proper training in meat space.

A message from Vanta

Compliance and security shouldn't be a deal-breaker for startups to win new business. Vanta makes it easy for companies to get a SOC 2 report fast. Get $1,000 off for a limited time at http://www.vanta.com/twist.

This Week in Startups

E2260: Andrej Karpahty’s Autoresearcher is blowing Jason’s mind. But… how exactly does it work? The OpenAI vet has protocol for his AI agent to recursively improve an LLMs performance one tiny step at a time, through a constantly evolving series of 5-minute experiments. Dig into how this works, and what it could mean for the future of AI agents, on TWiST. PLUS we’ve got 3 more demos from NetXD’s Suresh Ramamurthi, Rohan Arun of PhoneClaw, and Eugene Stuckless of Eir.

E2259: What is $TAO? We’re so glad you asked! On a TWiST special edition, we’re diving into the world of Bittensor and subnets. It’s a blockchain-based network divided into “subnets,” each of which power a different AI project, app, or tool. Find out how it all works — and how you can buy TAO and other subnet tokens, to own a small piece of the AI revolution — with special guests Mark Jeffrey (of Stillcore Capital) and Ala Shaabana (of Crucible Labs).

E2258: Big Wednesday show. We’ve got Erik Voorhees from privacy-forward Venice AI giving us the behind-the-scenes story of becoming OpenClaw’s default model (temporarily). PLUS Logan Allin of Fin Capital shares how he’s using generative AI to place smarter bets on founders. All that and two demos: George Pickett brings us into the OpenClaw Studio and David Kaufman shows us how Siteline helps keep track of agentic activity.

TWiST Partner Offers

• Gusto: Check out the online payroll and benefits experts with software built specifically for small businesses and startups. Try Gusto today and get three months FREE at Gusto.com/twist.

• Quo: Founders move fast. Their phone systems should too. Quo (formerly OpenPhone) gives you a clean, modern way to handle every customer call, text, and thread all in one place. Try it free at quo.com/TWiST.

• Northwest Registered Agent: Get more when you start your business with Northwest. In 10 clicks and 10 minutes, you can form your company and walk away with a real business identity — Learn more at www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twist

Our Favorite Tool

If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!

SF Live-Work Space Now Available

Need a flexible living and working environment in San Francisco? This thoughtfully designed loft-style residence at 787 Bryant St., the heart of the vibrant SOMA district and the city’s creative hub, is now available for rent or purchase. Check the listing for more details.

The TWiST500 newsletter is the new, updated, and improved TWiST Ticker.