TikTok AI comes alive

Top News

• TikTok adds new AI feature: ByteDance’s iconic social media app launched its first image-to-video AI tool this week, which it’s calling “TikTok AI Alive.” The feature — only accessible via the app’s Story Camera — turns static images into short-form videos, complete with “movement, atmospheric and creative effects.” TikTok and rivals Instagram and Snapchat have long included text-to-image AI tools but this new release adds a new front to the endless Posting War.

• All My CryptoPunks Gone: Yuga Labs, the brand best known for the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT series, sold off its CryptoPunks NFT collection to the non-profit Infinite Node Foundation, which is dedicated to preserving digital art. The CryptoPunks collection, along with Bored Ape images, were widely credited with popularizing the short-lived NFT craze of 2021. At Peak NFT, a CryptoPunk image sold for $23 million in Ethereum.

• Controversial Kanye song remains on IG: While most social media and streaming sites have pulled rapper Kanye West’s latest release — titled “Heil Hitler” — 404 Media reports that the track remains available to stream, along with a number of related memes and remixes, all over Meta’s Instagram. 404 claims to have uncovered “dozens” of posts containing the song, including some with over 1 million views.

TWiST500

The defense tech sector remains white hot, and a frequent source of news stories on the podcast. And today’s TWiST 500 is no different!

German defense startup Helsing, a long-time TWiST 500 stalwart, introduced a new autonomous mini-submarine it’s calling the SG-1 Fathom. The company reports that the unmanned marine glider can patrol on shifts lasting around three months at a time, providing a considerable boost to any country or organization’s ability to conduct round-the-clock naval surveillance. (And with blockades, threats by local militias, and more mounting sea-based obstacles to open shipping lanes, more and more interested parties will likely be seeking just these kinds of solutions.)

SG-1 Fathom is also outfitted with its own proprietary system, dubbed Lura, using AI to more accurately detect and identify sounds made by other ships, submarines, and more. The company claims Lura can detect the “acoustic signatures” of various vessels around 40 times faster than a human operator, and at a volume 10 times quieter than comparable AI models. Which it turn will make submarines even more silent-but-deadly, which is after all their raison d’etre. – Lon

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This Week in Startups

E2124: Jason, Lon, and Alex examine Perplexity’s WILD $14 billion valuation and openly wonder why they need MORE funding. Plus, does Y Combinator REALLY think Google should be broken up, and if so, why don’t they stick to their guns? All that and the guys chat with Streamfog’s Kevin Bondzio about the promise of AR-powered podcast ads.

E2123: On Friday’s TWiST, Jason, Alex and Lon debate why Instacart CEO Fidji Simo left that job to join the team at OpenAI: was it just the money, or a chance to do something more COMPELLING than helping people order groceries? Plus, everyone’s thoughts on the US justice system’s first-ever AI-generated victim statement, Jason urges viewers to read “The Checklist Manifesto,” and a chat with Where2Wheel founder Brittany Peregoff about her off-roading marketplace and the economic promise of agritourism.

E2122: It’s yet another overstuffed TWiST full of the tech news and founder insights you CRAVE. Jason, Alex, and Lon are talking about Zoox’s robotaxi recall (and why it’s not as bad as it sounds!), Coatue’s innovative new take on venture funds, NSO’s mega-fine for making spyware, and terrifying AI prophecies from the future. Plus Evan from FusionAds stops by to talk about automating marketing for your small business AND the Final Four of our Founder Friday tournament is now a FINAL FIVE!

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