| Hi, it's Priya in San Francisco. All of a sudden, all startups are AI startups. But first... Today's must-reads: Once upon a time, all a company had to do to boost its stock was to add a ".com" to the end of its name. A few years later, "big data" was all the rage. Then the Internet of Things took over (remember the smart fridges?). More recently, the industry spent billions on a pivot to cryptocurrencies, blockchain and web3, which was supposed to launch a new era for the internet. Now, you don't hear too much about it. That's because Silicon Valley's attention has decidedly shifted. The new obsession: artificial intelligence. And every company is angling for a piece. While most of the technology industry has been locked in a downward spiral, the dazzling debut of the conversational AI bot ChatGPT gave tech optimists something to look forward to. AI has been one of the only sectors where startups with little to no revenue have raised huge funding hauls, even in an environment where checks are hard to come by. "AI is the only place where, today, gravity doesn't apply," said Niko Bonatsos, an investor at the venture capital firm General Catalyst. Now, a sea of companies are adding "AI" to their taglines and pitch decks, seeking to bask in the reflected glow of the hype cycle. For example, one startup that offers tools to zhuzh up PowerPoints said in a press release that it will incorporate AI so users can skip the writer's block and build compelling presentations. (It made no mention of AI in a press release describing the product earlier in the year.) Another release touted the value of AI in a campaign to promote shoes. For some, jumping on the bandwagon is already helping. BuzzFeed (my former employer) saw its stock soar more than 300% last week on the news that it would use artificial intelligence to generate some of its content. "Last year, a ton of companies that couldn't raise were baptizing themselves as web3 crypto companies," Bonatsos says. "The same is happening now with AI." Veteran venture investor and early Google employee Wesley Chan said he's been mildly amused by startups attempting to reinvent themselves as AI companies. Chan, co-founder of FPV Ventures, said one insurance startup recently pitched him and tacked on the word "AI" to its tagline, hoping to use it to generate interest. It proved to be a transparent exercise in buzzword bingo. "They didn't succeed," he said. Of course, many startups have very real artificial intelligence ambitions that could one day prove both influential and lucrative. AI companies are fielding interest from investors for funding rounds in the hundreds of millions. That includes Character.AI, which makes chatbots that can assume characters, like US President Joe Biden or God (unclear whose version, though!). In many cases, these companies have yet to generate revenue. "We do anticipate revenue in the future," said Character.AI's chief executive officer, Noam Shazeer. While artificial intelligence could be a game changer for many industries, not every company will be a hit, and right now, it can be difficult to tell which is which. Venky Ganesan, a partner at Menlo Ventures, said that while AI is attracting great minds, it's also attracting profiteers. "The grifters have moved from crypto to AI," he said. —Priya Anand Microsoft has pledged to continue making new games in its popular Halo franchise, but a leadership overhaul, mass layoffs and other big changes at the company may set back its prized 343 Industries studio. A National Labor Relations Board judge has ruled that Amazon violated federal labor law by resisting unionization efforts at two of its New York City facilities. Tesla confirmed it has received requests from the US Justice Department related to its Autopilot and Full Self-Driving features, the latest signal that regulators are deepening their scrutiny into the company's self-driving claims. Chinese online fast-fashion retailer Shein has picked former SoftBank executive Marcelo Claure to lead its Latin American operations, a hire that could accelerate the global expansion of one of the world's most valuable startups. Banks and other financial businesses are becoming more frequent targets of distributed-denial-of-service attacks. The CEO of Colossal Biosciences talked on Bloomberg TV about his company's plans to bring the dodo back from extinction. The company is now worth more than $1 billion. | 
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