Tech Brew Ride Home - Mon. 03/24 – 23andMe Enters The Deadpool

Starting point is 00:00:00 On April 4th, 2023, around 2 in the morning, a man was found stabbed multiple times on a sidewalk in downtown San Francisco. Hey, who did this to you? What happened next turned the story into a political firestorm. Reports have identified the victim as Bob Lee, the founder of Cash App. From Bloomberg Podcasts, this is Foundering, the Killing of Bob Lee, beginning April 16. Welcome to the Tech meme right home for Monday, March 24th, 2025. I'm Brian McCullough today. 23 and Me files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Are mergers and acquisitions officially back on the menu for Silicon Valley?

Starting point is 00:00:45 Are cameras coming to the Apple Watch? Devs, does your experience line up with your peers and how Broadway is using AI live translation to reach new audiences? Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. Genetic testing company 23 and Me has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy to, quote, maximize the value of its business, and co-founder and CEO Anne Wojicki is stepping down. Quoting Bloomberg, the Chapter 11 plan is the latest chapter in the saga of the personalized DNA testing company that was valued at $3.5 billion when it went public in 2021.

Starting point is 00:01:25 Co-founder Anne Wajicki's efforts to take the struggling company private were rejected by a committee earlier this month. The company has $277.4 million in assets and $214 million in liabilities Court documents show it received a debtor in possession financing commitment of up to $35 million from JMB Capital Partners, according to the statement, end quote. And quoting the verge. 23 and Me is best known for its at-home gene testing kits that use a customer's saliva to dig into their ancestry. The company was briefly valued at $6 billion after going public in 2021, but has since plummeted to $50 million after failing to turn a profit. It settled a lawsuit for $30 million in September that alleged the firm had failed to protect the date.

Starting point is 00:02:07 of almost 7 million customers during a data breach in 2023 and announced in November that it was cutting 40% of its workforce. 23 and Me says that it intends to continue operating its business throughout the bankruptcy proceedings and that customers' access to data and subscriptions won't be affected. We have had many successes, but I equally take accountability for the challenges we have today, with Jicki said. There is no doubt that the challenges faced by 23 and Me through an evolving business model have been real, but my belief in the company and its future is unwavering, end quote. Quoting Hakenbecker on X, anyone here who has used the 23ME DNA analysis service, you need

Starting point is 00:02:47 to log in now and delete your data before the company declares bankruptcy and an unknown outfit ends up with their genetic records database, end quote. So I don't have to tell you that this is updating my M&A watch list in a big way. According to CB Insights, Q1 2025 saw 11 startup sales worth one, billion or more totaling a record $54.5 billion that is significantly up from a mere two acquisitions worth $1 billion or more in Q1 of 2024, totaling $3.2 billion. So, healthy for the startup ecosystem. Quoting Bloomberg, startup acquisitions have boomed so far this year, capped by last week's massive $32 billion deal for cybersecurity startup whiz, a signal that Silicon Valley is

Starting point is 00:03:36 optimistic about the Trump administration's antitrust policies and that venture-backed companies may finally have a way to cash out. There have been 11 startup sales of more than $1 billion announced so far this year, cumulatively worth $54.5 billion, a total that easily surpasses previous records for comparable quarterly totals, according to data compiled by CB Insights. Google's agreement to buy whiz marks the largest ever deal for a venture-backed startup. The news came on the heels of a spate of other major announcements. This month alone, SoftBank Group agreed to buy chip designer Amper computing for $6.5 billion. Scopely agreed to buy Neantix gaming business for $3.5 billion, and PepsiCo made a deal to buy

Starting point is 00:04:17 soda startup Poppy for almost $2 billion. Artificial intelligence-related deals in particular have been on a tear. Earlier in March, Corweave agreed to buy AI business weights and biases for a reported $1.7 billion and service now said it would acquire AI firm Moveworks for $2.85 billion. You're going to see a lot more things announced, said Matt Murphy, a partner at Menlo Ventures, is on the board of two companies that were acquired recently, including a gent, which sold to private equity firms for a reported $1.5 billion in February. At one point, there was a, quote, mismatch between where the buyers thought the value was and where the sellers did, Murphy said, but because startup deals have been so scarce for so long, it's easier to matchmake now, end quote. The surge in transactions

Starting point is 00:05:02 marks a significant boon for Silicon Valley's investment community and provides much-needed respite following years of scarcity that had burdened the sector, as we've been talking about IPOs and significant startup acquisitions virtually disappeared for the last five years or so, depriving investors and even acquiring companies of cash flow. I can tell you that multiple factors have now transformed the landscape, one of which is ironic. Because the IPO market is not exactly booming yet, selling companies are more likely to pull the trigger on getting acquired because M&A deals offer the best chance now to get an exit. But Stubhubhub has filed for an IPO with plans to list on the New York Stock Exchange and

Starting point is 00:05:48 reported a $2.8 million loss on $1.77 billion in revenue in 2024 versus a $405 million profit on $1.37 billion in revenue in 2023. So not really tech, but another attempt to test the IPO. Quoting Axios. One big difference on the spend side was sales and marketing expense, which climbed to $828 million in 2024 from $518 million the year prior. Stubhubbub reports more than 40 million tickets sold on its platform last year by more than a million sellers. It didn't disclose an IPO target, but the New York Times previously reported that it could seek to raise more than $1 billion. This could be a bellwether for how investors feel about the live events industry. Stubhubb Rival Vivid Seats has seen its stock price fall by more than 45% over the past year and reportedly is seeking a buyer.

Starting point is 00:06:37 Seat Geek remains private despite prior plans to go public via a blank check merger and then via an IPO, end quote. From the Let's All Eat Invidia's launch file, sources say South Korean chip startup Furiosa AI rejected an $800 million takeover offer from meta, opting to grow independently instead. Quoting Bloomberg, Furiosa AI is one of only a handful of Asian startups that have attracted meta, led by June Pike, who previously worked at Samsung Electronics, and advanced micro devices, it develops semiconductors for AI inferencing or services. The eight-year-old company's second-generation processor, RNGD, pronounced Renegade, is designed to challenge products from industry leader Invidia, as well as fellow startups GROC, Samba Nova, and cerebrus. Meta is investing heavily in artificial intelligence infrastructure seeking to better compete in a fast-moving race against the likes of OpenAI and Google, as well as startups such as

Starting point is 00:07:39 Hengjul-based Deep Seek. In mid-January, Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said that Meta would spend as much as $65 billion this year, including outlays to build a large data center and expand its AI workforce. Only a week later, Zuckerberg told investors that Meta anticipates eventually spending hundreds of billions of dollars on AI infrastructure. Furiosa AI plans to raise capital before eventually pursuing an initial public offering, according to people familiar with the matter. It's expected to close an extended Series C funding round in about a month, which is on track to exceed the targeted amount, they said. The startup, which has about 150 employees, including 15 in its Silicon Valley office, is currently providing samples of its ships to customers including LG AI research, the AI Arm of LG Group, and Saudi Aramco, the people said.

Starting point is 00:08:23 They are part of a broader pipeline of about a dozen customers engaged in sampling during the first half of this year, they said, end quote. Google is rolling out new real-time AI video features, including the ability to see screens and camera feeds for Gemini, advanced subscribers. Quoting the verge. The features come nearly a year after Google first demonstrated the project Astra work that powers them. A Reddit user said the feature showed up on their Jaume phone as spotted by 9 to 5 Google. Today, the same user posted the video below demonstrating Gemini's new screen reading ability. It's one of the two features Google said in

Starting point is 00:09:03 early March would start rolling out to Gemini Advanced Subscribers as part of the Google One AI premium plan later in the month. The other Astra capability rolling out now is live video, which lets Gemini interpret the feed from your smartphone camera in real time and answer questions about it. In the demonstration video below that Google published this month, a person uses the feature to ask Gemini for help deciding on a paint color to use for their freshly glazed pottery. Google's rollout of these features is a fresh example of the company's big AI assistant lead, as Amazon is preparing the limited early access debut of its Alexa Plus upgrade, and Apple has delayed its upgraded Siri.

Starting point is 00:09:39 Both are supposed to have capabilities similar to the ones. Astra is starting to enable now. Meanwhile, Samsung still has Bixby, but Gemini is nevertheless the default assistant on its phones, end quote. Mark German, Apple Scoop Monday, his sources say Apple plans to build its own AI models for visual intelligence and add cameras to the Apple Watch. Quote, a central idea behind these devices is using onboard cameras and microphones to support artificial intelligence and provide context on a wearer's surroundings. With the iPhone 16 launched last year, Apple started to inch into this territory. The new visual intelligence feature, which is tied to the camera control interface, relies on AI to help users learn more

Starting point is 00:10:27 about the world around them. For those unfamiliar, the feature works like this. If you long press the camera button, you're taken to a new interface where you can take a picture of something and have it analyzed by either chat GPT or Google search. It can also summarize or translate text and identify certain objects, landmarks, or animals. Today, the feature is a bit under the radar, partly because it only works with the iPhone 16. It should get a bigger boost with the release of iOS 18.4 next month. That's when Apple will bring the feature to the iPhone 15 Pro and make it accessible via both the control center and action button for the first time.

Starting point is 00:11:01 Apple's ultimate plan for visual intelligence goes far beyond the iPhone. The company wants to put the feature at the core of future devices, including the camera-equipped AirPods that I've been writing about for several months. Along the way, Apple wants to also shift visual intelligence towards its own AI models rather than those from OpenAI and Google. But Apple's vision for AI wearables goes even further. The company is working on new versions of the Apple Watch that include cameras. As with the future AirPods, this would help the device see the outside world and use AI to

Starting point is 00:11:32 deliver relevant information. These models are likely still at least generations away from hitting the market, but they are on the roadmap. As part of the plan, Apple is considering adding cameras to both its standard series watches and ultra models. The current idea is to put the camera inside the display of the series version, like the front-facing lens on an iPhone. The Ultra will take a different approach with the camera lens sitting on the side of the watch near the crown and button. Apple is probably considering this approach because the thicker Ultra has more room to work with.

Starting point is 00:12:01 It would mean that an ultra-wearer could easily point their wrist at something to scan an object. A series watch user, meanwhile, would have to flip over their wrist, end quote. Engineers and devs out there, how does this line up with your experience? A survey of 730 software engineers reveals that 75% have tried AI, 35.6% are AI optimists, and 38.4% AI pessimists. Freelance coders use AI more often, and 50% pay for AI tools. Quoting Wired. 27% of coders use AI, quote, like at all times.

Starting point is 00:12:43 Early career coders have a higher likelihood of being pro-AI, and baby coders, most of all. three quarters of people who've been coding for less than a year call themselves AI optimists. The most anti-AI group, it's not the grizzled late career vets, it's mid-career coders. Nearly half of them identify as AI pessimists. As it was analyzing these results, ChatGPT offered unprompted an explanation. This group likely feels the greatest tension about AI's impact on job security. More than half of employers per survey results pay for AI services. In those cases, more than two-thirds of employees use them.

Starting point is 00:13:18 4% of full-time programmers use AI without their employer's knowledge. Upper management does not understand what AI is and thinks it will solve untold problems. Junior devs rely on it too much without understanding their code first, according to one respondent. The more experienced you are, the more you go beyond browser interfaces and apps. Nearly one in three veteran coders, 20 plus years, integrate AI tools directly into their coding environments, end quote. Finally, today, an off-Broadway theater in New York is offering AI-powered live-transferrales, translations in 60 languages to attract new audiences using AI tech from Startup Wordly. Quoting Semaphore,

Starting point is 00:14:01 attendees for Perfect Crime performed at the theater center and the longest running play in New York can scan a QR code and search an online translation platform. They can then select one of 60 languages and listen to the live translation through headphones during the show. The murder mystery about a psychiatrist accused of killing her husband can be heard in Arabic, Afrikaans, Polish, and other languages reflecting one of the many ways AI is becoming part of daily life. The translation's text also appears on the user's phone for individuals who are hard of hearing or wish to follow along that way. With a majority of perfect crimes attendees being tourists visiting New York, roughly 25 to 30 people use the service across eight shows each week, allowing for the theater to sell tickets to those who may not have bought them without the offering,

Starting point is 00:14:46 according to Catherine Russell, general manager of the theater who stars in Perfect Crime. The theatergoers have selected a wide range of language options with no specific language dominating, she said, end quote. The actors apparently use microphones that feed directly into a translation system, eliminating background noise and side conversations. This free service for audience members uses technology from Wordley, a Silicon Valley startup chosen after producers tested various AI translation options. The system works by capturing voices through a soundboard to a computer connected to Wordlead's cloud. It transcribes audio into text, then uses transistors. transformer models specific to each language to translate it. Within three to five seconds, translations appear on users' devices. The technology can be optimized to prevent names like

Starting point is 00:15:31 Apple or Rose from being translated literally. Wordley typically serves industry conferences and global businesses looking to streamline multilingual meetings. Recently, they've expanded to churches, schools, and city councils. During California wildfires earlier this year, Los Angeles County used Wordly to translate press conferences. The theater center negotiated a partnership to use Wordly at no cost, though the service typically runs about $100 per hour, meaning a two-hour performance would cost around $200 per show. According to Wordly, their translations achieved 95 to 100% accuracy. The company is working to expand language offerings, including French Creole and indigenous languages, while adding more voice options beyond the current single male and female choices.

Starting point is 00:16:13 One limitation is that the translation doesn't capture the speaker's vocal nuances, pitch changes, emphasis, and undulation. So it lacks the melodic quality of live actors. In testing, the technology apparently sounds natural, but falls short of cutting-edge conversational voice demos, while outperforming robotic-sounding voice assistants like Siri. Just a quick reminder that if you're listening to this show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, please tap on the settings and turn on automatic downloads for this show so that you never miss an episode. Settings, then Automatic downloads. Thanks. Talk to you tomorrow.

Tech Brew Ride Home - Mon. 03/24 – 23andMe Enters The Deadpool

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