This year’s World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos felt different, and not just because Meta and Salesforce occupied storefronts on the main promenade. AI dominated the conversation, overshadowing traditional topics like climate change and global poverty, but CEOs weren’t shy. There was a lot of talk about public criticism of trade policy, warnings about the AI bubble bursting, and what’s next for the industry.
Meanwhile, back in Silicon Valley, AI startup Humans& raised a $480 million seed round but had no product on the market, just a vision for “social intelligence” AI and a team of former Anthropic, Google, and xAI employees.
Today on TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O’Kane discuss why raising hundreds of millions of dollars before developing a product is apparently the new norm, what’s hot at Davos this week, and more.
Listen to the full episode and hear more from this week, including:
Will 10% layoffs at Meta’s Reality Labs mean the end of the Metaverse, and who will protect Meta’s VR investments?
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