TikTok Ban Brigade

Also Elon said he's going to open source Grok and Sam is back on the OpenAI board.

Author

Adam Hardej
March 11, 2024

Big story lines continue this week with the TikTok ban plan heating up and a regular dose of AI drama. Meanwhile, Bitcoin hits an all-time high and memecoins are printing. Hold onto your butts people… We’re still in Q1.

Want to discover the next breakout company? Try Harmonic AI.

Furious Congress plows forward with TikTok bill after user revolt

"The authors of the bill responded furiously to what they called a "massive propaganda campaign," emphasizing that TikTok would not be banned if Bytedance divests its ownership."

Elon Musk says xAI will open-source Grok this week

"Elon Musk’s AI startup xAI will open-source Grok, its chatbot rivaling ChatGPT, this week… xAI released Grok last year, arming it with features including access to “real-time” information and views undeterred by “politically correct” norms.”

OpenAI announces new members to board of directors

"Additionally, Sam Altman, CEO, will rejoin the OpenAI Board of Directors."

Full Article from Reuters

Hot Links

THIS WEDNESDAY: State of LATAM Startup Ecosystem

​Join us live on Wednesday, March 13 at 3pm EST to learn more about the state of the LATAM startup ecosystem from both the founder and investor perspectives.

​We'll be joined by:

​This event is brought to by Sacra and Sandhill Markets.

ICYMI: Universal API Panel

​​We had a great panel with some great guests! I definitely learned a lot and it’s worth a listen if you want to know more about the world of APIs.

We talked about some of the challenges of building “middleware”, the decision to go horizontal or vertical, and the strategies associated with serving stakeholders on both sides of the API.

Check out the recording on Twitter here or on LinkedIn here.

Want to discover the next breakout company? Try Harmonic AI.

Harmonic is the startup discovery platform trusted by teams at NEA, Bedrock, Craft (and more) to find breakout investments. Harmonic provides market intelligence on 20M+ startups with tools designed to create better deal flow:

  • Discover new startups in any sector, geography, or stage (including stealth).

  • Prioritize companies consolidating top talent, rapidly adding headcount, and quickly growing their digital presence.

  • Monitor network so you can be the first to know when someone you know launches or joins a new startup

We’re back in this part of the cycle. But, forever?

Letters From The Editor

Misc. (short for miscellaneous)

TikTok Trials

Interested to see where we land here. I brought this up a while back and I actually had a former TikTok employee reach out to explain why I was misguided to think the Chinese government has significant control over the app. I definitely lean towards banning. The fact that they would rather shut it down entirely than have it be owned outside China seems suspect. The fact that they’re allowed to operate in the US, but similar US companies aren’t allowed to operate in China just seems like bad trade negotiation.

What should the US gov do about TikTok?

Login or Subscribe to participate in polls.

Revote Yields Same Results

Revote: Who's team are you on?

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ Sam Altman + Vinod Khosla (19)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Elon Musk + Marc Andreessen (36)

🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Not sure. (16)

A lot less votes, but generally the same outcome post OpenAI’s receipt blog post. As Elon pushes Grok open source I wonder if it will create more pressure for OpenAI to do the same.

Ultimately, I think this will actually boil down to how the talent feels. AI is still a very small world and the top researchers are in incredibly high demand. Sam has been incredibly popular with OpenAI employees (as seen by the petition during the ousting) but this conversation around open/closed could present new challenges.

Power could swing quickly if Sam loses the popular vote among AI talent.

Talk soon,
Adam

PS - Do you want to sponsor this newsletter or an upcoming live event? Reply to this email and/or shoot a note to [email protected] to learn more.