Jim Adler

Breaking down our latest newsletter section by section, starting with our expanded focus in Deep Tech: --- We have built expertise in the robotics sector, and will continue to double (and triple) down on investing in this category, but we have been increasingly finding that robotics is naturally steering us into two exploding adjacent areas: Aerospace, and Advanced Manufacturing (which we define as industrials, semiconductors, materials science, and energy production). Stepping back, this expansion makes perfect sense. Robotics is an inherently horizontal platform - meaning it can be applied productively across multiple industries. This quality, paired with the fact that robotics has long shown the highest TRLs of any deep tech technology, makes it a kind of “gateway” to other sectors in the hard sciences. Now with the recent breakthroughs in AI for robotics, growing semiconductor demand, and the resurgence of aerospace and defense tech, we are seeing a dramatic uptake of robotics and relevant technologies in both advanced manufacturing and aerospace. As an added bonus of the expansion, many of the founder (and funder) networks across these landscapes have natural overlaps and linkages. For AlleyCorp Deep Tech this means that we can be extremely helpful, knowledgeable, and engaged across all three sectors right away, and continue to be the best-in-class investing team across these categories.  --- More in our newsletter: https://lnkd.in/ewiTuYq6

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Interesting comparison of human-based ride hailing services (UberX, Lyft) vs autonomous-driving one from Waymo. TLDR: Waymo is more expensive and a lot slower to get you to your destination. And this is in the city where Waymo vehicles and software are probably most optimized for. This isn't to bash on Waymo and other self-driving car platforms, which have made incredible progress. That being said, the problem is not solved and it will take many more billions and many more years to get autonomous driving services like this to be price and performance competitive to current ride hailing services. https://lnkd.in/eb4uZ2Um #autonomouscars #AI

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Alphabet committed another $5 billion recently to Waymo's self-driving cars. A renewed vow of confidence. Per my post yesterday, fast growing additional compute and better AI architectures are changing self driving cars rapidly. Notably, some traditional car manufacturers pulled out investments in full self-driving cars. It didn't think the tech was going to be ready for decades to come, if ever. I think it may be a mistake given AI and compute grow exponentially, not linearly. As an example, it may take 20-40 years to achieve 1% of progress, then just 5-10 years for the remaining 99% (instead of 1,000s of years per our intuition) link in comments #AI #Transformers #waymo

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Great insights on the future of robotics shared by Rodney Brooks in this article. A little bit of realism for the hype surrounding LLMs in robotics - realistic expectations are important...

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Just finished reading "The Next Giant Leap" by Space Capital - a pioneering VC investing in the emerging Space Economy. The report speaks to how SpaceX’s Starship is more than just the most powerful rocket ever built—it is poised to reshape the global space economy in profound ways. With its immense payload capacity, reusable design, and lower cost per launch, Starship will unlock entirely new industries and transform existing business models. But how should industries and businesses evolve to align with this paradigm shift? 📈 Rethinking Business Strategies & Supply Chains - For businesses, Starship represents an era of mass-production over precision engineering. This means moving away from the focus on mass efficiency toward cost-effective, redundant, and scalable production. - In terms of supply chains, this opens opportunities for new players in manufacturing, materials, and space components. The demand for off-the-shelf parts and non-aerospace suppliers will rise dramatically. 💡 New Use Cases & Opportunities   The opportunities Starship unlocks go beyond launching satellites. - In-space manufacturing of high-value products like pharmaceuticals and advanced materials that cannot be created on Earth. - Mega-constellations of satellites for global broadband, expanding on what Starlink has already begun. - In-orbit assembly and servicing, allowing for larger space structures like telescopes or even habitats to be built in orbit, radically reducing costs. - Lunar infrastructure and resource extraction will become more viable, paving the way for sustainable human presence on the Moon and, eventually, Mars. 📊 What Should Businesses Do Now?   1. Embrace Redundancy & Scale – Instead of focusing on one-off, high-cost solutions, businesses should embrace redundancy and mass production.    2. Simplify Design – With Starship’s payload capacity, there is less pressure to optimize for mass efficiency. Simplified, scalable designs will allow for faster production and iteration cycles, akin to how SpaceX rapidly tests and evolves Starship itself. 3. Develop Strategic Partnerships – Collaborating with forward-thinking space startups, suppliers, and even non-aerospace sectors will be essential to capitalize on the opportunities Starship provides. 🌌 A New Era of Innovation   Starship will democratize access to space, lowering the barriers for businesses to create and scale. The next decade will witness breakthroughs in scientific exploration, energy production, and in-space transportation that we can only begin to imagine today. #SpaceEconomy #Starship #Innovation #SupplyChain #Manufacturing #SpaceTech #Entrepreneurship #FutureOfSpace https://lnkd.in/gNdbwXdq

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I've long been a fan of Waymo and their approach which combines incredible technology and a safety first mentality. I was happy to see this piece in Fast Company https://lnkd.in/eAZrafrN "Waymo One ranks among AI’s more remarkable real-world accomplishments. If you get a chance to ride in one, seize it—and see if it doesn’t leave you at least slightly more optimistic about the whole idea." There are important parallels for technology in healthcare. In spite of a regulated, high risk and chaotic environment we have seen incredible progress in self driving cars over the last decade. With caveats, this could serve as a roadmap for innovation in healthcare, applying technologies in a persistent, iterative and safe way to improve health outcomes.

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Excellent blog from the folks at Shield Capital about the infrastructure needed to accelerate autonomy! Miru (YC S24) is mentioned among a host of other awesome startups that build software tools for robotics startups. "Consider the world of web app development: developers have an extensive array of tools at their disposal, offering support for everything from coding assistance and test management to cloud infrastructure handling and beyond. This is not yet the case with autonomous systems, whose developer ecosystem remains more nascent and fragmented. Many autonomous systems developers describe how they rebuild common tooling like testing and simulation tooling across every autonomous systems development organization where they worked." This is why we built Miru. These teams deserve better off-the-shelf tooling. They shouldn't have to develop and maintain this themselves. If you're a developer struggling with CI/CD for your robot or edge device, reach out to me. Let's get this off your plate 🦾 https://lnkd.in/gk2fSHTq

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AI NEWS SERIES GM Invests $850M to Revitalize Cruise Product: - Cruise is developing autonomous vehicles with 40+ sensors, 360° vision, and extensive safety measures, tested over millions of miles. Their suite includes driverless ride-hail services and delivery services in partnership with Walmart. - Features include advanced AI, remote assistance for complex situations, adaptive fleet learning, and community impact programs to enhance safety and operational efficiency. Company: - Founded in 2013, headquartered in San Francisco, Cruise has raised $16 billion and is a subsidiary of General Motors. It recently received $850 million from GM amid a strategic review. Impact: - The continued development of Cruise's technology has significant implications for personal transportation and delivery services, promising enhanced safety, efficiency, and reduced human error in everyday life and business operations. sources: siliconagle #technology #innovation #future #artificialintelligence #business

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📈 AI Startup Sierra Expands HQ in San Francisco (4K to 41K SF) 🌁 Artificial intelligence firm Sierra is making a bold move by relocating to a larger office within San Francisco. The startup has signed a lease for a 41,104-square-foot space at 235 Second St., significantly upsizing from its current 4,000-square-foot office. 🏢 This move to San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood, where office vacancy rates have started to decline for the first time since 2020, is a positive sign for the city's hard-hit office market. The area's office vacancy rate, though still high at 28.8%, is slightly lower than six months ago. 📉 The deal contributes to the increase in leasing activity in San Francisco, which is up by about 1 million square feet compared to last year. This uptick is driven by the region's reputation as a leading national hub for AI companies. 💼 Sierra joins other AI firms expanding in the South of Market area, including Scale AI, which signed the city's largest office lease of 2024 with a 178,000-square-foot deal. So far this year, office tenants have signed leases totaling 750,000 square feet in South of Market, a significant increase from last year's 370,000 square feet. 🚀 Co-founded in 2023 by former Salesforce CEO Bret Taylor and former Google executive Clay Bavor, Sierra raised $85 million earlier this year to develop a customer support AI tool for businesses. The firm is set to relocate from its current space at 215 Second St. by next month. San Francisco's reputation as an AI hub, bolstered by its talent pool and six major AI research institutions, continues to attract companies. Recent significant deals include OpenAI’s sublease of over 400,000 square feet of Uber’s former headquarters and Anthropic’s takeover of Slack's former headquarters. These developments reflect a resilient and adaptive real estate market. As a commercial real estate professional, I’m excited to see how these trends shape the future of office space in our vibrant city.

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The development of nested microgrids for tribes in Northern California is a powerful step toward resilience and energy sovereignty. By connecting multiple microgrids, communities like the Karuk, Yurok, and Hoopa Valley tribes can better withstand frequent outages and ensure essential services remain operational during emergencies. This project, backed by substantial funding, will integrate over 20 MW of clean energy and provide a model for how microgrids can enhance reliability in remote, underserved regions. How can similar projects be scaled to benefit other vulnerable communities facing grid instability? #MicroGrids #MiniGrids #CleanEnergy #Underserved

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Good news for #AI #innovation, and especially for developers, builders, and the technology community at large. Thank You Gavin Newsom and the Office of the Governor - California for a measured and thoughtful veto of the #SB1047 amendment. While no one disputes the need for #regulation in #AI, #California in particular has both an #opportunity and #responsibility to assume leadership. A deeper understanding of the technical ways in which AI #data is #retrieved, #processed, and #presented is key to an #informed regulation. Unlike traditional #relational #databases where the data you retrieve is the same as the data you store with #tables and #indexed data lookups, AI and #GenerativeAI is fundamentally different. With #vector #databases and #neuralnetworks, #LLMs can create data on the fly. This calls for qualified input from #academic #research, #developers, and #technology #providers to inform policy on #guardrails and #practical #industry implementations. Join the vetted community at Llama Labs, or follow me for more on this, and AI technology full-stack conversations, deepdives, resources, and events

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AI memory is fundamental for conversational AI and AI agents. It is critical for building personalized experiences and improving reasoning. Check out Letta’s course to understand how to use AI memory to enhance the customization and quality of your AI app.

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University of California, San Francisco Chancellor, Sam Hawgood, in an interview with Matthew Lungren MD MPH at #ConvergeSummit has outlined the use of #AI scribes to create clinical notes as well as other #AI-driven technologies. Key to their success: a group of practicing physicians with knowledge of AI ensuring that the technology fits into the physicians’ existing workflow, which improves physician adoption of the technology. Another key: measure success through reduction in physician burnout and improvement in patient satisfaction, not increases in physician productivity. Final key: have a real-time, frequent review of implemented technologies to ensure that they still support and are relevant to changing clinical care standards - and shut the technologies down if they are not supporting their purpose.

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Generative AI is spreading like wildfire. 💡 Nearly 40% of US adults have embraced it in just months - outpacing the adoption of PCs and the internet. This tech revolution is reshaping how we work and live. Are you ready? #GenerativeAI #TechAdoption #FutureOfWork #AIInnovation #DigitalTransformation What's your experience with generative AI? Share your thoughts below!

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