Natasha Mascarenhas

Elon Musk’s xAI is sending engineers directly into the offices of prospective corporate clients in an attempt to claw business customers away from rivals OpenAI and Anthropic PBC. The hands-on approach helped xAI land payments company Shift4 Payments Inc., which now plans to phase out OpenAI’s ChatGPT in favor of xAI’s Grok after the on-site work. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

New Coatue fund

NEW: For my newsletter this week, I wrote about why many Americans are feeling negative about AI, and how the industry is confronting that reality w/ sharp insights from @lulumeservey @altcap @jimprosser and others bloomberg.com/news/newslette…

@katiebindley This makes me so happy

Me: publishing stories for decades My dad: you have done it again this is on par w the moon landing

@amyecheetham I can’t with Salt & Straw but will happily do Swensens any day of the week

@nmasc_ Does salt & straw make the cut?!

Suddenly available for soft serve and spritz meetings this week 🍦🍦🍦

Bloomberg's AI + VC reporting team is hiring a new editor based in San Francisco! Been an absolutely amazing, ambitious (and growing!) team to be a part of, more details on the new role below bloomberg.avature.net/careers/JobDet…

Enterprise AI automation startup Standard Template Labs raised a $49M seed co-led by Iconiq and CRV, a source says at a $300M post-money valuation (@nmasc_ / Bloomberg) bloomberg.com/news/articles/… #a260317p19" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">techmeme.com/260317/p19#a26… 📥 Send tips! techmeme.com/contact

@msurguy oh that is awesome!!

@nmasc_ There’s definitely movement and companies sponsoring re-skilling. My kid told me that “hour of code” is now “hour of AI” and some activities are sponsored by Amazon. code.org/en-US/hour-of-…

After having weeks of doomsday conversations with some of my smartest friends about AI displacement... I have to wonder: Why is there no standout edtech company synonymous with AI re-skilling? I'm sure folks are trying, but why hasn't there been a break out yet?

@MetacriticCap Yeah Duolingo and Khan Academy remain the household names. And maybe Sketchy for doctors?

@nmasc_ edtech is a very big graveyard with Duolingo being the exception that proves the rule. Also, funding AI skilling is extremely anti-bitter-lesson-pilled. Can you put down a check today expecting liquidity in 2036 for such edtech?

Edtech was my first official beat in tech (thanks to @DannyCrichton!) I watched VC money flood the sector during early COVID, and while many of those companies spiked and then struggled, I’m still surprised the AI boom hasn’t sparked a second edtech wave, or even a ripple

@shiraviii @kiankatan @workera_ oh hey i know @kiankatan :)

@nmasc_ @kiankatan’s company @workera_ is leading this!

@varunkhurana99 interesting pov

@nmasc_ because the reality is ai skills...aren't that hard. 85% of the value for individuals talking in english to the chat box of the LLM and this is increasingly getting better. the final 15% of chaining complex ai workflows can be done at an org level not an individual level

@RohitKGoenka looking now! nice ux

@nmasc_ Not sure if you would categorize them as 'AI re-skilling edtech', but Oboe seems interesting. oboe.com

@ashwinl I would think B2B will prioritize layoffs and up-skilling at the same time. I agree that consumers will be a tiny fraction.

@nmasc_ Who’s going to pay? Today’s tracks: 1: Consumers - happening, but small $ 2: B2B - prioritizing layoffs 3: Private universities - slow 4: Public sector - (very) slow

@alexvoica Pls keep me in the loop!

@nmasc_ 👋 Expect to see some interesting tech from Synthesia exactly on this point later this year!

@bwagy Yeah Masterclass would need to be mastering the byte-sized lessons lol

@nmasc_ I guess really, the demand would be spread across the whole education industry?

@etherington Interesting! Will pay more attention to Every, didn't realize that was a focus Yeah I'm not smart enough to have suggestions on how form factor can look, but surprised we aren't seeing Mercor/Cursor doing up-skilling bootcamps as a marketing move

I would say I think Every is trying to do that to some extent, as are a lot of the professional service firms to varying degrees, but also one major issue with anyone 'owning' this is the pace at which things are changing. It's very hard to credibly offer a reselling program when the skill and capability set is changing to fast. Intro to AI programs on Coursera etc feel hilariously outdated even when they're only like 8 months old

@ranjanxroy Research labs should subsidize** quickly

@nmasc_ Research labs would subsume quickly