Shreyas T.

Another interesting startups whose fundraise I covered this week: @MiravoiceAI a startup using AI voice agents to conduct long-form phone surveys, raised $6.3M in a seed funding round. Miravoice has developed an AI interviewer that it says can conduct phone surveys and voice interviews for “precision data collection” without human interviewers. The surveys are long-form and quantitative, with some including more than 120 questions and lasting over 40 minutes. They span open-ended responses, numerical inputs, multiple choice questions, Likert scales and matrix questions. “Imagine talking to 100,000 people and instantly capturing what they know,” said CEO and co-founder @najain. “We make that as simple as creating a Google Form.” @Unusual_VC led the financing, which included participation from Neo, @25m_official and angel investors from companies such as Ramp, PubMatic, Atlassian and Google.

@bayareawriter @MiravoiceAI Thanks so much for covering us!

@najain @MiravoiceAI @Unusual_VC @neo @25m_official If you'd like to explore how AI can help your business collect survey and interview data, schedule some time with us at miravoice.com/schedule-demo!

I’m thrilled to share that @MiravoiceAI has raised $6.3M from @Unusual_VC, @neo, and @25m_official to reinvent the way the world collects data.

@najain @MiravoiceAI @Unusual_VC @neo @25m_official Can't wait to spread voice AI to more professionals and researchers around the world -- we're just getting started!

If you'd like to explore how AI can help your business collect survey and interview data, schedule some time with me at miravoice.com/schedule-demo!

So excited to ring in this next chapter for Miravoice! We've had the pleasure of placing >100k calls for incredibly thoughtful survey researchers already, & we can't wait to hear from more respondents around the world! Schedule time with me for sales inquiries! Link below!

@max_spero_ Or lack of punctuation, rather

@max_spero_ I was able to identify which text was AI generated, but I thought that only the AI wizards/healers one was better written. It’s not breathless profundity as much as the lack of a unique voice imo. Cormac’s punctuation is jarring and intentional. AI text flows, but feels generic

So I took the quiz, but I don’t actually think the right takeaway is that AI writing has broader appeal. AI is great at writing locally consistent passages, and can inject a sense of profundity into its prose, but all we can evaluate in these short passages is prose. Part of what makes AI slop (at least the stock ChatGPT style) so tiring to read is its breathless profundity is everywhere by default. It’s like a guy who yells all the time - he’s not getting your point across any better than the guy who speaks at an appropriate volume and only raises their voice when it matters. And it’s really hard evaluate how appropriate the tone is when you only have a few sentences and zero context (and in the AI’s case, there is no context?) Finally, I think they chose Opus 4.5 as it has a writing style that most people aren’t familiar with. I think if they chose any OpenAI model, the general public would be able to tell and would choose the other option out of general disgust for AI-sounding writing.

@max_spero_ @tenderizzation Taking a vegetarian there is unhinged behavior lmao

@tenderizzation She's vegetarian

proof? i only see fruit and vegetables on that plate

@captgouda24 @MalloryMable @adrusi Normative judgments about “right” and “wrong” are embedded into what we define as efficient, no? Whatever you’re optimizing for is not devoid of moral judgments

@MalloryMable @adrusi That could be efficient, yes

I believe, quite strongly, that our juvenile justice system should not exist. Everyone should be treated equally. You get stuff like this only because we are unwilling to actually punish teenagers as they ought to be.

@StoneJack Have to study more, but my initial take is that polling was fine, but error went towards the GOP and we did have a Red Wave across the board. Tactical punditry about Kamala’s campaign seems silly—this was a secular shift in line with opposition parties winning around the world.

@2Shreyz But they were off by significantly more than 2 points in a lot of states. He does tho

Quite a shocking election for those who followed the polling industry and not all the other signs. Maybe Pelosi and Obama’s instincts of running a process instead of a coronation were right?

@StoneJack There will be more written about this in coming weeks, I’m sure, but Lakshya Jain over at Split Ticket has some interesting posts about this: x.com/lxeagle17/stat…

@2Shreyz Really? I’m not seeing that in the NYT Siena polls at all

@alz_zyd_ The idea was that teaching students to actualize CS concepts via functional programming languages intros them to CS theory versus software eng and also levels the playing field bc so many students come in with programming experience (not that it actually did, ofc)

@alz_zyd_ Yale's intro CS class (as distinct from the intro programming classes) was taught in Racket when I was there and covered similar, though not identical, material.

Random Q do most schools teach some version of SICP by default to CS major undergrads, or is that kind of an MIT/a few other schools thing (I read parts of it at some point and enjoyed it a lot but thought it seemed a bit abstract)

@bendreyfuss It's not illegitimate, but coverage doesn't exist in a vacuum; we should be wary of whether public opinion is shaped more by the biases and economic incentives of our newsrooms or the event itself

I just fundamentally disagree with the view of public opinion that it can only legitimately be influenced by a news event and when it is influenced by subsequent coverage which builds off the event it is somehow illegitimate.

@KyleBumpus @ArmandDoma You're completely missing my point. Yes, building screws requires special equipment while most people have cooking equipment at home. That said, people likely have a (mistaken) belief that fast food is more similar to building screws in that scale => lower prices

@2Shreyz @ArmandDoma Because building screws requires special equipment most people don't have. Everyone already has the equipment to cook at home.

why would this ever be the case? should fast food workers pay you for the privilege of making your food

@ArmandDoma Yeah, that makes sense -- my guess is that people think of fast food as more akin to manufacturing widgets (production involves more machinery than labor) than a service-driven industry, which is why they have this belief

@2Shreyz labor costs are like 30%+ of fast food gross income

@KyleBumpus @ArmandDoma I don't disagree; I'm just saying that this isn't an unreasonable belief to have. Economies of scale in other industries do, in fact, mean that companies can sometimes produce goods more cheaply than folks can at home (try building your own screws, for example).

@2Shreyz @ArmandDoma Food at grocery stores to use to cook at home benefit from the same scale advantages, probably moreso.