🤖 July roundup: AI news, new models to try, and bonus prompts

A recap of July in the world of AI — giving you everything you need to know to keep crushing it with your AI cofounder.

Hey friends 👋

Welcome to the first FWAI monthly roundup!

On the last Tuesday of the month, Founding with AI will feature a recap of the world of AI — giving you everything you need to know to keep crushing it with your AI cofounder:

• Bonus prompts

• Important developments in AI

• The latest apps and tools

• Resources from around the web

• and more.

And the best part? These monthly roundups are free to everyone. No subscription required.

We’ve got a lot of ground to cover. Let’s get to it. 👇

Cool new tools

Speech-To-Note — it’s like any other meeting summariser, except there’s no one else in the meeting.

MrScraper — you don’t need a developer to scrape and collect data off the internet and put it to good use.

From the headlines

Conversational AI comes to search

This month, OpenAI launched SearchGPT, a prototype of new AI search features.

It combines the capabilities of their AI models with information from the live web to provide fast and relevant answers to user queries. This follows in the footsteps of Gemini and Bing on the AI side, and Arc Browser on the search side, but with a more conversational approach to finding a single answer.

Huge VC checks: rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated

Investments in generative AI startups aren't slowing down, with $12.3 billion raised in the first half of 2024.

However, the funding is being consolidated into a shrinking number of early-stage ventures:

Investors are betting on big startups they see as having a high chance of success, while letting smaller startups "wither away" at the earlier stages.

But will it last?

AI startups are still grappling with legal & regulatory uncertainty and increasing costs, which could lead to a potential funding slowdown.

Stay tuned.

OpenAI has joined the waiting room...

OpenAI’s enterprise-focused products are driving significant revenue growth, expected to exceed $3.4bn this year, which has spurred a series of acquisitions of late, including their latest — Multi, a startup developing an enterprise-focused, video-first collaboration platform.

In other words: a Zoom competitor.

So, I guess, we’re about to get a lot more AI assistants in the meeting chat... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

AI is always in trouble with the law…

ChatGPT can provide medical advice with roughly the same accuracy as a physician chat, but hallucinates wildly when you ask it for legal advice.

But specialised startups are trying:

Harvey, an AI-powered "copilot" for lawyers, has raised $100 million in a Series C round led by GV, in a very crowded market. The startup, founded by a former litigator and a former AI researcher, uses OpenAI's GPT-4 to assist lawyers with legal tasks like answering questions, reviewing contracts, and drafting filings.

Naturally, it comes with a disclaimer:

The tool isn’t meant to provide legal advice to nonlawyers and should be used under the supervision of licensed attorneys.

So, problem solved, I guess?

New models

OpenAI launched GPT-4o mini, a cost-efficient, high-performing small AI model intended for faster performance in real-world applications. Those of you on the free tier of ChatGPT will be using this model instead of the older 3.5.

Similarly, Anthropic released Claude 3.5 Sonnet, which outperforms its previous flagship model Claude 3 Opus on several benchmarks —specifically, it’s faster and better at analysing images and transcribing text.

While both of these models represent incremental progress, major breakthroughs in AI are becoming more rare as the field matures.

Tutorial of the week

How to design an online course using AI, from our friends at Creators’ AI.

Bonus prompts!

No issue of Founding with AI would be complete without prompts you can run right now. So here are three simple, quick prompts to tackle specific tasks in your entrepreneurial journey.

Of course, these are considerably simpler than the prompts you’ll find in the weekly issues of FWAI. :)

Find industry trends to help with your market timing:

Analyze current and emerging trends within the [industry] that could significantly impact my business, [brief business description]. Focus on the following key areas:

Technological advancements: Identify new technologies that are disrupting traditional practices or creating new market opportunities.

Customer behavior: Examine shifts in consumer preferences, buying habits, and pain points in your industry.

Economic factors: Analyze economic trends (inflation, market conditions, etc.) that could affect costs, pricing, or demand.

Regulatory changes: Identify upcoming legislation or regulations that might impact operations or compliance.

Competitive landscape: Assess changes in competitor strategies, new entrants, and potential industry consolidation.

Source: LivePlan

For an even better result, try using your Startup Core as your business description:

I am going to give you my Startup Core, a four-question summary of my startup company. You are going to analyze current and emerging trends within my industry that could significantly impact my business.

Focus on the following key areas:

...

# Startup Core =

{your startup core}

Generate solution ideas to the problem you want to solve:

I am an entrepreneur coming up with ideas for a scalable startup.

Here is a problem I want to solve: [description].

Can you generate 10 different business ideas for solving this problem in the [market]? Use market research to ensure each idea is feasible and profitable.

Source: Forbes (I made a few tweaks)

By the way, this also works to ideate around any problem you might want to solve — just tweak a few words and give it a go!

Find & analyse competitors in your niche:

I am a startup founder doing competitive analysis. My startup is [summary].

Please conduct market research to identify:

- Who are the main competitors in my niche?

- What are the unique selling points of my competitors’ products?

Additionally, please provide feedback on how well differentiated I am, and provide suggestions for how I might create a stronger, more compelling offering.

Source: JDM

As with the above trends prompt, you’ll get better results by using your Startup Core.

Lastly, in case you missed it...

Here’s what’s been going on in this newsletter this month:

🤖 Use AI to develop & test a model, using the "Startup Core"

🤖 How to write a killer elevator pitch

And that concludes this monthly round up. See you next week,

—jdm

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