Welcome, humans.

We (Noah & Pete) finally met in person! We’ve been running The Neuron completely remotely for five months. Wild.

We know what you’re all wondering: who has more cats?! It’s a secret… 😺

Here’s what’s going on in the world of AI today:

• AI is helping investors screen potential targets.

• Microsoft Designer is launching in preview in Teams.

• Baidu’s founder raised a $145M AI fund.

• Nvidia’s Neuralangelo transforms 2D vids into 3D representations!

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VCs Are Using AI To Inform Decisions 🛠

What tech VCs do on the weekend is what the rest of businesses will do a year from now.

Leading venture and private equity firms are already using AI to optimize the investment selection process, according to the FT.

They’re tapping AI’s brainpower and stamina to sort through metrics — whether it be earnings transcripts or web traffic — to filter which targets are worthwhile.

And it’s saving time. Like lots…

• Headline (VC firm) said that partners can “focus on thousands, rather than millions, of companies” by telling models what to prioritize.

• London-based Moonfire is also using AI to sort through roughly 50,000 startups every week.

Why it matters: AI is increasingly filling the “investment analyst” role, enhancing productivity big time. But the most important skill still lies in making the big calls, like determining which companies to actually invest in.

AI might help in PE, where the rules are more scripted, but having that “gut feeling” to identify the next unicorn might take a few more years.

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Microsoft “Text-To-Design” Is Here 🎨

Microsoft might be old, but they sure are shipping like a startup.

Yesterday, they announced that Designer, its “text-to-design” tool, is opening up in preview to Windows 11 communities. It hasn’t seen much buzz about it, but we think it’s pretty intelligent.

Designer uses DALL-E 2 to convert text prompts into designs for images, banners, and posters. No more browsing endless templates.

For instance, one person created a dozen versions of Twitter banners using the template: “A

The big positioning is AI on top of the regular design suite:

Like with text, users can generate drafts of designs and then enhance them with regular features like background removal and inserting text (check out this awesome video tutorial).

Why it matters: DALL-E might’ve fallen behind in 2023, but its integration into Microsoft’s design product could be a nice add-on for social media marketers.

Around the Horn 🦄

• Inside the growing (and boring) trend of podcasts made by AI.

• Baidu cofounder and CEO Robin Li is launching a $145 million fund to support generative AI startups.

• Amazon is using AI software to detect damaged items before they are shipped to customers.

• OpenAI is launching a $1 million grant program to bolster AI-powered cybersecurity efforts.

• Microsoft is planning to spend billions on GPUs from infrastructure startup CoreWeave (which raised $200 million on Wednesday).

Treats To Try 🍿

• StonksGPT is an AI search tool for stocks and finance data.

• Speechki is a ChatGPT plugin that transforms texts into engaging audio with AI voices.

• ChatSEO is a ChatGPT wrapper trained on 50k words of expert SEO content.

• Roll uses various AI models to simplify the video production process on iOS.

• Rep uses behavioral AI to deliver personalized shopping experiences.

DM us links on Twitter: @nonmayorpete & @noahedelman02.

Friday Find 🔏

Not 1D. Not 2D. 3D!

Nvidia’s new AI model, Neuralangelo (what a name!), transforms 2D videos into highly-detailed 3D representations.

It uses a method called Instant NeRF on top of traditional photogrammetry to detect literally every single detail of a video.

Check out the magic for yourself!

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A Cat's Commentary 😻

That's all we have for today. Have a great weekend! See you cool cats on Twitter if you're there: @nonmayorpete & @noahedelman02.