Estonia’s AI Leap Transforms Education, Google Tests AI-Only Search Engine with AI Mode, and McDonald’s Rolls Out AI-Driven Makeover
Artificial Intelligence news nº 61/2025
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News 🗞️📰
Estonia Launches AI Leap Initiative with OpenAI and Anthropic to Transform Education: Estonia partners with US tech giants to provide free AI tools to 20,000 high school students and train 3,000 teachers, aiming to boost critical thinking and prepare students for future jobs, with a €3.2M budget set to grow to €6M.
Deutsche Telekom Unveils Revolutionary AI-Enabled Phone with Perplexity Assistant: Deutsche Telekom is developing a voice-controlled, app-less AI phone that integrates Perplexity Assistant alongside Google Cloud AI, ElevenLabs, and Picsart. Powered by Magenta AI, the device will streamline tasks like booking taxis, flights, and reservations, with additional AI tools available on the MeinMagenta app for existing smartphones.
McDonald’s AI Makeover Transforms Restaurant Operations: McDonald’s is deploying AI-driven edge computing across its 43,000 restaurants to boost order accuracy, detect equipment issues proactively, and streamline operations with tools like computer vision, voice-activated drive-throughs, and a generative AI virtual manager.
AI Disruption Reshapes Online Traffic Landscape: Data from SEMRush reveals that AI-powered search is cutting traffic for legacy platforms like WebMD, Quora, Stack Overflow, Chegg, G2, and CNET, while community-focused sites such as Reddit, Wikipedia, and Substack are thriving amid what Brian Balfour dubs "Product-Market Fit Collapse."
Google Tests AI-Only Search Engine with AI Mode: Alphabet launches an experimental search experience for Google One AI Premium subscribers that replaces traditional blue links with a comprehensive AI-generated summary, powered by a custom Gemini 2.0 model designed for complex queries and interactive follow-ups.
OpenAI’s Startup Empire Expands Across Diverse AI Ventures: The OpenAI Startup Fund, with $175M in its main fund and an additional $114M via SPVs, has backed over a dozen startups across sectors such as robotics, healthcare, legal tech, and edtech. Notable investments include 1X’s $23.5M round for humanoid robotics, Ambience Healthcare’s $70M Series B for AI medical note-taking, and Figure AI’s $675M Series B that valued it at $2.6B, highlighting strategic partnerships with investors like Microsoft and others.
Mistral Urges European Telcos to Build Data Centers and Become Hyperscalers: At MWC 2025, Mistral CEO Arthur Mensch called on telecom operators to invest in domestic data center infrastructure and reduce reliance on U.S. tech. He emphasized that consolidating telcos and partnering on network upgrades will be key to supporting Europe’s growing AI ecosystem and facilitating personalized data streams for future AI applications.
Funding 💼💸
Anthropic Raises 3.5B in a Series E Round: AI research company Anthropic, raised $3.5B at a $61.5B post-money valuation. The financing round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners with participation from Bessemer Venture Partners, Cisco Investments, D1 Capital Partners, Fidelity Management & Research, General Catalyst, Jane Street, Menlo Ventures, and Salesforce Ventures, to advance next-generation AI systems and global expansion.
Lingopal.ai Raises $14M Series A for Real-Time Speech Translation: Real-time speech-to-speech translation platform Lingopal.ai, founded by CEO Deven Orie and Casey Schneider, secured $14M in an oversubscribed Series A led by DCM Ventures with participation from Scrum Ventures, Marquee Ventures, and prominent angel investors. The plug-and-play solution instantly translates live audio into over 120 languages with low latency, aiming to expand its market reach and further develop its cutting-edge technology.
Tofu Raises $12M Series A for Omnichannel AI Marketing Platform: B2B marketing platform Tofu, led by CEO EJ Cho, secured $12M in Series A funding led by SignalFire with participation from HubSpot Ventures, Tau Ventures, and others, consolidating campaign execution to drive faster content creation and higher engagement.
UnityAI Secures $4M Seed Funding to Revolutionize Hospital Flow: Healthcare startup UnityAI, led by CEO Dr. Edmund Jackson, raised $4M in seed funding led by Max Ventures with participation from Whistler Capital Partners, Nashville Capital Network, and Company Ventures. The company leverages reinforcement learning and LLMs to optimize patient flow and improve hospital operations, drawing on deep industry expertise from former HCA Healthcare professionals.
HeyMilo Raises $2.2M in Seed Funding: NYC-based HeyMilo, co-founded by Sabashan Ragavan and Ramie Raufdeen, secured $2.2M in seed funding led by Canaan Partners with participation from Alumni Ventures and Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator. The AI-powered platform automates candidate screening by conducting adaptive interviews and delivering actionable insights to streamline recruitment.
Skyfora Secures €4M Funding to Repurpose Cell Towers for Weather Forecasting: Helsinki-based Skyfora raised €4M in a round led by Ugly Duckling Ventures and LUMO Labs, with participation from Voima Ventures and the EIC Fund. Their Telecom GNSS Meteorology technology transforms existing cell towers into high-resolution weather sensors, delivering real-time data to power AI-driven forecasts for disaster response, insurance, aviation, and renewable energy.
Prime Intellect Secures $15M to Build a Decentralized AI Future: Prime Intellect raised $15M, backed by Founders Fund, Menlo Ventures, and prominent AI figures like Andrej Karpathy, Clem Delangue, and Emad Mostaque. The funding fuels its mission to create a peer-to-peer compute and intelligence network, with plans to expand GPU marketplaces, launch a decentralized AI model marketplace, enable scalable training, and foster collective ownership through open-source collaborations.
M&A 💰
ServiceNow Expands AI-Powered Manufacturing Solutions with Quality 360 Acquisition: ServiceNow, led by CEO Bill McDermott, has acquired Quality 360—an AI-driven quality management solution developed by Advania (CEO undisclosed)—to enhance its Manufacturing Commercial Operations platform. The move aims to deliver proactive, data-driven insights for defect detection and root cause analysis, helping manufacturers streamline quality control and mitigate operational risks amid complex supply chains.
Behavox Acquires Mosaic Smart Data to Enhance Trade Surveillance: AI insights company Behavox, led by CEO Erkin Adylov, has acquired Mosaic Smart Data—specializing in extracting actionable intelligence from transaction data in FICC markets—to bolster its trade surveillance offerings. The technology, used by institutions like JPMorgan and ING across five continents, is currently undergoing customer testing, with terms undisclosed.
Technis Acquires French Company Videtics to Build a Sovereign European AI Group: Technis, led by CEO Wiktor Bourée, acquires Videtics—a specialist in AI for video surveillance and flow optimization—to bolster its intelligent data solutions for optimizing and securing physical spaces. The deal expands Technis’ tech and AI team by 50% and sets the stage for establishing a sovereign European leader in the sector.
CoreWeave Acquires Weights & Biases to Boost AI Cloud Platform: Nvidia-backed CoreWeave is acquiring AI developer platform Weights & Biases to extend its managed cloud services ahead of its IPO. The deal, which integrates Weights & Biases' AI model training and monitoring tools used by companies like OpenAI and Meta, has undisclosed financial terms and is reported to potentially be valued around $1.7B.
Interesting Reads 💡🤔
Building a Chatbot Without Coding: A Step-by-Step Guide: A comprehensive guide reveals how to create a sophisticated RAG-powered chatbot using the no-code tool Pickaxe. It details steps from selecting a cloud model and uploading CSV datasets to implementing vector embeddings and fine-tuning data retrieval settings, enabling accurate, context-rich responses without writing any code
Entrepreneurs Automate Tasks with Latest AI Tools: Entrepreneurs are leveraging AI models like ChatGPT, Midjourney, and Gemini to automate routine tasks—from email writing to brand development. Platforms like 1minAI offer an all-in-one toolkit, enabling founders to streamline operations and boost productivity for just $39.99, making it easier to focus on strategic growth.
How to Automatically Write Blog Posts with ChatGPT and Zapier: Elena Alston’s guide explains how to automate content creation by integrating ChatGPT with Zapier. The article outlines a step-by-step process—from capturing blog ideas in tools like Trello or Airtable, using a preset prompt to generate drafts in ChatGPT, to sending the output to Google Docs—streamlining your content workflow without manual coding.
Cursor Emerges as a Game-Changer in AI-Driven App Development: Cursor, dubbed "ChatGPT for coding," leverages AI models like Claude 3.5 Sonnet and GPT-4 to transform text prompts into fully functional apps, enabling both novice and experienced developers to rapidly prototype and build software without manual coding.
Generative AI Boosts Kubernetes Demand with Enhanced AI/ML Workload Management: Kubernetes 1.31 (Elli) improves resource efficiency for intensive AI/ML applications, with 54% of enterprises already running AI workloads on the platform. Key developments include NVIDIA's acquisition of Run.ai for distributed orchestration and a shift from VMware as companies migrate to Kubernetes for scalable, data-intensive operations.
Generative AI Adoption Embraces a Beginner's Mindset: In this podcast episode, Clara Shih of Salesforce AI and McKinsey's Lareina Yee discuss how a growth mindset drives AI adoption. They explore unlocking unstructured data with large language models, streamlining workflows, and building trust while transforming customer engagement and operations.
Startups / Tools 🧰🛠️
Tabnine: An AI‑powered code completion tool that provides intelligent suggestions across multiple programming languages.
DeepL Translator: An AI translation tool that delivers high‑quality translations with contextual accuracy for numerous languages.
Lobe: A no‑code AI tool that simplifies building machine learning models through a visual interface.
Diffblue Cover: An AI‑powered tool that automatically generates unit tests for Java code, improving software reliability.
Deepgram: An AI‑powered speech recognition platform that transcribes audio and video content with high accuracy.
InVideo: An online video creation platform that leverages AI to simplify video editing and production for marketers.
Soundraw: An AI music generator that creates customizable, royalty‑free music for videos, games, and podcasts.
Replika: An AI chatbot designed to provide companionship and conversational support with a personalized touch.
Lalal.ai: An AI‑powered vocal and instrumental track remover that isolates or removes audio elements from files.
Murf.ai: An AI voiceover tool that converts text into natural‑sounding speech for presentations and video content.
Botpress: An open‑source conversational AI platform that enables developers to build, deploy, and manage chatbots efficiently.
NTV Highlights 🪩🎉
We are actively looking for AI startups
At Next Tier Ventures, we are actively looking for the next generation of AI startup founders ready to scale and create meaningful impact. Our investments range between $500K and $2M, accompanied by strategic support to help founders achieve their vision.
If you’re building cutting-edge B2B AI solutions let’s connect 👉
http://apply.nexttier.vc
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