Sharon Williams’ Post

SB 1047, the proposed AI bill that hurts startups, open source developers, and academia, moved closer to becoming law this week with a committee approval in the CA Legislature. Many in the CA Assembly think the bill's problems have been "fixed," but this is far from reality: This is not just a minor state bill; it's a significant overreach that would determine the future of AI for the country, while ignoring repeated feedback and concerns from Little Tech about the bill's unintended consequences https://lnkd.in/gtUSQ-vt The amendments made before this week's committee hearing do not address the most fundamental problem with the bill - restricting AI research instead of regulating misuses of models. Even more troubling, the latest amendments make the bill worse. https://lnkd.in/gpPPGc3C With the August vote deadline looming, it's more important than ever for Little Tech—startups, researchers, and the open-source AI community at large—to voice concerns about SB 1047. In the next few days, we will be amplifying the voices that Scott Wiener's team has ignored. If you'd like to speak up against the bill, please sign up here. We will reach out to you for your help https://lnkd.in/gMtv2G4t

Announcing...the top 100 consumer genAI apps, from our team Andreessen Horowitz! We ranked every AI web product by usage - and for the first time, ranked mobile apps too. Consumer AI is moving fast, with some major updates since our last ranks 6 months ago. Our takeaways: 1. The pace of progress is breakneck. In our web ranks, ChatGPT kept the lead, and eight of the top ten were consistent from our last list. But, the list also saw 22 new entrants out of 50 (44%!) - plus, major moves up from companies like Gamma and ElevenLabs. 2. New categories have landed. Suno debuts as the first Music co in our rankings, after launching a prompt -> song generation site in December 2023. The Productivity category debuted with seven companies. Six of these offer Chrome extensions for users to inject AI into their workflows. 3. Companionship grows up. Eight companion products made the web list, up from two in our last ranks - and two made the mobile list. Companion mobile apps in particular have unusually high engagement. The Character.AI app sees nearly 300 sessions per user per month. 4. Mobile unlocks new use cases. Thanks to the unique features of the smartphone as a platform, a few product types reign supreme: - ChatGPT "copycats" - Avatar generators (selfies = training data) - Messaging keyboards - Edtech (homework scanner, live language coach, etc.) 5. AI is a global pursuit. The SF Bay Area took the crown on both web and mobile. 30% of web products + 12% of mobile apps were developed here. But, ~60% of the combined top 100 originated outside the U.S. - with global app studios like Codeway and HubX taking 3 spots each. Check out the full piece here for more of the trends we're seeing in consumer AI: https://lnkd.in/gmWyU9kU And if you're building here, reach out!

Andreessen Horowitz co-founder Ben Horowitz and general partner David Ulevitch joined Morgan L Brennan at the firm's American Dynamism 50: AI Edition Summit in Washington to discuss the American tech and defense sectors especially in regards to competitors like China. “America’s ahead in AI, but the American government is behind the Chinese government in its deployment and use of AI, particularly in a military context,” Horowitz said. For more, watch the full interview:

Amperity is hiring! We are looking for a partner engagement manager to work directly with our cloud partners as well as internal stakeholders. If you have project management, sales, operations, and/or partner skills shoot me a message to learn more about this role.