Welcome to #240Tech - our weekly round up of technology news we found interesting and occasionally, something #completelydifferent
The hospitality industry is in a €10b comms crisis reports, well, chatlyn. The #startup which has secured €8 million in Series A funding led by Smedvig Ventures is on a mission to become “the AI brain for hotels”—an intelligent system supporting front desk, reservations, marketing, and guest services while autonomously optimizing guest communications to maximize revenue and satisfaction.
Fragmented guest‑communication systems, missed booking opportunities, inefficient staff workflows and the chaos generated by trying to juggle multiple platforms for guest messaging—WhatsApp, email, booking channels is both frustrating and overwhelming. Where have you been all this time, #chatlyn? https://lnkd.in/eq_ppBJx
Food waste is one of the industry's most intractable problems. Andrew Shakman, CEO of Leanpath believes AI might be the missing link. 'AI is most powerful when it adds context to decision making through triangulating ... the different data sets trapped in disparate food technology silos such as POS data sets, inventory data sets and waste data sets. Triangulating these with a layer of AI will enable businesses to see things they couldn't see before' and bring the industry closer to a less wasteful solution. https://lnkd.in/e6AMKbP8
+ Tiny edible lasers made with olive oil and coconut oil? What will they think of next? Who knows but these microlasers can be embedded in food and use a funkily named principle called ‘whispering gallery mode resonance‘ to tell you if your food is edible when 'excited'. So much more exciting than 'use by' dates! The Spoon https://lnkd.in/eXgRkNCK
#ChatGPT is just 2.5 years old. The industry has spent over $12billion building AI tools since it was launched. But what do its 1.8b users use it for? Daily users do research, write, code and create. Some use it for relationship coaching and others for managing childcare. And what of the top ten ways people use AI? Drumrollllll pllllleaaaase: writing emails!
The State of Consumer AI Report 2025 by Menlo Ventures will either leave you disappointed or hopeful, depending on which side of the 'Should we be outsourcing our brains to AI' debate you sit. https://lnkd.in/ec_enAYP
+ Anthropic wants very smart people to start thinking about the 'potential fallout from AI, from job losses to risks to humanity.' Sounds like an existential worry. The AI #startup will share answers and questions at future conferences. https://lnkd.in/eB-_rDM6
+ Sifted launched its AVP Transtlantic Founder Index. 250 startup founders discuss the risks, challenges and opportunities on either side of the pond. A few surprises in there. Download here: https://lnkd.in/e7J5DDtX
And finally,
+ Minimalism comes for Microsoft's blue screen of death, after 40 years. Was it a mid-life crisis? https://lnkd.in/e2qDvcZH
