Tech:NYC Digest: December 8

Tech:NYC Digest: December 8

December 08, 2022 • Estimated Reading Time: 7 minutes

Thursday, December 8, 2022

Hello from AI Summit New York, where we just wrapped up the final day of a lot of great conversations (more on that below). In today’s digest, staying safe during the “tri-demic,” NYC’s ambitious new housing plan, and how AI suddenly went mainstream.

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  • Gov. Kathy Hochul said the state is bracing for a “tri-demic” as the holiday season gets underway. Flu cases are spiking and there are no vaccines or antiviral medicines for RSV, a virus primarily impacting children. (CBS News)

    • Nationwide, the US has never recorded as many positive flu tests as it did just two weeks ago. (Vox)

    • In related news: the FDA authorized updated COVID vaccine booster shorts for kids as young as six months. (Axios)

  • Mayor Eric Adams today unveiled an ambitious "moonshot" goal to build 500,000 housing units by 2032, along with a plan to streamline development regulations that slow down the construction of new housing. (Gothamist)

  • State authorities overseeing the leasing of cannabis dispensaries have announced the first retail site, opening on 125th Street in Harlem. (THE CITY)

  • The MTA’s recent $1.7 billion order of 640 “futuristic” train cars spells the end of the cars with orange and yellow plastic seats arranged in groups of twos and threes. See the new design here.

In other reading:

  • In Praise of the Subway Exit Gate (Curbed)

  • The 10 Worst Dishes in NYC of 2022 (Eater NY)

AI Summit New York returned this year, and the timing couldn’t have been better — I don’t know about you, but our feeds have been dominated by a standout conversational AI chatbot and a viral AI avatar app for days now.

AI has quickly become one of the verticals leading NYC’s tech ecosystem, and at the summit, New York City Economic Development Corporation Andrew Kimball declared there’s “perhaps no innovation with more potential than AI today.”

  • More than $9 billion of the $55 billion in venture capital investments in New York last year went to AI companies, representing 383 deals.

  • NYC also has the highest concentration of AI and machine learning jobs, about 13% of the nation’s total AI/ML workforce.

More than ever, AI startups are having real-world impact:

  • NYC-based Dataminr, for example, has become a leading AI platform to detect real-time signals of emerging risks using public data. In early 2021, it warned US Capitol security officials of the online public chatter that would turn into the January 6 riots.

  • Following their latest funding round in 2021, the company is valued at more than $4 billion.

By 2030, it’s estimated that 70% of companies — across all kinds of industries — will be using some form of AI to grow their businesses.

  • UiPath, another NYC homegrown company, is using AI to help organizations in health care, real estate, education, and more automate repetitive front and back-office tasks and scale their digital business operations.

  • The company went public last year, making it one of the largest software IPOs in US history.

The commercialization of AI technologies will only accelerate, said Kimball, and “we need to leverage our core industries as testbeds for new AI applications.”

Our takeaway: AI has perhaps hit an inflection point; it’s now gone from an abstract model to a mainstream tool, both inside and outside of the tech industry alike.

In other reading: 

  • The 2022 Status Of Remote Work And Top Future Predictions (Forbes)

  • Enterprise software is one of the few bright spots in the city’s tech scene (Crain’s New York Business)

  • GigFinesse, a NYC-based platform that connects live music venues with artists, raised $3.6 million in seed funding. Participating investors include Bessemer Ventures Partners, Cosmic Venture Partner, and a group of individuals. (Newswire)

  • Juno Medical, a NYC-based primary care startup focused on underserved communities, raised $12 million in Series A funding. Serena Ventures and NEXT Ventures co-led the round. (Newswire)

  • Lokavant, a NYC-based clinical trial intelligence company, raised $21 million in funding. Edison Partners led the round. (Newswire)

  • December 13: In-person and virtual: December Fundraising Workshop, with Greycroft partner Ellie Wheeler. Hosted by Silicon Valley Bank. Register here.

  • December 13: In-person: Entrepreneurs and the New Tech Frontier, Techstars NYC managing director Gary Stewart, 82VS president Trier Bryant, givepact co-founder and CEO Alicia Cepeda Maule, and more. Hosted by the Center for Urban Professionals. Register here. 

  • December 15: In-person: Hardware Holiday Party, a casual gathering to celebrate the NYC hardware community. Hosted by Newlab, informal, and NY Hardware Meetup. Register here.

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