Eleven Labs and what else? The most promising AI startups | AI in business #100

Among them is Eleven Labs, a leader in the field of generative voices. Eleven Labs is opening new horizons for film, television, marketing, and business video production. Let us introduce you to a few AI startups that are poised to revolutionize various economic sectors with their groundbreaking projects. Read on.

AI startups

The pace of development of artificial intelligence is exceeding all previous expectations and forecasts. The size of the global artificial intelligence market was estimated at $454.12 billion in 2022. By 2032, it will reach a value of approximately $2575.16 billion. Startups using AI are opening up new opportunities in areas like:

• generating content – for example, automatic video and text creation,
• translation – facilitating intercultural communication,
• business processes automation – repeatedly increasing the efficiency of work,
• chatbots and virtual assistants – improving customer service and making it available 24 hours a day,
• business analysis and predictive models – supporting decision-making, planning and resource management,
• content personalization and recommendations – tailoring the offer to the needs of each customer.

AI startups face a huge opportunity as well as significant challenges, such as attracting talented professionals, combating stereotypes and fears associated with the “machine revolt,” and discussions about the ethics and regulation of the AI sector. These issues must be properly addressed to ensure that the technology develops sustainably and ethically.

Source: Precedence Research (https://www.precedenceresearch.com/artificial–intelligence–market)

Eleven Labs, or generative voices

ElevenLabs, which uses AI to generate and clone voices, has recently become a unicorn startup, a company valued at more than $1 billion. ElevenLabs raised $80 million in a B round of funding led by venture capitalist Andreessen Horowitz, giving it a valuation of $1.1 billion.

Other investors included former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross, who has previously invested in companies like Uber, Coinbase and Instacart.

ElevenLabs has announced a series of new products, including:

• a tool for dubbing movies,
• a library of voices where users will be able to share their recordings,
• a mobile app that converts text to audio.

ElevenLabs has already partnered with a number of media organizations, such as Storytel, the Washington Post, and several gaming companies. The biggest excitement, however, is the latest partnership with The Walt Disney Company – on February 22, the startup announced that it will participate in the 2024 Disney Accelerator program.

Eleven Labs has become a leader in the field of generative speech synthesis, offering tools such as Voice Studio for creating realistic speech in multiple languages. The company is also working on an AI dubbing system that has the potential to revolutionize the film and TV dubbing industry by preserving the original voice of the actors.

Source: Eleven Labs (https://elevenlabs.io/about)

Holistic AI – trusted AI

Holistic AI is a UK-based company that provides end-to-end trust, security, and compliance solutions for AI systems. Its founders, Dr. Adriano Koshiyama and Dr. Emre Kazim, were the first to define the concept of “responsible AI” through interdisciplinary work combining ethics with ML expertise. Holistic AI helps organizations safely deploy artificial intelligence at scale, manage potential risks, and facilitate regulatory compliance.

At the heart of the platform is the AI compliance management module. It allows companies to continuously audit models for compliance with the regulations of a given market. The solution also provides comprehensive monitoring of the risks associated with individual AI systems. It includes an assessment of the effectiveness, resilience, fairness, or explainability of algorithm performance. Reports provide specific strategies to minimize identified risks.

Holisitic AI is popular with large companies. Its customers include leading Fortune 500 corporations, state governments, and insurance institutions. The startup also actively shares knowledge in the field of Governance and Risk Management by publishing industry reports and white papers, as well as organizing events.

Source: Holistic AI (https://www.holisticai.com/)

Anthropic, or a responsible chatbot

Anthropic is one of the more interesting AI startups that treats system security and transparency as key pillars of its business. The company builds reliable machine-learning models that are also easy to interpret and control. Anthropic’s founders believe that artificial intelligence can have a huge positive impact on humanity if only we steer its development in the right direction.

One of Anthropic’s first products is Claude, a chatbot created with user safety in mind. It was designed to avoid hurting human feelings and causing controversy. Claude can carry on a conversation in a natural way and perform tasks such as data analysis and coding.

The startup actively shares its knowledge with others interested in the safe development of AI. It conducts groundbreaking research and publishes its findings in the form of reports and case studies. Anthropic also works closely with NGOs, regulators, and academia. The company believes that only a holistic approach to AI, taking into account the interests of different stakeholders, will allow its full potential to be realized for the benefit of humanity.

Runway – make videos from text

Runway is a startup that develops AI tools for creating videos based on text or photos. They allow anyone – even those with no technical skills – to create high-quality videos without the need for expensive studios or months of work. As a result, the platform is used by tens of thousands of creators, advertising agencies, and production companies.

At the heart of the solution is a library of machine learning models that automatically animate objects, convert text to speech, and generate realistic faces and scenery. In addition, Runway provides ready-made templates, special effects, and the ability to add audio backgrounds or subtitles. Final compositions can be exported in 4K for commercial use.

Runway has attracted interest from major technology companies. Google, Nvidia, Red Bull, and even a Hollywood movie studio CBS are among its partners and investors. The product itself has won numerous awards from organizations in the advertising and animation industries. The creators are also actively promoting AI education, including a free training platform called Runway Academy.

Augmenta – AI on the construction site

Augmenta is one of the most interesting startups in the construction industry that uses AI to automate design. The entire process is based on a proprietary “Generative Design” model, which autonomously prepares plans following regulations and architectural guidelines. This significantly reduces design time while minimizing the risk of errors and ambiguities.

Augmenta’s flagship product is a cloud-based platform for designing electrical installations. Based on defined requirements, it generates finished, detailed plans with material lists, diagrams, and specifications in a matter of hours. The entire process is done remotely via a browser, without the need for expensive specialists. In addition, the designer can easily test alternative solutions and select the most optimal one in terms of cost, construction time, or energy consumption.

Augmenta plans to further develop the platform with modules for designing structures and plumbing systems. VC funds have also taken an interest in the startup, with the latest seed round closing at $5.6 million.

Source: Augmenta AI (https://www.augmenta.ai/)

Beewise – AI for bees

Can artificial intelligence and robotics help…bees? Beewise shows that it most certainly can. This Israeli startup has developed an innovative system for monitoring the health of insects, crucial to humanity’s food security. The solution combines sensors, cameras, and AI models to detect potential threats in hives, such as disease, pests, and food shortages.

The Beewise system can independently analyze the collected data in search of disturbing anomalies. It then notifies the beekeeper through a dedicated app of potential problems that require intervention. This allows for an immediate response, significantly increasing the insects’ chances of survival. Importantly, the solution works completely autonomously. There is no need for the farmer to be involved.

The startup estimates that its system can reduce bee mortality by up to 70%. At the current rate of pollinator extinction, Beewise’s invention could be crucial to global food security. So it’s no surprise that the company is steadily expanding its customer base among growers and ranchers around the world.

Summary

The spectrum of AI applications is extremely broad. It’s hard to find an area where artificial intelligence can’t be used to change how things work. From voice translation (Eleven Labs), to providing trust in algorithms (Holistic AI), chatbots (Anthropic), and video generators (Runway), to optimizing design processes (Augmenta) and monitoring the health of bees (Beewise).

Building trustworthy models with security and ethics in mind is critical to the continued success of AI startups. Only such an approach will allow the technology to reach its full potential for the benefit of humanity.

Given the pace at which artificial intelligence is evolving, we can expect a real explosion of new AI applications in almost every aspect of our lives in the coming years. The bold visions and innovative solutions of the startups presented here give us a glimpse of what an exciting future awaits us.

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