el producto #418 đ
The best tech of CES, Meta (un)moderation, OpenAI robots, X Money, PM Portfolios, AI Agents, Product Review questions, Fastest growing jobs, AI toolkits & more
Hi folks đ
Welcome to a new edition of el producto
đ° The week in figures
$97B: Startups in the US raised $209B in 2024, of which a staggering $97B went into AI-related projects. Naturally, a chunk of that figure was built off multi-billion $ rounds raised by xAI, OpenAI, and Anthropic â but not all. Overall, venture investment rose by âabout one-third from 2023,â Bloomberg reports
$1B: Nvidia has made over $1B of investments in startups during 2024, as it tries to extend its ecosystem moat around the GPU business
20: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang predicted it will be 20 years until practical quantum computing, causing sector stocks to sink after a year-long rally
12%: Shares of eBay surged 12% Wednesday after Meta announced a test program allowing eBay listings to appear on Facebook Marketplace in Germany, France, and the U.S., boosting eBayâs visibility and reach
đ° Whatâs going on
Meta steps back on moderation. As tech companies donate to the incoming administrationâs inauguration to try and butter up the next President, Meta is moving to both appease Trump and the next FCC chairperson, Brendan Carr. Carr has been critical of tech companiesâ work with third-party fact-checkers and moderation efforts more generally. So, Meta is getting rid of both. Itâs moving to the community notes model that X has been working on since before the Musk takeover and has become more prominent in recent quarters. Metaâs decision has sparked a surge in backlash, with Google searches like âhow to delete Facebookâ and âFacebook alternativesâ reaching unprecedented levels
Meta's newest advertising strategy is... using your face to advertise to yourself? Users reported seeing their AI-edited selfies repurposed in Instagram ads, creating what they called an âendless room of mirrorsâ effect
OpenAIâs Robot ambition: OpenAIâs new job postings reveal a clear push into robotics, seeking experts in ML and robotic systems. The listings suggest plans to build advanced robots capable of adapting to real-world environments. This move signals a renewed commitment to physical AI applications, aiming to push boundaries in robotics innovation. Roles emphasize the need for expertise in hardware design, control systems, and real-time decision-making, pointing to a focus on developing versatile, autonomous machines
Googleâs AI podcast push: Googleâs new âDaily Listenâ experiment for users that have âopted into the companyâs Search Labs experimentâ will be able to have the software generate a 5-minute podcast based on their interests. Googleâs NotebookLM project has a similar feature that has proved popular
X has announced its upcoming launch of X Money, with plans to roll out in 38 U.S. states where it holds payment transmitter licenses. Linda Yaccarino, X CEO, revealed that X Money will be part of several new platform features launching in the coming months. The platform's payment service aims to offer p2p transfers and e-commerce integration. Backend code analysis suggests X will proceed with a regional rollout in approved states
TikTok ruling looms: The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on Friday over a law that gives TikTokâs parent company, ByteDance, an ultimatum: sell the app by January 19 or face a U.S. ban due to national security concerns over its Chinese ownership. TikTok argues this violates First Amendment rights, but several justices seemed more worried about potential security risks. The government claims that ByteDanceâs ties to China could allow sensitive user data to be accessed by foreign entities. A decision is expected before the deadline, and it could spell major changes for TikTokâs future in the U.S.
Notion released âFacesâ, a simple - but creative - new product growth hack that seems to be gaining traction. It allows you to create your own Face in the style of Notion drawings and share it with others. The faces arenât Notion branded but since the company is synonymous with this style, itâs an effective way to indirectly grow awareness of Notion
Nvidia has launched âAgentic AI Blueprintsâ to automate work in enterprises. Unveiled as part of a major keynote from the companyâs CEO this week, the blueprints are a set of ready-to-use templates and tools designed to help developers and businesses create advanced AI agents capable of performing complex tasks autonomously. Blueprints are integrated with NVIDIAâs AI Enterprise software platform and developers can use these blueprints as starting points to build custom AI agents tailored to specific business needs. Some examples of blueprints include: PDF to Podcast, a blueprint that allows developers to create podcasts from PDF documents, Multimodal PDF Data Extraction designed for enterprise retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) and Document Research Assistant, a blueprint that harnesses NVIDIA NIM microservices and NeMo Retriever to help content creators produce high-quality blogs through automated research, outlining, and content generation
CES highlights. The Tech Buzz put together a summary of the top tech innovations presented at CES this week:
CES Consumer Tech Highlights: NVIDIA's Project DIGITS Personal AI Supercomputer: this compact $3k personal AI supercomputer brings major AI processing power to desktops. It can run large AI models and could revolutionize personal computing
CES Travel Feature: Otonomus AI-Driven Hotel in Las Vegas.
CES Smart Food Tech: Meticulous Espresso Machine | LG Indoor Garden
CES Entertainment Tech: The Last of Us 2 | Transparent Displays | Halliday AI Glasses | Googleâs AI-powered TV
Future Concepts at CES: Underwater Homes | U9 Supercar | Pen with Cameras | Rictorâs Skyrider X1
Wellbeing Tech at CES: AI Health Mirror | Exoskeleton | L'Oréal skin Analysis
More CES highlights by CNET here
đ Good reads
AI and cognitive offloading: sharing the thinking process with machines. Tetiana Sydorenko shares an insightful article (full of resources), that will inspire you to leverage modern tech tools to become more productive. âBy reducing the burden of tedious work, systems that enable users to offload cognitive tasks allow individuals to focus on what truly matters â addressing meaningful challenges. However, it is essential to carefully consider the risks involved, particularly the potential for overreliance on such toolsâ
Stripeâs 12 Product review questions. When Stripe launches a new Product, teams ask themselves these 12 questions
2025: the year of the AI agent? If 2025 is indeed the âyear of the AI agentâ, what exactly are companies building AI agents for? Hereâs a summary from a recent WSJ piece
Product Manager portfolios: the secret weapon to progress on your career. Janna Bastow shares great advice on how to craft your portfolio. I often help my coaching clients to create their own porfolios - feel free to ping me if you need more tips or examples!
Mindshare > Supply. CJ Gustafson argues that, in a marketplace business model, earning the mindshare of the buyer is ultimately more durable than differentiated supply. Thatâs why you think about ChatGPT when you want to use an AI-assistant, or you think about Uber when you need a ride
Fastest growing jobs in 2025. LinkedIn has revealed the fastest growing jobs in 2025. Perhaps unsurprisingly, AI engineers take the top spot
The Ultimate AI Toolkit by a16zâs Consumer Team. âWhether youâre building, scaling, exploring or just having a good time, these tools are here to supercharge your journeyâ
Thatâs all for this week. As usual, feel free to reach out and share your thoughts by replying back to this email or commenting on Substack
Thanks for your support!
Angel