Tootfinder

A look at 10 AI agent startups from YC's first-ever spring Demo Day; the batch included 144 companies, 70 of which focused on agentic AI (Samantha Stokes/Business Insider)
https://africa.businessinsider.com/new

The 10 most exciting AI agent startups at Y Combinator's Demo Day for its first-ever spring cohort
Christmas came early for Y Combinator

sa_companies: South African companies (1919)
A bipartite network of the affiliations between a small group of individuals and five important companies in South African finance, around 1919.
This network has 11 nodes and 13 edges.
Tags: Social, Affiliation, Unweighted
https://networks.skewed.de/net/sa_comp

Rep. Melissa Hortman, killed in targeted attack, was a champion for Minnesotan families (Grace Panetta/The 19th)
https://19thnews.org/2025/06/rep-melissa-hortman-killed-in-targeted-attack-was-a-champion-for-minnesotan-families/
http://www.memeorandum.com/250614/p75#a250614p75

"AI is a tool (sorry!) that people who are bad at their jobs will use badly and that people who are good at their jobs will maybe, possibly find some uses for. People who are terrible at their jobs (many executives), will tell their employees that they “need” to use AI, that their jobs depend on it, that they must become more productive, and that becoming an AI-first company is the strategy that will save them from the old failed strategy, which itself was the new strategy after other f…

The Media's Pivot to AI Is Not Real and Not Going to Work
AI is not going to save media companies, and forcing journalists to use AI is not a business model.

Scientists say your “mind” isn’t confined to your brain, or even your body
http://qz.com/866352/scientists-say-your-mind-isnt-confined-to-your-brain-or-even-your-bod…

Scientists say your “mind” isn’t confined to your brain, or even your body
You might wonder, at some point today, what’s going on in another person’s mind. You may compliment someone’s great mind, or say they are out of their mind. You may even try to expand or free your own mind.

🦾 People use AI for companionship much less than we’re led to think
https://techcrunch.com/2025/06/26/people-use-ai-for-companionship-much-less-than-were-led-to-think/

People use AI for companionship much less than we're led to believe | TechCrunch
A report by Anthropic reveals that people rarely seek companionship from AI, and turn to AI for emotional support or advice only 2.9% of the time.

Grok's iOS app now features two AI "Companions", or 3D animated avatars that interact with users via voice, including Ani, an anime character with an NSFW mode (Alexey Shabanov/TestingCatalog)
https://www.testingcatalog.com/grok-debuts

Grok debuts interactive AI Companions on iOS with 3D avatars
Grok on iOS just got 2 AI Companions with one more labelled as "Coming soon". Ani and Rudy are fully animated, can change their backgrounds and make different moves.

high_tech_company: Krackhardt high tech company network
Multiplex network of 3 edge types representing relationships (advice, friendship, and “reports to”) between managers of a high-tech company. Data hosted by Manlio De Domenico.
This network has 21 nodes and 312 edges.
Tags: Social, Offline, Multilayer, Unweighted
https://

Google Cloud has competed well against AWS in AI, attracting business from The Browser Company, Safe Superintelligence, Thinking Machines Lab, and OpenAI (Kevin McLaughlin/The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/google-finds-crack-amazons-c…

Google Finds a Crack in Amazon’s Cloud Dominance
Earlier this year, when The Browser Company was looking for a cloud provider to power the artificial intelligence features in a web browser it was developing, the startup’s leaders asked Amazon Web Services if it could handle the work. Winning this business was important to AWS. The Browser ...

Filings: Bengaluru-based fintech Cred, which offers rewards for paying credit card bills and more, raised ~$72M at a $3.5B valuation, down from $6.4B in 2022 (The Economic Times)
https://ec…

Cred raises fresh funds from GIC, others; valuation cut by 45% to $3.5 billion
The fintech major was valued at $6.4 billion in 2022 during its last major fund infusion. The current fund infusion is in the form of primary capital, which means that existing investors have not sold any shares in this round. The drop in valuation was in line with the company's plans to list in India over the next two years, people in the know said.