Ed Zitron Where's Your Ed At Published 2023-06-28

Broken Things

We recorded 2 claims from this post. 2 were checked against evidence. Read the post at its source.

Claims from this post (2)

In the order they appear in the post. Each quotation is the speaker’s words in this post. A label such as “Supported” or “Can’t be checked” is the claim’s current assessment; its page has the evidence and the reasons.

Assessment: UnresolvedSaid 2023-06-28
“These are not real companies (real companies make money and sell things), but symbolic items that venture capitalists hope can be sold to other companies or credulous retail investors because there isn’t a chance in hell they become functional businesses.”
What we tested: Pre-revenue AI startups that raise large funding rounds are not real companies. They have no chance of becoming functional businesses, and VCs hope to sell them on to other companies or to retail investors.
Assessment: UnresolvedSaid 2023-06-28
“Even now, post-SVB, AI companies with no revenue can raise tens of millions — or $150 million, in the case of Character.ai — because they resemble what’s “hot” without any consideration as to whether they’re real businesses.”
What we tested: As of mid-2023, AI companies with no revenue can raise tens of millions of dollars (Character.ai raised $150 million) because they look like what's hot, with no thought given to whether they are real businesses.

Claims from this post (2)

“These are not real companies (real companies make money and sell things), but symbolic items that venture capitalists hope can be sold to other companies or credulous retail investors because there isn’t a chance in hell they become functional businesses.”

“Even now, post-SVB, AI companies with no revenue can raise tens of millions — or $150 million, in the case of Character.ai — because they resemble what’s “hot” without any consideration as to whether they’re real businesses.”