#023 DoorDash's AI-powered Voice Ordering, Rise of AI For Biology With $40 Million, Lex raises $2.75M - A Modern Writing AI Tool.
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AI BYTE # 1 📢 - DoorDash introduces AI-powered voice ordering technology for restaurants
⭐ Phone orders are a significant source of revenue for many restaurants, but they also come with challenges.
According to DoorDash’s 2023 Restaurant Online Ordering Trends Report, one in five customers prefer to order takeout via phone, but up to 50% of customer calls are left unanswered, which results in potential revenue losses.
To address this problem, DoorDash is launching AI-powered voice ordering technology that will allow restaurants to increase their sales by answering all of the calls they receive. The system will also provide customers with curated recommendations to complement their meals.
Benefits of this new innovation for both restaurants and customers:
For restaurants:
AI will answer calls with little to no wait, enabling operators to capture the unmet customer demand.
Live agents will be available to support customers at any time.
Restaurants that want to facilitate delivery of phone orders can also leverage DoorDash Drive, the company’s white-label solution that powers direct delivery from any business.
For customers:
Customers will have a personalized voice ordering experience in multiple languages with no missed calls or long wait times.
Returning customers will be able to quickly reorder their favorite meal.
Customers will receive suggestions for additional items that go well with their order.
DoorDash says the new cost-efficient innovation will give select operators the potential to increase their sales by answering all calls and pursuing incremental revenue opportunities.
“Customers expect more from restaurateurs, and in return, restaurateurs expect even more technology-forward solutions from us – including support for phone channels to meet customers where they’re ordering,” said Rajat Shroff, Head of Product and Design at DoorDash, in a statement.
AI BYTE # 2 📢 - The Rise of AI For Biology. A New Startup And A $40 Million Round
⭐ AI is not only revolutionizing the fields of natural language processing and computer vision but also making breakthroughs in biology and biotechnology.
In this post, I will introduce you to a new startup that is applying AI to design new proteins, drugs, and organisms.
What is EvolutionaryScale?
EvolutionaryScale is a startup founded by former Meta researchers who developed an AI language model for biology. The model, called LK-99, can predict the 3D structures of proteins based on their amino acid sequences.
Proteins are the building blocks of life and their shapes determine their functions. Knowing the structure of a protein can help scientists design drugs that can bind to it and alter its activity.
EvolutionaryScale has raised $40 million in a seed round led by Lux Capital, with participation from prominent AI investors Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross.
The startup plans to use the funds to scale up its AI model and integrate other biological data sources, such as DNA sequences, gene expression and epigenetic states.
Why is EvolutionaryScale important?
EvolutionaryScale is aiming to create a general-purpose AI model for biology that can help design new biological products and therapies.
The startup claims that its model can generate 700 million possible protein structures, which can be used as starting points for drug discovery, bioremediation, synthetic biology, and more.
EvolutionaryScale is competing with Google’s DeepMind, which created AlphaFold, the most advanced AI system for protein folding. AlphaFold has been praised as a “stunning advance” that “would fundamentally change biological research” by Nobel laureate Venki Ramakrishnan.
However, EvolutionaryScale says that its model is faster than AlphaFold, though less accurate on average.
EvolutionaryScale also faces challenges from other startups that are applying AI to biology, such as Inceptive, which uses large language models to design RNA-based drug therapies.
Inceptive was cofounded by Jakob Uszkoreit, a coauthor of the landmark paper that invented the transformer, the technical breakthrough behind today’s generative AI models.
What are the implications of EvolutionaryScale?
EvolutionaryScale is part of a larger trend of applying AI to biology and biotechnology. This trend has the potential to accelerate scientific discovery, improve human health, and create new solutions for environmental problems.
However, it also raises ethical, social, and regulatory issues that need to be addressed.
For example, how can we ensure the safety and efficacy of AI-designed drugs and organisms?
How can we prevent the misuse or abuse of AI for biological warfare or bioterrorism?
How can we protect the intellectual property rights and data privacy of researchers and patients?
How can we foster public awareness and education about the benefits and risks of AI for biology?
AI BYTE # 3 📢 - Lex raises $2.75M. A Modern Writing AI Tool
⭐ Writing is one of the most essential skills in the digital age, but it can also be challenging and time-consuming.
Lex, a new writing tool leverages AI to help you write better and faster.
Lex is a spin-off from Every, a subscription media service focused on technology and productivity topics. The founder of Lex, Nathan Baschez, is also a co-founder of Every and a former writer at The Hustle.
He started Lex as a side project after taking parental leave and experimenting with GPT-3, the powerful language model developed by OpenAI.
Lex is not just another word processor. It’s a modern writing platform that integrates AI seamlessly into your workflow. Lex has a super-clean writing interface that supports formatting tools and markdown-based shortcuts.
It also has AI features that can assist you when you get stuck, need feedback, or want to optimize your content.
For example, you can use Lex to:
Generate realistic text and images with GPT-3 by typing +++ or hitting CMD+Enter
Ask questions to the AI inside comments, such as rewriting a sentence, summarizing a paragraph, or checking if something is relevant
Generate headlines for your documents with one click
More features coming soon, such as rephrasing a sentence, generating a summary, and more
Lex also respects your privacy and does not use any user content for training its models. You can choose to use OpenAI’s models or open-source alternatives, depending on your needs and preferences.
Lex is still in beta and has already attracted over 25,000 users in its first 24 hours. It has also raised a $2.75 million seed round led by True Ventures. Lex plans to start charging for its product soon and keep its team small until it hurts.
I think Lex is a game-changer for writers who want to leverage the power of AI without sacrificing their creativity and control. Lex is not here to replace writers but to augment them.
If you are interested in trying out Lex, you can sign up for the waitlist here: https://lexwriter.com/
