Corti raises $60M to advance AI-assisted healthcare clinician support

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1. Corti raises $60M to advance AI-assisted healthcare clinician support

Copenhagen-based startup Corti has secured $60 million in a Series B funding round led by Prosus Ventures and Atomico to expand its AI assistant designed to support healthcare clinicians in real-time patient assessments. The company, which was assisting in 15 million consultations annually two years ago, now claims to work with 100 million patients a year.

Corti's AI assistant serves as a co-pilot for healthcare providers, covering a range of tasks such as triaging during patient interactions, documentation, analysis, and even providing "second opinions" that might contradict the clinician's initial thoughts. The assistant aims to alleviate the administrative burdens that healthcare providers often face, thereby reducing practitioner burnout and improving the quality of care.

Despite the promising advancements, the role of AI in healthcare remains a topic of debate. Earlier this year, a group of doctors and public health experts warned that over-reliance on AI data and analysis could pose an existential threat to humanity. However, Corti's latest funding suggests that the startup is well-positioned to redefi

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2. Avalo leverages machine learning to accelerate climate-resilient crops

Avalo, a North Carolina-based startup, is leveraging machine learning to expedite the creation of climate-resilient crops. The company recently announced its intent to raise a $10 million Series A this fall, adding to its previous funding of $6 million.

CEO Brendan Collins explained that Avalo's technology allows for accelerated breeding conditions. "We can bring seedlings into growth chambers and greenhouses and breed them under accelerated conditions," said Collins. This translates to "four development cycles" in a single year, as opposed to the usual one.

Avalo's work extends beyond just one crop. The company is also focused on cultivating a latex-producing dandelion, finding valuable traits like pest-resistance in soy and corn, and developing drought-tolerant cotton. As climate change continues to challenge traditional agriculture, Avalo's machine learning approach offers a promising avenue for developing resilient crops.

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3. AlphaMissense AI predicts harm potential of genetic mutations

Google DeepMind has developed AlphaMissense, an AI program capable of predicting the harm potential of millions of genetic mutations. The program specializes in "missense mutations," where a single letter in the DNA code is misspelled. Such mutations can lead to a range of diseases, from cystic fibrosis to cancer.

The researchers have released a free online catalog of these predictions to assist geneticists and clinicians in diagnosing rare disorders and studying how mutations drive diseases. Dr. Jun Cheng, one of the researchers, stated that AlphaMissense performs better than current "variant effect predictor" programs.

However, the model's complexity raises questions. Prof. Ben Lehner from the Wellcome Sanger Institute noted that while the model is good at identifying what is broken, it doesn't explain how it's broken. "Will doctors be comfortable making decisions about patients that they don’t understand and can’t explain?" he questioned.

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4. GitHub expands Copilot Chat, an AI-powered coding assistant, to individual users

GitHub, a Microsoft-owned platform, has expanded its AI-powered coding chatbot, Copilot Chat, to individual users in Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code. Initially launched in public beta for business users in July, the tool allows developers to get real-time assistance in coding.

The service is priced at $10 per month or $100 per year for individual users. Copilot Chat aims to simplify the coding process by offering real-time, natural language assistance. It can help users learn new programming languages, troubleshoot issues, and even answer specific coding queries, thereby enhancing productivity and reducing the learning curve for new languages or frameworks.

AI-powered coding assistance is becoming increasingly popular, with Google launching a similar tool for Android developers and Amazon offering its CodeWhisperer tool. As the demand for coding skills continues to rise, tools like Copilot Chat are likely to become indispensable for both teams and individual developers, marking a significant trend in the AI industry.

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5. CrowdStrike acquires Bionic.ai for $350M to bolster cloud security capabilities

CrowdStrike, a leading cybersecurity firm, has officially confirmed its acquisition of Bionic.ai for $350 million. Bionic.ai specializes in security posture management for cloud services, providing security teams with a comprehensive view of a company's tech landscape to identify vulnerabilities.

The acquisition comes at a time when cybersecurity startups are facing challenges in scaling their businesses. Bionic.ai had less than $10 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR), while CrowdStrike reported an ARR of $2.93 billion in its last quarterly earnings.

The deal is part of a broader trend of M&A-based consolidation in the cybersecurity industry. Larger platforms are acquiring smaller players to bring in new services, new customers, and to widen their revenue funnels. As cybersecurity remains a moving target, the acquisition marks a significant step in CrowdStrike's strategy to stay ahead of evolving threats.

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