As we enter the AI era, we predict the benefits to consumers will be as profound as the technology is magical.
It’s impossible to talk about new technology without talking about human flourishing — every new technology from the plow to the microchip has typically been followed by a period of newfound wealth for consumers in the form of cheaper goods, improved productivity, and longer, healthier lives. In many ways, the most financially average person in our modern society experiences daily luxuries that history’s Pharaohs and Caesars could not imagine: instant communication, broadcast television, global travel, antibiotics.
As we enter the AI era, we predict the benefits to consumers will be as profound as the technology is magical; what indeed are the implications for software that can write poetry, listen emphatically, compose music, or provide dating advice?
In a word, we predict an Era of Abundance — consumers’ lives will be enriched through new channels for creativity and self expression, new paths to self discovery and belonging, and new ways to do the most meaningful work of their lives.
Read MoreArtists are at the forefront of the AI platform shift. As new high fidelity tools emerge along the creative stack, technology is extending the impact of filmmakers, designers, animators, illustrators, photographers, and multimedia artists.
Now is the time to reinvent the phone call. Thanks to gen AI, humans will spend time on the phone only when a call has value to them.
The stakes are high. The opportunities are profound. From the creation of new medicines to bolstering national defense, this is our vision for the AI-enabled future.
There’s likely a whole category of non-AI companies and products that can FINALLY exist *because of the productivity gains of AI.*
AI-native consumer products should consider user retention a core metric, and the following boosters can help founders build it.
Thousands of new AI-native companies are vying for attention. We crunched the data to find out: Which generative AI products are people actually using?
We predict an Era of Abundance — lives will be enriched through new channels for creativity, along with new paths to self discovery and belonging.
2023 was a breakout year for AI video. At the start of the year, no public text-to-video models existed, and there's a lot to come.
Generative AI offers founders an opportunity to completely reinvent workflows — and will spawn a new cohort of fully AI-native companies.
Every new platform changes how and where transactions happen. Now, we believe gen AI will be the latest revolution in marketplaces.
Smart energy grids. Voice-first companion apps. Programmable medicines. AI tools for kids. We asked over 40 partners across a16z to preview one big idea they believe will drive innovation in the coming year.
In April, the first viral AI cover dropped. More innovation in music and generative AI is coming, and here's what it might look like.
As CTO of OpenAI, Mira Murati oversaw the development and release of GPT-4 and ChatGPT. Here she tells Martin Casado the story behind the release of ChatGPT—and what it tells us about the future of AI and human-machine interactions.
Jeff Jordan reminisces about his decision to back the start-up Instacart, as the grocery giant prepares to go public.
To see how people are interacting with generative AI, we used data to rank the top 50 GenAI web products by monthly visits.
Thanks to generative AI, the much-discussed topic of “self-driving money” finally has a chance to achieve its potential.
Chatbots have been around for decades, but this time is different. Today’s bots are making inroads into our social lives.
Captions helps creators quickly and easily script, record, and edit video content with a focus on short-form videos.
In a world of retweets, upvotes, and right swipes, studies show that many of us still feel lonely. Thanks to generative AI, we potentially have a new solution: companion chatbots.
Field Notes is a video podcast series on consumer tech by a16z. Connie Chan talks to former Vogue publisher Susan Plagemann of WME Fashion about editorial and social strategy.
"When we reviewed their initial ramp-up plan, our jaws dropped."
Field Notes is a new video podcast series on consumer tech. Host Connie Chan and Poshmark cofounder Tracy Sun talk live-shopping, resale, and AI.
Episode Transcript
Episode Transcript
In this episode, host Connie Chan talks to Deb Liu, the CEO of Ancestry and the former VP of App Commerce at Meta. The conversation covers all things marketplaces: what metrics to focus on, how to balance growth and focus, and how to turn user behavior into business strategy.
General Partner Connie Chan on how leading brands are using AI and other technology to combine the serendipitous discovery of offline shopping with the infinite options of online shopping.
Travel is a trillion-dollar industry stuck in the past. The last major breakthrough came in the 1990s, with the emergence of online travel agencies (OTAs) like Booking.com and Expedia to aggregate inventory. Unless you h...
When a new social app starts to "work," it feels like magic, but often looks like a black box.
The a16z Marketplace 100 stacks up the largest consumer-facing marketplace startups and private companies. In this, our fourth annual ranking, the data revealed some of the most interesting takeaways to date.
If leveraged well, AI has the potential to greatly enhance students’ abilities to think critically and expand their soft skills.
We’ve entered the age of generative AI. When new technology captures consumer attention so quickly, it begs the question: Is there real value here?
Temu is one of the most downloaded ecommerce apps in the US. Learn the elements of this social shopping app’s retail model and why it’s winning the moment.
A Super App is a multiuse application that can perform the functions of many programs in one. Learn about current examples of Super Apps.
Online platforms are passionately hoping that paid membership models may be a new answer to existing advertising revenue ceilings. After all, at $3-5 per member a month, the revenue is sure to add up — or does it?
Today’s digital workplace moves faster than at any point in history. We can communicate and collaborate in real-time—and around the world—across text, voice, video, and documents. We can share massive files with a URL an...
To celebrate the LA community and the city's growth, A16Z recently hosted Time to Build Los Angeles, an event where we invited LA-based investors, founders, and operators from across a diverse range of industries to talk...
It’s no secret today’s young people prefer searching for recommendations on video apps over text-based search engines. Even the executives at Google know this. SVP Prabhakar Raghavan recently said that according to the c...
As we enter the third school year of the Covid era, a disturbing new normal is settling over the country. Students continue to be chronically absent; nearly 50,000 Los Angeles public school students failed to show up on...
If you’ve run a high-growth company, you know that office space decisions are a nightmare. You are forced to anchor your growth assumption in cement--literally--for a typical lease term of seven years.
It’s time for your startup to fundraise. You prepare a deck, practice your pitch, and start reaching out to investors. If a first meeting goes well, it often ends with a request to share your “data room.” But what is a d...
We’re excited to announce that a16z is leading the Series A for Nash, an API-based platform for last-mile delivery.
From Shakespeare to the Beatles, and Star Wars to Fortnite, every generation has a set of entertainment properties that define its culture and shared universe of stories. As we look to the coming decade, we believe the n...
The following transcript is from a conversation on the topic of NFTs in gaming, featuring Aleksander Larsen, Cofounder and COO, Sky Mavis/Axie Infinity; Gabby Dizon, Cofounder and CEO, Yield Guild Games; and Jonathan Lai...
Imagine you’re running a marketplace startup — let’s call it ACo — that allows consumers to sell spare items they have around the house. You notice after a few months that only 25% of your new sellers are coming back eac...
I’m excited to announce that a16z is leading the Series A for Bounce, a marketplace for consumers to access underutilized space in local businesses.
It’s never been a more exciting time to be a founder. Software continues to eat the world. Web3 is the next big leap for computing. As the world recovers from a pandemic, the way we work and live has changed, and you no...
Faith is inherently social. For example, there are 2.5 billion Christians globally and many congregate at church, Sunday school, fellowships, discipleships, and more.
The games industry has consistently found new ways to reduce barriers to entry.
The biggest social platforms today -- TikTok, Youtube, Instagram, to name just a few -- are heavily driven by creators who generate and share content for friends, family, and the broader community. As games continue to e...
Today, we have a pair of big announcements: Congratulations to Jonathan Lai, and welcome James Gwertzman -- our newest General Partners on the consumer investing team. Together, we’re doubling (er, tripling?) down on the...
Massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) were some of the earliest social networks. In the late 1990s, MMOs like Ultima Online and EverQuest hosted hundreds of thousands of players who adventured together in 3D virtual...
a16z’s Consumer team spends a lot of time testing (and playing with) the latest AI-native tools. Here you’ll find some of their favorite recent demos, trends, tutorials, and works of AI art.
I built an AI voice agent that called the DMV to schedule an appointment for me!
….and you can too. It took <30 minutes and two tools.
(And, it was incredibly satisfying to hear my AI deal with the DMV’s AI instead of sitting on the phone myself😂)
How I did it 👇
Can’t stop watching this 🔥 @elevenlabsio speech-to-speech demo from @ammaar.
Such a cool way to control the emotion, timing, and delivery of AI voice.
Instead of describing what you want a clip to sound like…just voice it!
Finally getting into video generation from 3D models.
It’s hard to do, but the consistency and control can’t be beat.
This one took four tools (+ heavy AI assist), workflow 👇
Wild that you can now get a 3D motion capture in five minutes on an iPhone 🤯
This is from @MoveAI_’s new single camera feature.
Will take to Blender or Unreal later to make a character!
The concept of “curation as creation” is one of the most powerful things to me about AI art
As @nickfloats says, ideas are free!
The cost of testing has gone to near zero, opening up a whole new range of creative processes (and a new generation of artists)
At @a16z, we’re big believers in the future of AI art.
We couldn’t be more excited to share a recap of our first artist retreat hosted last month in NYC.
So grateful to all of the creatives and companies who spent time with us. Hear from them 👇
@KingWillonius on his creative process with AI tools.
“Sometimes it might take 20 times regenerating a song or an image.
But that’s the fun part of the process – a lot of times, you stumble upon something brilliant on accident. When that happens, it feels magical.”
@RalFingerLP on how the power of the AI art community.
“When I upload a model, the creative way people utilize my stuff is so exciting.
I constantly refresh the site [@HelloCivitai] to see if anyone uploaded an image.”
And finally, some 🔥 takes on the AI art debate.
“It’s the means to get somewhere, it’s not the final result….there’s always going to be naysayers, but that’s fine—we’re going to be ahead of them by a mile”
-Roustam Mirzoev
(more from @maxescu, @DaveJWVillalva, @GerdeGotIt)
Have been playing around with @runwayml‘s new Gen-3 image-to-video.
There’s an impressive amount of movement, but it’s still not quite fully controllable with prompts.
Some unfiltered generations 👇
(starting with “river turns pink, giant wave crests”)
Simone Biles starring in the anime Olympics ✨
In honor of the Olympics:
“Justine in Paris” 🇫🇷
(keep watching to see where I end up)
And the workflow 👇
Turn yourself into an animated Pixar character!
It takes a single picture + two clicks on a free tool (@heyglif)
Link 👇
Real-time Live Portrait goes so hard.
It’s wild to animate a photo from a webcam video with zero latency.
Did this on @FAL!
Orange cat goes on vacation 🐈
(images from @ideogram_ai, animated with @Kling_ai)
Animal fashion show ✨
I try not to play favorites, but I might have to pick the last one…
(made by me, on @kling_ai)
Stumbled upon a crazy new app.
You upload 10-15 photos of yourself so it learns what you look like.
Then you can “retake” any photo – change your expression, fix closed eyes, tilt your head differently.
It produces a bunch of variations that all look like you!
Cool new model release:
PaintsUndo, which takes an image and outputs step-by-step frames of how to draw it.
It starts with a sketch and then fills in the colors, shading, and lighting.
Another big step in TikTok’s quest to replace Google for Gen Z…
The launch of gen AI-powered search highlights, that summarize (in text) key info across videos 👇
I can easily see these linking to products, reservations, etc. down the line
I used GPT-4o as a free, real time audio tour guide around London 🇬🇧
…and it was amazing!
Here’s how it works 👇
Someone made an AI camera that turns your pictures into different styles.
You can save the result as a live photo to watch the transformation 🪄
Music models are musical instruments
As both a DJ and a consumer investor, I’ve thought a lot about what’s the right product experience for generative music models.
I’ve landed on the concept of a “generative instrument” – you’re designing a next-gen guitar, synthesizer, drum…
Make any face talk with @hedra_labs
One photo + you generate or upload a voice (mine is from @elevenlabsio)
👏 on a cool launch today!!
Obsessed with the new @elevenlabsio video-to-sound effects feature.
Upload a video, get a soundscape that matches it 🪄
This is great for AI-generated videos, but I like to run it on my own videos for fun – listen to the Waymo shift into high gear.
Playing around with FaceFusion on Pinokio.
It’s wild how easy it is to turn yourself into any character now – this was my first try!
When your friend’s startup raises a big round (via @heyglif)
Me leaving the function
(made with @LumaLabsAI, upscaled on @krea_ai)
Transformed my vinyl DJ set with @krea_ai
Fed in live video from my webcam to get real-time diffusion
Made a Pixar intro clip for my life 🎬
Kinda looks like the weird horse girl in middle school – so I know it’s accurate!
Photo from @Scenario_gg ➡️ video from @pika_labs‘s new image-to-vid model ➡️ music from @udiomusic
I’ve always wanted AI that can read your tweets and figure out what’s wrong with you.
Making my own cartoons on a Saturday morning 📽️
This is from ToonCrafter on @huggingface Spaces.
Used @fofrAI‘s character consistency model for the input images, and then upscaled the video on @krea_ai.
A few learnings 👇
🚨 New @a16z investment thesis!
It’s time for AI to reinvent the phone call – enter conversational voice agents 📱
What we’re excited to invest in + market maps (from me and @illscience) 👇
SF, imagined on @krea_ai video
Beta opened today 🎉
From video generators to virtual companions, these are the most popular gen AI web products and apps.
We’re investors focused on the products and services that will be game-changers for the consumer experience across the world. We believe technology isn’t only for enhancing business, it’s about advancing human progress.