Here’s a roundup of interesting startup links I came across today:
Why I don’t think AGI is imminent
This piece is a sketch of my own thinking about the boundary of transformer-based large language models and human-level cognition. I have an MS degree in Machine Learning from over a decade ago, and I don’t work in the field of AI currently, but I am well-read on the underlying research.
Only 2 States Saw Their Share Of US Venture Funding Rise Last Year
In 2025, only two states with a sizable venture scene saw a year-over-year gain in their share of U.S. venture funding: California and Washington. This held true even though several others, including New York and Texas, actually saw a pretty big bump in investment.
Why I don’t think AI is a bubble · honnibal.dev
I’m not saying there’s some ironclad guarantee that there’s a smooth reinforcement learning path from here into the sunset. What I’m saying is that there’s no publicly known reason to believe progress will halt.
I guess I kinda get why people hate AI
I legitimately feel like I am going insane when I hear AI technologists talk about the technology. They’re supposed to market it. But they’re instead saying that it is going to leave me a poor, jobless wretch, a member of the “permanent underclass,” as the meme on Twitter goes.
How to Engineer a Billion-Dollar Market, Tue, Feb 24, 2026, 5:30 PM | Meetup
Bruce Cleveland has taken eight companies to $1B+ in revenue. As an investor and operator at Oracle, Siebel, Apple, and C3 AI, and as an early backer of Doximity, Marketo (acquired by Adobe for $4.8B), and Vlocity (acquired by Salesforce), his strategies have generated billions in realized returns. In this talk, Bruce will unpack the discipline of Market Engineering: how to define your category, perfect your positioning, master storytelling, and build thought leadership that separates market leaders from everyone else.
Editor’s notebook: PBJ launches ‘Oregon Competitiveness’ series – Portland Business Journal
At least some Oregon elected leaders seem ready to kick into a higher gear. “We need to move at the speed of business,” said rep. Daniel Nguyen at a January legislative hearing on the state’s economic development efforts.
Oregon startup news
