Here’s a roundup of interesting startup links I came across today:
The 2026 AI Index Report | Stanford HAI
At Stanford HAI, we believe AI is poised to be the most transformative technology of the 21st century. But its benefits won’t be evenly distributed unless we guide its development thoughtfully. The AI Index offers one of the most comprehensive, data-driven views of artificial intelligence. Recognized as a trusted resource by global media, governments, and leading companies, the AI Index equips policymakers, business leaders, and the public with rigorous, objective insights into AI’s technical progress, economic influence, and societal impact.
Rising AI Adoption Spurs Workforce Changes
For the first time in Gallup’s measurement, half of employed American adults say they use AI in their role at least a few times a year, up from 46% last quarter. Frequent AI use is also increasing, with 13% of employees now saying they use AI daily and 28% reporting they use it a few times a week or more.
The Folder Is the Agent
I kept looking for a smarter orchestration layer—a better protocol or a tighter framework that would filter the output and tell me which result to trust. Then I stopped and looked at what was really doing the work. It was something I already had—a folder.
‘Dream really big’: Leaders of Sports Bra, James Beard market headline TEDx Portland – oregonlive.com
Speakers at the annual TEDx conference hit that theme again and again Saturday. A former star athlete, Oregon university scientists, entrepreneurs and a high school student encouraged a sold-out theater audience at Portland Center Stage at The Armory to find ways to inspire themselves and their community.
Most Startups Don’t Start With the Right Idea | by Ryan Merket | Apr, 2026 | Medium
You’ve put in real work. The product is better than where you started. The problem is validated. There are even users who see the value. But the adoption curve isn’t matching the effort. That’s where looking at actual data matters more than conviction.
The Waterfront Education Park Could Tell the Story of Indigenous Culture on the Willamette
“I think the argument can be made that all Indigenous cultures all over the world are really cultures of place. [It’s about] learning what makes the place you call home special, but also about, what are your obligations to it?” says Jeremy FiveCrows, communications director for Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission. “Because it’s feeding you, it’s caring for you, it’s allowing you to live. But so often, people in modern culture were completely cut off from that.”
Org Design in the Age of AI – by FD – Robonomics
I’ve been talking to companies — startups to megacaps — about AI and organizational design. Everyone is adding AI to their workflows. Almost no one is rethinking why the workflow is shaped that way in the first place. The org chart is next thing AI disrupts.
Techaraoke | Meetup
Come hang out, build your network, build and strengthen our silicon forest community!
She’s Teaching Gen Z How to Save the World—Through a Game
I met Jessica through Rogue Women’s Fund, an investor in her company. Wearing an emerald green sweater, her hair piled high in a messy bun with perfect curls framing her face, Jessica told me by Zoom about her background, vision, superpowers, and family. Behind her: two pieces of her husband’s art: a collage of magazine images superimposed with the words NEED MONEY FOR JET FUEL and a life-sized, old-school Batman.
Startup Funding: Q1 2026
Predictably, the vast majority of those are either designing chips primarily for AI inference workloads or attempting to overcome bandwidth limitations by improving interconnects from the chip level to the data center level. As a result, photonics remained a popular segment for investment.
Your harness, your memory
What has happened (and will continue to happen) is that a lot of the scaffolding needed in 2023 is no longer needed. But this has been replaced by other types of scaffolding. An agent, by definition, is an LLM interacting with tools and other sources of data. There will always be a system around the LLM to facilitate that type of interaction.
