What startup founders need to know about AI heading into 2024

Now that the OpenAI leadership saga has died down, startup founders building with AI can get back to work building the future. If that’s you, TechCrunch+ has expert analysis, guidance on how to make the most of AI tools, and stories that peek into what the future holds for AI and its impact on founders, investors and the wider startup community.

TechCrunch+ covers so much more than AI, but after the past year of adoption and advancement, it’s clear that AI won’t be going anywhere, for better and for worse. We’ll be keeping up with all of the hype, investment and new ways to adopt it throughout next year, and there’s never been a better time to keep tabs on our coverage with our special holiday discount on TechCrunch+ membership.

Here’s a short list of posts for AI founders looking ahead to 2024:

Startups must add AI value beyond ChatGPT integration

One criticism of startups that claim the mantle of AI is that they are creating thin wrappers around other folk’s technology. This sort of platform risk is not new, but is a pertinent mental model in the OpenAI-era. In this piece, a technology CEO digs into how startups might be able to build something more defensible. And secure.

Speaking of platform risk, startups are learning the hard way that relying on OpenAI’s tech can burn them

Just as Apple took out a bunch of apps as it expanded the native functionality of iOS, OpenAI is going to chew up market space as it expands its own product remit. Startups will want to build far from its edges, perhaps, to avoid being eaten.

How to bootstrap an AI startup

While we have spoken with a host of AI-focused venture investors lately to get their take on what founders should do — and not do! — in the current market, not every startup needs external capital. You can always bootstrap. Even in the AI realm.

OpenAI’s crisis will sow the seeds of the next generation of AI startups

The upshot of the OpenAI mess is that there’s reason to think that we are seeing the formation of the next great cohort of startup founders; call it a mafia or merely a collection of former co-workers, but it’s clear that the OpenAI crew are unified in a manner that has us sitting up and taking note.

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