AI startup Cohere reaches $5.5 billion valuation after a new funding round.
As Bloomberg News reported on Monday (July 22), the $500 million raise brings Cohere’s total funding to $970 million.
Canada-based Cohere is reportedly a rare artificial intelligence (AI) startup building large-scale language models from scratch, as the technology is extremely expensive and difficult to build.
And while rivals like OpenAI and Google are working on developing artificial general intelligence (AGI), or AI software that can perform tasks at the same level as or better than humans, Cohere is focused on more practical goals, co-founder Nick Frost told Bloomberg.
“We’re not chasing AGI,” he says, “we’re trying to build models that can be run efficiently in the enterprise to solve real problems.”
According to Bloomberg, the company’s clients span a variety of industries, including retailers, tech companies, and banks. New client Toronto-Dominion Bank, for example, will use Cohere’s AI for tasks such as answering questions based on financial documents.
“My favorite use cases for this technology are doing things that no one wants to do,” Frost said.
That means startup Borderless AI is using Cohere’s models to answer employment law questions around the world in multiple languages.
Meanwhile, a recent PYMNTS Intelligence survey found that most large companies are struggling to adopt AI in a meaningful way, falling behind in the race to harness it. Survey results from the third edition of PYMNTS Intelligence’s 2024 CAIO Project, How GenAI Will Impact COO Priorities, show the harsh reality of the AI revolution.
The report, based on a survey of chief operating officers from companies with more than $1 billion in annual revenue, reveals a significant gap between the potential of generative AI and how it is currently applied in the corporate world.
Surveys show that 70% of COOs agree that GenAI is a key part of their strategic plans. Yet there is a gap between aspirations and reality.
“The disconnect between vision and execution is especially stark given AI’s prominence in today’s business world,” PYMNTS wrote last week. “With tech giants and startups alike touting the transformative power of AI, many had hoped to see faster and more widespread adoption of advanced AI applications at large enterprises.”
Read more: AGI, AI, Artificial General Intelligence, Artificial Intelligence, Cohere, Funding, Investments, News, PYMNTS News, Technology, Hot Topics
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