tech
This startup wants to pay for your email and photos to train AI
AI needs your photos, receipts, and emails to get smarter. This startup wants to help you get paid for it, and it's on a corporate shopping spree.
TL;DR
- Mode Inc, an AI training startup, has acquired two consumer applications, Trimbox and QR Code Reader, as part of a larger acquisition strategy.
- The company aims to pay everyday consumers for their data, such as photos, receipts, and emails, generated through daily activities.
- Mode Inc's acquisitions expand its user base to over 100 million monthly users who contribute data for cash or rewards.
- The startup is part of a trend of companies paying contractors to label data for AI development, but Mode Inc focuses on general consumers rather than gig workers.
- Mode Inc CEO Dan Novaes believes growing legal scrutiny around AI data usage will increase demand for consent-based data collection.
- Novaes plans to take Mode Inc public within two years and is exploring acquisitions of apps that can make user photo libraries available for AI training.