Google vet raises $8M for Continua

PLUS: Recent Developments In AI

Author

The AI Surface
August 15, 2025

👩‍💻 Greetings To All AI Learners. Continua’s $8M seed funding is more than a capital raise it’s a bet on the next frontier of AI: seamlessly embedding socially aware, context-sensitive assistants into the group chats where real collaboration happens.

✨ In today’s AI News we will cover:

🔖 Google vet raises $8M for Continua to bring AI agents to group chats.

🔖 How a once-tiny research lab helped Nvidia become a $4 trillion-dollar company.

🔖 GPT-5 brings four new personalities to ChatGPT.

🔖 Microsoft researchers name 40 white-collar jobs AI is most likely to steal.

🔖 4 Trending AI Tools

LATEST NEWS HIGHLIGHTS

✨ GOOGLE VET’S FUNDRAISING

💰 Continua’s $8M seed round marks a bold step toward making AI a natural, socially aware participant in group chats streamlining planning, coordination, and collaboration right where conversations already happen.

💫 Highlights

  • Founder: David Petrou, ex-Google engineer, co-founder of Google Goggles & Google Glass.

  • Funding: $8M seed round led by GV; Bessemer Venture Partners and angels participated.

  • Platform: AI agents that integrate directly into group chats on SMS, iMessage, and Discord.

  • Capabilities: Planning events, sending reminders, managing polls, calendar invites, creating checklists, and providing private summaries.

  • Key innovation: Ability to “hang back” or respond only when prompted, reducing chat clutter.

  • Goal: Eliminate copy-pasting between AI tools and group conversations.

💫 Significance

  • Redefining AI in group communication - Moves AI beyond one-on-one chats into multi-person social settings, which is technically and socially more complex.

  • Productivity meets conversation - Could change how friends, families, and work teams coordinate, plan, and share tasks without leaving their chat apps.

  • Early-mover advantage - While big players like Meta experiment with AI in messaging, Continua is laser-focused on group chat optimization, giving it a niche leadership opportunity.

✨ NVIDIA’S SUCCESS STORY

💸 What began as a small research unit has become NVIDIA’s heart of innovation fueling breakthroughs from CUDA to generative AI models to robotic intelligence. This long-term research vision created a tightly integrated ecosystem that powers the modern AI era.

💫 Highlights

  • Origin: Nvidia Research grew from ~12 people to 400+ researchers under Chief Scientist Bill Dally.

  • Breakthroughs: CUDA (parallel computing), RTX ray tracing, DLSS, StyleGAN, Megatron-LM, Omniverse robotics AI.

  • Generative AI impact: Tools like StyleGAN and GauGAN laid the groundwork for modern AI creativity and simulation.

  • Ecosystem strategy: Hardware (H100, Blackwell), software (CUDA, TensorRT, NeMo), and platforms (DGX, Omniverse) work together seamlessly.

💫 Significance

  • Proves the power of long-term R&D - Consistent research investment created technologies like CUDA, RTX, and AI frameworks years before the market was ready.

  • Shaped the AI hardware standard - Nvidia GPUs became the default for AI training and inference worldwide.

  • Expanded beyond gaming - Core innovations now drive healthcare, robotics, finance, and autonomous vehicles.

✨ GPT-5’S LATEST ADDITION

👩🏻‍🏫 GPT-5 transforms ChatGPT from a one-note assistant into a more personable companion by introducing four distinct conversational styles Cynic, Robot, Listener, and Nerd so users can instantly tailor tone and interaction without crafting custom prompts.

💫 Highlights

  • Cynic - Dry, sarcastic, witty; gives blunt but useful feedback, perfect for creative banter.

  • Robot - Precise, efficient, emotionless; best for technical explanations, coding, and factual clarity.

  • Listener - Warm, patient, empathetic; mirrors thoughts and helps with reflection and decision-making.

  • Nerd - Playful, curious, detail-focused; ideal for deep dives, learning, and exploratory thinking.

  • Available to paid ChatGPT users (Plus, Pro, Team) and only in new conversations.

💫 Significance

  • Elevates user control and personalization: Users can now select a mode be it witty, neutral, empathetic, or curious that aligns with their current need, enhancing coherence and communication flow.

  • Strengthens interaction quality: Unlike previous versions, GPT-5’s personalities change not just tone but the reasoning approach making conversations feel more natural and context-aware.

  • Advances AI usability: By eliminating repetitive prompt crafting (“Be concise,” “Add humor”), GPT-5 establishes smoother, more intuitive steering for better results.

✨ MICROSOFT’S MASSIVE REVELATION

🧑🏻‍🔬 Microsoft’s research shows that AI is poised to take over many routine, information-heavy tasks in white-collar roles like translation, writing, sales support, and customer service but rather than fully replacing these jobs, AI will primarily augment human work, making adaptability and new skill acquisition essential for staying relevant.

💫 Highlights

  • 40 white-collar jobs scored highest for AI overlap: tasks like writing, summarizing, translating, and data synthesis.

  • Top at-risk roles: interpreters/translators, historians, writers/authors, customer service reps, technical writers, editors, PR specialists, sales reps, ticket agents, and radio announcers.

  • Least-affected roles: physically intensive or hands-on jobs such as dredge operators, bridge & lock tenders, phlebotomists, massage therapists, maids, and nursing assistants.

💫 Significance

  • Shifts the automation conversation from blue-collar to white-collar work, showing AI’s biggest near-term impact is on knowledge-heavy roles.

  • Reveals where reskilling is urgent - fields like translation, writing, and customer service may need rapid adaptation to remain competitive.

  • Highlights AI’s task-based disruption - most jobs won’t vanish entirely, but portions of daily work could be automated.

QUICK HITS

✨ 4 TRENDING AI TOOLS

 🤖 Poe.com

🧏🏻‍♀️ Function: “Instant AI chatbot conversation platform.”

 🤖 Civitai

🧏🏻‍♀️ Function: “AI image model sharing hub.”

🧏🏻‍♀️ Function: “Fast AI transcription and subtitling.”

 🤖 Zeemo

🧏🏻‍♀️ Function: “AI video captioning and subtitling.”

✨ Other Recent Developments In AI

💥 Investor expectations are soaring. The Q2T3 model reflects generative AI’s ability to catalyze explosive growth though Bessemer cautions about sustainability and market fragility.

💥 In its State of AI 2025 report, Bessemer defines a new "freakish" growth standard startups should aim to quadruple ARR in the first two years, then triple it over the next three.

💥 As of August 2, 2025, providers of general-purpose AI models must comply with obligations under the EU AI Act, marking the start of regulatory accountability for large-scale AI systems.

🤓 That’s A Wrap For Today!

Stay tuned for more updates.

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— The AI Surface