- Latestly AI
- Posts
- $7M AI Startup at 23 + Amazon’s Alexa Upgrade + AI Side Hustle You Can Start Today
$7M AI Startup at 23 + Amazon’s Alexa Upgrade + AI Side Hustle You Can Start Today
This week in AI: OpenAI’s GPT-5 memory, Alibaba’s Qwen-2, and how to earn $2K/month with faceless TikTok videos.
Marco Fazio
May 07, 2025
Together with
Get Over $6K of Notion Free with Unlimited AI
Startups move fast. That's why thousands of startups worldwide trust Notion as their connected, customizable workspace. In one place, you can organize, plan, and execute—whether you're managing investor outreach, documenting key decisions, or scaling operations.
Apply now to get up to 6 months of Notion with unlimited AI free, a $6,000+ value. Access AI's limitless potential right inside Notion and build your company with one powerful tool.
⏱️ 7 min read
Top 3 Things in This Week’s Edition:
◆ $7M AI Startup at 23 Cyril Gorlla
◆ Amazon upgrades Alexa with GPT-style Q&A
◆ Earning $2K/month running faceless TikTok with AI
Global Weekly AI Update — May 7, 2025
🇺🇸 US & Canada
◆ Amazon Launches “Ask Alexa Anything” Mode
Alexa now taps LLMs for open-domain Q&A, rivaling ChatGPT inside Echo devices.
The Verge
◆ IBM and NASA Partner on Earth-Scan AI
New AI system scans satellite data to detect climate risks like wildfires and water stress.
TechCrunch
◆ OpenAI Teases “Memory Settings” for GPT-5
A/B testers report customizable memory presets for GPT-5 — from therapist mode to coding assistant.
Bloomberg
🇨🇳 China
◆ Alibaba Unveils Qwen-2 LLM
The new open-source model rivals GPT-4 on benchmarks and is already integrated into Alipay.
SCMP
◆ ByteDance AI Team Spins Out as MiniMax
The stealth AI startup raises funding and launches a multimodal foundation model.
Reuters
◆ China’s Education Ministry Tests AI for College Entrance Prep
GPT-powered tutors now available to 5,000 students nationwide in pilot phase.
China Daily
🌍 Africa
◆ South Africa Funds AI for Local Language Translation
Launch of a $25M public grant to support startups building African-language LLMs.
TechCabal
◆ Nigeria’s Health Ministry Rolls Out AI Diagnostic Assistant
The tool helps doctors in rural areas screen patients for 50+ conditions using voice input.
Vanguard Nigeria
🌏 Asia-Pacific
◆ India’s Jio Partners with Stability AI for BharatGPT
Multilingual model supports 12 regional languages and is integrated into mobile and TV services.
Economic Times
◆ Japan’s Ministry of Finance Deploys AI for Fraud Detection
AI system flags anomalous filings and financial behaviors in real-time.
Nikkei Asia
🇪🇺 Europe
◆ EU Greenlights AI Sandboxes in 6 Countries
Startups can now test AI products with relaxed compliance under government supervision.
EU Commission
◆ France Launches National AI Training Initiative
Free online courses + subsidies to train 100,000 French citizens in AI basics.
Les Echos
Founder Story of the Week
How a 23-Year-Old Built a $7M AI Startup to Make Enterprise Models Safer
At just 23, Cyril Gorlla co-founded CTGT, an AI startup that recently raised $7.2 million in seed funding from top investors like Google’s Gradient Ventures, General Catalyst, and Y Combinator.
CTGT, short for “Custom Training, Guardrails, and Tuning,” helps enterprises safely deploy large language models by customizing them to specific brand voices and reducing risks like hallucinations and bias. The platform also enables real-time monitoring and retraining without taking models offline.
Gorlla and co-founder Trevor Tuttle started the company in 2023 after dropping out of UC San Diego and joining Y Combinator. Today, CTGT is already working with Fortune 10 clients and aims to make AI more reliable for industries like healthcare, finance, and customer service.
“We’re turning AI from a black box into something enterprises can actually trust,” says Gorlla.Tech Funding News
Latestly AI Business Ideas – From Easy to Advanced
◆ Easy: Faceless TikTok Channel with AI Voiceover
Use ChatGPT for scripts + ElevenLabs for voice → post daily reels in any niche
Potential: $500–2,000/month in passive income
◆ Medium: AI Cold Email Generator for Freelancers
Build a service that crafts ultra-personalized emails for agencies, coaches, and solopreneurs
Use GPT-4 + Apollo + scraping → charge $200–$500 per campaign
◆ Hard: SaaS Platform for Construction Document Summaries
Parse blueprints and contract specs using GPT + document embedding
Charge $49–$999/month depending on project size and integrations
This Week’s Top 5 AI Startup Fundraising Rounds
Company | Amount Raised/Sought | Description | Lead Investor |
|---|---|---|---|
Nous Research | $65M | Decentralized AI on Solana | Paradigm |
Cheehoo | $10M | AI-powered animation tools | Greycroft |
Isomorphic Labs | $600M | AI drug discovery (DeepMind spinout) | Thrive Capital |
xAI Holdings | $20B (sought) | Elon Musk’s AI venture | In talks |
Thinking Machines | $2B (sought) | New startup by OpenAI’s ex-CTO | TBD (seed stage) |
Top 10 Pure-Play AI Unicorns – This Week’s Moves
Rank | Company | Valuation (USD) | This Week’s Move |
|---|---|---|---|
1 | OpenAI | $80B | No major change |
2 | Anthropic | $15B | Closed $2B funding round |
3 | Databricks | $43B | No major change |
4 | Hugging Face | $4.5B | Partnered with AWS |
5 | Scale AI | $7.3B | Closed $1.3B raise |
6 | Anduril | $8.5B | Won $500M defense contract |
7 | Inflection AI | $4B | Launched new enterprise model |
8 | Cohere | $2.2B | Signed Google Cloud deal |
9 | Adept AI | $1B | No major change |
10 | Synthesia | $1B | Released voice cloning upgrade |
Marco Fazio Editor,
Latestly AI,
Forbes 30 Under 30
We hope you enjoyed this Latestly AI edition.
📧 Got something for us or do you want to collaborate?
Hit reply and let us know!
Was this edition forwarded to you? Sign up here
Reply