Prediction: AI Is Just Getting Started. In 2023, It Will Begin to Power Influencer Content

Blake Michael

Blake Michael is an actor and entrepreneur, having starred in film and TV from Disney Channel to Netflix. He is a partner at CreatorLed Ventures, the venture firm for influencers, and the chief evangelist officer of creator economy startup Lumanu. He has over 5 million fans on social media.

Evan Xie

From privacy concerns to the death of the college essay, there have been many questions and controversies surrounding the use of artificial intelligence (AI) — but that hasn’t stopped it from becoming one of the most consequential technologies of the past year. In 2023, this powerful force will continue to accelerate, and make its way into a sector in which far fewer people are considering its impact: the creator economy.

A New Frontier

For the past few years, AI has been on the rise, with a number of major tech companies undertaking research and development initiatives. In 2023, AI is set to see a massive acceleration in popularity and prevalence.

In fact, its hold on social media is already underway. Just look at Lensa, a generative AI application that allows users to upload 10 to 20 photos of themselves.For $2.99, the app will provide you with 15 completely original AI-generated digital portraits. However, Lensa has quickly gotten into hot water due to concerns over privacy as well as the possibility that the AI is actually “stealing” images from artists. This hasn’t slowed its popularity though; the app is reportedly making more than $1M per day from in-app purchases.

Another example is ChatGPT, a natural language processing chatbot created by OpenAI. Launched in late November, the program already has over one million users. ChatGPT uses a powerful language model to generate human-like responses to user queries. When asked what ChatGPT is capable of writing, the program itself responded, “It is capable of generating a wide range of text, including responses to questions, descriptions of objects or events, and even longer pieces of text such as stories or text.” Users have also reported that it can write scripts, complex Python code and other language-based tasks.

However, ChatGPT, like most other widely available AI-based programs, has its limitations. When asked about the drawbacks of using AI to create content, ChatGPT wrote, “One of the main drawbacks of using AI to create content is that the resulting content may lack originality and creativity. Because AI algorithms are designed to mimic human behavior, they can often produce content that is similar to what a human might create, but they may not be able to come up with truly unique ideas.”

Although, for now, its uses are somewhat limited, ChatGPT has given the public a taste of the potential of these generative AI tools — and they improve each day with more training.

Enhancing the Creative Process

One inevitable application of AI’s potential is in content creation. In 2023, AI will begin to power influencer content in a meaningful way, from concept creation to performance analytics.

Imagine a world where a creator can take care of every aspect of their job using one program — brainstorming concepts, writing scripts, developing production processes, generating photo and video content, editing, analyzing performance and more. While there isn’t yet one program for all these processes, AI can still be used in virtually all avenues of content creation to generate optimized content that resonates with an influencer’s target audience.

One way AI can assist in content creation is by providing data-driven insights. AI can quickly analyze large amounts of data and identify patterns that can be used to inform the content creation process, such as which keywords to target or which topics to write about for maximum impact. Another way AI can assist in content creation is by automating certain tasks associated with content creation such as formatting, spellchecking and keyword optimization. It can even provide automated responses to comments and messages, helping influencers stay engaged with their audience. It’s easy to see how every corner of content creation can be impacted by AI.

The Future of the Creator

Burnout is one of the biggest issues in the creator economy, and it’s one that sees a solution on the horizon as consumer-facing AI programs become more prevalent. Imagine inputting one prompt and having an AI program take care of the rest. Not only could this maximize an influencer’s potential for growth, but it can also reduce headcount for larger teams and even spawn an entirely new brand of creator.

Virtual influencers like Lil Miquela are already racking up millions of followers, even though they’re not real people. These CGI influencers are computer-generated characters that have the look, personality and tone of a real human, but they’re powered by a tech team behind the scenes. In the near future, these virtual influencers could operate autonomously as AI-generated “people,” or we may begin to see a hybrid version of this concept with real influencers using AI tools to create content featuring a look, location or action they wouldn’t otherwise be able to achieve.

AI can be used to automate and improve a number of content creation processes, with enormous potential for disrupting and enhancing the creator economy. In 2023, these tools will advance even more becoming capable of helping influencers quickly and easily create high-quality, engaging content that resonates with their target audience. T

** This article was not written by chatGPT.

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A $26M Push Into Power in LA

Grace Lee

🔦 Spotlight

Hello, Los Angeles.

Coachella Weekend 2 is here, which usually means LA is either heading back to the desert or happily staying put this time around. Back in the city, the focus this week is less about music infrastructure and more about something far more critical, power.

That’s where this week’s news comes in.

Critical Loop, a Los Angeles-based energy startup, raised a $26 million Series A to tackle one of the least talked about bottlenecks in tech right now, grid interconnection. In simple terms, it’s the process of getting power to where it’s needed, and increasingly, that process is too slow to keep up.

Critical Loop is building modular microgrid systems that can be deployed in days instead of years, giving industrial operators, data centers, and other energy-heavy users faster access to power without waiting on traditional grid upgrades. The round was led by Conifer Infrastructure Partners and Hanover, with participation from Better Ventures, Climate Capital, Adapt Nation Capital, and Cyrus Ventures.

The timing here matters. Between AI infrastructure demands, electrification, and a broader push toward domestic energy resilience, power is quickly becoming a gating factor for growth. You can build the data center, the factory, or the next big thing, but none of it works if you can’t turn it on.

That’s what makes companies like Critical Loop worth watching. They’re not building the flashiest part of the stack, but they’re solving for the piece everything else depends on.

And in a city that knows a thing or two about scaling ambition quickly, that might be the most important layer of all.

Below are this week’s fund announcements across LA 👇

🤝 Venture Deals

LA Venture Funds

Anthos Capital participated in Wealth.com’s $65M Series B, backing the AI-powered estate and tax planning platform as it scales across financial institutions. The oversubscribed round included new investors like Titanium Ventures and Pruven Capital alongside existing backers, and the company plans to use the funding to expand product development, pursue acquisitions, and grow its enterprise footprint as demand rises for AI-driven wealth management solutions. - learn more

Anamika Ventures participated in Sage Haven’s $3M pre-seed round, backing the AI-powered messaging and calling app designed to create a safer communication environment for kids. The round was led by Anamika Ventures alongside Fabric Ventures and a group of early-stage investors, as the company launches a platform focused on preventing cyberbullying through real-time AI moderation and parent oversight tools. - learn more

MANTIS Venture Capital participated in Factory’s $150M Series C, backing the AI startup as it builds autonomous software engineering systems for enterprise teams. The round was led by Khosla Ventures and included firms like Sequoia Capital, Blackstone, Insight Partners, and NEA, valuing the company at $1.5 billion. Factory plans to use the funding to invest further in product development and global expansion as demand grows for AI-driven tools that can automate large portions of the software development process. - learn more

Rebel Fund participated in Uplane’s $4.5M seed round, backing the AI startup as it looks to replace traditional marketing agencies with a platform that automates ad creation, testing, and budget optimization. The round was led by Play Ventures with participation from Y Combinator, 20VC, and Multimodal Ventures, and the company says its technology can improve return on ad spend by automating performance marketing workflows. - learn more

Alexandria Venture Investments and Presight Capital participated in Alloy Therapeutics’ $40M Series E, backing the biotech infrastructure company as it scales its AI-powered platform for drug discovery and development. The round included a mix of new investors like 8VC and JIC Venture Growth Investments alongside returning backers, valuing the company at $1 billion and underscoring continued interest in platforms that combine AI, data, and lab services across the biopharma lifecycle. - learn more

Finality Capital Partners participated in HYFIX’s $15M seed round, backing the semiconductor startup as it builds American-made chips designed to power drones and autonomous robots. The round was led by Craft Ventures with participation from Catapult Ventures, Multicoin Capital, and Sky Dayton, and the company is developing an integrated system-on-a-chip to replace fragmented hardware stacks and reduce reliance on foreign components. - learn more

Rainfall Ventures participated in Stendr’s $5.4M pre-seed round, backing the Norwegian defense tech startup as it builds an AI-native platform for drone detection and counter-drone operations. The round was co-led by Rainfall alongside ACME Capital and Skyfall, with additional participation from Antler, StartupLab, and other early-stage investors, and the company plans to use the funding to accelerate development of its multi-sensor technology and expand engineering capabilities. - learn more

Slauson & Co. participated in Slate Auto’s $650M funding round, backing the EV startup as it works to bring a lower-cost electric pickup truck to market. The round was led by TWG Global and comes as the Bezos-backed company prepares to begin production, targeting a more affordable segment of the EV market with a customizable truck expected to launch later this year. - learn more

Navitas Capital co-led Primepoint’s $10M seed round, backing the AI startup as it builds a platform that reads and connects complex construction drawings to streamline project workflows. The round also included investors like Penny Jar Capital, NextView Ventures, GS Futures, and Aglaé Ventures, and the company plans to use the funding to expand its platform and grow adoption among large commercial contractors. - learn more

Alexandria Venture Investments participated in Neomorph’s $100M Series B, backing the biotech company as it advances its molecular glue degrader platform targeting previously undruggable diseases. The round was led by Deerfield Management with participation from Regeneron Ventures, Longwood Fund, and Binney Street Capital, and the company plans to use the funding to support ongoing clinical trials and expand its broader drug development pipeline. - learn more

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Hermeus Moves In. Uber Lines Up. LA Wins.

Grace Lee

🔦 Spotlight

Hello, Los Angeles.

This week’s transportation news says a lot about where LA is headed and who wants to build here.

Start with Hermeus, which hit a $1 billion valuation after raising $350 million as it works on high-speed aircraft for defense applications. More notably for Los Angeles, the company is moving its headquarters to El Segundo, adding to the region’s growing aerospace and defense cluster. The round was led by Khosla Ventures, with participation from returning backers including Canaan Partners, Founders Fund, RTX Ventures, Bling Capital, and In-Q-Tel, along with new investors including Cox Enterprises, Socium Ventures, Destiny Tech100, Georgia Tech Foundation, 137 Ventures, and GSBackers.

Then there’s Uber, which made two separate autonomous vehicle announcements that both put Los Angeles in the rollout map.

The first is a partnership with Zoox, Amazon’s autonomous vehicle company. Uber said the service is expected to launch in Las Vegas in summer 2026 and then come to Los Angeles by mid-2027, giving riders the option to match with a Zoox robotaxi through the Uber app.

The second is a new deal with MOIA America, which plans to deploy autonomous ID. Buzz vehicles on the Uber platform in Los Angeles by the end of 2026.

Taken together, the message is pretty straightforward: LA is not just watching the future of transportation take shape, it is increasingly being used as the place to test it, scale it, and sell it. Hermeus is bringing its headquarters here as defense aviation regains momentum. Uber is lining up autonomous partners with Los Angeles as a target market. Different companies, different timelines, same conclusion: a meaningful share of the next transportation cycle is being built with LA in mind.

Below are this week’s venture deals, fund announcements, and acquisitions across LA.

🤝 Venture Deals

LA Companies

PeakMetrics raised a $6M Series A to scale its AI-powered narrative intelligence platform, which helps organizations track how information spreads online and identify risks from misinformation and coordinated campaigns. The round was led by Moneta Ventures with participation from Techstars, Parameter Ventures, VITALIZE Venture Capital, and Gurtin Ventures, and the company plans to use the funding to enhance its real-time detection capabilities and expand adoption across enterprise and government customers. - learn more

Hybron raised a $25M seed round to scale its advanced carbon fiber composite manufacturing technology, which aims to produce high-performance components faster and at lower cost than traditional methods. The round was led by Marque Ventures with participation from a mix of venture firms and strategic investors, and the company plans to use the funding to expand manufacturing capacity, grow its team, and support increasing demand from aerospace and defense programs. - learn more

LA Venture Funds

Emmeline Ventures participated in Osteoboost’s $8M funding round, backing the company as it expands access to its FDA-cleared wearable designed to treat low bone density in postmenopausal women. The round was led by Ambit Health Ventures with participation from Disrupt Health Impact Fund and others, and the company plans to use the capital to scale manufacturing, expand clinical research, and grow commercial adoption. - learn more

Bonfire Ventures led Juno’s $12M seed round, backing the AI-powered tax preparation platform as it aims to automate up to 90% of the manual work in tax filing for accounting firms. The round included participation from Impression Ventures and Xfund, and the company says its software can significantly reduce preparation time while keeping CPAs in the loop for review and advisory work. - learn more

Alexandria Venture Investments participated in Sidewinder Therapeutics’ $137M Series B, which will help fund the company’s push to bring its precision bispecific ADC cancer programs into the clinic. The round was co-led by Frazier Life Sciences and Novartis Venture Fund, and Sidewinder said it expects to advance its lead program into clinical development in 2027. - learn more

Slauson & Co. participated in Flora Fertility’s $5M seed round, backing the company as it builds what it describes as an individually owned fertility insurance platform that is not tied to an employer. The round was led by ManchesterStory, and Flora plans to use the funding to scale a model aimed at making fertility coverage more portable and accessible for consumers. - learn more

Mucker Capital participated in Fastrflow’s $375K early funding round, backing the startup as it builds a screen-aware AI copilot designed to assist students and professionals directly within their workflows. The company is focused on creating an assistant that can understand what’s on a user’s screen in real time to provide contextual help, positioning itself as a more integrated alternative to traditional standalone AI tools. - learn more

LA Exits

Modern Animal has been acquired by Chewy, giving the pet e-commerce giant a much bigger physical veterinary footprint as it expands deeper into healthcare. The deal brings Chewy an additional 29 clinics, 24/7 virtual care, and a membership-based model, and is expected to grow Chewy Vet Care from 18 to 47 locations nationwide while adding more than $125 million in annualized run-rate revenue. - learn more

Honk has been acquired by Frontenac, with the Los Angeles roadside assistance software company simultaneously completing an add-on acquisition of CurbsideSOS as part of the deal. The combination is meant to scale Honk’s platform for roadside assistance, towing, and accident management, with former Grubhub executives including Adam DeWitt, Matt Maloney, and Eric Ferguson joining the company to lead its next phase of growth. - learn more

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Valar Atomics Wants to Power AI, Literally

Grace Lee

🔦 Spotlight

Hello, Los Angeles.

This week’s spotlight belongs to a startup chasing one of the biggest and messiest questions in tech right now: where all the power for AI is actually supposed to come from. El Segundo-based Valar Atomics, founded by Isaiah Taylor, is reportedly raising $450 million at a $2 billion valuation to build clusters of small nuclear reactors aimed at powering data centers and other energy-hungry industrial sites.

That is not a subtle ambition. On its website, Valar says it wants to build “hundreds of nuclear reactors” on what it calls gigasites, focusing on grid-independent products including data center power, hydrogen, heavy industrial power, and clean hydrocarbon fuels. Its reactor approach is based on high-temperature gas reactor design principles using TRISO fuel, and the company is explicitly pitching its model as a way to meet the surge in power demand coming from AI.

Valar’s investor roster also helps explain why the company has drawn so much attention. The startup is backed by Palmer Luckey and Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar, and its earlier $130M round in November 2025 was led by Snowpoint Ventures.

What makes the story especially interesting is that this is not just another AI infrastructure company talking about faster chips or more efficient software. It is a bet that the next bottleneck is electricity itself, and that the winning response might look a lot more like hard infrastructure than cloud optimization. In a market full of startups promising to power the future metaphorically, Valar is making a much stranger and bolder claim: it wants to do it literally.

The company is also moving with unusual speed. Valar says it has been selected by the U.S. Department of Energy to achieve criticality on American soil by July 4, 2026 under the administration’s accelerated nuclear program, and related company materials tie its Project NOVA work to the Nuclear Reactor Pilot Program. Whether that timeline proves realistic or not, it tells you something important about the kind of company this wants to be: not a distant science project, but a startup trying to force nuclear power onto AI’s timetable.

And maybe that is the bigger LA angle here. For all the conversation around software, content, and consumer apps, Southern California keeps producing founders who are drawn to the hard stuff: defense, aerospace, energy, logistics, real-world systems with real-world constraints. Valar may still have plenty to prove, but it is hard to accuse this one of thinking small.

Now onto this week’s LA venture deals, fund announcements and acquisitions.

🤝 Venture Deals

LA Venture Funds

Matter Venture Partners participated in Anvil Robotics’ $5.5M seed round, which it led and which also included Humba Ventures, DNX Ventures, Vivek Sodera, Spacecadet Ventures, and Position Ventures. Anvil said it is building a kind of “Legos for robots” platform for physical AI teams, with open-source custom robots that can ship in one to two days, and has already delivered more than 100 units globally while surpassing seven figures in revenue. - learn more

WndrCo led daydream’s $15M Series A, backing the AI-native SEO agency alongside First Round Capital and Basis Set Ventures. daydream said the round brings total funding to $21M and will be used to accelerate hiring, product development, and go-to-market expansion as it combines SEO agents with human experts to help companies navigate both traditional search and AI search. - learn more

Embark Ventures participated in Via Separations’ $36M funding round, which also brought in new strategic backing from Climate Investment, Aramco Ventures, and Marathon Petroleum Corporation. Via said the capital will help deploy more commercial projects and expand its membrane-based industrial filtration platform into refining and chemicals, building on commercial traction in pulp and paper and a pilot completed at a major Gulf Coast refinery. - learn more

Finality Capital Partners co-led Alien’s $7.1M round alongside Initialized, backing the company’s push to build identity infrastructure for both humans and AI agents. According to the X post announcing the raise, Alien plans to use the funding to develop unique identity systems at a time when proving whether an entity online is human or agentic is becoming increasingly important. - learn more

M13 participated in OpenFX’s $94M Series A, as the company builds API infrastructure for global FX liquidity. OpenFX said it now moves more than $45B a year across borders, settles 98% of transactions in under 60 minutes, and plans to use the funding to expand its institutional-grade, API-first platform for cross-border payments and treasury operations. - learn more

M13 led Jimini Health’s $17M seed round, backing the company alongside Town Hall Ventures, LionBird, Zetta Venture Partners, and OneMind as it builds a clinician-supervised AI platform for behavioral health. Jimini said the funding will help scale Sage into more care settings and deepen partnerships with major behavioral health providers across the U.S., positioning it as a safer alternative to unsupervised consumer AI tools for mental health support. - learn more

MANTIS Venture Capital participated in depthfirst’s $80M Series B, which was led by Meritech Capital and also included Forerunner Ventures, The House Fund, Accel, Box Group, Liquid 2 Ventures, and Alt Capital. The company said the new funding will be used to train additional security models, grow its AI research team, and scale enterprise adoption as it builds an AI-native platform for software security and launches its first in-house security model. - learn more

Freeflow Ventures participated in TippingPoint Biosciences’ $4.5M seed round, joining SOSV, LKS Fund, Sazze Partners, StoryHouse Ventures, Sontag Innovation Fund, BrightEdge, XEIA Venture Partners, West Coast Angel Network, and others. The company said the financing will help de-risk its epigenetic discovery platform as it works to translate chromatin biology into new therapeutics. - learn more

LA Exits

Warner Music Group agreed to acquire Revelator, a B2B music platform focused on digital distribution, rights management, royalty accounting, and real-time analytics for independent labels, artists, and distributors. WMG said the deal will strengthen its distribution and label services business, expand the tools available through its labels and ADA, and allow Revelator to keep serving its existing customers while scaling through WMG’s global infrastructure. - learn more

Omni Agent Solutions has been acquired by Fortress Investment Group, which said the deal will provide long-term capital and resources to expand Omni’s tech-forward platform for bankruptcy and restructuring case administration. Omni said the investment will support continued technology development and scale across services such as claims management, noticing, solicitation support, securities services, disbursements, and call center operations, while its executive and operational teams remain in place. - learn more

Apium Swarm Robotics is being acquired by Red Cat, adding its distributed control technology for autonomous swarming drones and uncrewed surface vessels to Red Cat’s broader defense platform. Red Cat said Apium will continue operating independently while its autonomy stack is integrated across the business to strengthen coordinated multi-agent operations in contested and communications-degraded environments. - learn more

HOPWTR is being fully acquired by Constellation Brands, which first invested in the non-alcoholic sparkling water brand through its venture arm in 2021. Constellation said the deal strengthens its no- and low-alcohol portfolio as consumer demand in the space grows, while HOPWTR is expected to keep operating as it does today in the near term with CEO Jordan Bass remaining involved. - learn more

Prediction: AI Is Just Getting Started. In 2023, It Will Begin to Power Influencer Content

A New Frontier

Enhancing the Creative Process

The Future of the Creator

🔦 Spotlight

🤝 Venture Deals

🔦 Spotlight

🤝 Venture Deals

🔦 Spotlight

🤝 Venture Deals

🧬🔬AI-Driven Drug Discovery

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