MIT-Pillar VC Artificial Intelligence Collective
Spring/Summer
2023 Recap
September 22nd, 2023
The AI Collective launched in the Fall of 2022 and the inaugural cohort of grant recipients joined in the Spring of 2023. Six teams received initial funding to commercialize research in AI, ML and data science. The AI Collective assisted grant recipients with identifying key milestones, connecting them to experienced entrepreneurs, and facilitating feedback from potential end-users.
In the Summer of 2023, 20 additional teams joined the AI Collective as summer fellows. The AI Collective Summer Fellowship included access to industry mentors, expert office hours and speaker talks with the wider MIT community. The AI Collective launched its bi-weekly newsletter on the latest in AI research and the community grew to over 600+ students, researchers and professors.
Speaker Talks
Andy Beck, Founder and CEO of PathAI, hosted a fireside chat with Pillar founding partner Jamie Goldstein on May 5th to discuss the opportunities they see in AI and healthcare, and PathAI’s founding story. Andy is a former professor at Harvard Medical School and received his Ph.D. in Biomedical Informatics at Stanford in Daphne Koller’s lab.
Steve Kaufer, Founder of TripAdvisor, hosted a fireside chat with Pillar general partner Sarah Hodges on June 22nd to discuss the role of AI in travel, opportunities they’re excited about in the space and lessons Steve has learned from scaling TripAdvisor to IPO and 3000+ employees in the past 20 years.
Community Events
Throughout the season, the AI Collective held a series of enriching community events. These included wide community talks that catered to a broad audience, intimate lunch-and-learn sessions tailored for limited attendees, celebratory occasions like the Fall Program Launch and Spring Launch Party, and a special Summer Community Event that brought members closer together.
