However, Read AI has faced criticism for its sentiment analysis tool, which interprets meeting participants' vocal and facial cues, with critics citing privacy concerns and potential racial and gender biases. Despite this, the company has seen significant growth, with its user base increasing by half a million in the past quarter. Shim plans to double the company's staff to over 40 by the end of the year, leveraging the new capital infusion.
Key takeaways:
- Read AI, co-founded by David Shim, Rob Williams and Elliott Waldron, is a tool that uses AI to summarize video calls, emails, and messages, aiming to make work more effective and efficient.
- The company recently closed a $21 million funding round and is expanding into message and email summarization, connecting to Gmail, Outlook, Slack and videoconferencing platforms.
- Read AI's sentiment analysis tool, which interprets meeting participants' vocal and facial cues, has been criticized for being invasive, prone to bias, and a potential data security risk.
- Despite controversy, Read AI has grown its customer base by half a million users over the past quarter and plans to double its staff to over 40 employees by the end of the year.