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The Scandal Over a Supposedly AI-Written, Award-Winning Short Story Is Troubling. Or Just Mean?
                When there was social media chatter on Monday about an AI-written short story supposedly having won a “prestigious literary prize,” I opted not to blog about it. I hadn’t heard of the Commonwealth Prize, so how prestigious was it really? Plus, there was nothing even close to proof of what was being alleged—just some complaints, and people trying to prove their point with extremely fallible AI detectors. But the social media allegations have metastasized into a scandal by now, and if the New York Times is now writing about this, I might as well too. And if you’ve gotten this far into a blog post about a short story, you might as well read the short story and form your own opinion. It’s called The Serpent in the Grove, and credited to the author Jamir Nazir. It’s not paywalled, and is available on the Granta website. How did you feel when you read the sentence, “Outside, little Puttie – three years old, sun-dark, bright-eyed – chased a yard fowl through dust, his laughter like water over pebbles”? I’m guessing you scoffed, perceiving many AI tropes. You might have sensed these even if you came to the story cold, but then again you might not have. Be honest: you probably wouldn’t have read a short story today at all if there were no scandal.

 But here’s a section that seems less likely to have been written by AI: Puttie, carrying his father in shoulders and his mother in steadiness, walks there when work shatters him. He stops short of the ring out of respect turned habit. He listens: the brook language of leaves, sun’s thin hiss, a creak where wood learns to pretend to be a board and is tired of pretending. This is too stylized and playful with grammar to be a typical AI output. But what does that mean exactly to someone who thinks an AI model wrote the story? Does it disprove the whole notion of AI authorship? Does it just mean the human author embellished certain parts? Or do you maybe feel like you could get an AI model to write like that, particularly if you fed it an example?

 Sigrid Rausing, the publisher of Granta, released a puzzling, ambiguous statement about the AI accusations, writing, in part, “It may be that the judges have now awarded a prize to an instance of AI plagiarism – we don’t yet know, and perhaps we never will know.” But her statement also says she fed the story into Claude, and it zeroed in on the more human-seeming parts, saying they contain “off-shape specificity” and that AI could potentially have been used to “elaborate around” those parts. But then again, wow, truly who cares what Claude thinks about this? The director-general of the foundation that administers the Commonwealth Prize, Razmi Farook, spoke to the New York Times, and also kept things pretty ambiguous, saying her organization has, “taken stock of the comments,” and that there’d been some internal soul-searching “to see if we feel that our process to date has been robust enough.” While her foundation is “confident in the rigor” of its AI-checking process, they note that this is an “evolving technological environment.”

 There are now other stories on the Granta website being accused of AI plagiarism online, and Granta has added a note to all the Commonwealth Prize winners, saying in part, “The suggestion that writers have submitted material not authentically their own is a charge we take seriously, but until definite evidence comes to light we will keep these stories on our website.”  But despite some early accusations to the contrary, Jamir Nazir does appear to be a real person, based in Trinidad and Tobago. If he did use AI to write the story, the “prestigious” award paid more in prestige than money. He got £2,500 for his trouble, since he was the Caribbean regional prizewinner. The all-around winner, who gets £5,000, won’t be announced until June 30. From the intensity of the discussions online, particularly on book subreddits, it does seem like, eventually, someone is going to track down Nazir and get him to either confess or write a legal affidavit signed in blood swearing he wrote it all himself.

 At any rate, it’s doubtful the people who are upset about this are going to get the vindication they want. Even if Nazir is guilty, he can just deny, or—more in keeping with what people in this situation tend to do—claim he took suggestions here and there from an LLM, but that he’s still the true author. In the meantime people sure have a lot of strong opinions about a short story. And if the truth is that Nazir just kinda writes like an LLM, what a way to find out.      #Scandal #Supposedly #AIWritten #AwardWinning #Short #Story #TroublingArtificial intelligence,Fiction,literature

The Scandal Over a Supposedly AI-Written, Award-Winning Short Story Is Troubling. Or Just Mean?The Scandal Over a Supposedly AI-Written, Award-Winning Short Story Is Troubling. Or Just Mean?
                When there was social media chatter on Monday about an AI-written short story supposedly having won a “prestigious literary prize,” I opted not to blog about it. I hadn’t heard of the Commonwealth Prize, so how prestigious was it really? Plus, there was nothing even close to proof of what was being alleged—just some complaints, and people trying to prove their point with extremely fallible AI detectors. But the social media allegations have metastasized into a scandal by now, and if the New York Times is now writing about this, I might as well too. And if you’ve gotten this far into a blog post about a short story, you might as well read the short story and form your own opinion. It’s called The Serpent in the Grove, and credited to the author Jamir Nazir. It’s not paywalled, and is available on the Granta website. How did you feel when you read the sentence, “Outside, little Puttie – three years old, sun-dark, bright-eyed – chased a yard fowl through dust, his laughter like water over pebbles”? I’m guessing you scoffed, perceiving many AI tropes. You might have sensed these even if you came to the story cold, but then again you might not have. Be honest: you probably wouldn’t have read a short story today at all if there were no scandal.

 But here’s a section that seems less likely to have been written by AI: Puttie, carrying his father in shoulders and his mother in steadiness, walks there when work shatters him. He stops short of the ring out of respect turned habit. He listens: the brook language of leaves, sun’s thin hiss, a creak where wood learns to pretend to be a board and is tired of pretending. This is too stylized and playful with grammar to be a typical AI output. But what does that mean exactly to someone who thinks an AI model wrote the story? Does it disprove the whole notion of AI authorship? Does it just mean the human author embellished certain parts? Or do you maybe feel like you could get an AI model to write like that, particularly if you fed it an example?

 Sigrid Rausing, the publisher of Granta, released a puzzling, ambiguous statement about the AI accusations, writing, in part, “It may be that the judges have now awarded a prize to an instance of AI plagiarism – we don’t yet know, and perhaps we never will know.” But her statement also says she fed the story into Claude, and it zeroed in on the more human-seeming parts, saying they contain “off-shape specificity” and that AI could potentially have been used to “elaborate around” those parts. But then again, wow, truly who cares what Claude thinks about this? The director-general of the foundation that administers the Commonwealth Prize, Razmi Farook, spoke to the New York Times, and also kept things pretty ambiguous, saying her organization has, “taken stock of the comments,” and that there’d been some internal soul-searching “to see if we feel that our process to date has been robust enough.” While her foundation is “confident in the rigor” of its AI-checking process, they note that this is an “evolving technological environment.”

 There are now other stories on the Granta website being accused of AI plagiarism online, and Granta has added a note to all the Commonwealth Prize winners, saying in part, “The suggestion that writers have submitted material not authentically their own is a charge we take seriously, but until definite evidence comes to light we will keep these stories on our website.”  But despite some early accusations to the contrary, Jamir Nazir does appear to be a real person, based in Trinidad and Tobago. If he did use AI to write the story, the “prestigious” award paid more in prestige than money. He got £2,500 for his trouble, since he was the Caribbean regional prizewinner. The all-around winner, who gets £5,000, won’t be announced until June 30. From the intensity of the discussions online, particularly on book subreddits, it does seem like, eventually, someone is going to track down Nazir and get him to either confess or write a legal affidavit signed in blood swearing he wrote it all himself.

 At any rate, it’s doubtful the people who are upset about this are going to get the vindication they want. Even if Nazir is guilty, he can just deny, or—more in keeping with what people in this situation tend to do—claim he took suggestions here and there from an LLM, but that he’s still the true author. In the meantime people sure have a lot of strong opinions about a short story. And if the truth is that Nazir just kinda writes like an LLM, what a way to find out.      #Scandal #Supposedly #AIWritten #AwardWinning #Short #Story #TroublingArtificial intelligence,Fiction,literature

When there was social media chatter on Monday about an AI-written short story supposedly having won a “prestigious literary prize,” I opted not to blog about it. I hadn’t heard of the Commonwealth Prize, so how prestigious was it really? Plus, there was nothing even close to proof of what was being alleged—just some complaints, and people trying to prove their point with extremely fallible AI detectors.

But the social media allegations have metastasized into a scandal by now, and if the New York Times is now writing about this, I might as well too.

And if you’ve gotten this far into a blog post about a short story, you might as well read the short story and form your own opinion. It’s called The Serpent in the Grove, and credited to the author Jamir Nazir. It’s not paywalled, and is available on the Granta website.

How did you feel when you read the sentence, “Outside, little Puttie – three years old, sun-dark, bright-eyed – chased a yard fowl through dust, his laughter like water over pebbles”? I’m guessing you scoffed, perceiving many AI tropes. You might have sensed these even if you came to the story cold, but then again you might not have. Be honest: you probably wouldn’t have read a short story today at all if there were no scandal.

But here’s a section that seems less likely to have been written by AI:

Puttie, carrying his father in shoulders and his mother in steadiness, walks there when work shatters him. He stops short of the ring out of respect turned habit. He listens: the brook language of leaves, sun’s thin hiss, a creak where wood learns to pretend to be a board and is tired of pretending.

This is too stylized and playful with grammar to be a typical AI output. But what does that mean exactly to someone who thinks an AI model wrote the story? Does it disprove the whole notion of AI authorship? Does it just mean the human author embellished certain parts? Or do you maybe feel like you could get an AI model to write like that, particularly if you fed it an example?

Sigrid Rausing, the publisher of Granta, released a puzzling, ambiguous statement about the AI accusations, writing, in part, “It may be that the judges have now awarded a prize to an instance of AI plagiarism – we don’t yet know, and perhaps we never will know.” But her statement also says she fed the story into Claude, and it zeroed in on the more human-seeming parts, saying they contain “off-shape specificity” and that AI could potentially have been used to “elaborate around” those parts.

But then again, wow, truly who cares what Claude thinks about this?

The director-general of the foundation that administers the Commonwealth Prize, Razmi Farook, spoke to the New York Times, and also kept things pretty ambiguous, saying her organization has, “taken stock of the comments,” and that there’d been some internal soul-searching “to see if we feel that our process to date has been robust enough.” While her foundation is “confident in the rigor” of its AI-checking process, they note that this is an “evolving technological environment.”

There are now other stories on the Granta website being accused of AI plagiarism online, and Granta has added a note to all the Commonwealth Prize winners, saying in part, “The suggestion that writers have submitted material not authentically their own is a charge we take seriously, but until definite evidence comes to light we will keep these stories on our website.” 

But despite some early accusations to the contrary, Jamir Nazir does appear to be a real person, based in Trinidad and Tobago. If he did use AI to write the story, the “prestigious” award paid more in prestige than money. He got £2,500 for his trouble, since he was the Caribbean regional prizewinner. The all-around winner, who gets £5,000, won’t be announced until June 30.

From the intensity of the discussions online, particularly on book subreddits, it does seem like, eventually, someone is going to track down Nazir and get him to either confess or write a legal affidavit signed in blood swearing he wrote it all himself.

At any rate, it’s doubtful the people who are upset about this are going to get the vindication they want. Even if Nazir is guilty, he can just deny, or—more in keeping with what people in this situation tend to do—claim he took suggestions here and there from an LLM, but that he’s still the true author.

In the meantime people sure have a lot of strong opinions about a short story. And if the truth is that Nazir just kinda writes like an LLM, what a way to find out.

#Scandal #Supposedly #AIWritten #AwardWinning #Short #Story #TroublingArtificial intelligence,Fiction,literature

When there was social media chatter on Monday about an AI-written short story supposedly having won a “prestigious literary prize,” I opted not to blog about it. I hadn’t heard of the Commonwealth Prize, so how prestigious was it really? Plus, there was nothing even close to proof of what was being alleged—just some complaints, and people trying to prove their point with extremely fallible AI detectors.

But the social media allegations have metastasized into a scandal by now, and if the New York Times is now writing about this, I might as well too.

And if you’ve gotten this far into a blog post about a short story, you might as well read the short story and form your own opinion. It’s called The Serpent in the Grove, and credited to the author Jamir Nazir. It’s not paywalled, and is available on the Granta website.

How did you feel when you read the sentence, “Outside, little Puttie – three years old, sun-dark, bright-eyed – chased a yard fowl through dust, his laughter like water over pebbles”? I’m guessing you scoffed, perceiving many AI tropes. You might have sensed these even if you came to the story cold, but then again you might not have. Be honest: you probably wouldn’t have read a short story today at all if there were no scandal.

But here’s a section that seems less likely to have been written by AI:

Puttie, carrying his father in shoulders and his mother in steadiness, walks there when work shatters him. He stops short of the ring out of respect turned habit. He listens: the brook language of leaves, sun’s thin hiss, a creak where wood learns to pretend to be a board and is tired of pretending.

This is too stylized and playful with grammar to be a typical AI output. But what does that mean exactly to someone who thinks an AI model wrote the story? Does it disprove the whole notion of AI authorship? Does it just mean the human author embellished certain parts? Or do you maybe feel like you could get an AI model to write like that, particularly if you fed it an example?

Sigrid Rausing, the publisher of Granta, released a puzzling, ambiguous statement about the AI accusations, writing, in part, “It may be that the judges have now awarded a prize to an instance of AI plagiarism – we don’t yet know, and perhaps we never will know.” But her statement also says she fed the story into Claude, and it zeroed in on the more human-seeming parts, saying they contain “off-shape specificity” and that AI could potentially have been used to “elaborate around” those parts.

But then again, wow, truly who cares what Claude thinks about this?

The director-general of the foundation that administers the Commonwealth Prize, Razmi Farook, spoke to the New York Times, and also kept things pretty ambiguous, saying her organization has, “taken stock of the comments,” and that there’d been some internal soul-searching “to see if we feel that our process to date has been robust enough.” While her foundation is “confident in the rigor” of its AI-checking process, they note that this is an “evolving technological environment.”

There are now other stories on the Granta website being accused of AI plagiarism online, and Granta has added a note to all the Commonwealth Prize winners, saying in part, “The suggestion that writers have submitted material not authentically their own is a charge we take seriously, but until definite evidence comes to light we will keep these stories on our website.” 

But despite some early accusations to the contrary, Jamir Nazir does appear to be a real person, based in Trinidad and Tobago. If he did use AI to write the story, the “prestigious” award paid more in prestige than money. He got £2,500 for his trouble, since he was the Caribbean regional prizewinner. The all-around winner, who gets £5,000, won’t be announced until June 30.

From the intensity of the discussions online, particularly on book subreddits, it does seem like, eventually, someone is going to track down Nazir and get him to either confess or write a legal affidavit signed in blood swearing he wrote it all himself.

At any rate, it’s doubtful the people who are upset about this are going to get the vindication they want. Even if Nazir is guilty, he can just deny, or—more in keeping with what people in this situation tend to do—claim he took suggestions here and there from an LLM, but that he’s still the true author.

In the meantime people sure have a lot of strong opinions about a short story. And if the truth is that Nazir just kinda writes like an LLM, what a way to find out.

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#Scandal #Supposedly #AIWritten #AwardWinning #Short #Story #Troubling

Apple last updated the base MacBook Pro in October with an M5 chip bump. The company is working on an M6 processor, and Bloomberg says that Apple “finished work months ago” a different base MacBook Pro upgrade that keeps the laptop’s present design and is scheduled to launch this year. Apple will quickly move to the M7 line in 2027, including new Pro and Max chips, Bloomberg previously reported.

As for the iPad Pros, Bloomberg says that they’ll retain 11-inch and 13-inch screens. Apple last updated the iPad Pro line last October with the M5 chip.

#Apples #entrylevel #MacBook #Pro #redesignApple,Gadgets,iPad,Laptops,News,Tech">Apple’s entry-level MacBook Pro could be up for a redesignApple is working on a “revamped” version of its entry-level MacBook Pro that it could launch as soon as the first half of 2027, Bloomberg reports. The company is also testing four new iPad Pros that are set to launch in the spring with a focus on “internal improvements.”The updated MacBook Pro, which will keep the 14-inch screen size, will have a design that’s “in line” with what Apple is planning for the touch screen MacBooks it also has in the works, Bloomberg says. Those new touch screen laptops are set to be released between “the end of this year and early next year,” and Bloomberg has previously reported that they will get a Dynamic Island-like pill at the top of the screen.Apple last updated the base MacBook Pro in October with an M5 chip bump. The company is working on an M6 processor, and Bloomberg says that Apple “finished work months ago” a different base MacBook Pro upgrade that keeps the laptop’s present design and is scheduled to launch this year. Apple will quickly move to the M7 line in 2027, including new Pro and Max chips, Bloomberg previously reported.As for the iPad Pros, Bloomberg says that they’ll retain 11-inch and 13-inch screens. Apple last updated the iPad Pro line last October with the M5 chip.#Apples #entrylevel #MacBook #Pro #redesignApple,Gadgets,iPad,Laptops,News,Tech

Apple last updated the base MacBook Pro in October with an M5 chip bump. The company is working on an M6 processor, and Bloomberg says that Apple “finished work months ago” a different base MacBook Pro upgrade that keeps the laptop’s present design and is scheduled to launch this year. Apple will quickly move to the M7 line in 2027, including new Pro and Max chips, Bloomberg previously reported.

As for the iPad Pros, Bloomberg says that they’ll retain 11-inch and 13-inch screens. Apple last updated the iPad Pro line last October with the M5 chip.

#Apples #entrylevel #MacBook #Pro #redesignApple,Gadgets,iPad,Laptops,News,Tech">Apple’s entry-level MacBook Pro could be up for a redesign

Apple is working on a “revamped” version of its entry-level MacBook Pro that it could launch as soon as the first half of 2027, Bloomberg reports. The company is also testing four new iPad Pros that are set to launch in the spring with a focus on “internal improvements.”

The updated MacBook Pro, which will keep the 14-inch screen size, will have a design that’s “in line” with what Apple is planning for the touch screen MacBooks it also has in the works, Bloomberg says. Those new touch screen laptops are set to be released between “the end of this year and early next year,” and Bloomberg has previously reported that they will get a Dynamic Island-like pill at the top of the screen.

Apple last updated the base MacBook Pro in October with an M5 chip bump. The company is working on an M6 processor, and Bloomberg says that Apple “finished work months ago” a different base MacBook Pro upgrade that keeps the laptop’s present design and is scheduled to launch this year. Apple will quickly move to the M7 line in 2027, including new Pro and Max chips, Bloomberg previously reported.

As for the iPad Pros, Bloomberg says that they’ll retain 11-inch and 13-inch screens. Apple last updated the iPad Pro line last October with the M5 chip.

#Apples #entrylevel #MacBook #Pro #redesignApple,Gadgets,iPad,Laptops,News,Tech
Indian serial entrepreneur Bhavin Turakhia is making a $30 million personal bet that there is still room for another enterprise AI company. His new venture, Neo, is built on a simple premise: workplace software designed before the AI era cannot simply be upgraded with chatbots — it has to be redesigned from the ground up.

Turakhia, 46, is no stranger to ambitious enterprise technology bets. Over the past two decades, he has co-founded companies including Directi, Radix, Titan, and banking software firm Zeta, largely backing them with his own cash before bringing in outside investors. He’s doing the same with Neo.

Turakhia told TechCrunch he is bootstrapping this much money because he believes AI marks a technology shift significant enough to justify rebuilding workplace software from scratch.

“If you want to build an iPhone, you can’t take the parts of a Nokia and somehow convert it into an iPhone,” he said.

Launched internally in April this year, Neo is an enterprise work platform that combines project management, documents, file storage, and AI into a single product. The goal, Turakhia said, is to make AI an active participant in day-to-day work rather than just another assistant employees turn to separately.

Turakhia argued most incumbents face a structural disadvantage when adding AI to products designed before generative AI. Neo, he said, was designed from the ground up for AI and is model-agnostic, allowing enterprises to switch between AI models rather than being tied to a single provider.

He’s not alone in thinking this way. Investor Chamath Palihapitiya initially launched enterprise AI coding venture 8090 with his own capital before raising a $135 million funding round this week.

Still, Turakhia’s bet comes as enterprise AI has emerged as one of the most competitive areas in technology. Microsoft, Google, and Salesforce are embedding AI across their workplace software. Meanwhile every startup from the giant labs like Anthropic and OpenAI, to the productivity companies like Notion and Superhuman are racing to reshape how businesses use AI in their daily workflow.

Turakhia argued enterprise software has never been a winner-takes-all market, saying even a small share of global enterprise AI spending would represent a sizeable company.

“Even if we end up with 2% to 5% market share, that’s larger than anything I’ve built so far,” he said.

For the past few months, Neo has been in internal use across Turakhia’s companies, including Zeta. The company plans to begin rolling out the software to mid-sized businesses in the coming months, initially targeting knowledge workers across technology, consulting, and professional services firms.

Turakhia said Neo’s initial platform was built in three months, with AI extensively used in the development process, work he estimates would have taken more than a year with a much larger engineering team before generative AI.

The Bengaluru-based startup currently employs about 45 people, including 18 engineers. Turakhia told TechCrunch that it expects to grow to around 100 employees by the end of the year, with most new hires focused on AI and software engineering.

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.

#Indian #tech #tycoon #bets #30M #money #build #alternative #Microsoft #Office #TechCrunchBhavin Turakhia,microsoft office,neo">Indian tech tycoon bets M of his own money to build AI alternative to Microsoft Office | TechCrunch
Indian serial entrepreneur Bhavin Turakhia is making a  million personal bet that there is still room for another enterprise AI company. His new venture, Neo, is built on a simple premise: workplace software designed before the AI era cannot simply be upgraded with chatbots — it has to be redesigned from the ground up.

Turakhia, 46, is no stranger to ambitious enterprise technology bets. Over the past two decades, he has co-founded companies including Directi, Radix, Titan, and banking software firm Zeta, largely backing them with his own cash before bringing in outside investors. He’s doing the same with Neo.







Turakhia told TechCrunch he is bootstrapping this much money because he believes AI marks a technology shift significant enough to justify rebuilding workplace software from scratch.

“If you want to build an iPhone, you can’t take the parts of a Nokia and somehow convert it into an iPhone,” he said.

Launched internally in April this year, Neo is an enterprise work platform that combines project management, documents, file storage, and AI into a single product. The goal, Turakhia said, is to make AI an active participant in day-to-day work rather than just another assistant employees turn to separately.

Turakhia argued most incumbents face a structural disadvantage when adding AI to products designed before generative AI. Neo, he said, was designed from the ground up for AI and is model-agnostic, allowing enterprises to switch between AI models rather than being tied to a single provider.

He’s not alone in thinking this way. Investor Chamath Palihapitiya initially launched enterprise AI coding venture 8090 with his own capital before raising a 5 million funding round this week.


Still, Turakhia’s bet comes as enterprise AI has emerged as one of the most competitive areas in technology. Microsoft, Google, and Salesforce are embedding AI across their workplace software. Meanwhile every startup from the giant labs like Anthropic and OpenAI, to the productivity companies like Notion and Superhuman are racing to reshape how businesses use AI in their daily workflow.

Turakhia argued enterprise software has never been a winner-takes-all market, saying even a small share of global enterprise AI spending would represent a sizeable company.

“Even if we end up with 2% to 5% market share, that’s larger than anything I’ve built so far,” he said.







For the past few months, Neo has been in internal use across Turakhia’s companies, including Zeta. The company plans to begin rolling out the software to mid-sized businesses in the coming months, initially targeting knowledge workers across technology, consulting, and professional services firms.

Turakhia said Neo’s initial platform was built in three months, with AI extensively used in the development process, work he estimates would have taken more than a year with a much larger engineering team before generative AI.

The Bengaluru-based startup currently employs about 45 people, including 18 engineers. Turakhia told TechCrunch that it expects to grow to around 100 employees by the end of the year, with most new hires focused on AI and software engineering.
When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.#Indian #tech #tycoon #bets #30M #money #build #alternative #Microsoft #Office #TechCrunchBhavin Turakhia,microsoft office,neo

Neo, is built on a simple premise: workplace software designed before the AI era cannot simply be upgraded with chatbots — it has to be redesigned from the ground up.

Turakhia, 46, is no stranger to ambitious enterprise technology bets. Over the past two decades, he has co-founded companies including Directi, Radix, Titan, and banking software firm Zeta, largely backing them with his own cash before bringing in outside investors. He’s doing the same with Neo.

Turakhia told TechCrunch he is bootstrapping this much money because he believes AI marks a technology shift significant enough to justify rebuilding workplace software from scratch.

“If you want to build an iPhone, you can’t take the parts of a Nokia and somehow convert it into an iPhone,” he said.

Launched internally in April this year, Neo is an enterprise work platform that combines project management, documents, file storage, and AI into a single product. The goal, Turakhia said, is to make AI an active participant in day-to-day work rather than just another assistant employees turn to separately.

Turakhia argued most incumbents face a structural disadvantage when adding AI to products designed before generative AI. Neo, he said, was designed from the ground up for AI and is model-agnostic, allowing enterprises to switch between AI models rather than being tied to a single provider.

He’s not alone in thinking this way. Investor Chamath Palihapitiya initially launched enterprise AI coding venture 8090 with his own capital before raising a $135 million funding round this week.

Still, Turakhia’s bet comes as enterprise AI has emerged as one of the most competitive areas in technology. Microsoft, Google, and Salesforce are embedding AI across their workplace software. Meanwhile every startup from the giant labs like Anthropic and OpenAI, to the productivity companies like Notion and Superhuman are racing to reshape how businesses use AI in their daily workflow.

Turakhia argued enterprise software has never been a winner-takes-all market, saying even a small share of global enterprise AI spending would represent a sizeable company.

“Even if we end up with 2% to 5% market share, that’s larger than anything I’ve built so far,” he said.

For the past few months, Neo has been in internal use across Turakhia’s companies, including Zeta. The company plans to begin rolling out the software to mid-sized businesses in the coming months, initially targeting knowledge workers across technology, consulting, and professional services firms.

Turakhia said Neo’s initial platform was built in three months, with AI extensively used in the development process, work he estimates would have taken more than a year with a much larger engineering team before generative AI.

The Bengaluru-based startup currently employs about 45 people, including 18 engineers. Turakhia told TechCrunch that it expects to grow to around 100 employees by the end of the year, with most new hires focused on AI and software engineering.

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.

#Indian #tech #tycoon #bets #30M #money #build #alternative #Microsoft #Office #TechCrunchBhavin Turakhia,microsoft office,neo">Indian tech tycoon bets $30M of his own money to build AI alternative to Microsoft Office | TechCrunch

Indian serial entrepreneur Bhavin Turakhia is making a $30 million personal bet that there is still room for another enterprise AI company. His new venture, Neo, is built on a simple premise: workplace software designed before the AI era cannot simply be upgraded with chatbots — it has to be redesigned from the ground up.

Turakhia, 46, is no stranger to ambitious enterprise technology bets. Over the past two decades, he has co-founded companies including Directi, Radix, Titan, and banking software firm Zeta, largely backing them with his own cash before bringing in outside investors. He’s doing the same with Neo.

Turakhia told TechCrunch he is bootstrapping this much money because he believes AI marks a technology shift significant enough to justify rebuilding workplace software from scratch.

“If you want to build an iPhone, you can’t take the parts of a Nokia and somehow convert it into an iPhone,” he said.

Launched internally in April this year, Neo is an enterprise work platform that combines project management, documents, file storage, and AI into a single product. The goal, Turakhia said, is to make AI an active participant in day-to-day work rather than just another assistant employees turn to separately.

Turakhia argued most incumbents face a structural disadvantage when adding AI to products designed before generative AI. Neo, he said, was designed from the ground up for AI and is model-agnostic, allowing enterprises to switch between AI models rather than being tied to a single provider.

He’s not alone in thinking this way. Investor Chamath Palihapitiya initially launched enterprise AI coding venture 8090 with his own capital before raising a $135 million funding round this week.

Still, Turakhia’s bet comes as enterprise AI has emerged as one of the most competitive areas in technology. Microsoft, Google, and Salesforce are embedding AI across their workplace software. Meanwhile every startup from the giant labs like Anthropic and OpenAI, to the productivity companies like Notion and Superhuman are racing to reshape how businesses use AI in their daily workflow.

Turakhia argued enterprise software has never been a winner-takes-all market, saying even a small share of global enterprise AI spending would represent a sizeable company.

“Even if we end up with 2% to 5% market share, that’s larger than anything I’ve built so far,” he said.

For the past few months, Neo has been in internal use across Turakhia’s companies, including Zeta. The company plans to begin rolling out the software to mid-sized businesses in the coming months, initially targeting knowledge workers across technology, consulting, and professional services firms.

Turakhia said Neo’s initial platform was built in three months, with AI extensively used in the development process, work he estimates would have taken more than a year with a much larger engineering team before generative AI.

The Bengaluru-based startup currently employs about 45 people, including 18 engineers. Turakhia told TechCrunch that it expects to grow to around 100 employees by the end of the year, with most new hires focused on AI and software engineering.

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