Harmonic, the math-focused AI startup founded by Robinhoodβs CEO, has reached a $1.45B valuation after a major funding round to scale its provably correct AI models.
Harmonic, the math-focused AI startup founded by Robinhoodβs CEO, has reached a $1.45B valuation after a major funding round to scale its provably correct AI models.
Microsoft Research head Peter Lee, right, in the Moment Motors shop with founder Marc Davis, left, and car builder Brandon Beaman in Austin, Texas, this week. Moment is converting Leeβs 1968 Ford Mustang GT Fastback to electric. (Photo courtesy of Peter Lee)
Out of Office isΒ a new GeekWire seriesΒ spotlighting the passions and hobbies that members of the Seattle-area tech community pursue outside of work.
Day job: President, Microsoft Research. Lee leads the organizationβs global labs and drives the incubation of new research-powered products in artificial intelligence, computing foundations, health, and life sciences.
Out-of-office passion: Converting classic cars to electric.
When Peter Lee first started his research for a project to convert his replica 1955 Porsche 550 Spyder to electric, he used the AI model Davinci-003 (OpenAIβs early Chat GPT-4) for help with the engineering design.
When he explained to the AI what he wanted to do, the first response Lee got back was, βWhy on earth would you want to ruin a beautiful classic car like that?βΒ
The head of Microsoft Research doesnβt just hear it from artificial intelligence. Now in the midst of converting another classic β a 1968 Ford Mustang GT Fastback β Lee is used to plenty of human car fanatics expressing their displeasure with his hobby.
βHalf the people Iβve told about this project think itβs the coolest thing, and the other half think itβs totally evil,β Lee said. βOne guy actually told me Iβm never going to heaven.β
Lee, who joined Microsoft in 2010 and previously spent 22 years at Carnegie Mellon University, was named one of Time magazineβs 100 most influential people in health and life sciences in 2024. Cars have been a passion since he was a kid. He raced karts and Formula Ford, and was even a licensed auto body technician for a time.
Peter Leeβs replica 1955 Porsche 550 Spyder that was converted to electric. (Photo courtesy of Peter Lee)
Frustrated by fuel system issues with the Porsche in 2020, Lee connected with Marc Davis, founder of Moment Motor Co. in Austin, Texas, a shop that βtransforms vintage head-turners into modern electric cars.β Moment is dedicated to βpreserving the art and beautyβ of classics like those owned by Lee.
Some classic car lovers are quick to criticize EV conversions for messing with the original gas-powered intent of manufacturers, pointing out that the cost alone makes it irresponsible. Davis said Momentβs work generates βplenty of vomit emojisβ from purists on the companyβs social media posts.
βI personally believe what weβre doing is preservation,β he said, pointing to projects in which people bring new life to a car that was their all-time favorite or something that their dad drove. (This Bloomberg video shows how the conversion process works.)
The cost of such a conversion can depend on car condition, size, and performance and range requirements from the owner, but Davis puts the ballpark between $50,000 and $150,000. Thatβs on top of a classic car that might cost $200,000. The Mustang project entails 100-150 hours of engineering work and 400-500 hours of installation work.
Lee is drawn to many of the benefits of going electric β no gas or oil to worry about, modern components, and explosive torque.
In the wet Pacific Northwest, Leeβs Porsche is garaged for the winter at a 50% charge. On the first nice day in the spring, thereβs little to fuss with.
βIβll just check the air in the tires, turn it on, and itβll just go. And itβll go fast. Itβs really a wonderful, wonderful thing,β Lee said, adding that speeds in the Porsche, which is a replica of the model in which Hollywood icon James Dean died, can be βa little scary.β
Clockwise from top left: Peter Leeβs Mustang; a rendering showing the battery boxes and motor configuration; high-voltage wiring running along the carβs underside; and a 3D scan of the carβs empty engine bay. (Moment Motors Images)
With the Mustang, Lee is involved in decisions big and small, from what type of shift knob he might like, to whether to retain the solid rear axle.
βI put thought into this, especially when I was driving the car to get to know it,β Lee said. βI ended up thinking that the car wouldnβt be a Mustang anymore if we got rid of the live rear axle, and it turned out that Marcβs design choice was exactly the same.β
When itβs done, the Mustang will be a unique build, and one that Lee says will demand plenty of attention on the car show circuit.
Asked whether he has a third vehicle in mind to convert next, Lee laughed before considering his growing collection and his desire to possibly change over an old pickup truck.
βMy wife isnβt around is she?β he said.
Classic vehicles being converted to electric in the Moment Motor Co. shop in Austin. (Photo courtesy of Peter Lee)
Most rewarding aspect of this pursuit: Lee loves that there are serious technical and design aspects of what heβs pursuing. In the case of the current project, he grapples with decisions that impact what it means for the car to still be a Mustang, and feel like a Mustang.
βThe thing Iβve always loved about cars, and why I love to work on cars, is you actually finish something,β he said. βThat never happens in software. Softwareβs never done. You might ship it, but youβre still working on it forever.β
Lee is also a believer in the growing business potential of converting classic cars to EV and he thinks it would be a thrill to be involved on the side with a company thatβs doing such work.
βThe whole idea of beautiful, classic-looking cars that have all the modern conveniences of being EV β I think thatβs going to be a bigger and bigger thing,β he said.
The lessons he brings back to work: Lee has wanted to combine his passion around cars with his day job forever. Today, car technology and auto racing have become so technical that he now has fellow researchers at Microsoft who are generally interested as well.
He called cars βa great laboratoryβ for trying to understand action models βΒ the AI systems designed to predict and determine the next best action an agent (like a robot or software) should take to achieve a specific goal.
At Microsoft Research, advancements in car software provide interesting ways to think about the architecture of an action model or training paradigms, with learnings that could impact whatβs happening on your own computer.
βIt wouldnβt surprise me if five years from now the β68 Mustang conversion has more intelligence, more self-drive, more action model, more robotic capabilities,β Lee said. βI think youβll see those things pop up even in your plain old Windows desktop over time.β
Do you have an out-of-office hobby or interesting side hustleΒ that youβre passionate about that would make for a fun profile on GeekWire? Drop us a line:Β tips@geekwire.com.
Marissa Coughlin and Constantine Vetoshev, owners of Swoon City, a new romance bookstore in Seattleβs Ballard neighborhood. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser)
When Marissa Coughlin left her latest tech job to open a romance bookstore and crafting hub in Seattle, she didnβt leave technology behind completely.
In fact, alongside her partner, Constantine Vetoshev, who still works in tech, artificial intelligence has become a major player in this next chapter of their lives.
Coughlin worked in a variety of communications and content roles for companies including Airbnb, Textio, Highspot, and most recently, T-Mobile. Vetoshev is a software developer at Brook.ai, a Seattle-area health technology startup that uses AI to help clinical teams deliver remote care.
Both big readers, the pair first started looking at spaces and developing a bookstore business plan in 2023. But with two small children, they were waiting for better timing. When a space became available on Market Street in Seattleβs Ballard neighborhood they finally made the leap, and opened Swoon City last month.
While Coughlin has no interest in seeing AI used to write the books or illustrate the covers that line her shelves, sheβs a big believer in how the technology can help the back end of the business.
βI think more businesses should be using this stuff, especially small businesses, if they can figure out how to tap into it,β Coughlin said. βItβs super useful, but you have to know that itβs there and what it can do, and be a little bit creative and figure out the solutions.β
Here are some of the ways Swoon City is tapping into AI, leveraging Coughlin and Vetoshevβs know-how:
To help pick the storeβs inventory of 3,000 books, they used analysisΒ based on Seattle Public Library data of the most-borrowed romance novels over the past 18 months.
They built a custom generative AI tool to categorize all the romance novels they bought into sub-genres so people can quickly find theirΒ favorites. For example, the bookΒ βThirstyβΒ would typically just be categorized under romance or maybe paranormal romance, but Swoonβs system categorizes it as paranormalΒ romance, LGBTQ, enemies to lovers, vampire romance, romantic comedy, and urban fantasy.
GenAI was used to build a customer loyalty program. Vetoshev, who said he is βall inβ on Anthropic, asked the AI assistant Claude to analyze some requirements they had for different programs. Claude wrote back and said, βYou could go with this one, or you could just build it yourself. Hereβs how.β
Swoon City moved into a space previously occupied by Monster, which sold clothing, crafts and more. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser)
βI feel like thereβs a lot of things that weβve created for this store that other people who might be curious about doing something like this could tap into and be able to leverage for their own stuff,β Coughlin said.
Vetoshev said he can come home from his day job, put the kids to bed and then focus on something that needs to be built for the store.
βA couple of hours of work with a [large language] model, and weβre off to the races,β he said.
The technology is all in service of a genre that is exploding, especially among young readers.
Romance is theΒ leading growth category for the total print book market thus far in 2025, and the volume for the category has more than doubled compared to four years ago, with 51 million units sold in the past 12 months, according to industry analysis.
NPR credited romance interest driven by Gen Z readers, especially onΒ BookTok, a subcommunity of TikTok for recommending, reviewing, and discussing books.
Swoon City is hoping to follow in the successful footsteps of The Ripped Bodice, an independent brick-and-mortar romance bookstore with locations in Los Angeles and Brooklyn, N.Y.
Coughlin looks forward to bringing people together not just around books, but by hosting various events and building out crafting classes for embroidery, stained glass, jewelry making and more.
βI feel like part of what was exciting for a romance bookstore is the community, because it is often not a genre thatβs as well respected in the book community, even though itβs huge,β she said.
Pioneer Square Labs has launched more than 40 tech startups and vetted 500-plus ideas since creating its studio a decade ago in Seattle.
Now itβs testing whether its company-building expertise and data on successful startup formulas can be codified into software β with help from the latest AI models.
PSL just unveiled Lev, a new project that aims to be an βAI co-founderβ for early stage entrepreneurs.
Developed inside PSL and now rolling out publicly, Lev can evaluate ideas, score their potential, and help founders develop them into companies.
Lev grew out of an internal PSL tool that used PSLβs proprietary rubric to score startup ideas. The studio decided to turn it into a product after outside founders who tested early versions wanted access for themselves.
Hereβs how it works:
Users start by entering an idea (along with any associated information/background) and selecting βventureβ or βbootstrap.β
Lev walks founders through milestones from solution to customer discovery, go-to-market, and product build.
It can generate βassetsβ like interview scripts, outreach templates, competitive maps, pricing models, brand palettes, customer personas, landing pages, potential leads, and even product specs.
βWeβre mapping a lot of the PSL process into it,β said T.A. McCann, managing director at PSL.
Levβs structured workflow sets it apart from generic chatbots, said Shilpa Kannan, principal at PSL.
βThe sequencing of these components as you go through the process is one of the biggest value-adds,β she said.
Lev joins a growingnumber of startups leveraging AI to act as an idea validation tool for early-stage founders, though its precise approach makes it stand out.
Pioneer Square Labs Managing Director T.A. McCann (left) and Principal Shilpa Kannan. (PSL Photos)
Upcoming features will add team-building and fundraising modules and let users trigger actions β such as sending emails or buying domains β directly from within the platform.
McCann envisions Lev eventually connecting to tools like Notion and HubSpot to serve as a βcommand centerβ for running a company β integrating tools, drafting investor updates, tracking competitors, and suggesting priorities. There are several competitors in this space offering different versions of βAI chief of staffβ products.
On a broader level, Lev raises an existential question for PSL: what happens when a startup studio teaches an AI to do the things that make a startup studio valuable?
βIn some ways, this is βInnovators Dilemma,β and you have to cannibalize yourself before someone else does it,β McCann said, referencing Clayton Christensenβs concept of technology disruption.
PSL also sees Lev as a potential funnel for entrepreneurs it could work with in the future. And itβs a way to expand the studioβs reach beyond its focus on the Pacific Northwest.
βItβs scaling our knowledge in a way that we wouldnβt be able to do otherwise,β McCann said.
Kannan and Kevin Leneway, principal at PSL, wrote a blog post describing how PSL designed the backbone of Lev and how the firm generated its own startup ideas at higher volumes with lower cost.
βAs we see more and more individuals become founders with the support of AI, we are incredibly excited for the potential increase in velocity and successful outcomes from methodologies like ours that focus on upfront ideation and validation,β they wrote.
Kannan told GeekWire that PSL is prioritizing foundersβ privacy and intellectual property. βWe are making intentional product and technical decisions to ensureΒ Lev is designed from the ground up to safeguard ideas and founder data, including guardrails on data we collect and our team can access,β she said.
For now, PSL is targeting venture-scale founders β people in tech companies or accelerators with ambitions to build fast-growing startups. But McCann believes Lev could eventually empower solo operators running multiple micro-businesses.
Lev is currently free for one idea, $20 per month for up to five ideas, and $100 per month for 10 ideas and advanced features. Itβs available on a waitlist basis.
Lev also offers a couple fun tools to help boost its own marketing, including a founder βpersonality testβ and an βidea matcherβ that produces startup concepts based on your interests and experience.
Punjab is a land of milk, ghee and makhhan. Some even call it a kukkad (chicken) nation whose sale hits a peak during evenings when people enjoy their whisky and that even turns the population to turn their native language to English (pun intended)
On my recent trip to Amritsar I had a few hits (from unexpected outlets) and a few misses from a few well known places.
Starting with Murthal where we had the first halt.
Amrik Sukhdev: A place where I love the tandoori Paratha with soft white butter. Even though it was 1am in the morning, this huge space was so full and buzzing that we had to wait for 20 minutes. I wonβt say that we had to stand in the queue as there is no queue. Guests are left on their own to search for the table making them stand next to someone elseβs table who is still eating, giving them glances to get up early. What a spoiler. Wonder why they canβt have a token system?
Plus this time the paranthas were thick and tasteless as if the main cooks have already left and helpers doing the job. Lastly, the soft fresh white butter was hard.
No taste in the chowmien and serving hot milk instead of kada hua (thickened) milk only strengthened my resolve to not go back there anytime soon.
Kesar da Dhaba, Amritsar: This has been one of my favourite joint for dal makhani along with crisp tandoori parantha. But this outlet has also got more touristy over the years. I skipped my breakfast to enjoy my lunch here. And after the meal, I even had to skip my dinner apart from getting acidic burps.
Thali at Kesar Da Dhaba
Dal Makhani has loads of ghee on top but the only taste one can get in the dal is yes, of course, of ghee. I had two paranthas with my meal, not because it was delicious but because I was hungry. First parantha was overly crisp and second a tad undercooked. Not everything is bad at Kesar. Kadi was delicious with one of the softest pakodas I have had, bharta was decent without being exceptional. However paneer in palak paneer was chewy and the water bottle was served to us with a broken seal that we thankfully noticed as even the water was slightly less than what is normally there in a sealed bottle.
So would I go back to Kesar? I still might if I am on that side but making a special visit that side is totally unnecessary. Pains of taking a rickshaw or walking in those narrow lanes with a waiting of at least 30 minutes is not worth it.
Lassi: We tried lassi at Ahuja which is again average.
However we were pleasantly surprised with the lassi at Rang Panjab, a restaurant. Itβs thick lassi with peda and malai on top is so good that it can beat any popular joints hand down.
Lassi at Rang Panjab
Fruit Cream: If you like fruit cream then you must try at Rana Fruit Cream. Though the temperature at which it is served is not correct and it is more like fruit ice cream, it is still so tasty that one can easily ask for a repeat.
Infact I got a kilo of this fruit cream packed for hotel and put it in the mini bar. As soon as the cream melted while it was still chilled, it tasted even better. This is a must eat.
Kulcha: There are many recommendations for Kulcha in the city. Almost 10 years ago I did a kulcha trail and even gave certificate to Ashok Kulchewala but this time I was in no mood to explore so much.
However the chef at WelcomHotel by ITC served some delicious kulchas in our breakfast that was included in the room pricing.
I wanted to try so much more. But given the overdose of ghee, makkhan etc, I ate just 5 meals including breakfast instead of 10 meals that I could have had in the duration that I was there. Just adding more and more fat doesnβt make the meal tasty. It has to be the right proportions of everything, including love.
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Karasev Recipe is my first air fryer based recipe in the blog. This air fried karasev is absolutely delicious, crispy and came out perfect like the deep fried ones. I have made so many batches and planning to do one more batch before this Diwali 2021β¦This gluten free and vegan snack can be eaten as...
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As the U.S. looks to bolster electric vehicle (EV) adoption, a new challenge is on the horizon: cybersecurity.
Given the interconnected nature of these vehicles and their reliance on local power grids, theyβre not just an alternative option for getting from Point A to Point B. They also offer a new path for network compromise that could put drivers, companies and infrastructure at risk.
To help address this issue, the Office of the National Cyber Director (ONCD) recently hosted a forum with both government leaders and private companies to assess both current and emerging EV threats. While the discussion didnβt delve into creating cybersecurity standards for these vehicles, it highlights the growing need for EV roadmaps that help reduce cyber risk.
Lighting Strikes? The State of Electric Adoption
EV sales in the United States are well ahead of expert predictions. Just five years ago, fully electric vehicles were considered niche. A great idea in theory, but lacking the functionality and reliability afforded by traditional combustion-based cars.
In 2022, however, the tide is turning. According to InsideEVs, demand now outpaces the supply of electric vehicles across the United States. With a new set of tax credits available, this demand isnβt going anywhere but up, even as manufacturers struggle to improve the pace of production.
Part of this growing interest stems from the technology itself. Battery life increases as charging times fall, and the EV market continues to diversify. While first-generation electric vehicle makers like Tesla continue to report strong sales, the offerings of more mainstream brands like Ford, Mazda and Nissan have helped spur consumer interest.
The result? The United States has now passed a critical milestone in EV sales: 5% of new cars sold are entirely electric. If the sales patterns stateside follow that of 18 other countries that have reached this mark, EVs could account for 25% of all cars sold in the country by 2025, years ahead of current forecasts.
Positive and Negative β Potential EV Issues
While EV adoption is good for vehicle manufacturers and can ease reliance on fossil fuels, cybersecurity remains a concern.
Consider that in early 2022, 19-year-old security researcher David Colombo was able to hack into 25 Teslas around the world using a third-party, open-source logging tool known as Teslamate. According to Colombo, he was able to lock and unlock doors and windows, turn on the stereo, honk the horn and view the carβs location. While he didnβt believe it was possible to take over and drive the car remotely, the compromise nonetheless showed significant vulnerability at the point where OEM technology overlaps third-party offerings. Colombo didnβt share his data immediately; instead, he contacted TelsaMate and waited until the issue was addressed. Malicious actors, meanwhile, share no such moral code and could leverage this kind of weakness to extort EV owners.
And this is just the beginning. Other possible cyber threat avenues include:
Connected vehicle systems
EV systems such as navigation and optimal route planning rely on WiFi and cellular networks to provide real-time updates. If attackers can compromise these networks, however, they may be able to access key systems and put drivers at risk. For example, if malicious actors gain control of the vehicleβs primary operating system, they could potentially disable key safety features or lock drivers out of critical commands.
Charging stations
Along with providing power to electric vehicles, charging stations may also record information about vehicle charge rates, identification numbers and information tied to driversβ EV application profiles. As a result, vulnerable charging stations offer a potential path to exfiltrated data that could compromise driver accounts.
Local power grids
With public charging stations using local power grids to deliver fast charging when drivers arenβt at home, attackers could take aim at lateral moves to infect car systems with advanced persistent threats (APTs) that lie in wait until cars are plugged in. Then, malicious code could travel back along power grid connections to compromise local utility providers.
Powering Up Protection
With mainstream EV adoption looming, itβs a matter of when, not if, a major cyberattack occurs. Efforts such as the ONCD forum are a great starting point for discussion about EV security standards. However, well-meaning efforts are no replacement for effective cybersecurity operations.
In practice, potential protections could take several forms.
First is the use of automated security solutions to manage user logins and access. By reducing the number of touchpoints for users, itβs possible to limit the overall attack surfaces that EV ecosystems create.
Next is the use of security by design. As noted by a recent Forbes piece, new vehicles are effectively β20 computers on wheels,β many of which are embedded in hardware systems. The result is the perfect setup for firmware failures if OEMs donβt take the time to make basic security protocols β such as usernames and passwords that arenβt simply βadminβ and βpasswordβ, and the use of encrypted data β part of each EV computer.
Finally, thereβs a need for transparency across all aspects of EV supply, design, development and construction. Given the sheer number of components in electric vehicles which represent a potential failure point, end-to-end visibility is critical for OEMs to ensure that top-level security measures are supported by all EV hardware and software components.
Getting from Here to There
As EVs become commonplace, a cybersecurity roadmap is critical to keep these cars on the road up to operator β and operational β safety standards.
But getting from here to there wonβt happen overnight. Instead, this mapping mission requires the combined efforts of government agencies, EV OEMs and vehicle owners to help maximize automotive protection.