Interesting! YC themselves said it was “at least 50%”, but looks like even more than that based on the company tagging in startup directory. Curious how much people think this is (probably all 3):
1) signal value: AI-anything is getting funded atm and founders are smart.
2) founder-level trend: founders are actually just working on AI much more naturally.
3) YC selection trend: YC deliberately pivoting towards AI in its selection process.
I think it's mostly #1. AI is the hype right now, and founders probably perceive (rightly or wrongly) that finding a way to tie into "AI" will make fundraising easier.
I bet that the number of startups that included blockchain-related keywords a few years ago was also very high, very the same reason.
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[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 20.0 ms ] thread1) signal value: AI-anything is getting funded atm and founders are smart. 2) founder-level trend: founders are actually just working on AI much more naturally. 3) YC selection trend: YC deliberately pivoting towards AI in its selection process.
I bet that the number of startups that included blockchain-related keywords a few years ago was also very high, very the same reason.