Yet another example of a false requirement that should not exist. In todays age of internet video there is actually little if no need for business travel.
It's memorable and cute and funny. And you can over-intellectualize it by talking about how "an optimized flapping wing could actually require 27 percent less power than its optimal steady-flight counterpart at small scales" [1], emphasis on small scales. (The propeller-powered fruit fly would be a good airport-restaurant name.)
Flapping wings are at least neutral nonsense. There's another AI startup called "LawZero", which is far worse. It's a reference to Asimov's zeroth law.
A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.
So their name is a statement of an ambition to replace human agency with AI agency. The ultimate paternalism. The exact thing we should be working feverishly to align AI in order to prevent is the identity of this company. It's a little like naming your beverage brand Liquid Death.
This is a joke, right? "Flapping airplanes" is a great metaphor for AI as it exists today; e.g. we basically already have what we need and more is stupid.
Planes are awesome and important, and also building ones that actually flapped is technically possible and also wasteful and pointless.
Or maybe they know that the website isn't super important if they already hve backing by the big firms and they don't yet have a product to sell.
I also don't know how "Good HTML/Javascript" translates to hyper optimization, analog computing, optical computing, or whatever skills their approach needs.
The founders know the company name and the entire AI VC bubble is a joke (but the company isn’t) and the US VCs will invest in anything (if you have the correct old pedigree connections)
Don’t be fooled by the company’s name. Its silliness all got your attention and curiosity. The VCs invested in the team, not the company name.
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[ 1.8 ms ] story [ 14.1 ms ] threadNot flying...
Anyway, the post tells me little. Aren't the big AI labs already doing all these things?
It's memorable and cute and funny. And you can over-intellectualize it by talking about how "an optimized flapping wing could actually require 27 percent less power than its optimal steady-flight counterpart at small scales" [1], emphasis on small scales. (The propeller-powered fruit fly would be a good airport-restaurant name.)
[1] https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2009/09/birds-fly-more-effi...
Planes are awesome and important, and also building ones that actually flapped is technically possible and also wasteful and pointless.
Goes to show big investment doesn’t mean shit if the engineers behind it don’t know what they’re doing.
I also don't know how "Good HTML/Javascript" translates to hyper optimization, analog computing, optical computing, or whatever skills their approach needs.
It just comes across as jealous and petty.
L/D, yes. Complete aircraft configuration, not always (actually, rarely).
Where is it? Can we see it? Test it? Play with it?
https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/21/year-old-ai-lab-flapping-a...
Don’t be fooled by the company’s name. Its silliness all got your attention and curiosity. The VCs invested in the team, not the company name.