Thursday, August 14, 2025

August 14, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 9 minutes

Thursday, August 14, 2025 

In today’s digest, an airport gets museum art, Queens gets more green space, and AI gets to school. 📖

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  • John F. Kennedy International Airport's new terminal will be stocked with some heavyweight art. The $4.2 billion terminal will see iconic pieces from the MOMA, Met, Natural History Museum, and more line the walls in a ‘museum row’ in arrivals. The artwork is planned to be revealed next year along with a partial opening of the new terminal. (CBS News)

  • The 58,000-square-foot Halletts Point Waterfront Esplanade just opened in Astoria. Along with skyline views, seating aplenty, lush landscaping, and neighborhood-friendly businesses, the park opens up a stretch of Queens shoreline for the first time in decades. (Time Out) 🌊

  • And speaking of green space, Pier 6 in Sunset Park is coming to life again as a public green space. The $25 million project, which recently broke ground, is set to be completed in 2027. 💚 (Brooklyn Paper)


In other reading:

  • Bzzz! What's making people’s hair stand up at 41st and Seventh in Times Square? (Gothamist)

  • New York City circus festival comes to Bryant Park (PIX 11)

  • Meat is back at Eleven Madison Park, after 4 vegan years (New York Times)

AI heads to homeroom. 🎒

In just the past month, both Google and OpenAI announced plans to expand AI tutoring features aimed directly at students, and Microsoft and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) announced plans to integrate AI into instruction nationwide.

Here’s what’s new:

  • Google’s move: Gemini’s new education features will give students a structured, personalized way to learn complex subjects, with AI acting more like a tutor than a search engine.

  • OpenAI’s play: The company just launched a ChatGPT “study mode,” which similarly uses responses to encourage students to think critically about their learning.

  • Union power: AFT's new AI training hub, based in NYC, aims to train educators on how to use AI to enhance learning, with help coming in the form of $23 million from OpenAI, Microsoft, and Anthropic. Think of it as AI professional development at scale.

This shift marks a big moment for schools, and for NYC:

  • 🗽 NYC is leading from the front: With the training hub headquartered here, the city is positioned to become a model for integrating AI in education.

  • 🧠 AI skills are the new core curriculum: NYCEDC projects tens of thousands of new jobs tied to AI in the coming decade, and prepping today’s students could help fill that pipeline.

  • 👨‍🏫 Teachers are in the loop: Instead of resisting student AI use, more educators are now leaning into it — with guardrails, of course.

Politicians are taking notice: At Tech:NYC, M13, and Engine’s event last week, U.S. Congressman Joe Morelle pushed for integrating AI into education.

“I think keeping [AI] out of schools is a mistake,” Rep. Morelle said. “I think that what really ought to happen is we ought to train students the proper use of it, how to question it.”

In other reading:

  • A look inside JPMorgan’s soaring new office tower — and all its high-end perks (Business Insider)

  • Nuclear power is having a pop culture moment (Wall Street Journal)

  • Google and IBM believe first workable quantum computer is in sight (Financial Times)

  • Evertune, an NYC-based AI marketing platform, raised $15 million in Series A funding. Felicis Ventures led the round and was joined by Eniac Ventures, NextView Ventures, and angel investors.

  • Isaac Health, a NYC-based health technology startup for brain health and dementia care, raised $10.5 million in Series A funding. Flare Capital led the round and was joined by Industry Ventures, Black Opal Ventures, Meridian Street Capital, B Capital, and Primetime Partners.

  • Protege, an NYC-based developer of data sets designed for AI training, raised $25 million in Series A funding. Footwork led the round and was joined by CRV, Bloomberg Beta, Flex Capital, Liquid 2 Ventures, Shaper Capital, and others.

  • Topline Pro, an NYC-based AI startup to automate operations for home services companies, raised $27 million in Series B funding led by Northzone.

  • August 16: Startup Brand Strategy + Design Workshop by Madeline & Co., a six-hour deep dive for founders to build their startup’s brand. Register here.

  • August 21: August Founder Dinner, for a curated group of pre-seed to series A founders, especially those building in B2B SaaS & AI. Register here.

  • August 26: Brderless x Rho Founder Breakfast, for a curated group of seed-stage founders (post raise) who are scaling or gearing up for Series A. Register here.

  • September 3-4: Go-To-Market: Building Distribution Engine that Scales, a two-day workshop for early-stage founders to master go-to-market strategy, build a scalable distribution engine, and get real feedback from top operators and founders. Register here.

  • September 10: NYC Summit, Primary’s annual invite-only conference, bringing together 2,000 top founders, VCs, and LPs. This year’s speakers include Larry Fitzgerald (Arizona Cardinals), David Karp (Tumblr), Toyin Ajayi (Cityblock Health), Lina Khan (FTC), Kareem Amin (Clay), and more. Apply to attend here.

  • September 18-20: The Atlantic Festival relocates to NYC with its screenings, book talks, and more with influential thinkers including Scott Galloway, Keri Russell, Mark Cuban, H.R. McMaster, Robert Downey Jr., Richard Ayoade, David Letterman, Dr. Becky Kennedy, Tom Hanks, and others. Register with promo code TECHNYC20 for 20% off one-day passes here.

  • September 23: Deep Tech Forum + Startup Showcase in NYC, bringing together deep tech startups from across the globe alongside corporate innovation leaders, investors, and ecosystem partners, for a full day of mainstage sessions and startup exhibitions. Register with promo code TECHNYC for a 20% discount here.

  • September 25: 11th Annual Bloomberg-Columbia Machine Learning in Finance Conference 2025, with talks by practitioners and academics on AI applications in finance including asset pricing models, neural SDEs, market sentiment analysis, and fairness in financial ML. Register for early rates by August 29 here.

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