[gizmo]

Other than the "request for startups" YC publishes YC doesn't push founders to start a specific type of business. AI is simply where the opportunity is (or is perceived to be). YC (and everybody else) understands that most AI enterprise startups will fail, as you point out. The gamble, as always, is that a few startups in the current batch will get huge.

[hollowturtle]

They dont push founders but surely they allocate more on AI startups, so founders put the magic word X with AI or AI Driven in their products for the same reason

[threeseed]

> YC doesn't push founders to start a specific type of business

Of course it does.

Founders look at YC batches, see that it is 99% AI companies and are then forced to also go in that direction if they want the benefits of the accelerated YC path.

And YC deliberately chooses founders with AI companies because they have an investment thesis that is different from "request for startups". Garry Tan has been a massive e/acc fanboy since the beginning and genuinely believes that AI in every use case will advance humanity. And the partners all align with this.

This is all inarguable because amongst the tens of thousands of applications there are surely many amazing non-AI companies. Is this implication that they are all worse than what was selected in the batch ?