GoKawiilKhosla backs ex-DeepMind engineer Shivani Poddar's Wajo agent startup, citing trust design
Venture capitalist Vinod Khosla told TechCrunch he is backing Wajo, a personal AI agent startup founded by former Google and DeepMind engineer Shivani Poddar, arguing it is more trustworthy than rivals like Meta's Muse and Instinct. Wajo's agent, called Fo, works across iMessage and WhatsApp, organizes tasks into categories such as scheduling and gifting, can call businesses on a user's behalf, hire humans for tasks, and issue a virtual credit card to make payments without revealing personal details.
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Khosla's comments suggest investors see trust and data-handling architecture, rather than raw capability, as a key differentiator in the crowded personal-agent market. Early hands-on testing found inconsistent disclosure when the agent made calls on a user's behalf, which could foreshadow broader scrutiny of how AI agents should identify themselves when acting for people.
- Vinod Khosla is publicly backing Wajo, founded by ex-Google/DeepMind engineer Shivani Poddar, over rivals like Meta's Muse and Instinct.
- Wajo's Fo agent can call businesses, hire humans for tasks, and issue virtual credit cards to pay without sharing user details.
- Testing revealed unclear disclosure practices when the agent made calls, hinting at unresolved questions around AI agent transparency.
Source: techcrunch.com — Ivan Mehta, 2026-10-06
Published there as: “Vinod Khosla believes ex-DeepMind engineer’s Wajo will win agent market on trust”
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