Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) signed a new batch of gun legislation into law on Friday, several months after a deadly mass shooting at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs.

The laws establish a three-day waiting period to obtain a firearm, raise the minimum age to purchase firearms to 21, make it easier to sue gun manufacturers and expand the state’s red flag law.

“Coloradans deserve to be safe in our communities, in our schools, our grocery stores, nightclubs and everywhere in between,” Polis said at the bill signing, according to The Colorado Sun.

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Five people were killed and 17 were injured in November when a 22-year-old gunman opened fire at Club Q, an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs.

A proposed assault weapons ban failed to make it to the governor’s desk alongside the other gun control legislation after the House Judiciary Committee voted last week to postpone consideration of the bill indefinitely.

However, legislation to ban the sale and manufacture of so-called “ghost guns,” or unserialized firearms, remains under consideration in the Colorado state Senate.

Zuma Cofounders Shiv Gettu and Kendrick Bradley

For many years, people dreaded the emergence of artificial intelligence and new technologies. Those who grew up before the iPhone and internet felt that their jobs would be put into jeopardy.

The pandemic made even the most fervent Luddites change their attitude toward robotics, AI and technology. While sheltering at home, riding out the Covid-19 outbreak, they turned to online shopping on Amazon, ordering food deliveries via DoorDash and having others shop for food with the Instacart app. If a person needed to venture outside, and didn’t want to risk going on public transportation, they requested an Uber or Lyft car.

Now that we’ve become accustomed and dependent upon tech platforms for most of our activities, we don’t want to turn back. There is nearly an app for all aspects of our lives. Instant information and results are what we want.

Just as there is an Uber app, a driver is needed—at least until we have autonomous driverless cars. In many industries, AI will start the process and a person will be around to help. Car salespersons, real estate agents and clerks at department stores will supplement the initial interaction between AI and the customer.

If you think about it, most any sector can offer a better experience with the introduction of technology. Real estate is a great example of how AI, chatbots and tech can make the renting of an apartment a better experience. If you’ve rented before, you know how irritating it can be.
Two young entrepreneurs, Shiv Gettu and Kendrick Bradley, saw a need in the real estate rental market. Bradley left his engineering job to work at a property management company to learn the space, as a leasing agent. He noticed that there was a lack of technologies to support real estate sales teams. Roommates, Gettu and Bradley, while both working full-time jobs, set out to build a hospitality property company. It grew to $2 million in revenue in nine months.
However, when Covid-19 hit in 2020, Gettu and Bradley’s company had long-term lease commitments, and with business and leisure travel at a standstill, were running out of runway and needed to get their properties leased. The cofounders quickly turned the company into a virtual leasing office powered by AI to automate the conversion process, and that grew to become Zuma, launching today with a $6.7 million seed round in funding led by Andreessen Horowitz.

Their idea is to change the way apartments are rented. If you’ve ever shopped for a new apartment, you may have run into a hardened, tough-talking real estate agent. They  schlep you around to apartments that are “amazing, beautiful and priced at a bargain price.” When you actually see the property, you think a mistake was made, since they’re not amazing, beautiful nor a bargain. After being shown five more apartments, you call it quits, as you’ve lost trust in the agent’s judgement and feel pushed into something you don’t want.
The next outing, you’re supposed to meet the building’s property manager, who can’t be found. An hour later, you spot him fixing something on the premises and gruffly orders you to follow him to see the apartment. His phone keeps ringing with tenants calling. You politely leave, and he doesn’t notice or seem to care.

The Zuma app
Consider how different this would be if the process was started online. You can send a text inquiring about an apartment listing. The AI will send a blueprint, the rental prices, amount of money required for deposit and the their terms of the lease. The texts can offer rich graphics, photos and videos highlighting the place. This could all be done from the comfort of your home. It’s less running around and a more productive use of time.

Automation also benefits the property owners. Consider a multifamily building with a property manager. If there is an interested renter who wants to make a quick decision, but it’s a night or weekend, this lead will go unanswered. The prospect will go elsewhere.

Zuma’s dynamic AI platform automates lead qualifications, engagement, follow-ups,  demo and appointment scheduling. The platform, called Kelsey, is an “AI-powered sales assistant that answers complex questions in minutes, to qualify, nurture and convert leads to customers.”

“Kelsey understands which conversation tone, architecture and patterns are most successful at converting leads to sales, and converses with all inbound leads via text message within minutes to keep prospects engaged.” A human will step in to supplement Kelsey.
Connie Chan, general partner at lead investor Andreessen Horowitz, said, “Zuma’s blend between human support and AI creates a magical conversation experience for prospective customers that drastically increases conversion.”

The guys are working toward growing their business in the multifamily and related real estate sector. Ultimately, they plan to use their concept to apply to other industries. It’s amazing to see that the pandemic has created a boom in entrepreneurialism and shown how AI and tech, along with the human touch, can both improve the lives of people and build new innovative businesses.

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Luke Tress is an editor and a reporter in New York for The Times of Israel.

Thirty Israelis were listed on the Forbes 2022 billionaires list released on Wednesday, including tech entrepreneurs, shipping magnates and a Hollywood producer embroiled in Benjamin Netanyahu’s corruption trial.

The highest-ranked Israeli was Miriam Adelson, listed as the 50th-richest person in the world with a net worth of $27.5 billion.

Adelson is from Israel, but Forbes placed her in the US in its annual ranking, since she holds American citizenship and lives in Las Vegas.

Adelson debuted on the list in 2021 after her husband, casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, died early in the year. He was a mega-donor to the Republican party and the publisher of Israel Hayom.

Miriam Adelson inherited most of her late husband’s fortune and became the wealthiest new billionaire in the world last year, placing 24th on the Forbest list. She lost around $360 million in the past year.

Eyal Ofer, the head of Ofer Global Holdings, was the wealthiest person in Israel on the list, in 117th place with a fortune of $15.4 billion derived from assets in the real estate and shipping industries.

His brother, Idan Ofer, is the next richest Israeli, in 188th place with $10.5 billion from shipping and energy interests.

The two are the sons of Israeli shipping tycoon Sammy Ofer, who was once Israel’s richest man.

Brothers Dmitri and Igor Bukhman, owners of the gaming company Playrix, were ranked 275th with $8.1 billion.

Arnon Milchan, an Israeli Hollywood film producer and a key witness in Netanayahu’s trial, was the 851st richest person with $3.5 billion.

Adam Neumann, the founder of WeWork, was ranked 2,076th with $1.4 billion. He resigned from WeWork in 2019 after the company’s disastrous IPO attempt, which was partly blamed on his management. That year, he had $4.1 billion.

Roman Abramovich, a Russian who holds Israeli citizenship and had been touted as the richest Israeli, was in 350th place with an estimated net worth of $6.9 billion, down from $14.5 billion last year. He was ranked among 83 Russians on the list.

Forbes said 34 Russians dropped off the billionaires list following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the biggest drop of any country except China, which lost 87 billionaires due to a government tech crackdown.

Abramovich has been sanctioned by the European Union and the United Kingdom, but not the US.

The world’s richest person was Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla and SpaceX, with $219 billion, followed by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, with $171 billion.

American tech giants Bill Gates, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Larry Ellison and Steve Ballmer, as well as US investor Warren Buffet, were also in the top 10.

The Jewish former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg was 12th, with $82 billion, and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg was 15th with $67 billion, down sharply from a year earlier.
Former US president Donald Trump was ranked 1,012 with $3 billion.

Josh Kushner, brother of Jared Kushner, became the first of his family on the list with a net worth of $2 billion from venture capital investments.

There were 2,668 billionaires in the world, 87 fewer than last year, worth a total of $12.7 trillion, Forbes said.

A total of 236 new billionaires were added to the list, including pop star Rihanna and director Peter Jackson, and 329 people fell off the list. The US had the most total entrants, with 735, followed by China, with 607.

The world’s billionaires overall lost $400 billion dollars in the past year.

France’s Francoise Bettencourt Meyers, heiress to the L’Oreal beauty company, was the world’s richest women, listed with her family at 14th place, alongside 327 other women on the list.

The richest self-made woman was China’s Fan Hongwei, who heads chemical supply company Hengli Petrochemical, who was in 88th place with with $18.2 billion.

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