Gudea leverages AI to help organizations prevent social media crises before they erupt
Every day, conversations unfold across social media and websites around the world. A seemingly insignificant post—whether it involves AI-generated misinformation, hate speech, or a damaging rumor—can quickly snowball into a much larger public controversy. Gudea, a company that tracks how stories and rumors spread online that describes itself as the “storm tracker for the internet,” […]
Gudea, an innovative startup founded in 2023, aims to help organizations avoid social media crises by leveraging advanced AI technology. The company, which tracks how stories and rumors spread online, is often referred to as the "storm tracker for the internet." Unlike traditional social listening platforms, Gudea's AI analyzes behavior, relationships, and pathways through which information travels across over 500 mainstream and fringe websites and platforms, including X, Reddit, and TikTok.
This detailed analysis provides organizations with crucial context on the growth of conversations, enabling them to make informed decisions about potential responses. Gudea's CEO and founder, Keith Presley, emphasizes the importance of taking a proactive approach to reputation management, highlighting the limitations of legacy tools that only count hashtags and impressions.
The company's founding team, which includes Jonathan Sperber and James Thomin, brings extensive experience in political campaigns, disinformation research, and AI. Gudea's unique path to becoming a startup began with the George Washington Initiative, a nonprofit that adapted intelligence community strategies to combat online networks tied to extremist groups.
The team later discovered that existing tools failed to demonstrate how information moved across people, groups, and platforms, leading to the creation of Gudea. With nearly 40 clients, including Fortune 50 companies, AI labs, bands, PR agencies, and government agencies, Gudea has grown significantly since its inception. The company's technology has become increasingly vital due to the rise of generative AI, which has lowered the cost and effort required to generate online content and coordinate campaigns.
Gudea has already raised $7 million in seed funding, bringing its total funding to approximately $15 million, and plans to expand its capabilities to include geolocation for narratives, providing even greater precision in identifying where conversations are happening.
Written by urgent.news from TechCrunch's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
