AI Startup Hark Launches Autonomous Web Agent 'Handoff' With Record Benchmark Score and $6 Billion Valuation, But Key Questions Remain
Summary
AI startup Hark launches 'Handoff,' an autonomous web agent claiming a record 97.7 benchmark score and pricing at one-tenth of competitors' costs, backed by a staggering $6 billion valuation — but transparency concerns over its base model, benchmark methodology, and enterprise security leave critical questions unanswered.
Key Points
- AI startup Hark launches Handoff, a computer use agent that autonomously completes web-based tasks like ordering food, booking flights, and messaging job candidates, with public sign-ups now open at hark.com.
- Handoff claims a top score of 97.7 on the Online-Mind2Web benchmark and offers pricing at roughly one-tenth the cost of competing frontier models, though benchmark comparisons are made against older model generations and some tests were conducted in Hark's own controlled environment.
- Hark, founded by serial entrepreneur Brett Adcock and backed by a $700 million Series A at a $6 billion valuation, leaves key enterprise questions unanswered, including which base model Handoff is built on and how security and file access on its virtual computers will be handled.