Artificial intelligence (AI) startups will be the biggest group of startups exiting over the next few years, Jack Crawford, the founder of Impact Venture Capital, told a webinar for students at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business late last month.
It is hard to argue. The challenges, however, of AI becoming ubiquitous could be more significant than those for software and computing built on binary code, as Callum Cyrus reports in this quarterly supplement’s main feature.
The rise of quantum computing and neuromorphic chips as hardware and operating platforms along with the more ambivalent data sets used to train AI are challenges to be met.
But the opportunity set remains large enough for almost all industries to be interested. This creates a natural pool of investors and acquirers, even if specific deals ebb and flow with trends.
Much of the world is focused on coronavirus and any lessons for preparation and response could well be applied to other extreme-outcome events.
Tim Harford in the Financial Times looked at why when faced with clear risks, we still fail to act. “Perhaps this pandemic, like the financial crisis, is a challenge that should make us think laterally, applying the lessons we learn to other dangers, from bioterrorism to climate change.”
AI certainly falls into the class of “if this happens it would be scary but if we build it this way it could really help a lot of people”.
Just noting the future will be insufficient. Doing something about it rests on us all.
Download the full Q2 2020 AI supplement here.
