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40% of 'AI Startups' in Europe Don't Actually Use AI, Claims Report (forbes.com)
Two-fifths of Europe's AI startups do not use any AI programs in their products, according to a report that highlights the hype around the technology. From a report: Out of 2,830 startups in Europe who were classified as being AI companies, only 1,580 accurately fit that description according to the eye-opening stat on page 99 of a new report from MMC, a London-based venture capital firm. The label, which refers to computer systems that can perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence, was simply wrong.
"We looked at every company, their materials, their product, the website, and product documents," says David Kelnar, head of research for MMC which has $400 million under management and a portfolio of 34 companies. "In 40% of cases we could find no mention of evidence of AI." In such cases, he added, "companies that people assume and think are AI companies are probably not."
"We looked at every company, their materials, their product, the website, and product documents," says David Kelnar, head of research for MMC which has $400 million under management and a portfolio of 34 companies. "In 40% of cases we could find no mention of evidence of AI." In such cases, he added, "companies that people assume and think are AI companies are probably not."
No one does, at best people are using machine learning.
also donâ(TM)t use AI
Simple rule of thumb to distinguish machine learning from AI: - If it's written in Python, it's probably ML. - If it's written in Powerpoint, it's probably AI.
Claiming that you are an "AI" company is just marketing buzz for most. Last year they would have been "blockchain startups", in 1999 they would have been "internet companies", and in 1960 they would have been somehow worked the word "rocket" into the name. It's been this way forever.
Because there is no such thing as "AI".
You've probably heard of this startup, but then again, who hasn't? It's the Blockchain Artificial Intelligence Social Cloud Micropayment DevOps Framework Information Superhighway Content Management Company.
Who wants to invest in this promising startup with me?
Yes, correct, but besides the point.
The core problem is, that "AI" is generally associated with, you know, actual artificial intelligence.
But in reality, the "neural nets" that most "AI" companies use, are nothing more than weighted biasing of input data, simplified down to mere matrix manipulation. Wich is almost, bot not quite, entirely unlike real neural nets, which use spiking signal patterns, various different activation curves, have broadcastig abilities and many other features. Which is why these artificial ones require ten times the "neurons" even for simple pattern matching tasks, and outright fail at displaying anything that could be called intelligence. Nor are they usually used for such high purposes.
The whole thing is deliberately misleading. Because there is a buck to be made. Without actual honest work in return. And the thugs and gamblers just love that.
I suspect MMC, a venture capital firm, doesn't have the expertise or resources to inspect the code, so how would they know that there's something like AI or ML powering the product? The article makes it sound like they simply looked at the company's marketing materials and maybe got a product demo from the marketing team.
Think globally but act within local variable scope.
Europe has startups?
Analysts classify start ups to be AI companies while the analysts of the study claim that analysis is wrong, as they could not find evidence of AI used by the companies. The latter analysts also do not provide evidence on what data they come to this conclusion. All analysts do not provide any definition what this AI is and what they counts as AI in their respective studies.
They do not analyze anything properly, they guess, use smoke and cloaks to confuse the audience.
Come to the U.S. of A. to bask in R.E.A.L. A.l. Or my name is not Earl J. Pussey.
for the sweet VC dollars.
I am from California, USA and I consider myself pretty honest and modest. :)
--
"Is Wreck Ralph The Next Casey Neistat for Young Wannabe YouTubers?" #SomethingPositive & Hard work !
The article is about analysts which claim other analysts made a wrong assessment based on data both do not have.
So it is all bullshit. BTW they do not define what they mean by AI.
This all comes down to the definition of AI; these days, people tend to think the term is synonymous with machine learning, but it isn't nor has it ever been; AI is just about a system that's somehow "artificially intelligent". Rule-based systems and statistical analysis can be AI just as well. Us computer people that understand that simply following some rules is not "intelligent" may think otherwise, but the vast majority of humanity considers these things "intelligent". Any automated system that appears "intelligent" to its users or buyers is AI. By definition.
0x or or snor perron?!
AI right there in the name, so it is doing its job! What else is there? Also, 40% sounds low. Maybe it is higher over here in the states.
You're telling me there are companies capitalizing on our obsession with a current buzzword?
Artificial Artificial Intelligence. It's the new genuine simulated leather.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Why would you want to use AI in your product when you can use "BLOCKCHAIN" in your product name?
"companies that people assume and think are AI companies are probably not."
Except TFA says that 60% are... so they probably are.
Has anyone tried to use that 'Artificial Intelligence' to predict what the next popular buzzword will be? You could make a killing by beating everyone to the punch to next year's stampede.
I'm waiting for Fuzzy Logic powered Artificial Intelligence on a Transputer, then we'll be back in 1980.
It reminds me of the Website bubble where startup got investors to put money into startups that had no product or service.
Artificial AI Startups?
The website "bubble", as you called it, was a very real phenomenon. The world wide web was rapidly spreading across the globe and is an ubiquitous part of our daily lives today.
The AI buzz reminds me more of the blockchain "gold rush" of 2018. Tons of hype, lots of supposed implementations, but it's all a bunch of bullshit!
This bubble too will pop.
..and now we see: most of what keeps getting hyped as 'AI' is marketing hype, just like I've been saying. Do you really want to trust your life to half-assed half-baked pieces of software?
AI also stands for "Actual Idiocy" - of which there appears to be no shortage at all.
So saying that they don't use the artificial one either isn't news.
And by the way... although this is just a personal pet peeve here, it's actually written as "A.I.", not "AI". It is an abbreviation, not an acronym.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
My personal experience with companies that claim to do AI, is that the vast majority of them claim it's AI as soon as they do a linear regression. Which always makes me wonder what they did before they switched to AI.
Video of some good progressive thrash music
You win the internet today. About time someone called BS on the entire subject area. Artificial Ignorance, except nope, it's real.
Why guess when you can know? Measure!
This seems like the opposite to me. If the claim is true, and a full 60% of AI startups are actually doing AI, then it would seem that there is more to it than the usual hype bubble. But probably the authors used an extremely lenient definition of AI, like if tensorflow is linked in somewhere, it is AI.
Well, using indian callcenter operators as categorizers for training data is a well known habit, as is using Amazon's mechanical turk.
AI = African Intelligence is also a machine learning industry pejorative as quite a number of firms outsource training data preclassification to african callcenter operators as well. The indians know what they are getting into, but the african operators talk about themselves as if they are uplifting the local african employees into the tech sector in a kind of imperialistic white arrogance, when the africans are just being treated as modern serfs, if that.
Just because the project-manager suddenly uses the term 'scrum' instead of 'meeting' doesn't mean you're being agile. Oh wait, there shouldn't be a project manager at all !
My employer has AI initiatives, but we just engaged in some creative explanations to convince zoning board we are an R&D company so we can move into our new office park.
There are lots of reasons the reporting on these kinds of metrics is fuzzy.