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."

Comments

Coincidentally

[Luthair]

No one does, at best people are using machine learning.

Re:Coincidentally

[Anonymous Coward]

Reminds me of a screenshot I saw some days ago:
"If it's written in Python, it's probably machine learning. If it's written in Powerpoint, it's probably AI"

Re:Coincidentally

[phantomfive]

AI used to mean "machines that think like a human" (or at least close enough to be in Searle's Chinese room). After a while, AI turned out to be harder than everyone thought, so some people redefined AI to mean, "stuff we found while looking for AI." The original meaning of AI got renamed to "strong AI." That's in academia.

In the outside world, the press and the media and popular culture, AI retains its original meaning: "machines that think like a human." Which is confusing for a lot of people when they hear scientists talking about AI, because strong AI has not been invented, and we have no idea even how to do it. We're missing some fairly important pieces.