The AI sector is exploding, with investors racing to pour money into the space, up to $200 billion by next year, according to Goldman Sachs. But industry leaders have warned that the “hype” and growing enthusiasm around AI threatens to undermine the scientific progress needed to move the technology forward.
“[AI] There's a ton of hype that comes with it, and there's probably some nasties and things that you see in other hype areas, like cryptocurrencies,” said DeepMind co-founder and chief executive. CEO Demis Hassabis said. financial times. “Some of that spills over into AI, which I think is a little unfortunate. It clouds science and research.”
DeepMind is Google's AI research division. It is behind projects such as the former Bard chatbot and AlphaGo, the pioneering AI model that defeated the world champion of the board game Go in 2016. Hassabis he founded DeepMind in 2010 and just four years later he was acquired by Google. That's over $500 million. His DeepMind, which Hassabis still runs, continues to release new AI technologies, including Google's new Gemini AI model (replacing Bard) and new research in areas such as healthcare.
Hassabis has worked in the AI field for over 15 years and had a front row seat to the explosion of public interest sparked by ChatGPT's public launch in November 2022. This fascination with new technology led to the creation of even more AI. – A company focused on. In fact, CB Insights reported in his February that already 36 AI startups have reached unicorn status and 85% of his 800 AI startups identified are still in the early stages. Did. This field is very young and has been revitalized by a large influx of venture capital.
Is AI like cryptocurrency?
From a funding perspective, Hassabis’ comparison between AI and cryptocurrencies makes sense. Both are due to a rapid increase in capital and a significant increase in exposure to society. Crypto startups attracted nearly $50 billion in investment from 2021 to 2022, according to Pitchbook data, but that amount fell below $10 billion last year due to falling token prices and waning enthusiasm. In some cryptocurrency sectors, such as NFTs, sales volumes have fallen by more than 90% from their 2021 peak, according to market data compiled by Statista.
The world of AI is dominated by a few large companies (OpenAI, DeepMind, Microsoft, to name a few) who sponsor large data centers and spend billions of dollars on research, and a handful of large companies (OpenAI, DeepMind, Microsoft, to name a few) who sponsor large data centers and spend billions of dollars on research, and a growing number of companies in B2B and consumer products. It is made up of hundreds of small startups that leverage AI for both. Hassabis has been working on the cutting edge of AI research for many years. Unlike many of his younger AI businesses currently flooding the market, DeepMind's staff is mostly made up of PhDs like him.
“Given the importance of AGI, we will take a more scientific approach to building AGI,” Hassabis said, referring to artificial general intelligence (AI capabilities that operate at a level equal to or exceeding human cognitive ability). I think it should be done.”
Similar to the world of cryptocurrencies, some AI players are leveraging this technology for outright fraud, such as using AI voice clones to impersonate a person's relatives or using AI to generate fraudulent phishing messages. and stole thousands of dollars. These types of bad actors tarnish the overall image of AI and create reputational issues that Hassabis and other industry leaders must address.
Some analysts have outright called AI a bubble, arguing that the large increases in funding and valuations do not reflect AI's actual capabilities. Their rhetoric reflects some of the key criticisms of the crypto boom period of 2021 and 2022. So the reality is that blockchain and decentralized finance are not truly revolutionary technologies, and the money flowing into cryptocurrencies and NFTs is not driven by investor excitement. Actual long-term value.
“Every bubble has a compelling story,” Albert Edwards, chief global strategist at Societe Generale, wrote in a note last week. “The current narrative focuses on expectations that AI will cause corporate profits to skyrocket, fully justifying the current stratospheric valuations. Those of us who lived through the late 1990s [tech] Bubbles have heard it all, and keep our eyes skyward. ”
