I think I would update my position here to say that AI is different from manufacturing, in that you can have small scale manufacturing operations (like 3D printing as username2 mentioned), that satisfy some niche market, whereas I sort of doubt that there are any niche markets in AI.
I’ve noticed this a lot with “data science” and AI startups—in what way is their product unique? Usually its not. It’s usually a team of highly talented AI researchers and engineers who need to showcase their skills until they get aqui-hired, or they develop a tool that gets really popular for a while and then it also gets bought. You really just don’t see “disruption” (in the sense that Peter Thiel defines it) in the AI vertical. And you don’t see niches.
I sort of doubt that there are any niche markets in AI
Hold on. Are you talking about niche markets, or are we talking about the capability to do some sort of AI at small-to-medium scale (say, startup to university size)?
You really just don’t see “disruption” (in the sense that Peter Thiel defines it) in the AI vertical. And you don’t see niches.
Um. I don’t think the AI vertical exists. And what do you mean about niches? Wouldn’t, I dunno, analysis of X-rays be a niche? high-frequency trading another niche? forecasting of fashion trends another niche? etc. etc.
Well, niche markets in AI aren’t usually referred to as such, they’re usually just companies that do task X with the help of statistics and machine learning. In that sense nearly all technology and finance companies could be considered an AI company.
AI in the generalist sense is rare (Numenta, Vicarious, DeepMind), and usually gets absorbed by the bigger companies. In the specialist sense, if task X is already well-known or identified, you still have to go against the established players who have more data and have people who have been working on only that problem for decades.
Thinking more about what YC meant in their “democratize AI’ article, it seems they were referring to startups that want to use ML to solve problems that haven’t traditionally been solved using ML yet. Or more generally, they want to help tech companies enter markets that usually aren’t served by a tech company. That’s fine. But I also get the feeling they really mean helping market certain companies by using the AI / ML hype train even if they don’t, strictly speaking, use AI to solve a given task. A lot of “AI” startups just do basic statistical analysis but have a really fancy GUI on top of it.
I think I would update my position here to say that AI is different from manufacturing, in that you can have small scale manufacturing operations (like 3D printing as username2 mentioned), that satisfy some niche market, whereas I sort of doubt that there are any niche markets in AI.
I’ve noticed this a lot with “data science” and AI startups—in what way is their product unique? Usually its not. It’s usually a team of highly talented AI researchers and engineers who need to showcase their skills until they get aqui-hired, or they develop a tool that gets really popular for a while and then it also gets bought. You really just don’t see “disruption” (in the sense that Peter Thiel defines it) in the AI vertical. And you don’t see niches.
Hold on. Are you talking about niche markets, or are we talking about the capability to do some sort of AI at small-to-medium scale (say, startup to university size)?
Um. I don’t think the AI vertical exists. And what do you mean about niches? Wouldn’t, I dunno, analysis of X-rays be a niche? high-frequency trading another niche? forecasting of fashion trends another niche? etc. etc.
Well, niche markets in AI aren’t usually referred to as such, they’re usually just companies that do task X with the help of statistics and machine learning. In that sense nearly all technology and finance companies could be considered an AI company.
AI in the generalist sense is rare (Numenta, Vicarious, DeepMind), and usually gets absorbed by the bigger companies. In the specialist sense, if task X is already well-known or identified, you still have to go against the established players who have more data and have people who have been working on only that problem for decades.
Thinking more about what YC meant in their “democratize AI’ article, it seems they were referring to startups that want to use ML to solve problems that haven’t traditionally been solved using ML yet. Or more generally, they want to help tech companies enter markets that usually aren’t served by a tech company. That’s fine. But I also get the feeling they really mean helping market certain companies by using the AI / ML hype train even if they don’t, strictly speaking, use AI to solve a given task. A lot of “AI” startups just do basic statistical analysis but have a really fancy GUI on top of it.