Gigaom AI Minute – November 17

Transcript

Companies of all sizes are embracing artificial intelligence and coming out with products and services that utilize the technology. One is tempted to ask if the big successful companies in AI tomorrow are all startups today, or are they already large companies? Now, to be clear, artificial intelligence does in many ways favor large entrenched players who generally have far more resources and more availability of data. That being said when we look at the example of the Internet, the largest companies on the Internet today were, in fact, startups. And, you know, clicks proverbially replaced bricks as Netflix displaced Blockbuster and hundred other similar cases.

So that being said what is likely to happen with artificial intelligence? I think it's going to largely favor the startups of the world. It's kind of a cliche, but the stumbling block of large companies has traditionally been their inability and disinclination to be willing to destroy their own business with a new technology and take that risk and that gamble. Of course the startup doesn't mind destroying a large company's business with a new technology, but the large company doesn't. Clearly there are exceptions to this. You can name several large companies that today already have a compelling platforms on the internet that deploy artificial intelligence, and while I am bullish on all of them, I think the big winners of tomorrow are in fact startups today.