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Ask HN: Do AI/ML companies actually have real customers?

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Re: Ask HN: Do AI/ML companies actually have real customers?

#31
We use DL at my company. It's used to help and suggest the people in data input what some of the inputs should be. It's been getting better over time as it collects more data points.

Apart from that, I'm also personally responsible for implementing DL for data anomaly detection.

So yes, ML/DL is very much over-hyped right now, but it has real world tangible benefits. It is being used in multiple fields and I believe will grow quite fast.

Re: Ask HN: Do AI/ML companies actually have real customers?

#32
A lot of compagnies do basically an externalisation of ml: they are providing the team the compagny would build if they had to do the job themselves.

Usually their website is buzzwordy but they are not necearily too much vocal because they find their customers through direct contact. And they do have customers... theres a real market

In healthcare there are not ao much killer application yet in ai/ml and its true that a lot are running on investor funds, but in my opinion this will change soon.

Re: Ask HN: Do AI/ML companies actually have real customers?

#33
In the first startup I created, we made ML-based underwriting and credit scoring models for several banks and insurance companies. The results were astonishing. For instance, one insurance company improved its profit by ~70M$/year, thanks to our model (according to our client's report from actual data, not simulation).

But, it was actually tough to sell, because of several factors. 1) The internal risk team did not really like a technology that they could not understand. 2) It was hard to give an explanation of why it would work to the executives.

In the end, we were getting 2-4 big clients per year.

Re: Ask HN: Do AI/ML companies actually have real customers?

#34

In the first startup I created, we made ML-based underwriting and credit scoring models for several banks and insurance companies. The results were astonishing. For instance, one insurance company improved its profit by ~70M$/year, thanks to our model (according to our client's report from actual data, not simulation). But, it was actually tough to sell, because of several factors. 1) The internal risk team did not r…

And then what happened to the start-up?

Re: Ask HN: Do AI/ML companies actually have real customers?

#35
AI is not a business model. It's usually just a component in a larger solution. You need to get a lot of other things right for AI to produce value, notably around the data you gather and pre-process. For most startups, that data is hard to access, and without it, their algorithms won't have much to train on.

While there are a few horizontal ML/AI/data science vendors, most AI is invisible, a component in some vertical solution, and consumed by people and businesses that don't really care how the results are produced, as long as it works.

Very few companies are good at applying AI across the board, like we see at Google, but the number of businesses using predictive models at least in some capacity is growing.

Re: Ask HN: Do AI/ML companies actually have real customers?

#36
post #7

Most people that balk at the term A.I. seem to presume that intelligence is some capacity unique to humans. Intelligence is merely pattern matching and goal oriented planning, exactly what machine learning is doing today. Stop worrying and learn to love the bomb.

You've definitely bought the hype. There is no convincing definition of what (human) intelligence is.

All you've done is taken what machines do today and claimed that is what intelligence is.

Re: Ask HN: Do AI/ML companies actually have real customers?

#37
post #34

In the first startup I created, we made ML-based underwriting and credit scoring models for several banks and insurance companies. The results were astonishing. For instance, one insurance company improved its profit by ~70M$/year, thanks to our model (according to our client's report from actual data, not simulation). But, it was actually tough to sell, because of several factors. 1) The internal risk team did not r…

And then what happened to the start-up?

The AI fired all the humans and became an Etherium contract.

Re: Ask HN: Do AI/ML companies actually have real customers?

#38
I think the buzzword problem is rooted in sales mentality. Selling to VCs and selling to customers. Humans have to make decisions with incomplete information so we "pattern match" and "gut instinct" and "FOMO". So blame it on capitalism for systemically ensuring that entrepreneurs behave like this, or whatever, but frankly they are the only rational actors in this system.

Re: Ask HN: Do AI/ML companies actually have real customers?

#39
post #34

In the first startup I created, we made ML-based underwriting and credit scoring models for several banks and insurance companies. The results were astonishing. For instance, one insurance company improved its profit by ~70M$/year, thanks to our model (according to our client's report from actual data, not simulation). But, it was actually tough to sell, because of several factors. 1) The internal risk team did not r…

And then what happened to the start-up?

It is still operating with new owners and a new CEO. Since it accumulates track-records, it is slowly becoming easier to get projects. The first clients are still renewing their license.

Re: Ask HN: Do AI/ML companies actually have real customers?

#40
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And then what happened to the start-up?

The AI fired all the humans and became an Etherium contract.

I am not sure that a credit scoring system would become the first AI to reach consciousness :P

It is just an ML model, it just reads some inputs, then outputs some score.

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