Extremely impressed with the investment partners behind this fund. I worked with Shabih during my time at Google and saw his work KPCB; he's a deep thinker and also relentless advocate/supporter for the companies he backs. Anna Peterson is also a legend at Google. Think they'll end up being the strategic VC of choice behind every major AI company.
Introducing Gradient Ventures
21–30 of 31 posts
Re: Introducing Gradient Ventures
#22Google (and other large tech companies that have invested in AI internally) are probably the most valuable investors, because they have access, and can purchase, the largest and best data sets available. It's hard for AI start-ups to do anything without access to the right data sets, and large companies can and have better access to that data.
>. It's hard for AI start-ups to do anything without access to the right data sets, Exactly. As a founder of an AI focused startup, it is so hard convincing VC's that data can be as valuable as revenue. Some VC's don't even bother beyond the screening call If there is less revenue although the data we gather in the process is more valuable. Google very well knows the true value of data and hopefully they can shake th…
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Re: Introducing Gradient Ventures
#23Google (and other large tech companies that have invested in AI internally) are probably the most valuable investors, because they have access, and can purchase, the largest and best data sets available. It's hard for AI start-ups to do anything without access to the right data sets, and large companies can and have better access to that data.
> they have access, and can purchase, the largest and best data sets available Google might have an advantage in personal data, that can be used for advertising and health, but when it comes to general data, such as image datasets and NLP datasets, they can be found in the public domain and are growing fast. There is just a specific, limited advantage to Google in datasets. Mostly for ads.
The largest, most interesting recent public datasets in image and NLP were released by Google.
For example, here are some of their recent NLP datasets: https://github.com/google-research-datasets
In images, OpenImages is theirs, and there are assorted ones derived from YouTube.
Stanford's SNLI is the most recent non-Google NLP dataset which is getting used a lot. Babi (from FB) too, if you count that as NLP
Re: Introducing Gradient Ventures
#24Google (and other large tech companies that have invested in AI internally) are probably the most valuable investors, because they have access, and can purchase, the largest and best data sets available. It's hard for AI start-ups to do anything without access to the right data sets, and large companies can and have better access to that data.
> they have access, and can purchase, the largest and best data sets available Google might have an advantage in personal data, that can be used for advertising and health, but when it comes to general data, such as image datasets and NLP datasets, they can be found in the public domain and are growing fast. There is just a specific, limited advantage to Google in datasets. Mostly for ads.
That's true, but Google can also afford to acquire and monopolize data that other companies are sitting on but don't have the resources or talent to utilize internally.
Re: Introducing Gradient Ventures
#25Really scary to see Google's maneuvering for total control of AI tech.
Re: Introducing Gradient Ventures
#26Google (and other large tech companies that have invested in AI internally) are probably the most valuable investors, because they have access, and can purchase, the largest and best data sets available. It's hard for AI start-ups to do anything without access to the right data sets, and large companies can and have better access to that data.
As a startup you have less leverage to access proprietary datasets. In fact, most of the companies we tried to work with wouldn't let us even access the data, let alone use it, unless we did everything on prem. Oh and one company even wanted to own half of our IP.
Re: Introducing Gradient Ventures
#27Really scary to see Google's maneuvering for total control of AI tech.
Somewhat related: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/24/opinion/sunday/artificial...
Re: Introducing Gradient Ventures
#28Google (and other large tech companies that have invested in AI internally) are probably the most valuable investors, because they have access, and can purchase, the largest and best data sets available. It's hard for AI start-ups to do anything without access to the right data sets, and large companies can and have better access to that data.
As a startup you have less leverage to access proprietary datasets. In fact, most of the companies we tried to work with wouldn't let us even access the data, let alone use it, unless we did everything on prem. Oh and one company even wanted to own half of our IP.
Your algos, pipelines, UI and UX might be the best but you still don't have the data to make it worthwhile on its own. If the dataset is really that good then giving a 50% stake (not necessarily the IP) might be very well worth it. It just comes down to the terms of the deal.
Re: Introducing Gradient Ventures
#29Really scary to see Google's maneuvering for total control of AI tech.
So, admitting my bias on this (I do AI at Google part-time), I don't see how GV is "total control". It's kind of the opposite - it's profiting from helping transition that expertise to new startups that aren't Google.
Re: Introducing Gradient Ventures
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
Honestly, if the answer to that is that they invest in you and you use their money to buy google cloud ml services, and you go out and find customers, that doesn't sound bad.
there is nothing that requires you to use GCP, Google ML services or anything along those lines. This was a surprise but true. source: i am part of the Algorithmia team.
Right, I just meant in response to GP that said they didn't want buisinesses that wanted/needed much of their ML built for them. Google might be okay with that too.