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The Fall of Babylon is a warning to AI unicorns

wired.com

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Re: The Fall of Babylon is a warning to AI unicorns

#21

Post by edgyquant »

lowbloodsugar wrote: post #15
vessenes wrote: post #8

I'd like a word for what is now the ritualized 'weirdo CEO anecdote' as a hook into why a company failed trope. Make no mistake: if Babylon were currently worth $20bn, Antigua standups and calling employees Babylonians would be the subject of business-school case studies. That said, this is a puff piece in Wired for so many reasons, not least of which is the question of whether or not app-based diagnosis and triage i…

I think it was IBM that demonstrated in the 80s that a decision tree out performed doctors at diagnosis.

Given what inputs? Doctors don’t seem to be very competent at diagnosing things without a bunch of very expensive tests for unrelated things first and even then it’s just weeding out what it isn’t rather than accurately predicting what disease a person has.

Re: The Fall of Babylon is a warning to AI unicorns

#22

Post by awkward »

lowbloodsugar wrote: post #15
vessenes wrote: post #8

I'd like a word for what is now the ritualized 'weirdo CEO anecdote' as a hook into why a company failed trope. Make no mistake: if Babylon were currently worth $20bn, Antigua standups and calling employees Babylonians would be the subject of business-school case studies. That said, this is a puff piece in Wired for so many reasons, not least of which is the question of whether or not app-based diagnosis and triage i…

I think it was IBM that demonstrated in the 80s that a decision tree out performed doctors at diagnosis.

First line diagnosis is one of the hardest things we expect doctors to do. It's unlikely to fund a unicorn though, because it's also one of the least well paid activities for a doctor.

Re: The Fall of Babylon is a warning to AI unicorns

#23

Post by vidarh »

gumballindie wrote: post #18

The fact that that company even made it so far is quite of a mystery to me. The tech stack, the complete lack of understanding of how things worked in the real world, the occasional illiterate product manager, and many many other things made me quickly understand that it will go belly up in a couple of years. Fast forward to today and i was absolutely right.

It's such a shame. From a user point of view they were great. I'm registered with them. The UK GP practice has been taken over by someone else (eMed)

The app was great. I got appointments fast until very recently.

The triage was basic, though, but to an end-user it wouldn't have been obvious to what extent their business plan relied on that for the shot at future profitability.

I used to work for a VC, and we invested in PushDoctor, a competitor of theirs which also failed, and I remember peoples slight panic at Babylons "AI" and how I was puzzled at that because there clearly was no AI involved. To me as a user, the proposition was a great booking experience and flexible video bookings.

I hope eMed manages to keep the good bits running, because I really don't want to go back to my old GP service.

EDIT: Actually, I'd be fine with going back to my old GP if they used Babylons booking mechanism and offered video consultations, and maybe used it to provide overflow when they have capacity issues. Nothing wrong with the doctors. This was sort of where PushDoctor was headed when they failed - providing a platform - and it was a real shame.

Re: The Fall of Babylon is a warning to AI unicorns

#25

Post by compiler-guy »

ramesh31 wrote: post #9
haltist wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Someone should see if GPT can summarize the main points but it's the usual startup problems, growing too fast and failing to deliver on the company's main value proposition because of employee turnover and bad hiring practices.

Yeah I guess ultimately I'm just saying even "failed" startups are generally a huge financial/career boon to everyone involved, so long as it was just a business failure. The only real loser here is the VC.

The British NIH also was a big loser. It paid a lot of money for something that didn't work, and they lost out on other opportunities that may have panned out better.

Re: The Fall of Babylon is a warning to AI unicorns

#26

Post by HPsquared »

awkward wrote: post #22
lowbloodsugar wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it was IBM that demonstrated in the 80s that a decision tree out performed doctors at diagnosis.

First line diagnosis is one of the hardest things we expect doctors to do. It's unlikely to fund a unicorn though, because it's also one of the least well paid activities for a doctor.

Good value for patients who can't find/afford a doctor, then.

Re: The Fall of Babylon is a warning to AI unicorns

#27

Post by [deleted] »

woah wrote: post #11

I've found that VCs in the past have not ever really inquired much about a team's technical ability to get their project done, but just about the business and competitive aspects. They just assume that if you're talking to them, you know what you're doing. This probably made a lot sense in the 2010's, because most startups were pretty basic web or mobile apps, and 99% of teams are going to fail because of lack of ado…

[deleted]

Re: The Fall of Babylon is a warning to AI unicorns

#28

Post by [deleted] »

vessenes wrote: post #8

I'd like a word for what is now the ritualized 'weirdo CEO anecdote' as a hook into why a company failed trope. Make no mistake: if Babylon were currently worth $20bn, Antigua standups and calling employees Babylonians would be the subject of business-school case studies. That said, this is a puff piece in Wired for so many reasons, not least of which is the question of whether or not app-based diagnosis and triage i…

[deleted]
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