The Forum’s $100 trillion prediction is sure to continue the already frenetic pace of investment and entrepreneurial activity in the digital Ai and machine technology space.
Ai is defined as intelligence demonstrated by machines.
And machine learning, according to Andrew Ng, founder of the AI Fund, “Is the science of getting computers to act without being explicitly programmed.” In other words, it is about the machine’s ability to learn from data while improving performance on a given set of goals. Ng, whose fund has raised over $175 million for startups simplifies further, “Ai is the new electricity.”
The more data fed to it, the more it learns. “The holy grail of Ai research is to build ‘general AI’ (better known as artificial general intelligence, AGI) that is maximally broad: able to accomplish virtually any goal, including learning.” Says Max Tegmark, an MIT Cosmologist and author of Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.
The rate at which data is being fed into computers continues to grow at unprecedented levels. “In Ai, the speed of change is getting faster, and the speed at which change is getting faster, is getting faster,” says Anthony Contreras, Founder of PredictiveBuyers.com, an Ai based marketing technology used to grow client profits.
“We have to change our mindset about what change really is. Ai means exponential steps. Take 30 linear steps and you move 30 feet forward. But take 30 exponential steps; that is 1 to 2, 2 to 4, 4 to 8 and so on, and those 30 steps will take you around the world 25 times! Embracing Ai puts your business in the exponential world.” Contreras continues, “If your business isn’t thinking in exponential, you’re leaving a lot of money on the table. Utilizing Ai is not a luxury, it’s required for survival.”
Top global business leaders agree. Mark Cuban, owner and CEO of the Dallas Mavericks and Shark Tank investor, “I am telling you, the world’s first trillionaires are going to come from somebody who masters AI and all its derivatives and applies it in ways we never thought of.” Cuban continues, “Whatever you are studying right now if you are not getting up to speed on deep learning, neural networks, etc., you lose.”
Bill Gates, Founder of Microsoft agrees. He says, “A breakthrough in Machine Learning would be worth ten Microsofts.”
Katherine Wood, founder of ARK Investment Management takes it further, “Bill Gates said 10 Microsofts. We think deep learning is going to be twice that. We think [it] could approach $17 trillion in market cap—which would be 35 Amazons.”
Disruption on a scale of 10 Microsofts and 35 Amazons is not rhetoric; it’s real and playing out right now. Evidence suggests Ai and machine learning are already affecting industries in ways never before seen. Every day headlines are released about breakthroughs in medicine, finance, and research in Ai.
Contreras continues, “If you want to see disruption in action look at the mesothelioma market. There’s only 3,000 new cases diagnosed every year,” says Contreras. “It’s one of the most competitive PPC markets to bid with costs upwards of $300 per click. Using our data, a client gained 10% market share in a very short period of time. We’ve had similar explosive success in other markets too. Ai and machine learning forces you to think in exponential steps. Businesses that refuse to won’t survive.”
Cuban adds, “Artificial intelligence, if you don’t understand it … you’re going to be a dinosaur within 3 years.”
It took the world thousands of years to get to the Industrial Revolution phase, but just 18 years for the social media and Internet market to mature headed by Facebook, Google, Alphabet, and Amazon. The World Economic Forum values the digitization of industries at $100 trillion over the next 10 years.
Forrester, is an influential research firm whose insights are sent to over 675,000 consumers and business leaders worldwide. Their prediction: companies mastering Ai may have a $1.2 Trillion per year advantage over those that don’t.
That certainly is exponential.
