Artificial Intelligence is the future & the future is here!

The global Artificial Intelligence(AI) market is valued approximately at USD 350 billion and annual growth rate is estimated to be roughly 38%. It is an interesting space to be in and has an overwhelming amount of opportunities to offer at this point in time.? In this third edition, we will discuss some note-worthy trends across the Artificial Intelligence industry that you should not miss out on.

"Every opportunity is a door to a different future"

Generative is one of the latest trending technical jargon that has come hand-in-hand with its various applications like conversational ai, DeepFake and more. It essentially leverages AI/ML algorithms to create content like audio, video, images and text, that appears real/natural. In other words, these algorithms support computers to identify patterns in the underlying data input and produce new plausible content. This presents a multitude of benefits like ensuring generation of better outputs by self-learning, aiding in risk reduction, aiding in reducing biases in reinforcement learning models, depth predictions with sensors, localization and regionalization of content in DeepFakes and more. For this, various techniques including GANs(Generative Adversarial Networks) where two neural networks are used - a generator that is responsible for generating new data and a discriminator that differentiates between the source and the generate data, transformers like GPT-3, Dall-E 2 and LaMDA, and Variational Auto-encoders are being used. Generative AI has seen a range of applications from identity protection, image processing, film restorations, audio synthesis to uses in the healthcare industry. Some of our portfolio companies like Kroop.ai and Vitra.ai are building impressive tools that leverage generative AI.?

Another such noticeable trend has been seen around Low-code/No-code workflow builders. For the last few decades, companies have had only two options - either hire developers to build a custom solution or opt for a ready solution from some vendor. LC/NC application and workflow builders have enabled companies with a stable third option now. These are tools that enable users to create highly customised applications with minimum programming capabilities, not only on the visual front but a fully functional application using features like drag-and-drop elements, spreadsheets, workflow building, task management and more.?

Although you might have heard about Reinforcement learning, we have seen some interesting developments in this space recently. This area of machine learning takes actions to achieve maximum rewards and learns from the output to improve its efficiency. This is significantly different from the supervised learning model in the sense that the supervised model is trained with data that already contains the most optimal outputs while in the reinforcement learning model there is no answer and the reinforcement agent decides the suitable action to be taken and learns from its experience. This allows the model to adapt to its environment without minimal developer interference. We have seen reinforcement learning being used across game theory, economics, statistics? and many more disciplines. AlphaZero is one such algorithm that uses reinforcement learning to achieve superhuman competency in challenging games like Chess, Go and Shogi(Japanese chess). This algorithm has been able to conveniently defeat world champion programs designed for these games by reinforcement learning by self-play. This instance proves to us that reinforcement learning can achieve a higher level of sophistication that algorithms that are refined using human expertise.?

This article was compile by Prerna Sangoi, Analyst Trainee at 100X.VC