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Quick Navigation
- An Interview with OpenAI
- AI Solutions to Help Startups Scale Operations, Grow, and Run Their Business
- A Glance At Some AI Solutions That Companies Are Using
- The Future AI Plays in How VCs Invest
- Resources
- Concerns Surrounding OpenAI and Machine Learning
- VCs Investing in AI Startups
“94% of business leaders surveyed say AI is critical to success” Deloitte
AI has been making even more of a splash lately with everyone talking about (and with) OpenAI’s newest innovation, ChatGPT-3. So I thought what better way to learn more about it than by interviewing OpenAI directly through its chat function!
OpenAI shared its history, capabilities, and how it feels it can support startups and VCs with all of its many capabilities. After the interview portion, you’ll find some other great AI insights, resources, and my top picks for VCs investing in AI startups from our Connect Investor Database.
An Interview with OpenAI
Angelina: What is the founding story of OpenAI?
OpenAI: OpenAI is a research institute and startup accelerator that was founded in 2015 by a group of individuals including Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, John Schulman, and Ilya Sutskever. The organization was founded with the goal of advancing artificial intelligence technologies and applications, and to promote the responsible use of AI for the benefit of humanity. OpenAI was initially funded by a group of high-profile investors, including Musk and Altman, as well as Y Combinator, Peter Thiel, and other individuals and organizations. In the years since its founding, OpenAI has become known for its research on a variety of AI-related topics, including language models, reinforcement learning, and generative models, and has developed a number of widely-used AI technologies and applications.
Angelina: What is GPT-3?
OpenAI: GPT-3 (short for “Generative Pretrained Transformer 3”) is a large-scale language model developed by OpenAI. It is one of the most advanced and powerful language models currently available, capable of generating high-quality human-like text for a wide range of applications. GPT-3 uses a neural network architecture known as a transformer, which is trained on a massive amount of text data to learn the patterns and structures of human language. This allows GPT-3 to generate text that is fluent, coherent, and relevant to the given input. GPT-3 has been used for tasks such as translation, summarization, question answering, and text generation, and has shown impressive results in many of these tasks.
Angelina: What value can you deliver to users?
OpenAI: As a language model, I am designed to assist users in generating human-like text based on the input that I receive. I can help with a wide variety of tasks, such as answering questions, providing information, or generating creative content. My goal is to be able to understand and respond to users in a way that is helpful and accurate. I am not a perfect AI, and I may not always be able to provide the exact information that a user is looking for, but I will do my best to assist in any way that I can.
Angelina: How can startups best use openai to help their businesses?
OpenAI: Startups can use OpenAI’s technology and capabilities in a variety of ways to help their businesses. One way is to use OpenAI’s language models, such as GPT-3, to automatically generate text for a wide range of applications, such as product descriptions, social media posts, or customer service responses. This can save time and resources, while also providing high-quality, human-like content. Additionally, startups can use OpenAI’s machine learning models to help with tasks such as image and speech recognition, which can be useful for applications such as visual search or voice-based interfaces. OpenAI’s technology can also be used for more advanced tasks, such as natural language understanding, which can help businesses better understand and analyze customer feedback or other forms of unstructured data.
Angelina: How can startups use your capabilities best?
OpenAI: Startups can use my capabilities in a variety of ways, depending on their specific needs and goals. For example, a startup in the e-commerce space could use my language generation capabilities to automatically generate product descriptions or create engaging content for their website or social media pages. A startup in the customer service industry could use me to automatically generate responses to frequently asked questions or to assist in resolving customer issues. Ultimately, the best way for a startup to use my capabilities will depend on the unique needs and goals of the business.
Angelina: How can venture capitalists best use openai?
OpenAI: Venture capitalists can use OpenAI’s technology and capabilities in a number of ways to help evaluate potential investment opportunities and support the growth of the startups in their portfolio. For example, venture capitalists can use OpenAI’s language models, such as GPT-3, to automatically generate financial forecasts or market analysis, which can provide valuable insights and help with decision-making. Venture capitalists can also use OpenAI’s machine learning models for tasks such as sentiment analysis, which can help them better understand the sentiment of customers or users towards a particular product or service. Additionally, venture capitalists can use OpenAI’s technology to support the growth and development of the startups in their portfolio by providing access to cutting-edge AI capabilities and expertise.
AI Solutions to Help Startups Scale Operations, Grow, and Run Their Business
AI can help startups grow their companies by automating certain processes, such as customer service, marketing, and sales. It can also analyze data to provide insights into customer behavior and preferences, allowing companies to make more informed decisions about their products and services. It’s also possible for AI to be used to identify opportunities for growth and cost saving, and to target potential customers more accurately, helping startups quickly scale their operations.
AI solutions companies are already using:
- Chatbot solutions are one of the most popular AI solutions for startups, providing 24/7 customer service where they can interact with customers. automate most tasks, and even process customer payments. It helps startups reduce customer service costs and improve their customer experience.
- Predictive analytics can help startups gain insights into customer behavior and preferences allowing them to make better decisions and anticipate customer needs by analyzing customer data, identifying trends, and making predictions about future outcomes.
- Automating processes such as marketing campaigns, customer onboarding, and inventory management.
- Natural Language Processing (NLP) can help startups understand customer sentiment and analyze customer interactions, and customer feedback to improve their product and services by identifying areas for improvement.
- Machine Learning (ML) can help startups gain insights from large amounts of data and optimize their operations. ML solutions can also be used to detect fraud, reduce risk, and help startups scale their operations by automating tasks, such as customer segmentation, market analysis, predictive analytics, and product recommendation.
- Computer Vision: Computer vision can help startups automate image recognition and analysis, enabling them to identify trends in their customers’ images and leverage that data to improve their products and services.
- AI-powered analytics can provide insights into customer behavior and preferences, helping startups better understand their customers and target them more effectively with their marketing efforts. With predictive analytics solutions, it’s possible to analyze customer data, identify trends, and make predictions about future outcomes.
- AI-automated accounting solutions can help startups streamline their accounting processes and reduce manual errors.
- AI Personalization solutions can be used to analyze customer data and serve personalized content, offers, and product recommendations to potential customers.
A Glance At Some AI Solutions That Companies Are Using
Image from Venture Scanner
Each of these companies offers unique services that could be beneficial to startups, such as natural language processing, image recognition, object recognition, and more. Many of these companies also provide consulting services to help startups implement and use their AI solutions.
- SparkCognition offers AI solutions that predict future outcomes, optimize processes and prevent cyberattacks. They use patented AI, machine learning, and natural language technologies.
- Synthesia is an AI video creation platform that works in 65 languages.
- Numenta is currently in beta and working with a few customers to create highly performant, deep-learning networks for Natural Language Processing, Generative AI, and Computer Vision.
- OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company that has several AI tools helping startups with image generation, content creation, and has just launched a first-of-its-kind API that can be applied to any language task, and serves millions of production requests each day.
- Vicarious is a turnkey robotics solutions integrator using AI to automate tasks too complex and versatile for traditional automation.
- Watson is IBM’s portfolio of business-ready tools, applications, and solutions, which were designed to reduce costs and hurdles of AI adoption. Watson makes it easy for companies to use their data from various sources, providing them with recommendations and predictions from AI models created from their data.
- SymphonyAI Sensa supports banks and financial institutions with a complete picture of the customer, third-party, and user behavior to discover crime, risk, and competitive opportunity through predictive insights.
- H2O.ai is the leading AI cloud company
- HrFlow.ai– A suite of AI solutions to enable leading HR experiences & automation
The Future AI Plays in How VCs Invest
“We found that the best performance, nearly 3.5 times the industry average, would result from integrating the recommendations of the humans on our investment team and the machine-learning model. This shows what I strongly believe—that decision-making augmented by machine learning represents a major advancement for venture-capital investing.” – Veronica Wu
VCs are already using AI in a variety of ways but say it’s still necessary to use human judgment when it comes to decision-making. In an interview with McKinsey Veronica Wu says, “we combined machine learning, which produces insights we would otherwise miss, with our human intuition and judgment. We have to learn to trust the data model more, but not rely on it completely. It’s really about a combination of people and tools.”.
Ways in which VCs are already using AI are:
- Automating the process of researching and analyzing startups. AI can be used to quickly review hundreds of potential investments, identify key trends and patterns, and pinpoint opportunities with the greatest potential.
- Enhancing due diligence processes by using AI to uncover important information that would otherwise be unavailable or difficult to find.
- Utilizing AI to help develop customized investment strategies and portfolios. AI can help VCs to determine which startups are likely to succeed and which are likely to fail.
- Leveraging AI to monitor investments and uncover new opportunities. AI can help VCs to track their investments and alert them to any changes or opportunities in the market.
- Incorporating AI into their internal processes, such as accounting, customer service, and operations. AI can help VCs to streamline and improve their internal processes, allowing them to focus on the core business of investing.
Resources
Top VCs Investing in AI Startups
Two Sigma Ventures
Location: New York, United States
About: Two Sigma Ventures invests in companies run by highly driven people with potentially world-changing ideas.
Thesis: 1. Startups across all industries need to be data driven and getting really good at deriving value from data will continue to be critical 2. VCs can be way more supportive of founders. Our model is to utilize the 1700 mostly technical employees of Two Sigma Investments to assist companies with data science, engineering, recruiting, BD, etc.
Investment Stages: Seed, Series A, Series B, Series C, Growth
Recent Investments:
- Cajal Neuroscience
- Xilis
- Remote
Check out Two Sigma Ventures Visible Connect Profile, to learn more!
DCVC (Data Collective VC)
Location: Palo Alto, California, United States
About: Data Collective is a venture fund with a unique team of experienced venture capitalists, technology entrepreneurs and practicing engineers, investing together in seed and early stage Big Data and IT infrastructure companies.
Investment Stages: Seed, Series A, Series B
Recent Investments:
- Smartex
- Samsara Eco
- ZwitterCo
Check out DCVC’s Visible Connect Profile, to learn more!
M12
Location: Redmond, Washington, United States
About: Is the new name for Microsoft Ventures; it invests in AI & machine learning, big data & analytics, business SAAS, cloud infrastructure, emerging technologies, productivity & communications, security. M12 ran a $2m competition for female founders (applications closed in September 2018)
Investment Stages: Series A, Series B, Growth
Recent Investments:
- Valence Security
- RapidSOS
- Insite AI
Check out M12’s Visible Connect Profile, to learn more!
True Ventures
Location: Seed, Series A, Series B
About: True Ventures is a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm that invests in early-stage technology startups.
Investment Stages: Seed, Series A, Series B
Recent Investments:
- Almond
- Avidbots
- Chameleon.io
Check out True Ventures Visible Connect Profile, to learn more!
AME Cloud Ventures
Location: California, United States
About: AME Cloud Ventures invests in seed to later-stage tech companies that build infrastructure and value chains around data.
Investment Stages: Seed, Series A, Series B
Recent Investments:
Check out AME Cloud Ventures Visible Connect Profile, to learn more!
Greycroft
Location: New York, United States
About: Greycroft is a venture capital firm that focuses on technology start-ups and investments in the Internet and mobile markets.
Investment Stages: Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A, Series B, Growth
Recent Investments:
- Ostro
- Frame AI
- FrankieOne
Check out Greycroft’s Visible Connect Profile, to learn more!
Hyperplane Venture Capital
Location: Boston, Massachusetts, United States
About: Hyperplane Venture Capital is an investment firm focused on exceptional founders building machine intelligence and data companies. The company was founded by Brendan Kohler and Vivjan Myrto in 2015; and is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.
Investment Stages: Seed, Series A, Series B
Recent Investments:
- Relevize
- Givebutter
- Nurse-1-1
Check out Hyperplane Venture Capital’s Visible Connect Profile, to learn more!
Morado Ventures
Location: Palo Alto, California, United States
About: Morado Ventures is focused on high-growth, seed-stage technology companies, with particular emphasis on “Data-fueled” businesses.
Thesis: At Morado we invest in Passionate Entrepreneurs with unique expertise working on hard technological problems with software and hardware.
Investment Stages: Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A
Recent Investments:
- Metrist
- Everest Labs
- Headroom
Check out Morado Ventures Visible Connect Profile, to learn more!
Gradient Ventures
Location: Mountain View, California, United States
About: We help founders build transformational companies. Specialties include;
Artificial Intelligence, Deep Learning, Neural Nets, Machine Learning, Data Science, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Venture Capital, Startups, and Community
Investment Stages: Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A
Recent Investments:
- Payload
- Butter
- The Coterie
Check out Gradient Ventures Visible Connect Profile, to learn more!
Wing
Location: Menlo Park, California, United States
About: Wing is a purpose-built venture capital firm founded by two industry veterans with a different perspective on what it takes to create enduring companies.
Thesis: Invest before it’s obvious, Partner for the long term, Focus on business
Investment Stages: Seed, Series A, Series B
Recent Investments:
- Deepgram
- Deepgram
- Supernova
Check out Wing’s Visible Connect Profile, to learn more!
BootstrapLabs
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
About: BootstrapLabs, a leading Silicon Valley based venture capital firm focused on Applied Artificial Intelligence, and the first VC firm to focus solely on AI since 2015 – with over 30 investments in AI-first companies and today investing from the 3rd AI-focused seed fund ($115M).
Investment Stages: Seed
Recent Investments:
- Southie Autonomy
- Rabot
- Pryon
Check out BootstrapLabs Visible Connect Profile, to learn more!
Looking for Funding? We can help
We believe great outcomes happen when founders forge relationships with investors and potential investors. We created our Connect Investor Database to help you in the first step of this journey.
Instead of wasting time trying to figure out investor fit and profile for their given stage and industry, we created filters allowing you to find VCs and accelerators who are looking to invest in companies like yours. Check out all our investors here and filter as needed. To help craft that first email check out 5 Strategies for Cold Emailing Potential Investors and How to Cold Email Investors: A Video by Michael Seibel of YC.
Related Resource: All-Encompassing Startup Fundraising Guide
After finding the right Investor you can create a personalized investor database with Visible. Combine qualified investors from Visible Connect with your own investor lists to share targeted Updates, decks, and dashboards. Start your free trial here.
* The author generated this text in part with GPT-3, OpenAI’s large-scale language-generation model. Upon generating draft language, the author reviewed, edited, and revised the language to their own liking and takes ultimate responsibility for the content of this publication