Today's guest is Kelly Chen, partner at DCVC – one of the earliest VC funds to focus on deep tech investments. We began our conversation with basic definitions, the concept of autonomy, and then went on to discuss commercially viable applications, value creation considerations and thought process when evaluating AI investment opportunities. And lastly touching on broader topics such as the ethical aspect of AI and what lies ahead in the next five years.

Key Takeaways

• Key terms defined: artificial intelligence (AI) is about how to make computers intelligent; machine learning is a subset of AI which essentially are algorithms that make predictions; deep learning is a subset of machine learning where more complex neuro enable more complex problems to be solved
• Autonomous AI is already seen in applications which have low stakes such as vacuum cleaning robots as compared to autonomous driving vehicles where failing can lead to fatal consequences
• Misconceptions in AI highlighted
• AI in itself is valuable for a specific application à AI in itself is not valuable, it's the problem case that one is solving gives AI value
• Algorithm in itself is very important à algorithms nowadays are very commoditized, it's the data and the labels that are the most important
• Biases in dataset are almost unavoidable in a lot of different types of AI applications; but what is more important is to understand how the entrepreneur thinks about remediating these issues
• Biggest AI applications in the future are probably in the manufacturing and retail space as there is a lot of repetitive labour with super high turnover in the sector where AI robotics can replace these human tasks in an economical way.

Episode links

DCVC: https://www.dcvc.com/

Kelly Chen: https://www.dcvc.com/bio/core/kelly-chen.html