By spring of 2023, the massive popularity of apps like ChatGPT had prompted a mass scramble among businesses trying to implement the latest advances in generative artificial intelligence. One year later, the craze continues. In turn, a new tech economy has emerged to help businesses develop and deploy AI-powered apps. That’s reflected by the makeup of Forbes’ sixth annual AI 50, produced in partnership with Sequoia and Meritech Capital, which recognizes the most promising privately-held artificial intelligence companies.
In this video, Forbes staff writer and list editor Kenrick Cai sits down with Sequoia Capital group partner and AI 50 data partner Konstantine Buhler to discuss the findings and emerging trends from this year's list.
Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/lists/ai50
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In this video, Forbes staff writer and list editor Kenrick Cai sits down with Sequoia Capital group partner and AI 50 data partner Konstantine Buhler to discuss the findings and emerging trends from this year's list.
Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/lists/ai50
Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1
Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:
https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript
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Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.
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TechTranscript
00:00 Have I seen something that scares me?
00:02 Not really.
00:04 Because I see it and I think about the code that's being written.
00:07 You're on the cutting edge of AI, nothing scary?
00:09 The technology isn't scary to me at all.
00:11 But the societal impacts and how we react, that could be scary.
00:14 So it's very important that the government get involved and help with retraining and education.
00:19 And that companies are responsible and help with retraining and education.
00:27 Hi everyone, I'm Kenret Kai. I'm a staff writer at Forbes and I'm joined by Konstantin Buehler, a partner at Sequoia Capital.
00:33 Sequoia, Forbes and Meritech Capital, we work together on the AI50 list, which we're here to talk about.
00:41 It's the sixth year of the list that identifies the most promising AI startups in the world.
00:48 So Konstantin, tell me a little bit about what you do at Sequoia and how that relates to
00:55 your role with AI50.
00:57 You got it, Kenret. Well, it's been fun working on this list with you for several years now.
01:01 Absolutely.
01:02 And my background is actually as an AI engineer.
01:05 So I got into this as a student.
01:07 I did my undergraduate work in stochastic modeling and my graduate work in natural language processing AI at Stanford.
01:14 And I was lucky enough to be there at a time
01:17 over a decade ago when the transformation
01:20 from classical AI to deep learning AI was happening.
01:24 What that means is we went from more basic algorithms to algorithms that were based on the neural network that is so powerful today.
01:32 Right.
01:33 That completely changed the trajectory of my career and I've been totally focused on
01:38 the impact of technology and in particular the impacts AI can have.
01:43 So tell us about this year's list and your observations from it. What really stood out to you?
01:48 And yeah, what are your takeaways from the companies that made it onto our list this year?
01:53 It was hard getting to the final 50 because there were so many great candidates.
01:58 What was special about the companies that got to the final 50 is this year,
02:01 I'm pretty sure almost all of them and you'd know because you've seen the final numbers, had great revenue and fundamental financial growth.
02:08 Right.
02:09 Like that's pretty new and exciting for the AI industry that businesses are really demonstrating
02:15 great revenue growth and AI companies are also really nice businesses.
02:21 Part of why that's happening is because we see a lot of this year's list in the productivity space.
02:26 So we have new companies on the list this year like Notion in the productivity space and they were historically a productivity company
02:35 along the lines of the best possible
02:38 note-taking and online knowledge repository.
02:42 Sequoia is an investor.
02:43 We are and you just wrote an article about it.
02:45 That's right.
02:45 So we want to hear about that.
02:46 I'm about to ask you about that in a second.
02:48 But Notion is an example of that.
02:51 And now they've got this great QA, which is able to answer questions way faster.
02:58 So, Kenric, I just mentioned Notion.
03:00 Why did you pick Notion and what did you learn about it?
03:04 Yeah, absolutely.
03:05 So for our, the AI50 goes in the magazine and along with the main list, we also want to feature a real standout company.
03:15 From the list.
03:16 So in the past, we've done companies like Databricks and like Hugging Face.
03:21 And so last year we did Scale AI and Notion, I think, had really stood out to us because, as you mentioned, they are a newcomer to the list.
03:30 However, they've been around since 2013 and they've grown into a very formidable company.
03:36 As you all know, last round was at a $10 billion valuation and they're making hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.
03:45 So, you know, they are already a very popular company that has really captured consumer attention.
03:55 You know, their viral TikTok videos that caused the servers to crash in 2021.
04:01 And YouTube is just flooded with Notion tutorials, like from college students and young professionals who are obsessed with like creating to-do lists and
04:12 cool ways to organize their work and their life on Notion.
04:16 So it's a company that just really has already established itself.
04:19 But then why it's so interesting to AI50, I think, is kind of what you touched on already.
04:24 That Notion, I think, more than a lot of the other incumbent companies that are already established tech companies that have been around for a couple of years and have real revenue already.
04:37 Notion, I think, more so than most companies, really jumped on the AI wave really fast and integrated the AI in really unique ways.
04:46 I'm curious, with some of the areas that were buzzier a couple of years ago, but we don't see so much of this year's list, for example, autonomous vehicles.
04:56 We have a company called Wabi on this year's list, autonomous trucking.
04:59 But otherwise, we don't have very much of that placement on the list.
05:05 What about these other spaces that are not attracting so much attention in the current AI moment?
05:10 What does the future hold for the companies in those spaces?
05:14 Yeah. One of the most important things for your audience to understand is that AI is a constant evolution.
05:22 And we are at a point in time when audiences watching this video in five years, AI is going to look completely different.
05:29 And that's almost by the definition of AI.
05:32 So the list in 2019 looks radically different from the list today.
05:37 Big time, yeah.
05:38 And a lot of that, Kenric, is because the technologies have changed.
05:42 Let's think about 2019.
05:44 We had a lot of autonomy.
05:46 We had a lot of computer vision.
05:47 I think this was the year where we had companies like Hinge Health and Verkata in the computer vision space and then a lot of the autonomous startups for driving.
05:58 Right.
05:59 And you think about hype cycles.
06:01 That was a peak moment.
06:03 That was a moment where computer vision and autonomy was at a high end of the hype cycle.
06:07 And you think about the Gartner hype cycle chart.
06:09 Those are probably at the latter end of the hype cycle, as in they're not necessarily front of mind.
06:16 But I'm very confident they're going to be super important trends.
06:21 Computer vision, this idea that a computer can understand what it sees, was near magical when I was in grad school and we were working on this kind of stuff.
06:34 It was a breakthrough idea.
06:35 And we're seeing computer vision all of a sudden have passed its hype, but have a really good effect in industrial settings, in retail settings, in commercial and even in houses.
06:51 Another thing that I think is somewhat overlooked at the moment, but will be critical, is autonomy.
06:57 I mean, I have been in a Waymo vehicle in San Francisco and it is fabulous.
07:04 And they've gotten better and better.
07:06 The first time I was in one of these vehicles, it was choppy.
07:09 Now it's smooth and we're operating in and out of streets and with stop signs in residential areas.
07:13 It's exceptional.
07:14 Konstantin, I'm curious, you know, you spend so much time looking at the AI space.
07:19 Yeah.
07:20 How do you use AI in your personal life?
07:22 And I'm also curious to throw a curveball.
07:25 Are there things that you're seeing with the AI that are starting to scare you at all?
07:28 So, yeah, AI has been part of my life for 15 years.
07:32 And so I use it.
07:34 I try to use it a lot.
07:36 So everything from mundane tasks, like I now, anytime I can work alone, have my AirPod Max's on and I talk to my computer to write emails.
07:48 And I read them with text to speech.
07:51 I can move really quickly that way.
07:53 I also use it to write things.
07:57 So for memos, I now use AI in order to help speed things up.
08:04 When I get up the curve on a new company, I also use generative AI to help me understand a market.
08:11 And one thing that I think is pretty unique is I've gotten to the point where I use a lot of AIs in competition and in unison.
08:18 OK, interesting.
08:20 So I use a product called Dust, which is in the Square portfolio, in order to call not just GPT-4, but also Mistral and Gemini and Cloud 3.
08:30 And call means what?
08:32 And I just, I basically say instead of GPT-4, I say @GPT-4, just like you would in Slack.
08:38 @GPT-4, @Cloud3, @MistralLarge, @Gemini.
08:42 Tell me a little bit about Forbes.
08:47 I see.
08:47 And they will each come up with an answer.
08:50 Their answers will compete.
08:52 I'll see them in real time.
08:53 And then I can say @GPT-4, build on Claude's answer, because I like their first answer.
08:59 And they basically collaborate and compete with each other.
09:03 That's been a critical change in my workflow.
09:07 So those are some ways I use it day to day.
09:09 Have I seen something that scares me?
09:10 Not really.
09:12 Because I see it and I think about the code that's being written.
09:16 You're on the cutting edge of AI, nothing scary?
09:18 It doesn't scare me.
09:19 I mean, I see it and I think about the code that's being written.
09:22 And I say, OK, I know where this is coming from, roughly.
09:28 I know how they got there.
09:30 I think the things that will be scary will be societal impacts.
09:36 That's what matters.
09:37 The technology isn't scary to me at all.
09:38 Right, right.
09:39 But the societal impacts and how we react, that could be scary.
09:42 I mean, there's an unfortunate reality is when you have cost savings that will probably affect jobs, maybe a lot of jobs.
09:50 So it's very important that the government get involved and help with retraining and education, and that companies are responsible and help with retraining and education.
09:59 And that they make sure that AI is augmented intelligence, not artificial intelligence.
10:05 That it's a technology that makes people better so they can do more, more productively and have a better life as opposed to being replaced.
10:12 We don't want that.
10:13 It'll be interesting to see what happens and how AI50 evolves in those years to come.
10:19 Thank you so much for all the time chatting with me about AI50, Konstantin.
10:23 Kanrek, thanks for doing it again this year.
10:25 And congratulations to all the companies.
10:27 Thank you.
10:32 [END]