into the spread of AI hype in European startups found that 40 per cent of 2,830 purported AI startups don鈥檛 actually use any AI in their products. The research, by London-based venture capital firm , defiantly puts a question mark over the so-called AI revolution.
There is currently no hard and fast definition for AI, according to the , AI鈥檚 definition falls under the category of 鈥渞emarkably difficult, maybe even eternally unanswerable, questions, especially if the target is a consensus definition鈥�. However, this has not stopped startups from capitalising on this buzzword.
鈥淢ost people don鈥檛 know what AI means鈥�, says Julio Amador Diaz Lopez, a professor of business at Imperial College London. 鈥淭echnically if I use a rules-based system, I can say that my system is intelligent, and people who know about AI may frown upon it, but they cannot technically say that I鈥檓 lying.鈥� Following these rules, even a simple calculator could be considered AI.
This deception is partially about riding the wave of media attention AI receives, a desire not to be left behind. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a buzzword,鈥� says Lopez. 鈥淓veryday there is a bunch of news about AI, like AI beating humans in doing this and that. It’s just really easy to jump into that trend.鈥� Shockingly, the report indicates that simply labelling a company as AI attracts a median of 15 per cent more funding than another non-AI tech startup.
Because of the lack of definitive definition for AI, many companies have been able to jump on the AI band wagon. This report suggests that even companies genuinely using AI technology, use an incredible basic level of AI.聽 This is partially because of the lack of skills in this sector. However, for now, we can expect to see this trend continue as companies capitalise on the worlds excitement for AI.
