Rich Karlgaard
Forbes Publisher & Global Futurist
Keynote Speaker | Panel Moderator | Onstage Interviewer
Speaker Insights
Superstar VC's Bet On American and Chinese Artificial Intelligence
Originally Published In Forbes
By Rich Karlgaard, Forbes Publisher and Global Futurist, Economic Leader, Entrepreneur & Author
MAY 4, 2018
Silicon Valley’s Jim Breyer explains why today’s new AI companies are built differently than previous software and web startups.
Q: Your old firm, Accel Partners, invested in a broad range of tech startups. Your new firm exclusively invests in AI. Why?
Breyer: I’m two years into a ten-year investment business plan in AI, and it’s been fascinating. I spend a lot of time at universities around the world and am on various boards at Harvard, Stanford and Tsinghua University in China. The most interesting breakthrough ideas in AI are coming from these academic centers, where there’s a combination of outstanding computer science, domain expertise in areas such as health care and medicine, and an entrepreneurial spirit that’s crucial to startups.
Q: AI was first proposed at MIT in the 1950s. Why is it exploding now?
Breyer: We started to see a sea change around 2010. Cloud data suddenly allowed enormous datasets to be analyzed. We’ve had breakthroughs in visual computing, which has made a huge difference to medical AI companies like Paige.AI.
Rich has moderated panels and conducted onstage interviews at the world’s largest venues
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Forbes Global CEO Conference (which Karlgaard has emceed since 2001)
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Milken Institute Global Conference
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Montgomery Summit
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YPO Global Leadership Conference
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Microsoft CEO Summit
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G100
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U.S. Chamber of Commerce C100
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Commonwealth Club of San Francisco
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Silicon Valley Churchill Club