At Rise of AI 2018 in Berlin, in his opening keynote "AI has finally arrived," Fabian Westerheide, founder of Rise of AI and the venture capital firm Asgard, traces the conference's growth from a 2014 dinner discussion with 14 people to a sold-out event with 600 attendees, three stages and 55 speakers. He explains the day's structure: an AI Future stage on AGI, ethics and consequences, an Applied AI stage on adoption best practices, and a startups and investors stage. He presents new data from a landscape mapping project done with a partner he calls Wollenburger: of roughly 7,500 companies worldwide claiming to work on AI, about half were removed as not genuine, leaving 3,445 companies in the database, with around 40% based in the US, 11% in China and Israel combined, and only about 700 in Europe, where Germany holds roughly a 3% market share. He argues Europe risks becoming dependent on US or Chinese AI embedded in hardware, and calls for a shared European vision, a faster strategy than the EU's planned two-year process, more AGI-focused research, more funded AI startups and more capital. He announces that Asgard is opening its fund to semi-professional and professional investors from 1 July.
Key takeaways
- Westerheide grew Rise of AI from a 14-person 2014 dinner discussion into a sold-out 2018 conference with 600 attendees, three stages and 55 speakers.
- His landscape study with a partner he calls Wollenburger counted 3,445 genuine AI companies worldwide, with about 40% in the US, 11% in China and Israel combined, and around 700 in Europe.
- Germany holds roughly a 3% share of global AI companies, about a tenth of the US share and far behind Israel's per-capita share.
- He argues Europe needs a shared vision, a faster AI strategy than the EU's planned two-year process, more AGI-focused research and more startup capital.
- He announces that Asgard is opening its venture fund to semi-professional and professional investors starting 1 July 2018.
Detailed notes
From a 14-person dinner to a sold-out conference
Westerheide recalls starting Asgard, a venture capital firm focused on AI, four years earlier and finding the market too early: only researchers and enthusiasts were talking about AI. He invited people who had read about the coming singularity to a discussion in Sea Base and found 14 willing participants. A follow-up event, "The Singularity Might Be Closer Than You Think," sold out at 70 people within days. A third edition, "Human Coexistence with Machines," drew 170 people at Beta Haus with a waiting list of over a thousand. At that point he partnered with his wife, a professional event organizer with 40 years and 300 events of experience, who has run the events since. Last year's "Future of Humanity" conference filled the Deutsches Technikmuseum with 350 people on one stage; attendee feedback asked for more food and more applied, practical AI content.
Structure of the 2018 event
The 2018 edition has three stages, 55 speakers and, for the first time, an exhibition hall, with 400 companies and 600 attendees (he says he wanted to cap it at 500 but kept adding people on request). Over half the audience are managing directors, partners or CEOs. The AI Future stage covers where AI stands today, what artificial general intelligence would mean, whether humans need to "upgrade" to compete or collaborate with machines, and ethical and moral consequences for education, finance, wealth distribution and employment. The Applied AI stage focuses on how companies actually start using AI, with speakers sharing best practices and learnings. The third stage covers startups, researchers presenting work that could reach the market within one or two years, and investors.
European AI landscape data
Westerheide describes producing a German AI landscape map in early 2017 and, with a partner he refers to as Wollenburger, a European AI landscape covering companies worldwide. They collected data on over 7,500 companies claiming to do AI, removed about half as not genuinely doing so, and kept 3,445 in their database. The report, published the day of the talk, finds roughly 40% of AI companies based in the US, 11% in China and Israel, and about 700 in Europe. Germany ranks seventh or eighth in Europe with a 3% market share, versus roughly 10 times that for the US and, per capita, about 40 times that for Israel.
The case for European AI sovereignty
Westerheide argues that because most hardware is no longer produced in Europe, and AI will increasingly be embedded in hardware, Europe risks having its devices and virtual assistants run on American or Chinese AI and values unless it acts. He says Europe first needs a shared vision that AI is beneficial, then a strategy delivered faster than the European Union's planned two-year expert process, since China is investing heavily and aiming for AI world leadership by 2030. He calls for more AI research focused specifically on cognitive systems, machine learning, deep learning and embedded systems, for someone in Europe to work on AGI, for more capital for European AI startups, and notes that one of his portfolio companies has a US competitor with about ten times more funding.
Opening the Asgard fund
Westerheide says he started Asgard in 2014 because strong AI teams and researchers existed but no one was financing them boldly enough, and that he has since found he lacks enough capital to back all the promising teams he sees. He announces that from 1 July, Asgard's fund will open to semi-professional and professional investors in Germany, France, the UK and the rest of Europe, with an online process to complete compliance checks, agree a contract and become a shareholder within 24 hours.
Quotes
We don't do Rise of AI because we want to earn money.
Fabian Westerheide
Capital is the fuel driving innovation.
Fabian Westerheide
I don't want the super intelligence made from China, really, I don't.
Fabian Westerheide
Questions answered in this talk
What did Fabian Westerheide's AI landscape study find about Europe versus the US and China?
According to Fabian Westerheide at Rise of AI 2018, his mapping project identified 3,445 genuine AI companies worldwide, with about 40% based in the US, 11% in China and Israel combined, and only around 700 in Europe, where Germany's market share is roughly 3%.
How did the Rise of AI conference grow from its founding?
According to Fabian Westerheide at Rise of AI 2018, the event began as a 2014 dinner discussion with 14 people and grew year by year into a sold-out 600-person conference with three stages and 55 speakers by 2018.
What does Fabian Westerheide say Europe needs to do to compete in AI?
According to Fabian Westerheide at Rise of AI 2018, Europe needs a shared vision for AI, a strategy faster than the EU's planned two-year process, more AGI-focused research, more leading AI companies and more capital for AI startups.