It's a Feeding Frenzy For Artificial Intelligence Startups

At a recent presentation in San Francisco, CB Insights CEO Anand Sanwal said half-jokingly that if startups want attention from investors, they should put phrases like "artificial intelligence" and "machine learning" in their pitch deck. While there's an argument to be made that AI is over-hyped as a technology, there's data to back up Sanwal's tongue-in-cheek advice: Mergers and acquisitions of AI startups increased by a factor of seven between 2011 and 2015, from five to more than 35 deals, according to the research firm. The increase runs against the grain of what the Silicon Valley Business Journal reported as an overall decline in the number of exits and deals of startups across fields starting in the second quarter of 2014. The poster child for the recent surge in interest in AI: Twitter's acquisition of machine learning startup Magic Pony Technology, announced earlier this month. If you look at the deal primarily as an "acquihire," Twitter is reportedly paying 13 million per machine-learning PhD.