The dynamic forces shaping AI

To learn more about the state of AI today and where we might be headed in coming years, download the free report "What is Artificial Intelligence?," by Mike Loukides and Ben Lorica. There are four basic ingredients for making AI: data, compute resources (i.e., hardware), algorithms (i.e., software), and the talent to put it all together. In this era of deep learning ascendancy, it has become conventional wisdom that data is the most differentiating and defensible of these resources; companies like Google and Facebook spend billions to develop and provide consumer services, largely in order to amass information about their users and the world they inhabit. While the original strategic motivation behind these services was to monetize that data via ad targeting, both of these companies--and others who are desperate to follow their lead--now view the creation of AI as an equally important justification for their massive collection efforts. While all four pieces are necessary to build modern AI systems, what we'll call their "scarcity" varies widely.