Could Machine Learning, A.I. Harm Tech Competition?

Will artificial intelligence (A.I.) and machine learning carve up the tech industry into "haves" and "have nots"? That's the thesis presented by a recent article in The New York Times, which suggests that, while ultra-monetized companies such as Google and Facebook can fund as much A.I. research as they need, academic institutions and smaller firms are being left behind. "The huge computing resources these companies have pose a threat--the universities cannot compete," Craig Knoblock, executive director of the Information Sciences Institute at the University of Southern California, told the newspaper. The Times points to OpenAI, which launched as a nonprofit designed to prevent A.I. from being used in terrible and unethical ways, as an example of this trend. OpenAI has since evolved into a "capped" for-profit company, and reportedly plans to use any revenues to fund its computing infrastructure.