OpenAI and ChatGPT logos (AFP/Lionel BONAVENTURE)
The surge caused by the arrival of the ChatGPT program has put the spotlight on so-called generative artificial intelligence and further boosted the appetite of investors who do not want to miss the train.
“In one fell swoop, investors are all talking about how ChatGPT could eliminate millions of jobs, transform industries, and fundamentally change the way we learn, consume, and make decisions,” says Wayne Hu, Partner within the private equity firm SignalFire.
Artificial intelligence (AI) has been present in our lives for decades, but the November launch of the conversational robot of the start-up OpenAI marked a turning point in its perception by the general public.
Star of the moment, the generative AI of which ChatGPT is an example, makes it possible to create, based on a large amount of data, original content. It offers an interface to the user who asks questions or makes requests to obtain text, music, image or code.
“From time to time, a universe comes along and causes an explosion of new companies. We saw that with the internet, then with mobile. AI could be the next platform,” said Shernaz Daver, managing partner at the company. of venture capital Khosla Ventures.
Over the past year, the weather has clouded over for many technology start-ups, with rising interest rates and a slowing economy. “Some categories are experiencing a contraction in their valuation and funding sources,” observes Shernaz Daver, “but not generative AI.”
“The valuations of generative AI companies have taken off”, abounds Wayne Hu, who points out that OpenAI is now valued at 29 billion dollars, “while it is estimated that it has lost 500 million dollars” the year last.
– “Gold Rush” –
“Before ChatGPT, I sometimes had to explain to investors what generative AI was and why it was important,” recalls Sarah Nagy, founder of Seek AI, a start-up that allows non-specialists to extract technical data from a database using everyday language queries. “It helped us a lot.”
Seek AI received five different offers for its first fundraiser, more than it expected, and raised $7.5 million in mid-January.
Investors aren’t the only ones flocking to generative AI.
“Customer demand has increased a lot,” says Sarah Nagy. “It’s even difficult to keep up with it, because we’re still a small company.”
The entrepreneur wants to grow her team and, according to Shernaz Daver, while the trend is downsizing in the new economy in general, “we are currently hiring” in generative AI.
In recent weeks, it is mainly the listed giants of the sector that have been talked about, first Microsoft, partner and investor of OpenAI, followed by Google, which runs behind it.
But in their shadow, a galaxy of young shoots are multiplying the use cases for AI.
Among the other recent examples of funding rounds, the Californian Kognitos, which aims to automate administrative tasks, and the support platform for designers Poly.
In addition to traditional investors, the ogres of tech are on the lookout, like Google, which has just invested 300 million dollars to acquire only 10% of the newcomer Anthropic and its chatbot Claude.
“Remember the explosion at the start of the internet or the opening of the App Store” from Apple, launches Wayne Hu. “The gold rush could be much higher for AI because you don’t need a computer science degree from Stanford anymore.”
“Any developer can build something fantastic based on ChatGPT or other models”, enthuses the unearth of young companies in the making, for whom “this wave (…) could be equivalent to the industrial Revolution”.
Wayne Hu nevertheless warns that a sorting will gradually be done, because, fed with the same data, the software is likely to converge over time and “the added value will come from those who will have their own models and different sources”.
© 2023 AFP
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