On 1/18/07, Matt Mahoney <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
--- "YKY (Yan King Yin)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I'm not an academic (left uni a couple years ago) so I can't get academic > funding for this. If I can't start an AI business I'd have to entirely give > up AI as a career. I hope you can understand these circumstances.
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I think if you want to make a business out of AI, you are in for a lot of work. First you need something that is truly innovative, that does something that nobody else can do. What will that be? A search engine better than Google? A new operating system that understands natural language? A car that drives itself? A household servant robot? A program that can manage a company? A better spam detector? Text compression?
Wow, those are very strong prerequisites to start an AI company! No AI company to date has created a household servant robot or NL OS. I think AI companies can exist around less formidable goals. I also like Guy Kawasaki's point (paraphrasing) that if you have a good idea, at least 5 other startups are working on it. If you have a great idea, at least 10.
Write down a well defined goal. Do research. What is your competition? How are your ideas better than what's been done? Prove it (with benchmarks), and the opportunities will come.
Not all successful companies have a quantitative proof that they are the best. Probably most do not. I'm not saying your assertion "prove it...and (they) will come" is incorrect, but that it's not the only basis for a startup. Re: business, you also need the right story to attract funding, the right approach to sales and a good deal of luck. Novamente, *afaik*, has no "proof via benchmark" but does have paying AI contracts that sustain them. And still no robot butler! (I want one.) Btw I found Ben's 22 page recap of his experiences at WebMind to be useful: http://www.goertzel.org/benzine/WakingUpFromTheEconomyOfDreams.htm And there is good info here: http://www.amazon.com/Micro-ISV-Vision-Reality-Bob-Walsh/dp/1590596013/sr=8-1/qid=1169144626/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-2460655-8624059?ie=UTF8&s=books Finally: Open source is one way. Commercial is another. Both have succeeded and failed many times over and will continue to do so. Neither will be going away any time soon. -Chuck ----- This list is sponsored by AGIRI: http://www.agiri.org/email To unsubscribe or change your options, please go to: http://v2.listbox.com/member/?list_id=303
