After releasing what may well have been the most comprehensive report on the State of AI in 2019[1], Air Street Capital[2] and RAAIS[3] founder Nathan Benaich[4] and AI angel investor, and UCL IIPP[5] Visiting Professor Ian Hogarth[6] are back for more.
In the State of AI Report 2020[7] released today, Benaich and Hogarth outdid themselves. While the structure and themes of the report remain mostly intact, its size has grown by nearly 30 percent. This is a lot, especially considering their 2019 AI report[8] was already a 136 slide long journey on all things AI.
The State of AI Report 2020 is 177 slides long, and it covers technology breakthroughs and their capabilities, supply, demand and concentration of talent working in the field, large platforms, financing and areas of application for AI-driven innovation today and tomorrow, special sections on the politics of AI, and predictions for AI.
ZDNet caught up with Benaich and Hogarth to discuss their findings.
AI democratization and industrialization: open code and MLOps
We set out by discussing the rationale for such a substantial contribution, which Benaich and Hogarth admitted to having taken up an extensive amount of their time. They mentioned their feeling is that their combined industry, research, investment and policy background and currently held positions give them a unique vantage point. Producing this report is their way of connecting the dots and giving something of value back to the AI ecosystem at large.
Coincidentally, Gartner's 2020 Hype cycle for AI[9] was also released a couple of days back. Gartner identifies what it calls 2 megatrends that dominate the AI landscape in 2020 -- democratization and industrialization.