Artificial intelligence, the simulation of human intelligence processes by computer systems, is becoming smarter and more powerful, making it a technology that companies in a variety of industries are looking to get their hands on – including Los Angeles companies.
Different forms of artificial intelligence can help companies by improving predictions of customer behavior, allowing companies to make faster business decisions. It can also help businesses save time and money by automating processes and tasks and increasing productivity.
In line with today’s economic state, investment in artificial intelligence technology has declined, but this by no means means a decline in popularity. According to the State of AI Report by AI Investors Nathan Benaich and Ian Hogarth, large companies have expanded their AI teams and partnered with AI startups.
The West Hollywood-based dating app Tinder, for example, uses machine learning, a branch of artificial intelligence that focuses on creating computer algorithms that can automatically improve their performance with use.
According to digital media platform Mashable, users have taken this even further by using OpenAI’s chatbot, San Francisco-based ChatGPT, to facilitate conversations.
How it works is that the user will ask the bot to write something, and ChatGPT will formulate a conversation based on that prompt. According to a Semaphore report last week, Microsoft is ready to invest $10 billion in OpenAI.
Recently, MeetKai, a conversational AI company based in Marina del Rey, partnered with the Los Angeles Chargers, a partnership that will help the sports team create digital products for its fan base.
What AI can do
Weili Dai, co-founder and president of MeetKai, said that artificial intelligence can be for everyone, adding that she is very happy to see companies big and small participating in artificial intelligence innovation.
“Our vision is to map the real world imagined through the virtual space, the metaverse, and then use that AI technology and capabilities and features and tools in the virtual world,” Dai said.
She went on to say that the most practical thing AI tools can do is help companies improve their training practices to not only reduce costs, but also achieve better results.
“The partner came to me and said, ‘I have more than 16 (global employees) and I have to train them all the time,’ and travel is so expensive and then depending on who trains them, it might not have the same quality or result,” Dai explained. . “But guess what’s happening with artificial intelligence? You can do all these trainings in virtual space, at the speed of light, and everything will be copied exactly. It’s consistent.”
On the partnership, Dai said, “I am so happy to see MeetKai’s leadership in innovation and technology in driving advanced AI solutions, across industries, for better lives for all. We are extremely excited about our partnership with the Los Angeles Chargers, and I believe this will lead the way in the sports industry.”
The Chargers will be able to use MeetKai’s AI technology, which is capable of processing natural conversation and personalized search results to develop new in-stadium and at-home experiences, including an AI-powered locker room tour.
Jim Rushton, senior vice president of stadium operations and strategy for the LA Chargers, said adopting artificial intelligence technology is a way to improve relationships with customers, or in their case, fans.
“There is so much in relation to personalized experiences. The AI side of MeetKai, which is their conversational AI chatbot, will provide an opportunity for an organization or businesses to better serve their customers based on the personalized questions they ask and need answered,” said Rushton. “Then, from a 3D mapping perspective, it’s an opportunity to give customers, or fans in our example, an opportunity to get behind-the-scenes insight into the organization and/or create different and new experiences for their customers.”
With 20 games making up a football season, Rushton said the partnership opens up an opportunity to keep fans engaged the other 345 days of the year.
“In today’s world, in the sports world and certainly in Los Angeles, it’s become extremely competitive for people’s time to consume a product, so we always have to look for opportunities to create deeper and more meaningful relationships with our fans,” Rushton added.
Adam Struck, founder and managing partner of Santa Monica-based VC firm Struck Capital, said much of the innovation being pushed forward in AI is actually what he sees as highly commoditized within the application layer, the component within an application that controls communication with other devices. . He said companies in all industries can benefit from using artificial intelligence because the technology can help them learn from data and improve their products or services.
A real opportunity
“In the same way that we think we get ‘wiser’ over time because we experience various forms of adversity, learn from it and hopefully make a change in the right direction, with a proprietary dataset and artificial intelligence and machine learning, you can essentially go through the ‘trials and tribulations’ of life or product development systematically and automatically with machines,” explained Struck. “I think for the first time now there’s a real opportunity to just take data in, essentially create a feedback loop and learn from that data and have that inform the accuracy of whatever product you’re building. Technological innovations can literally be used anywhere and on anything as long as there is some semblance of technology and some semblance of a product.”
Struck said the hottest topic in artificial intelligence right now is generative artificial intelligence, artificial intelligence that can generate “fake” content, rather than analyzing existing data. Generative AI models produce text and images from blog posts, poetry and artwork.
“I think if you were to talk to 100 VCs and ask them, ‘what’s the area you’re most excited to invest in?’ I think any kind of fundamental technology innovation that has (artificial intelligence or machine learning) some sort of automated feedback loop is going to be a big part of the investment,” Struck said.