Andrew Ng got here up with a concept nearly 15 years in the past: What if Google, the web large, considered machines just like the mind and skilled neural networks on mass quantities of information utilizing computational energy in an try and result in synthetic normal intelligence?
Google bit on Ng’s line of considering, and in 2011 he helped launch Google Mind, one of many most ambitious synthetic intelligence applications on the time. Flash ahead: Ng has cemented his standing as one of the revered figures in pc science.
Earlier this 12 months, Ng’s AI Fund, which backs small groups of specialists utilizing AI to resolve key issues, stated it deliberate to boost over $120 million for its second fund. A June submitting with the SEC confirmed that the fund had amassed $69.75 million from 13 companions.
Ng launched the AI Fund in 2018 with $175 million, and preliminary backers included Sequoia and Softbank Group. It’s made 43 investments up to now, in line with Crunchbase data.
In April, Amazon additionally named Ng to its company board of administrators, an extra signal the tech large needs to advance its profile within the area. Along with his time at Google, Ng helped construct out Baidu’s AI growth.
A part of Ng’s efforts have been getting extra individuals to know the sphere of synthetic intelligence.
Ng has been working for years to “democratize deep studying” by educating greater than 8 million college students by on-line programs by initiatives like Coursera and DeepLearning.AI. (“Multiple in 1,000 individuals on the planet have taken an AI course from me,” Ng tells Quick Firm.)
Ng’s identify has come up repeatedly previously 12 months as I’ve spoken with individuals within the tech world. He’s not solely, as Quick Firm put it in 2017, “one of the most important people in AI” however an “AI superstar.”
That is all to say, Ng could be thought of central to AI’s future. Now, Ng’s fascinated with how agentic AI may shift the intelligence area.
Earlier this 12 months, Ng put out a prediction by DeepLearning.AI saying that agentic AI—basically, AI-powered brokers that may autonomously resolve duties—was going to be an enormous focus within the tech area within the coming years as it might contribute much more to progress in AI than scaling up giant language fashions would.
“It was a barely controversial prediction,” he says. To make sure, agentic workflows are beginning to cement their standing as the subsequent key phrase.
Google, for instance, recently announced a slew of agentic prototypes. Microsoft has “Copilots” to assist companies automate duties. Anthropic’s Claude launched a function that lets customers create their very own AI assistant.
“Agentic workflows have actually taken off and are driving significant enterprise outcomes,” Ng says. “What I’m seeing is that it appears like an early and accelerating part of growth of agentic workflows the place increasingly more know-how corporations try to construct platforms to raised assist agentic workflows and increasingly more purposes are additionally being constructed utilizing it.
This story is a part of AI 20, our monthlong collection of profiles spotlighting probably the most attention-grabbing technologists, entrepreneurs, company leaders, and inventive thinkers shaping the world of synthetic intelligence.