The partners of Audere Capital discuss how best to approach investing in AI
I’m Peter Ackerson, and I'm a general partner at Audere Capital.
Hi, I'm Maggie Sprenger. I'm also a general partner at Audere Capital.
Audere Capital is an early-stage venture company focused on investing in five areas of critical technology that are on the cusp of what we think will be a significant multi-decade long run of impact. We invest in early-stage technology companies focused on the intersection of national security and priority, deep tech, and ease, of course.
Looking at artificial intelligence, which is one of these critical technologies, it is going to change substantially every sector of the economy at some point in the next decade. I think it needs to be thought of as more than simply an algorithm, a learning model, or a neural net. It really is the combination of the ability, through new types of sensors, to capture new types of data. This data then needs to be used, stored, connected, cleaned up, and organized as a middle layer so you can house it and complement it with existing datasets.
On top of that, the third layer is the algorithms. If you don't have all three, then my suspicion, and I think evidence bears this out both firsthand and in the market, is that you will ultimately become commoditized. So, when looking at a category like A.I., you have to understand not only the technology but also the specific use case. Who are the buyers of this, and why would they pay more now? It's not simply because the experience is better. Yes, absolutely. But again, voicemail is better than having operators, and yet, over time, voicemail didn't turn out to be a hugely lucrative section of the market.
There will be lots of applications that make experiences better, that make fraud prevention more effective, that improve different types of drug discovery. But you also have to consider, when looking at the technologies, what is the value proposition and how will that evolve and where will that head over time. AI is one of those things that captures a lot of the imagination quickly but requires a very thoughtful approach, if you will, to effectively invest.