
Introducing Gradient Ventures - framschwartz
https://gradient.google
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iandanforth
IMO this has significant appeal. Lots of firms can provide capital, but few
can provide relevant expertise let alone training.

They seem to be trying to cover all bases with the Google Brain Residency the
Machine Learning Ninja program, standard VC funding, and now this. If you have
talent in ML/AI there is a way Google can help you succeed in the style of
your choice. Want to be a founder? Excellent! Want to be a founder but also
kinda part of Google? Sure! Are you super talented and experienced in other
disciplines and want to explore AI and maybe contribute a 2-5% improvement to
one of our model's performance? Yes! We have that!

~~~
Hydraulix989
Actually a 2-5% improvement over state-of-the-art is a research contribution
in its own right.

~~~
rsrsrs86
In some problems this is incredible.

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forgotmysn
Google (and other large tech companies that have invested in AI internally)
are probably the most valuable investors, because they have access, and can
purchase, the largest and best data sets available. It's hard for AI start-ups
to do anything without access to the right data sets, and large companies can
and have better access to that data.

~~~
visarga
> they have access, and can purchase, the largest and best data sets available

Google might have an advantage in personal data, that can be used for
advertising and health, but when it comes to general data, such as image
datasets and NLP datasets, they can be found in the public domain and are
growing fast. There is just a specific, limited advantage to Google in
datasets. Mostly for ads.

~~~
nl
The largest, most interesting recent public datasets in image and NLP were
released by Google.

For example, here are some of their recent NLP datasets:
[https://github.com/google-research-datasets](https://github.com/google-
research-datasets)

In images, OpenImages is theirs, and there are assorted ones derived from
YouTube.

Stanford's SNLI is the most recent non-Google NLP dataset which is getting
used a lot. Babi (from FB) too, if you count that as NLP

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claytonjy
I thought this was odd, from the about page

> We can help you find and incorporate data sets into your first models. From
> cleaning data to extracting the most important features, our team can help
> you get your production models to market.

While realizing the hardest part of a startup is everything _but_ the tech, it
seems odd they're telling _AI companies_ they'll help with the hardest parts
of the technical side, the ones that need to be done right well before anyone
can tell if your tech has any merit.

I'd hate to be a first-pass reviewer for all the pitches they're gonna get. "I
have this amazing idea, I just need someone else to build the AI behind it!"

~~~
mattnewton
Honestly, if the answer to that is that they invest in you and you use their
money to buy google cloud ml services, and you go out and find customers, that
doesn't sound bad.

~~~
doppenhe
there is nothing that requires you to use GCP, Google ML services or anything
along those lines. This was a surprise but true.

source: i am part of the Algorithmia team.

~~~
mattnewton
Right, I just meant in response to GP that said they didn't want buisinesses
that wanted/needed much of their ML built for them. Google might be okay with
that too.

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ihm
Really scary to see Google's maneuvering for total control of AI tech.

~~~
lemondrops
Somewhat related:
[https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/24/opinion/sunday/artificial...](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/24/opinion/sunday/artificial-
intelligence-economic-inequality.html)

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shreyassaxena
_[https://cogniac.co/](https://cogniac.co/) The demo over here seems to be
fabricated. Even if you provide wrong labels interactively, the performance of
the classifier keeps increasing ...

_ Picked up from
[https://gradient.google/portfolio/](https://gradient.google/portfolio/)

~~~
backpropaganda
I don't think they are trying to pass it off as a real demo.

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m1chael3ma
Extremely impressed with the investment partners behind this fund. I worked
with Shabih during my time at Google and saw his work KPCB; he's a deep
thinker and also relentless advocate/supporter for the companies he backs.
Anna Peterson is also a legend at Google. Think they'll end up being the
strategic VC of choice behind every major AI company.

