CEO at Talents Arena | Deloitte Top 50 Women in Leadership | NextGen Co-Pilot for Recruiters with AI
Israel is the biggest investor in AI in the Middle East (if we ignored the faulty nomenclature). With last deal amount of $208M in AI21Labs to build advanced LLM models. While most of the tech startups only adopt or use existing models, maybe slightly enhance it we leave the real region out of competition. By encouraging investors to refrain from the investment in the advanced AI models, LLMs, open source AI projects, advanced AI education this leaves in a very tiny spot of just technology consumers. The real VC game is about the LONG TERM gains and the investment in the bright minds that create the future. We have been forever consumers of technology, I believe it's now-or-never the chance to be a major contributors to the AI revolution and take a leader seat in it, not just a spectators. When investors keep refraining from investment in long term building in infrastructure technologies; only look for the 50X formula for the money right now or not do enough tech DD to make sure they pouring money in the right hands. The tech and entrepreneurial scene will be knocked out the race. Below is a very interesting chart by Gartner that shows the full spectrum of AI adoption to creation. It's a good measurement to the startup level of AI involvement and when they say (I'm an AI Based Startup)... this could serve as a valid tool to well position it. و ربنا يطورنا كلنا #ai4good #tech4good #middleeast #techecosystem #techstartups #africa #ai #artificialintelligence #llms #funds #investment #ventures #VCs #future #makingimpact #growth
this incredibly true investors keep refraining from investment in long term or building in infrastructure technologies has overtime shifted our investment scene to be trend-based not a trend maker !, now I don't think the start-up scene is looking for the local or even regional investment or considering it , rather they are flying to where technology is understood & invested on , I think this weird if you look at it from 10 years perspective it looks like local VC's were in war with technology driving it out in favor of retailing the industry , I think the local/Regional /( Middle-east) investment scene are scared because of it's ignorance .. it has given up on infrastructure & technology & talent a long time ago & it will not be able to get it back anytime soon P.S : India & China are still investing in creating custom foundation models , I don't believe anyone in the middle-east region will build or extend models, However embedding models still have the largest application yet I don't see a lot of that even!
It's not just AI. Unfortunately, The investor/merchant mentality can't see beyond the short gain. In a region full of "venture studios", there's almost no room for innovation nor strategic open infrastructure initiatives.
Thank you for sharing these insights, Aya E.
Co-Founder @ Everest Minds | Digital Health | Generative AI
2moVery true, Aya! Although one might argue that foundation models are becoming more of a commodity, much like cloud infrastructure, the real opportunity lies in using generative AI for unique use cases beyond the typical "ChatGPT"-bot-like apps. If a company from the region can excel here, it might then attract enough capital to build its own foundation models later on.