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From left: Reza Khaj, director at Plug and Play Ventures; Tim Porter, managing director at Madrona; James Newell, managing director at Voyager; and Shohei Yamada, partner at SBI Holdings. (GeekWire Photo / Taylor Soper)
Tech startup founders should ignore the noise on AGI and just focus on building products that provide value for customers in today’s world.
That was the message from longtime venture capitalists at an event Wednesday celebrating the opening of two new Seattle-area accelerator programs run by Plug and Play, a global innovation platform based out of Silicon Valley.
There’s debate about when so-called artificial general intelligence, or AGI, will come to fruition. OpenAI chief Sam Altman wrote last month that “systems that start to point to AGI are coming into view.” New York Times columnist Ezra Klein just cited a two-to-three-year timeframe for AGI — which is loosely defined as a type of AI that can match or surpass human capabilities on a variety of tasks.
James Newell, managing director at Seattle-based venture firm Voyager Capital, doesn’t buy the theory that AGI will arrive within 18 months.
“There’s a lot of really smart people who don’t think that’s true,” he said.
Tim Porter, managing director at Seattle-based Madrona, said it’s “hugely situationally dependent,” noting the Microsoft-OpenAI agreement that ties the definition of AGI to OpenAI’s profits.
“We’re certainly not trying to chase investments or companies that are trying to find AGI,” Porter said. “It’s almost like it’s the wrong goal, the wrong question.”
Porter said he’s much more interested in vertical AI, or AI systems built for specific industries or use cases.
“The real action is around more vertical opportunities — whether that vertical means a specific industry, a specific data set, or specific roles in companies,” he said.
Porter is also bullish about AI agents. “What I’m most excited about is AI agents that actually work, and work for me,” he said.
From left: Momo Nakamura, partnerships manager at Plug and Play; Marius Ciocirlan, CEO at MarkOS; Daryn Nakhuda, head of software at Waabi; and Pradnya Desh, CEO at Advocat AI. (GeekWire Photo / Taylor Soper)
Speaking on an earlier panel at the event, Daryn Nakhuda, a longtime Seattle tech leader who currently leads engineering at self-driving truck startup Waabi, advised startups to not just build technology for technology’s sake.
“AI is world-changing in so many ways. It’s so powerful and it’s consistently evolving,” he said. “But also — what are you really building? Why are you doing it? How do you make that the best product?”
Before figuring out how to implement AI into their business, company leaders should ask: why do I want AI in my business?
“What are you trying to do? What are you trying to automate? What are you trying to make better?” Nakhuda said. “If you really focus on that, and build around that thesis … you’re really thinking about the value you’re providing.”
