The Future of Artificial Intelligence

On Tuesday, Intel purchased Nervana Systems for over $400 million. Nervana Systems is a deep-learning artificial intelligence startup that applies AI to new software and other services.

This marks yet another purchase in an increasingly popular field. Last week, Apple purchased Turi, a different AI company, for $200 million.

The two acquisitions add to a string of 31 purchases since 2011 of AI startups by large companies, according to venture-capital research firm CB Insights. The firm lists buyers that include Alphabet Inc.’s Google, TwitterInc., Yahoo Inc., International Business Machines Corp. and Salesforce.com Inc.

Industry executives link the deal activity to the rapidly widening applications of AI, a broad term referring to ways to make computers emulate attributes of the human brain. An initial cycle of excitement about the technology arose in the 1980s and later fizzled, but interest has boomed in recent years due to breakthroughs in the field known as machine learning, especially in the specific area of deep learning.

Deep learning artificial intelligence allows computers to analyze voices and faces, program automatic cars to drive and drones to fly, among countless other features. The industry is booming.

Apple and Intel are driving the demand for deep learning way up, creating a type of arms race for AI-focused startups. As these larger companies try to get ahead of one another, we will see the proliferation of artificial intelligence startups. Andrew Ng, a leader in the field and professor at Stanford University put it best when he said, “AI is about to transform industry after industry.”