(I Heart Robots t-shirt now on sale at the NeatoShop)
Deep Knowledge Ventures is a venture capital investment firm in Hong Kong. It's governed by a board of directors that decides if it should invest in particular projects.
The newest member of that board is VITAL, a computer program that examines data about potential projects and considers their prospects as investment opportunities. Like the other members of the board, this program will get to vote. Jordyn Taylor of Beta Beat explains:
Yes, that means it’ll have exactly the same power as a living, breathing, presumably college-educated human being.
VITAL uses machine learning to predict which life science companies will make for successful investments, the press release explains. That’s why it’ll be of use to Deep Knowledge Ventures, which “routinely invest[s] in both private and public companies specializing in biotechnology, regenerative medicine, oncology, drug discovery, bioinformatics and personalized medicine,” according to their website.
We’re trying to imagine what Deep Knowledge’s future board meetings will look like. Will there be ten humans sitting around a table, plus one awkward computer just tryin’ to fit in? When all the board members are going out for after-work drinks — will they feel obligated to invite VITAL along?
What would it be like to have a robotic co-worker? Or a robotic boss?
Jonathan Coulton warned us where this leads.
-via Marginal Revolution