A new study by London's venture capital firm MMC has said that 40 percent of European start-ups classified as AI start-ups, don’t actually use Artificial Intelligence that is actually 'material' to their business, The Verge reported.
The study took into account about 2,830 AI start-ups in 13 EU countries. It reviewed the activities, focus and funding of each firm to come to its conclusion.
A Forbes report says that the 'AI Startup' classification has not come from these companies themselves. In fact, third party analytical sites are often the ones responsible for classification and it’s not clear from the MMC report what all 'fake AI Startups' were actually misleading the customers.
MMC's head of research told Forbes that in most cases these start-ups will be aware of how they’re being classified; they just don’t care to correct the record.
The report also found out that when companies deploy AI, its use-case is quite linear and boring. Most of the companies surveyed used AI that included chatbots and fraud detection. In both cases, its not known how exactly does it benefit the customer.
This study just vindicates the fact that if it says AI, it doesn’t necessarily mean its AI. This is slowly becoming the most misused word in the tech space.
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