London-based tech entrepreneur Tej Kohli has invested another $100 million into Rewired, a robotics-focused venture studio with a humanitarian bent.
Rewired is pioneering investment into artificial intelligence and machine learning ventures that will power the new economy, transform businesses, revolutionise global healthcare and even improve and extend human life.
Some of the companies already backed by Rewired include Open Bionics, which is developing the next generation of prosthetics enabling patients to feel their surrounding environment for the first time and featured on our 101 HealthTech Innovators list; Aromyx, which is developing technologies that for the first time enable scientifically reproducible measurement and digitisation of taste and scent; and Seldon, which has developed the world’s first open source machine learning platform to enable data scientists, developers and large organisations to share data.
Current thinking suggests that the global AI market will be worth anything from $3.9 trillion by 2022 (Gartner) to $15.7 trillion by 2030 (PWC) – but Kohli believes that the true value could be much greater.
“Conventional wisdom is too cautious. I predict that the global AI sector will be worth $150 trillion by 2025. My forecast is based on a five-part analysis,” he said.
“The internet today is worth $50 trillion. You can take that and extrapolate it to at least three or four times as many applications as the internet to get $150 trillion. I don’t see how it can be any less because AI has so many different industries and applications.
“Everything that is currently on the internet can also be manifested through AI in smarter and better and more effective ways. These Internet-linked applications alone are worth hundreds of billions – and AI can be similarly applied across hundreds of other industries.
“The rapid pace of growth of AI in China, with Shenzen now a global hub of AI excellence that will surpass the ever more regulated Silicon Valley in the medium term.
“The global growth in 5G coverage plus ubiquitous smartphone usage removing technological barriers to embracing the AI revolution in a true Internet of Things.
“That we are now at a tipping point, after which AI and machine learning will grow exponentially to underpin and benefit every single aspect of human life.”
He added: “I am not saying that $150 trillion is based on a complete adoption of AI across everything. I believe $150 trillion is where you get to when keeping our basic human norms and values intact.
“It is using AI to make our lives more efficient without radically changing our lives to the full extent that AI is capable of. I estimate this value to be three to four times the internet.
“And I believe that AI will enable humanity to take unprecedented leaps forward in solving the most pressing human problems across poverty, geopolitics and unequal access to healthcare, by virtue of its ability to make businesses and organisations far more efficient.
“There is scope for huge commercial gain coupled with unprecedented opportunities for human progress.”