French newspaper spotlights AI bluff

Of 2,830 so-called artificial intelligence (AI) start-up companies across Europe, only 60% use such technology, according to a joint study made by Barclay and London-based investment company MMC Ventures, as reported by French newspaper Le Figaro on 6 March.

The study showed that the average financial investment in these start-ups is 15% higher than the investment in basic IT start-ups, and that the value of AI companies is 5% higher than that of non-AI companies. As a consequence, around 8% of new European companies created last year were AI businesses, as opposed to 3% in 2015, the report stated.

The surge in AI companies comes in tandem with European politicians extolling the technology's virtues and creating financing for this sector, according to the newspaper. In a similar manner to the space race in the 1970s, AI is behind fierce global competition, notably between China and the U.S. The sector recently has been labeled the "technological bluff" due to the 45 million to 90 million "click workers" behind the AI programs, executing tasks that the machines are not yet capable of performing, according to the report.