In this Q/A session with Vince Gaydarzhiev, founder and CEO of portfolio company Alcatraz AI, Vince shares his perspectives and outlook on the future of artificial intelligence. Alcatraz AI is building a facial authentication platform using 3D sensing and AI to enable highly secure and frictionless access.
What is your outlook on AI and the future of jobs vulnerable to automation?
A lot of jobs will be replaced. Actually, I was in Vegas over the weekend and in one of the hotels, they had robot bartender. You just go on an jPad, and you select your drink see how a couple arms make your drink and serve it to you. Very impressive.
So a lot of things will be replaced. Maybe not in the very immediate future but perhaps in 10 to 15 years.
Why should people be excited about AI?
It will make our lives easier. It will make a lot of things cheaper. For the end consumer, they will have a better lifestyle for cheaper.
What are the biggest benefits of AI now, and in the future?
Automation. I mean in general, automation and decision making based on vast data sets — AI will be able to make decisions with data sets that human beings can not really comprehend.
AI can revolutionize many industries. Which application is most interesting/promising to you and why?
For me, self driving is very interesting. Everyone will have a chauffeur all the time. You can also look at the service industry in general and how AI will help — but self driving for me is pretty exciting .
What is the current issue in the industry that you are helping to address and how are you doing so?
So the current issue is — we’re in the security space and currently, everything is very disconnected. How you exit and enter to what's actually happening around that entry — it's very disconnected. There is no bundle of information that is fed into a decision tree to find out what's happening. We're trying to connect the system by not only making entry very secure and very automated and transparent, but also looking around that entry point to always have in mind what's happening to make decisions and send notifications. So we're helping the physical access space become smarter with AI and 3D sensing.
The final product is something that will let people in without them thinking about it. They just keep walking, and doors open up. Not only this, it doesn't stop when they show up and leave — it never stops. That door or that entry will always know what's happening even behind you and can make decisions based on some other information. Maybe you will keep the door locked if other people are there or perhaps there is tailgating going on or there is suspicious activity going on, etc. The end goal is to have a transparent, frictionless entry in and out, but also smart analysis on the situation and possible notifications and alerts.