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The timing was perfect. Just as startups were settling into NYU and ffVC\u2019s new brains-meet-money accelerator, \u201cAI Nexus Lab<\/a>,\u201d Uber acquired\u00a0Geometric Intelligence<\/a>. In a stroke of luck, the startup that would become Uber\u2019s AI lab happened to have been raised by\u00a0NYU Tandon\u2019s Data Future Labs<\/a>. Uber\u2019s interest in Geometric helped solidify\u00a0New York\u2019s\u00a0place in the minds of machine intelligence wonks and brought investor attention to other startups affiliated with the school.<\/p>\n Three months later, the inaugural cohort of the AI Nexus Lab is\u00a0taking the stage at NYU\u2019s\u00a0Skirball Center for the Performing Arts to present demos and progress updates. Addressing finance, healthcare, robotics, customer service and omnichannel retail intelligence, the five startups include:<\/p>\n Yann LeCun of Facebook’s FAIR lab speaking to the crowd<\/p>\n<\/li>\n John Frankel speaking about ffVC’s interest in AI investment<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Alpha Vertex, one of the five accelerator startups, presenting a demo<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol><\/div>\n All three founders I spoke with\u00a0cited the program\u2019s small size as its greatest asset. With mentors like USV\u2019s Fred Wilson, FirstMark Capital\u2019s Matt Turck and Geometric Intelligence\u2019s\u00a0Gary Marcus, access is the key differentiator\u00a0between an assembly line and a true accelerator.<\/p>\n Miika Pera of Cambrian Intelligence specifically noted\u00a0AI Nexus Lab\u2019s help with\u00a0finding pilot customers. Meanwhile James Fan and LiangLiang Cao of HelloVERA pointed to presentation guidance.\u00a0And while it wasn\u2019t\u00a0explicitly mentioned, I\u2019m sure nobody was complaining about the $100,000 that ffVC invested into each startup.<\/p>\n Supporting founders commercialization efforts tends to be particularly key in the machine intelligence space. It\u2019s relatively easy to throw free compute and small amounts of cash at promising businesses, but highly technical founders\u00a0most often need help tailoring their early-stage startups for product market fit.<\/p>\n NYU and ffVC plan to continue their partnership for a second cohort of AI startups. The deadline for the next batch<\/a> will be May 3rd, 2017 and that program is expected to begin July 10th.<\/p>\n Featured Image: frimages\/Getty Images<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\n
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The timing was perfect. Just as startups were settling into NYU and ffVC’s new brains-meet-money accelerator, “AI Nexus Lab,” Uber acquired\u00a0Geometric Intelligence. In a stroke of luck, the startup that would become Uber’s AI lab happened to have been raised by\u00a0NYU Tandon’s Data Future Labs. Uber’s interest in Geometric helped solidify\u00a0New… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n\n<\/img><\/a>
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