Will AI transform the ‘Net?

A prominent Russian tycoon believes that advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) will catapult the online experience to new levels of sophistication.

“[For example], I think that in 10 years if you ask a question on a social network and you get an answer you will not know if a computer or a person has answered you,” Yury Milner told Vedomosti in an interview translated by the AFP.

“[So], when you receive a question, you will not know if it has been asked by a person or an artificial intelligence. And by answering, you help the computer create an algorithm.”

According to Milner, humans have experienced a “revolutionary change in demand” for data stored in various electronic formats.

“There is as much information generated in the the last two days as there was in the history of civilization up to 2003,” he said.

Milner also commented on the Facebook phenomenon, noting that in every Internet sector, there was a “tendency” for a single firm to dominate the industry.

“On the Internet there is a tendency for ‘winner takes all’ and a leader emerges in every niche with surprising consistency.

“This is the main issue that we look at. When we [DST Global] made our first investment in Facebook, it was not obvious that it was a winner,” he added.