Earlier this year, former Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster joined two fellow ex-analysts to launch Loup Ventures, a seed-stage venture capital fund focused on backing virtual reality, augmented reality, artificial intelligence and robotics startups.
During his two decades at Piper Jaffray, Munster made a name for himself through his Apple coverage. Now, he and his colleagues, Doug Clinton and Andrew Murphy, are investing in startups creating things like brain controlled software and virtual reality house tours.
The firm is raising $20 million for its debut fund, and has made investments in four startups since launch.
Loup Ventures has offices in New York and Minneapolis. One of the companies currently in their portfolio, Real Vision, has an office in the Twin Cities, but none of the companies currently in Loup's portfolio call Minnesota home.
Munster said that the firm has heard pitches from at least a dozen Twin Cities startups, but hasn't made any investments yet. He added that they "love doing stuff in Minnesota," and hope to invest if they find the right fit.
Minne Inno sat down with Munster to discuss the various risks, concerns and opportunities surrounding artificial intelligence.
Note: Conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Minne Inno: There seem to be two camps in the artificial intelligence discussion: machines are either going to take over the world or make our lives better. Which side are you on?
Gene Munster: The two guideposts out there are that AI will lead to infinite prosperity for humans or that it’s going to be the extinction of humans. I’m in the prosperity camp. I think that this is going to be something good. We also believe that a big risk around AI is this terminator type thing that people are concerned about. People are worried that machines will take over. So we need to add some detail to what the risk really is. It’s not a violent machine. That’s not a concern.
MI: So what's the real concern?
GM: It's that machines will take resources. That could mean that it controls air traffic, power grids or financial systems. If it starts messing with stuff, that's a concern. The real issue with AI is how it's going to impact humans. There are some people who are going to make a lot of money off of AI, and others that are going to be out of work because of it. And that social unrest part is something that I think is an underappreciated risk.
"To say that we haven't scratched the surface around AI is the understatement of the year."
MI: Do you think "terminator talk" slows AI innovation?
GM: Yeah. I think over time it will become a bigger issue. Today the stuff with AI that’s really topical is self-driving cars. Legislators are slow to allow these cars on the road. And from my perspective it’s maddening that legislators are standing in the way because standards should not be self driving cars safe 100 percent of time--it should be are they safer than humans, which is a pretty easy bar to get over. But legislators aren’t there yet.
I think that over time, once people start to see cases of AI having a profound impact, you'll see groups start to form. There's Elon Musk's group, Open AI, which is trying to build morality around the issue. But I think what he's really doing is trying to emphasize that AI is risky. So he tells this crazy terminator-type story and gets into debates about it.
MI: Where do you see AI being used?
GM: I've talked to a lot of companies trying to find a way to use AI more. There are some companies with an obvious case for AI, and customer support is a big one. There's also exciting potential in solving disease. It's a radical way to think of problems that could result in a dramatic increase in life expectancy.
But to say that we haven't scratched the surface around AI is the understatement of the year. That's a bit of a buzz term, but we're not seeing the ideas yet. It's going to take time. And I'm excited because I think there's some easy things that can make life better with AI.
