Investors believe that AI to take over millions of jobs and governments are not prepared

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  11 Nov 2016 , 09:03

Investors believe it is “inevitable” that artificial intelligence will destroy millions of jobs and that governments are unprepared for such an impact, according to a survey published on Thursday. Artificial intelligence (AI), or the process by which computers or robots take on tasks that need human intelligence, is one of the key themes of this week’s Web Summit in Lisbon.

The poll among 224 venture capitalists attending the conference showed 53 percent believed AI would destroy millions of jobs and 93 percent saw governments as unprepared for this. The survey also found that 83 percent of the investors canvassed expect Britain’s exit from the European Union to damage Europe’s economy and 77 percent believe it will damage British startups.

London is widely seen as the main tech startup hub in Europe, thanks to its large pool of talent and a much bigger pool of funding than in rival centres. Cities like Berlin, Amsterdam and Lisbon are eager to attract more tech startups.

The Web Summit, one of Europe’s biggest tech conferences, is being held for the first time in Lisbon, with 53,000 attendees, after moving from Dublin where it was first launched in 2010. The venture capitalists taking part have more than $100 billion of capital in total to invest. The Web Summit conducted the poll on Nov. 7.

Reuters

Indian bitcoin company raises $1.5 million from US, Indian investors

#BITCOIN

Unocoin, a Bangalore-based bitcoin startup, has raised $1.5 million in funding from a mix of Indian and U.S. investors, the company announced on Thursday.

The company, which runs a trading platform to buy, sell, and store bitcoins for Indian customers, said the money raised was the largest for an Indian bitcoin startup. Unocoin, which has 100,000 users and more than 30 employees, has been in operation since December 2013.

Unocoin describes itself as the Coinbase of India. San Francisco-based Coinbase is the largest U.S. bitcoin company and runs an exchange and a wallet service, among other businesses.

Funding came from Indian entities such as Blume Ventures, Mumbai Angels and ah! Ventures along with U.S. investors such as Digital Currency Group, Boost VC, Bank to the Future, and FundersClub.

Digital Currency Group was founded by one of the top U.S. bitcoin investors Barry Silbert, while Boost VC is run by U.S.-based Adam Draper, the son of billionaire entrepreneur Tim Draper.

“We needed a separate exchange for India. A few years ago when we wanted to buy bitcoin, there was nothing available in India,” Sunny Ray, Unocoin’s co-founder and president told Reuters in an interview.

“So if you want to buy bitcoin from an international exchange, you will have to do a wire transfer from India to these international exchanges and get your bitcoin and oftentimes it takes three to five days.”

Unocoin raised about $200,000 in its first financing round. It started from a small hometown called Tumkur, near Bengaluru.

Bitcoin, a digital currency, was trading at $604.50 on the Bitstamp platform

Reuters