Background Market Research
When beginning a new project, it is helpful to know about existing companies and products that fulfill a similar purpose. This first necessitates categorizing the type of market the research will relate to. My project, generating TASBots using machine learning, relates to the information and entertainment industries, but it is primarily in the Artificial Intelligence industry. This industry was worth $4,065 million in 2016, and is estimated to reach $169.4 billion by 2025. AI research is still in early stages, but it already has many key players.
DeepMind Technologies is a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. They are primarily an AI research company, they are responsible for developing AlphaStar and AlphaGo, two bots that can play StarCraft II and Go respectively at the highest level. 99% of Alphabet's revenue is generated by Google, of which more than 85% is from online ads. They are currently worth $672.78 billion, with a 2017 revenue of $110.86 billion.
OpenAI is a non-profit private AI research company founded by Elon Musk. They aim to discover and enact the path to safe artificial intelligence. OpenAI is responsible for developing OpenAI Five a Dota 2 bot that can play at the highest level.
Nvidia is a graphics card company, they lead their industry with competition from AMD. AI is a natural industry to compete in for Nvidia, since machine learning can be expedited using powerful graphics cards. They are currently worth $17.56 billion, with a 2018 revenue of $9.71 billion.
Amazon is primarily an online retailer, though they have branched into other industries like entertainment and hardware. Their primary AI development comes in the form of Alexa, a voice based assistant present in products like the Amazon Echo. Amazon is currently worth $780.72 billion, with a 2017 revenue of $177.87 billion.
Apple is a technology company, they sell beautifully designed computers, phones, and software of all kinds. Their AI development focuses on Siri, another voice based assistant. This assistant is present in Apple hardware, their phones and computers. Apple is currently worth $812.49 billion, with a 2018 revenue of $265.60 billion.
DeepMind's AlphaStar and AlphaGo are particularly relevant to my research interests. So is OpenAI's OpenAI Five. These are successful examples of using machine learning to develop video game playing bots. Another "product" of particular interest is SethBling's MarI/O. It is completely open source and not developed by a company, hence I hesitate to call it a product. But it is extremely relevant to my research interests, it uses machine learning to develop a bot that can play a single player game really fast. This is quite similar to a TASBot.