A robot was just elected to sit on a company’s Board of Directors

While the title might suggest the start of the robotic apocalypse, that is, where bots and technologies begin to take on roles of power in our world, it’s actually not the case. Well, not entirely the case. 

Here’s the story: biotechnology and regenerative medicine research company Aging Analytics developed a new algorithm called VITAL which proved so effective at being able to make decisions, it was actually elected to the Board of Directors of Hong Kong-based Deep Knowledge Ventures, a venture fund management company that specializes in mid- to long-term biotechnology investments at their early stages. 

VITAL, which is short for Validating Investment Tool for Advancing Life Sciences, will be used by the firm to help with predicting which companies they should invest in.

A bit more specifically, VITAL will make its recommendations by pouring over large amounts of data regarding financials, clinical trials, intellectual property, and previous funding rounds of prospective firms. 

From the company’s press release:

“Just like other members of the board, the algorithm gets to vote on whether the firm makes an investment in a specific company or not. The program will be the sixth member of DKV’s board.”

Deep Knowledge Ventures senior partner Dmitry Kaminskiy explained in an interview with Betabeat that VITAL will be used in board meetings as a source for expounding upon analytical reviews the robot has made based on the large amounts of data it has been provided. From there, everyone will vote on whether or not to make the investment, with VITAL being allowed to cast its opinion as well.

To date, VITAL hasn’t had its voice heard just yet. It has, however, helped Deep Knowledge Ventures with approving two investment decisions (one with Silico Medicine and the other with Pathway Pharmaceuticals). According to Charles Groome, who also works for Deep Knowledge Ventures, the goal of all this is to draw attention to developing VITAL as an independent decision-maker. He added that the program isn’t exactly “artificial intelligence” per se, but the long-term goal is to get it to that point.

Story via psfk.com