The venture capital industry is crucial in the global race to dominate artificial intelligence. This pursuit is met with persistent impediments rooted in the mounting fakes, bias and resulting harms that reveal how nascent and brittle our systems are. Ethics and safety are now synonymous with diversity, equity and inclusion. Regulatory attention and public awareness now focus on the potential individual consequences.
Advaita operates with a clear focus: deep tech: “We invest in technologies that propel the human race forward, with a keen eye on decarbonization and the energy transition.” Sarkar emphasizes their support for companies that align with the decarbonization mission: “...it’s a niche space but we’re committed to finding those rare gems. As we move forward, we’re open to early growth series investments with the goal to back innovators who drive change and create a more sustainable future.
“We invested in Neuralink, when the invasive chip insertion was not FDA approved and even the idea was scary. We did a detailed analysis on risk management and how the future can change the human evolution starting from a quadriplegic, paraplegic to be self-sufficient.”in 2023, where, as she reveals, “enterprise focus sparse model as a cost of training large LLMs is staggering.
For early-stage female founders, Sarkar recognizes more are actively raising funds but contends that the industry must provide stronger support for their transition into the growth stage, Sarkar also realizes that a broader shift in mindset must recognize the professional journeys women must navigate that will eventually meet with additional complexity: “The questions arise,When will you marry?’ ‘Do you plan to have children?’ ‘Who will care for them?’” When someone poses these questions, Sarkar says this is a signal that investors “won’t be opening their purse strings. Not a single cent.
“I refused to accept money from that limited partner. Here’s the irony, it’s these highly educated bosses Ivy League graduates that perpetuate these updated norms. Remarkably, this sole female in her field, continued to work tirelessly. Even while she was six months pregnant, she traveled between San Francisco and New York, committed to her responsibilities.”Sarkar believes we are squarely in a moment of immense infrastructure growth.
She also recognizes the integration of Edge AI devices coupled with different sensory systems can facilitate collaborative interactions between humans and robots, whether in a warehouse or at home. But the broader legal, ethical and and infrastructure implications need to also be address, as Sarkar questions: “Which are the companies that have the corporate governance to make things sustainable? What is also surfacing is this interesting dichotomy between open-source and closed-source solutions.