By: Rob Lalka, Professor of Practice, Albert R. Lepage Professor in Business & Executive Director, Albert Lepage Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
As we at the Albert Lepage Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation release the sixth annual Greater New Orleans Startup Report today, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and related technologies are significantly influencing the business landscape, on a global scale and here in New Orleans. This year’s Startup Report includes new data and insights about the impact of these technologies on business and society, and I’m excited to share what we’ve learned.
Last year, AI-driven innovations propelled significant growth among major tech companies. Despite an overall slowdown in venture capital, AI remains a hot investment area. Case in point: OpenAI’s recent $6.6 billion raise, valuing the company at $157 billion. That exceeds the market cap of many major household names and longstanding companies, and it’s even on par with corporations like Goldman Sachs and AT&T. While AI ventures in Silicon Valley continue to grow, and these new innovations are debated in board rooms across the country, what does that mean for New Orleans?
What we’re seeing is that AI adoption is gaining serious momentum locally. Ochsner Health has partnered with DeepScribe to implement advanced speech recognition across its 46 hospitals and 370 care centers, aiming to enhance operational efficiency and patient care. Another example is Informuta, a Tulane University startup, which received a $275,000 National Science Foundation grant to develop an AI-powered tool for identifying antibiotic-resistant genes. This innovation exemplifies AI’s potential to address complex medical challenges, promising significant advancements in treating antibiotic-resistant diseases.
Meanwhile, Revelry Venture Partners has pioneered advancements in AI not just in New Orleans but on a broader scale – showing what’s possible with AI innovations that are truly at the frontier – by investing in AI-powered companies like Figure.ai (autonomous robots), Ingest (restaurant data analytics), and ProdOps (AI-integrated product management).
Earlier this fall, President Biden announced $23 million for Tulane’s cancer research, part of the Cancer Moonshot initiative. This funding will support MAGIC-SCAN, an AI-driven imaging system that uses machine learning to help surgeons detect minute cancer cells during operations, potentially eliminating the need for repeated surgeries. Beyond its medical implications, this project positions New Orleans as an emerging hub for biotechnology and healthcare innovation, potentially attracting more AI-related opportunities to our region. The federal government’s grant support will bolster Tulane’s ongoing efforts to leverage AI for community benefit.
Dr. Nicholas Mattei, Associate Professor of Computer Science in the School of Science and Engineering at Tulane University, explains the unique advantages of our ecosystem in this context:
“While New Orleans may lack the scale of major tech hubs, our smaller ecosystem offers unique advantages for community-engaged AI projects. We’ve had success securing federal grants for initiatives like our Center for Community-engaged Artificial Intelligence, leveraging our students’ interest in community service. A prime example is our recent $1.5M grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) a joint effort with CourtWatch NOLA and Loyola University. This allows us to bring in federal dollars to test innovative AI applications that address local needs, an opportunity that might be overlooked in larger, more commercially-driven markets.”
Building on this community-focused approach, Tulane is also expanding its educational offerings to prepare students for the AI-driven environment. Professor Mattei and Professor Walter Isaacson, the renowned author and historian, have launched a new course on the Digital Revolution and AI. This course is co-taught between the History Department and the School of Science and Engineering, offering students a multidisciplinary perspective on the transformative impact of digital technologies and AI on society.
So how are New Orleanian business leaders reacting to all this activity and excitement? This year’s GNO Startup Report revealed mixed views on AI/ML among local businesses. While 37% see AI/ML as having the largest long-term industry impact, opinions are split: 31% view it as their greatest opportunity, while 32% consider it their biggest threat. This divide reflects the complex potential and uncertainty AI brings to our ecosystem, because it’s quite possible that both are true at the same time. Understanding the opportunities and threats will be crucial for smaller businesses in the coming years, and our entrepreneurial ecosystem isn’t standing still. From the Nieux Society’s events, such as the recent discussion on AI and human connection, moderated by Jonah Evans, to pro-innovation legislation championed by Louisiana Economic Development and especially our state’s new Chief Innovation Officer, Josh Fleig, we’ve seen a genuine commitment to capitalize on AI’s benefits.
This forward-thinking approach aligns with the perspective of Julia Lang, M.S., Professor of Practice and Associate Director of Career Education and Life Design at the Taylor Center, who emphasizes the importance of proactively adapting to this new landscape.
“In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, AI won’t replace you, but someone using AI will. The future of work demands continuous learning, unlearning, and relearning, including adapting to new tools like AI. To stay competitive, companies must move beyond traditional training models, focusing instead on empowering their workforce to effectively harness AI tools while remaining vigilant around ethical considerations and potential traps and pitfalls of over relying on AI tools without critical human oversight. Companies best poised to succeed will be those who combine AI-driven insights with the irreplaceable power of human judgment.”
Yet, we also need to be clear-eyed and honest about the risks of these new technologies. This summer, employees at prominent AI companies warned that ‘AI can exacerbate inequality’ and called for greater transparency, accountability, and auditability. In the Bay Area, discussions of P(doom) scores – their estimated probability of, yes, human extinction due to increasingly advanced AI – show just how serious that the technologists working on AI deem the stakes of getting this right.
Personally, I believe it’s important not to be sensationalist. Yet AI’s increasing power undeniably raises serious ethical questions, which are the same kinds of concerns raised in my new book, The Venture Alchemists: How Big Tech Turned Profits into Power. Like the startups that shaped the early internet, today’s AI ventures wield tools that aren’t inherently good or evil, but their use will have moral consequences. AI’s potential to impact both business and society means we all – not just technologists – should approach these innovations thoughtfully. We must move beyond asking “Could we?” to consider “Should we?” and, vitally, “How should we?” As New Orleans adopts (and adapts to) AI, it’s crucial to weigh both economic benefits and broader societal implications.
The business community of New Orleans is now contending with AI in ways that will have lasting consequences. As we do so, we should balance opportunities and challenges while leveraging the strengths of our unique ecosystem. By focusing on practical, industry-specific AI applications and fostering collaboration, we can forge our own path. Our determination and creativity position us to adapt and thrive, maintaining our distinctive culture and character, while capitalizing on new technologies to benefit our businesses and community in the years ahead.
The full 2024 Greater New Orleans Startup Report is available at: gnostartupreport.com.