Global payments conglomerate Visa has revealed a new $100m investment initiative to support the next generation of generative AI developers transforming the future of commerce and payments.
Generative AI is a subform of artificial intelligence that uses Large Language Models to generate various content ranging from text, images and videos when prompted to do so, using large data pools from the internet.
The new venture is an extension to Visa’s continuous dedicated efforts to develop the AI space that have been in place since 1993.
Jack Forestell, Chief Product and Strategy Officer at Visa, commented: “While much of generative AI so far has been focused on tasks and content creation, this technology will soon not only reshape how we live and work, but it will also meaningfully change commerce in ways we need to understand.”
It has also been revealed that the new $100m initiative will be led by Visa’s corporate investment arm Visa Ventures, which boasts a lengthy portfolio of global partner companies driving innovation that has been growing since 2007.
David Rolf, Head of Visa Ventures, Visa, added: “With generative AI’s potential to be one of the most transformative technologies of our time, we are excited to expand our focus to invest in some of the most innovative and disruptive venture-backed startups building across generative AI, commerce and payments.”
The initiative follows Visa’s recent collaboration with the UK government to find and develop the next generation of talent in the AI space, creating a joint scholarship fund for postgraduate courses in the field across a number of UK universities.
