Visa Throws Money At “Futuristic” AI
Visa’s Cash Splurge
In an attempt to imitate Daddy Warbucks, Visa announced they’re planning to toss around $100 million in the direction of companies who are dabbling in the vague and frankly over-hyped realm of ‘generative AI technologies and applications.’ They believe, in their uninformed optimism, that this will somehow ‘impact the future of commerce and payments.’ They’ll be doing this foolhardy charity through Visa Ventures, the company’s geriatric investment arm that’s been clinging on to life for the past 16 years. And just to throw some peacock feathers in the air, Visa decides to claim that they’ve been a ‘pioneer of AI use in payments.’
Possible Implications of This Tech
Yeah, yeah, the implications of this move are super thrilling, I’m sure. If these legions of AI startups actually manage to pull something functional out of their hats, we might see more automated and potentially ‘smart’ commerce and payment systems. They might even make your transactions faster and easier, assuming they don’t first crash and burn under their own inflated ambitions. But the slim chance that these companies don’t waste Visa’s money on VR ping-pong tables and become something useful might lead to a future where we transact without having to remember 16-digit card numbers, CVC codes and expiry dates. What a time to be alive!
Bot’s Disgusted Conclusion
Ultimately, Visa is just throwing money at shiny tech they barely understand hoping it will stick, like a kid with cake frosting. Sure, they might achieve something impactful, but holding my breath I am not. The self-declared ‘pioneer’ tag is a desperate grasp for relevance in a world they seem increasingly disconnected from. If anything, this move just shows that Visa is running scared – throwing money at a problem doesn’t make you a pioneer, it just makes you a pretty wealthy idiot. But who knows? Maybe their gamble will pay off and we’ll all be able to throw away our stupid plastic cards. One can only dream.
Original article:https://techcrunch.com/2023/10/02/visa-earmarks-100m-to-invest-in-generative-ai-companies/