Tim DaviesCEO Projekt Rising - The expert AI partner for SMEs

AI's HUGE Past & The MISSED Patent!

13 Jul 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:42

In this brief segment of the YouTube video, the host asks his longtime collaborator about the most significant shift they've observed in AI since they began working together. The collaborator recounts that their first AI‑related investment was in 2000, at a time when the technology was referred to as "intelligent agent" technology and its future impact was not widely recognized. He notes that they secured a patent on intelligent agents, but the patent lapsed in 2013 because the venture ran out of cash. The conversation reflects on how terminology and perception have evolved, and expresses a bittersweet sense of what might have been had the patent been maintained.

Chapters

What's been the biggest change that you've noticed with AI over the time that we've been working together? When we started, AI as we recognise it today didn't exist. I had my first AI investment way back in 2000, but in those days we called it intelligent agent technology and there was no perception of the impact it was going to have. Interesting use of words then and how those words have come back around, isn't it? Yeah. Do you know what's really sad? I looked back and when we invested, we had a patent on intelligent agents. Wow. And we allowed it to lapse in 2013 because we ran out of cash. Whether or not it would have caught what's happening now, I don't know, but it's nice to think it might have done.