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Ian Hogarth CBE is an investor and entrepreneur. He co-founded Songkick in 2007 [1] and Plural Platform in 2021. [2] Hogarth is the current Chair of the UK Government's AI Foundation Model Taskforce, which conducts artificial intelligence safety research. [3]
Hogarth attended Dulwich College, before studying information engineering at the University of Cambridge. He later specialised in machine learning during his Masters. [4] [5] [6] Hogarth also spent time at Tsinghua University in Beijing, learning Mandarin Chinese. [6]
Hogarth founded the live music startup Songkick with friends Michelle You and Pete Smith in 2007. This was part of the 2007 Y Combinator program in Boston. Hogarth and his fellow Songkick co-founders were named to Inc. magazine's 30-under-30 list in 2010. [7] The same year, Hogarth won the British Council’s UK Young Music Entrepreneur of the Year award. [8] He was also named one of Forbes magazine's 2012 music 30-under-30. [9]
In 2013, Songkick launched Detour, a crowdfunding platform for concerts. [10]
In June 2015, Songkick announced its merger with direct ticket vendor CrowdSurge and a $16.6m Series C investment round. Hogarth became co-CEO of the combined company, alongside Matt Jones, the former CrowdSurge CEO. [11]
In 2010, Hogarth and Songkick COO Pete Smith founded Silicon Milkroundabout, a career fair for high tech startups in East London. [12] It was established in response to lack of interest from graduates hampering tech start-ups, according to Hogarth. [13]
Hogarth co-founded Plural Platform in 2021, an early-stage venture capital firm. [14] Hogarth has invested in more than 150 companies, [15] including over 50 AI companies. [6]
Hogarth has co-written the State of AI report since 2018 with Nathan Benaich. [16] [17] He wrote a blog post entitled "AI Nationalism" about the rise of machine learning influencing a new kind of geopolitics. [18] He also wrote an article in the Financial Times arguing that the "race to God-like AI" poses risks, and might lead to human extinction. [19] [16] Hogarth was listed as one of the 100 most influential personalities in the artificial intelligence sphere by the magazine Time in 2023. [16]
On 18 June 2023, Hogarth was announced as Chair of the UK Government's AI Safety Institute, an AI safety research organization. [3] [16] [20] [21] [22]