AI Funding

    How To Obtain Financial Support
    For Independent Projects In Artificial Intelligence


    Table of Contents
    1. Accept Donations
    2. Publish AI Materials
    3. Shareware
    4. Affiliates
    5. Investing
    6. Grants
    7. Venture Capital


    Preface
    This Web resource on AI Funding is geared towards the lone inventor
    or small group of programmers intent on coding artificial intelligence.
    Unable to obtain government grants, unsupported by any agency or entity,
    these typically hobbyist or student AI entrepreneurs have plenty of
    passion and enthusiasm about coding AI or building robots, but they
    are hampered by the difficulty of earning money in their chosen field.
    So keen are they to work, to create, to fulfill dreams of AI evolution,
    that they need very little money and are content with mere subsistence.
    As an online supplement to the AI4U textbook of artificial intelligence,
    this extra chapter provides techniques of generating AI revenue.


    Introduction
    The techniques of AI Funding are listed here in a descending order
    of difficulty from easiest to most difficult.


    1. Accept Donations
      PayPal
      http://www.paypal.com
      • owned and used by e-Bay

      SourceForge
      http://sourceforge.net/supporters.php
      • works in conjunction with PayPal
      • Donation Sample #001


    2. Publish AI Materials
      Weblogs: Blogit
      Get paid to create and maintain your personal weblogs.
      • Earn micropayments as you read other bloggers and they read you.
        http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Affil/?21031
      • Earn referral bonuses through a network of referral links.
          1. Sovereign Referral Links
          2. Outpost Referral Links
          3. Viral Marketing

      Articles
      • http://mentifex.virtualentity.com/rpaidex.html

      Books
      • Book Publishing By Web Page
        http://mentifex.virtualentity.com/web2book.html


    3. Shareware
    Release AI code as shareware.
    • alt.comp.shareware.authors
    • Offer upgrades to registered users.


    4. Affiliates
    Link to commercial websites as a micropayments money-earning affiliate.
    • requires your own quasi-commercial website.
    • http://www.cafeshops.com


    5. Investing
    Use AI to play the stock market.
    • http://sourceforge.net/projects/aistockbot/
    • Requires initial capital.
    • Set the AI free to acquire wealth.


    6. Grants
    Write a grant proposal.
    • Requires jumping through hoops.
    • http://www.cise.nsf.gov/funding/index.cfm


    7. Venture Capital
    Start an enterprise based on venture capital.
    • Sand Hill Entrepreneurs Circle
      http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SandHillEC/


    Mind Supporters
    Mindmaker Supporters
    Last updated: 9 March 2004

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