I'm surprised how often I see people who are bearish on Artificial Intelligence. Many are stuck in science fiction's depictions – sentience, personification, etc.. Modern AI is very different from science fiction predictions, but is still exciting. (Here's an infographic debunking 8 common AI myths)
Modern AI does many things and has many applications, but ultimately it's relatively faceless. It works in the background, impacts everything it touches, and silently collects vast lakes of data. AI may not be Star Trek's "Data," but it is transforming our economy at warp speed.
TechJury has put together an infographic on the history of AI until today. It highlights a number of key inflection points, AI's impact on today's economy, and which countries and companies are leading the pack.
Theresa May has just announced her resignation as UK Prime Minister. She's faced massive criticism for an inability to come to a resolution on Brexit, and missing two deadlines. A new PM will be appointed in July.
Here are some of the posts that caught my eye recently. Hope you find something interesting.
When I first got out of Law School in the 1980s, "professionals" didn't type … that was your assistant's job.
Then again, most people couldn't have imagined what computers and software are capable of now.
Looking back, my career has been a series of cycles where I was able to imagine what advanced tech would enable (and how business would have to change to best leverage those new capabilities).
Malcolm Gladwell suggests that it takes 10,000 hours of focus and effort for someone to become an expert at something.
But the game is changing.
Today, we can do research that took humans 10,000 hours in the time it took you to read this sentence. Moreover, technology doesn't forget what it's learned because a computer's memory is much better than yours or mine.
Still, technology isn't a cure-all. Many people miss out on the benefits of A.I. and technology for the same reasons they didn't master the hobbies they picked up as an adolescent.
I shot a video discussing how to use technology to create a sustainable creative advantage. Check it out.
Most people realize this technology is cool – and they want to use AI – but they forget what mastery takes.
When using AI and high-performance computing, you need to ask the same questions you ask yourself about your life's purpose.
What's my goal?
What do I (or my systems) need to learn to accomplish my goal?
What are the best ways to achieve that goal (or something better)?
Too many companies are focused on AI as if that is the goal. AI is simply a tool. As I mentioned in the video, you have to define the problem the right way in order to find a solution for it.
Artificial Intelligence is a game-changer – so you have to approach it as such.
Know your mission and your strategy, recognize what you're committing to, set it as a compass heading and make deliberate movement in that direction.
I end the video by saying, "Wisdom comes from making finer distinctions. So, it is an iterative and recursive process… but it is also evolutionary. And frankly, that is extraordinarily exciting!"
It's three days of friends, food, fun, and bad puns (like #AporkalypseNow and #MeatDrinkAndBeMerry).
You've heard the phrase "Put your money where your mouth is …" This year we sponsored a tent and brought some of the Capitalogix team to enjoy the festivities.
Here's a look at what was cooking in our tent. It had Brazilian "churrasco" flair.
Our Grill Master was Blake Carson, who took a traditional Brazilian Steakhouse cooking style – and innovated upon it – creating the Carson Rodizio kit (which started as a Kickstarter project). It is a multi-rotisserie rack that converts your favorite backyard grill into an open and spinning Brazilian style Steakhouse. It's clever, functional, and cool… and it's been used to win multiple barbecue championships.
I love to experience an entrepreneur's mind at work.
It's not always about what you add. Sometimes, it is about what you take away. Less is often more.
Here is a one-minute interview I shot with Blake.
Innovation, like opportunity, is all around you.
It's not there for you if you don't see the opportunity, and seize it.
The answer is …. not as close as I would have thought. Nonetheless, they just hit a Trillion Dollar market cap. So, they must have gotten something right!
It's interesting to think about which factors or missing innovations caused the difference between their imagined vision and reality.
They really bought into scaleable, HD, transparent, touch screen displays being not only available, but located in everything by now … which suffice to say, isn't the case.
The reality is …
A lot of these innovations actually have little use – Not every situation needs a transparent monitor – they're worse than standard monitors in almost every way. You end up using absurdly expensive screens to display a digital version of a post it note or handwriting. The desk/monitor hybrid would be covered in sheets of paper, office supplies, and your coffee. A boarding pass being a screen is highly inefficient for so many reasons – and so is a digital newspaper. We have those – they're called phones.
They assumed batteries would be way farther along – The thinner your monitor, the more transparent, the harder it is to create a high-performance high-fidelity battery to maintain it. Unfortunately, batteries haven't had nearly the boom like the rest of our tech (though they are getting better).
IoT Adoption/Security – One of the biggest problems with IoT is that the more these pieces communicate the harder it is to prevent hacks. A chain is only as strong as the weakest link – and a smart coffee maker isn't nearly secure as your computer.
Fingerprints (Glass) – I get this isn't a "real" concern – but every piece of technology they showed was transparent/glass. On top of being very breakable (see Samsungs new foldable phones) Could you imagine how smudged/dirty everywhere would appear? Imagine a New York subway with this technology.
Expense v. Convenience – A lot of technologies are feasible – but aren't cost-effective. Look at the slow adoption of Solar cells as their efficiency per cost went up.
Making everything a device/screen means more opportunity for companies to serve you ads and retarget you ad infinitum.
Ultimately, I find this perceived "modern digital office environment" very inefficient. A lot of these "innovations" are less dynamic and easy to use than their analog counterparts. Mechanical keyboards serve a purpose.
In reality, a lot of the trends we've adopted to increase collaboration and sharing have been counterproductive. Not every office needs an open floor plan – not every team needs 15 subteams with 4 bosses – and using 20 different productivity tools actually decreases productivity.
That being said, we've come a long way in 10 years. Think about the quality of your phone in 2009 or your desktop computer – whirring loudly as it tried to access the disk, or the internet, or anything really.
What we have now isn't perfect – but it's leaps and bounds ahead of where we were. A lot of technology seems like science fiction – like the Babel fish from Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.
