Capitalogix

I Don't Fear Artificial Intelligence - I Do Fear Artificial Stupidity

I don't know if you've ever tried to paint a room - but if you have, I'm sure you've come across some bizarre paint names. 

How does that relate to AI?

Well, Janelle Shane is a research scientist, and neural network aficionado - as any good data scientist should, she spends a lot of her free time playing with neural networks (... to varying results). 

Recently, she attempted to train an algorithm (specifically char-rnn, a neural network that attempts to anticipate the next character in a sequence) to create new paint colors and accompanying names. 

After it was fully trained, here are the results: 

 

via LewisandQuark

As you can see, it knows there are colors, but it struggles to keep the names associated with the appropriate color. 

"Turdly" seems pretty close though ... but I always wanted to paint my room "Stanky Bean."

As you might know, that was not the first time artificial intelligence has created something artificially stupid. 

For example, how about when Microsoft attempted to create an AI chatbot named "Tay" by analyzing tweets?

Tay quickly became very .... very racist. 

via TheVerge

Clearly, mistakes were made (and Tay isn't as dangerous as a human racist) – but, it does raise questions.

AI is cool ... But, artificial stupidity is still scary.

For now, that is the way it is. 

As we explore new avenues and smarter algorithms for AI to be trained with, it will be interesting to see what Frankenstein's monsters we create. 

Here Are Some Links for Your Weekend Reading - May 21, 2017

The "He Said – She Said" loop is funny ... But it is still giving me a headache.

 

 

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.

 

Lighter Links:

• Here are the Ridiculous Things Celebrities Demand Backstage. (BusinessInsider)
• Garry Kasparov on AI, Chess, and the Future of Creativity. (Medium)
• The Ultimate Guide to Personal Productivity Methods. (Todoist)
• Hundreds of Privacy-invading Apps are Using Ultrasonic Sounds to Track You. (ZDNet)
• Why Would Aliens Even Bother with Earth? (LitHub)

  

Trading Links:

• Elon Musk Says Robots Will Help Tesla Catch up to Apple in Value. (Fortune)
• Retailers Look past Apps to the next Frontier of Digital Shopping: Chatbots. (WashPost)
• Vending Machine-like Skyscraper Concept Plans to 3D Print Custom Homes. (Mashable)
• Indonesian Islamist Leader Says Ethnic Chinese Wealth is next Target. (Reuters)
• Financial Technology is Proving Less of a Battleground Than Feared. (Economist)

 

Here Are Some Links for Your Weekend Reading - May 14th, 2017

Happy Mother's Day!

 

 

Here's to simpler times. 

 

 

 

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.

 

Lighter Links:

 

• Now We Know - Bill Clinton Cost His Wife the Presidency. (Washington Post)
• Creating Simple Rules for Complex Decisions. (HBR)
• Quantum Computing Demands a Whole New Kind of Programmer. (SingularityHub)
• Christian Governor in Indonesia Found Guilty of Blasphemy against Islam. (New York Times)
• Just How Crazy is the Trump Presidency? (FastCoD)

 

Trading Links:

• Forbes Small Giants 2017: America's Best Small Companies. (Forbes)
• Apple Becomes First US Firm to Cross $800B Market Cap Threshold. (AppleInsider)
• IBM Faces Credit Rating Cut from S&P. (FT)
• Businessmen Start to Replace Soldiers as Israel’s Political Heroes. (Economist)
• It's Happening Again - And the Last 2 Times this Happened, The S&P 500 Fell by 57% and 19%. (Fool)

 

Here Are Some Links For Your Weekly Reading - April 29th, 2017

Might be easier to solve a Rubik's Cube than to be President Trump.  Check out his first 100 days. 

 

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting. 

Lighter Links:

• Elon Musk and the 100 Hour Error. (MichaelHyatt)
• Gigaom's AI Startup Challenge – Finalists. (GigaOM)
• Access to Nature Reduces Depression and Obesity, Finds European Study. (TheGuardian)
• Fixing Lousy Sleep Could Keep Us Healthy Longer. (Futurity)
• Lab-Grown Meat is Almost Here. (BigThink)

Trading Links:

• Former Fed Advisor Says the Central Bank Shouldn't Comment on Equities. (CNBC)
• Quantopian Makes First Allocations to Crowd-Sourced Algorithms. (HedgeWeek)
• Fintech: Revolution or Evolution? (Ritholtz)
• Norway to Spend $315M on World's First Ship Tunnel. (CNN)
• BlackRock Signals Active Overhaul with Shift to Quant. (FTAdviser)

Last Person Born in 1800's Dies at 117

Emma Morana was an Italian woman who lived to the ripe old age of 117. She was born on November 29th, 1899 and died April 15th, 2017.  

Photo: ANTONINO DI MARCO, EPA via USAToday

Her life spanned three centuries.

In her lifetime, she saw trains evolve from steam engines to bullet trains. She saw horses fall out of use, and cars and planes come in to use.  She saw the rise and fall of many countries , two world wars, and she saw Italy's transformation from a kingdom  to Mussolini's fascist regime to a constitutional republic.

Not to mention computers, the internet, and cell phones. 

117 years alive is currently a HUGE amount of time - approximately 40-50 years longer than the average lifetime, but in our lifetime - it'll likely become closer to the norm.

Think of the innovations seen in her lifetime - and think of the fact that innovation spurs innovation. 

via Startupyard

 

What will you see in your lifetime? What will the world look like?

It's a fascinating frontier - and we live at a great time in history. 

Onwards!

How Much Time Do You Have Left? How Much Time To Make a Difference?

We only have a limited time on this earth - and a lot of it is taken by frivolous activities. 

How much time do you think the average millennial spends on their phones ... or a baby-boomer sits in front of the TV?

The answer is a lot.

This chart based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics puts it in perspective. 

 

How Much Time Do We Have?

via dailyinfographic

 

9 years in front of entertainment devices - another 10.5 years spent working.  You get the idea.

If you have goals you want to accomplish, aspirational travel and lifestyle plans - this really puts the idea of finding and living your passion in perspective. 

Here's another representation of the same data, using jelly beans.   I think it's pretty powerful and worth watching. 

 

Ze Frank (via YouTube)

 

In my TEDx talk, I talk about the Time Value of Life ...

In finance, the "time value of money" refers to the principle that the purchasing power of money can vary over time (meaning, money today might have a different purchasing power than money later). In part, this is because the value of money at a future point in time might be calculated by accounting for other variables (like interest earned, or inflation accrued, etc.).

A similar calculation applies to life ... or living.

Live Like You Only Have a Year Left.

During the last part of my Dad's life, I think he would have done almost anything for a little more time.

Things that used to be unimportant, or even mildly irritating, took on increased importance. For example, a dinner together became almost a sacred event; a kiss goodnight was truly heart-felt; and saying good-bye meant something ... because it could be the last time.

Nevertheless, as a result of that focus, he took more life out of that time.

Shouldn't we do the same thing?  Think about it ... We are never going to be younger than we are, right now.  We are never going to have more time to fix a big mistake.  Isn't it likely that the time value of your life, is worth maximizing?

If you realize that the time you have now is worth more - what can you do differently to get the most out of it?

So, if an average person only gets 2,740 days to do with what they want, those days are precious.

Based on who's reading this, you may have half that time (or a fourth).

What are you going to focus on? Making the most money? Helping the most people? Spending the most time with your family? Relaxing?

There's never a better time than now, to live a life worth living ... and only you can decide what that means!

I'd love to hear what you choose.

Here Are Some Links For Your Weekly Reading - April 22nd, 2017

Proof no one wants to die alone ... Yahoo and AOL are combining to form a new company.

or

 

via Gunshow

 

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting. 

Lighter Links:

• Harvard Thinks It’s Found the Next Einstein — and She’s 23. (LI)
• Infants Show Racial Bias Toward Members of Own Race and Against Those of Other Races. (Science)
• Ensuring Smarter-Than-human Intelligence Has a Positive Outcome. (Intelligence)
• Hacking DNA: The Story of CRISPR, Ken Thompson, and the Gene Drive. (Y Combinator)
• Being Lazy is the Key to Success, According to the Best-Selling Author of 'Moneyball'. (Inc)

Trading Links:

• Indexes Beat Stock Pickers Even over 15 Years. (Wall Street Journal)
• This is the Jeff Bezos Playbook for Preventing Amazon’s Demise. (Re/code)
• Frank and Steven’s Excellent Corporate-Raiding Adventure. (The Atlantic)
• Stunning Drops in Solar and Wind Costs Turn Global Power Market Upside Down. (TP)
• An Insider’s Take On Why the Fed is Bad for America (Video). (Danielle DiMartino Booth)

Here Are Some Links For Your Weekly Reading - April 14th, 2017

United Airlines got a lot of bad press when it physically removed passengers from a flight to accommodate crew members.  A day ago, they were at it again, when they removed a couple heading to their wedding.  Could it get any worse?

 

 

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting. 

Lighter Links:

• Want to Found a Start-Up?  These are the Books You Should Read First, a Top VC Says. (CNBC)
• FDA Approves 23AndMe’s At-Home DNA Tests for 10 Diseases. (NBC News)
• “Love Drugs” Will Soon Be a Reality. but Should We Take Them? (Quartz)
• Eminent Astrophysicist Issues a Dire Warning on AI and Alien Life. (Futurism)
• Let’s Take an In-Depth Look at Current Advances in Artificial Intelligence. (Interesting Engineering)

Trading Links:

• Marijuana Price Dips to $1,679 a Pound. (247WallSt)
• Tesla Has Something Hotter Than Cars to Sell: Its Story. (New York Times)
• This is How Many U.S. Jobs Robots Will Create over the next 10 Years. (MarketWatch)
• This Cow Illustrates 8 Business Models (Infographic). (Entrepreneur)
• Steven Cohen Just Gave Millions to Crowd Sourcing Hedge Funders. (Fortune)

 

Related articles

How artificial intelligence has evolved over time

Elon Musk's Neuralink wants to boost the brain to keep up with AI

Once In a Blue Moon ... or every couple of years

Will AI Radically Change B2B Marketing? Marketers Think So

Here Are Some Links For Your Weekly Reading - April 8th, 2017

 

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting. 

 

Lighter Links:

• How AI and Blockchain Will Change Business Organization. (HuffPost)
• Pluto Has Been Officially Reclassified as a Planet!. (Futurism)
• The Philosophy of the Matrix: from Plato and Descartes, to Eastern Philosophy. (OpenCulture)
• Tony Romo to Replace Phil Simms in Broadcast Booth. (NFL)
• The 13 Best April Fools’ Day Pranks of 2017. (Slate)

Trading Links:

• How Hackers Hijacked a Bank’s Entire Online Operation. (Wired)
• America’s System of Checks and Balances Seems to Be Working. (Economist)
• How Much People in the Trump Administration are Worth. (NYTimes)
• Santoli: Here's Why BlackRock is Throwing in the Towel on Human Stock Picking. (CNBC)
• Here’s 48 Hedge Fund Terms Every Investor Should Know. (VisualCapitalist)

Here Are Some Links For Your Weekend Reading - March 25th, 2017

Let's play "Caption This Picture."

 

Found it under the headline "Aides Wrestle Drill From Trump's Hands As He Tries To Remove Obama Listening Device From Skull."  What would you caption it?

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.

  

Lighter Links:

• ‘Homo Sapiens as We Know Them Will Disappear in a Century or So’. (Yuval Noah Harari)
• A Stunning Video of Mars that Took Three Months to Stitch Together—by Hand. (Wired)
• Stephen Hawking is Going to Space. (TheNextWeb)
• Darth Vader’s Suit Would Cost $18.3 Million in Real Life. (Dailyinfographic)
• How to Tell a Good Story, as Explained by George Saunders, Ira Glass, Ken Burns, Scott Simon, Catherine Burns & Others. (OpenCulture)

 

Trading Links:

• Steve Cohen is Trying to Teach Computers to Think like Top Traders. (Bloomberg)
• John Oliver on the Federal Budget. (Ritholtz)
• Measuring the Cost of Living Worldwide. (Economist)
• Are Bonds Flashing a Warning Sign for Stocks? (SeeItMarket)
• Quants are Eating Away at Wall Street's Edge. (QuantNews)