Monthly Archives: October 2019

When will we create an AGI? Ask the crowd!

When will we create an AGI? Ask the crowd!

In his great book about the future of AI, “The Fourth Age” (highly recommended!), GigaOM CEO Byron Reese (Twitter) hypothetically asks WHEN will we create that mysterious Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), if at all. He says that he gets different answers from different people. And therein lies the answer. In “Wisdom of Crowds” by James Surowiecki (2004, Little Brown publishing) shows that, oddly enough, if you ask a large enough number of people to guess the number of something, add up the answer, then divide by the number of people asked, the resulting number – the average – is eerily...Read more
Tesla stock price rockets up – can AI tell us what’s next?

Tesla stock price rockets up – can AI tell us what’s next?

Today Elon Musk, our lord and savior, made a surprise announcement during Tesla‘s earnings call – they’re actually turning a profit! In fact, with $1.86 earnings per share (beating analysts and everyone else’s expectations, really), Tesla’s stock price is up over 20% today in after-hours trading to a whopping $304-ish per share price, which is nice because Mr Musk basically just paid for my next Tesla. Or my kid’s stupidly expensive college tuition, more likely. Or did he? I love that Tesla is turning a profit. I love Tesla and Elon. But I’m torn – is the new stock price...Read more
Google achieves Quantum Supremacy, again.

Google achieves Quantum Supremacy, again.

Today, Wednesday October 23rd 2019 Google announced that its quantum supercomputer named “Sycamore” achieved so-called “quantum computational supremacy” by solving a complex problem in 200 seconds that would take today’s most powerful supercomputer 10 000 of years to crack. OK, actually today marks the day when Google PUBLISHED their results officially – in Nature magazine, and you can find their article here. IBM‘s best shot at shooting down this achievement was by saying that some traditional (binary) supercomputers could’ve solved this problem in “only” 2.5 days. Ok, IBM. Look, I don’t like Google as a company and have been disappointed...Read more

Donald Trump and Obama speaking perfect Chinese thanks to AI

Whoa – mindblowing performance from China’s iFlyTek and their translation AI. The voice sounds just like Trump, pitch, inflection, etc. Same with Obama. I imagine deepfakes but with voices. This progress is as creepy as it is absolutely thrilling to me. The fact that China got there first is disconcerting though. Please help - LIKE and TWEET ! Thank you!Read more
Why Arizona is the ideal launch pad for Fintech (and other) Startups

Why Arizona is the ideal launch pad for Fintech (and other) Startups

In 2018, Arizona became the first State in the Nation to adopt what’s referred to as a “regulatory sandbox” – in practice this means a fintech startup (and here I’m thinking AI-based fintechs but it could be non-AI) can serve up to 10 000 customers for 2 years before they have to get a license. This is huge. Generally, if you’re a brand new fintech startup you had to jump through massive regulatory hurdles, and pay massive fees before you could even think about starting your service. This is a problem because ya can’t very well test your service and...Read more