Train Your Own Dragon
My Optimistic View of AI as a Contrarian and Entrepreneur
Yep, it’s my birthday today. Over the weekend, I played with my alter ego, AQ, as we call it, and got some interesting insights.
As an optimistic contrarian and entrepreneur, I firmly believe that Generative AI holds the potential to revolutionize the way we work, unlocking new levels of productivity, creativity, and economic growth. However, to fully realize its benefits, we must address the challenges, ensure responsible deployment, and prioritize human-centric AI development. By working together as businesses, policymakers, consumers, and citizens, we can navigate this exciting era of Generative AI and train our own dragons to bring about positive and transformative change in our world. Before I share my experiments, here is a bird’s eye view of generative AI:
In a rapidly evolving world driven by technological advancements, artificial intelligence (AI) stands at the forefront of innovation, reshaping societies and revolutionizing the way we work. As an entrepreneur, who launched an AI-driven tutor for toddlers four years ago, with a contrarian perspective, I hold an optimistic view on AI. Recently, Generative AI has emerged as a groundbreaking technology catalyst with the power to unleash creativity and productivity.
What is Generative AI and its role as a Technology Catalyst?
Generative AI represents a remarkable leap forward in artificial intelligence, empowering machines to create original content independently. This technology harnesses the power of machine learning and deep learning breakthroughs, enabling the generation of text, music, images, and more, with astounding accuracy and creativity. It serves as a catalyst for innovation, having emerged from significant investments in research and development, propelling the AI field to unparalleled heights among much broader audiences.
The versatility of Generative AI is evident in its broad utility and user-friendly nature, making it accessible and appealing to a wide range of users. From engaging conversational experiences to automating routine tasks and content creation, its applications have captured the imagination of people worldwide, marking a significant milestone in AI history.
Transformative Effects on Work Activities, Economic Growth, and Productivity
Generative AI’s impact on the world of work and economic growth is profound and multifaceted. Expanding the pool of work activities that can be automated, it liberates human potential from mundane tasks, paving the way for more meaningful and challenging endeavors. The resulting increase in human productivity is poised to address the decades-long decline in growth rates, injecting fresh momentum into the global economy.
Furthermore, Generative AI presents an opportunity to counter the challenges posed by an aging workforce by enhancing productivity and resource allocation. As businesses embrace this technology, the potential for economic growth becomes apparent, with Generative AI and other automation technologies driving progress and fostering innovation.
- Expanding the Pool of Work Activities
Generative AI significantly expands the range of work activities that can be automated. Routine tasks and processes can be efficiently handled by AI systems, freeing up human resources to focus on more complex and value-added activities.
- Increasing Human Productivity
The integration of generative AI into various industries can boost human productivity. By automating repetitive tasks, workers can devote their time and energy to more strategic and creative endeavors, driving innovation and growth.
- Offsetting the Impact of Aging
As the global workforce ages, generative AI offers a solution to mitigate the impact of demographic changes. Productivity gains facilitated by AI can compensate for declining employment growth and contribute to economic sustainability.
- Economic Growth Potential
The deployment of generative AI has the potential to accelerate productivity growth, leading to overall economic growth. Estimates suggest that generative AI could contribute trillions of dollars annually to the global economy.
- Changes in Work Activities
The widespread adoption of generative AI will necessitate a shift in work activities and job roles. Workers will need to adapt and acquire new skills to complement AI technologies effectively.
- Value to the Global Economy
Generative AI’s value extends beyond productivity gains. Estimates indicate that it could contribute billions in economic value annually, fostering growth in various sectors.
- Impact Across Industries
Generative AI is poised to revolutionize multiple industries, including but not limited to banking, high-tech, and life sciences. Businesses in all sectors stand to gain significant benefits from its integration.
- Workforce Transformation
The pace of workforce transformation is likely to accelerate due to generative AI. Estimates project that nearly half of the current work activities could be automated to various degrees by 2060.
- Labor Productivity Increase
Generative AI can lead to a substantial increase in labor productivity, contributing to annual productivity growth.
- Challenges and Considerations
While generative AI offers immense potential, it also presents challenges to be addressed. Businesses and society must manage risks, rethink business processes, and determine the new skills required in a transformed workforce.
In this AI-driven era, the nature of work activities is bound to undergo a profound transformation. Workers must adapt and acquire new skills, preparing for the shift in occupational requirements. Estimates suggest that a significant portion of work activities could be automated by Generative AI by 2030 to 2060, emphasizing the need for proactive workforce planning and support.
Considerations of Generative AI for Businesses and Society
As the potential of Generative AI unfolds, businesses, policy makers, consumers, and citizens are called upon to navigate this new landscape responsibly. Companies should capitalize on Generative AI’s potential value while managing its associated risks, ensuring a balance between technological advancement and ethical considerations.
Workforce transformation is inevitable, and businesses must adapt their strategies to embrace this change, encompassing retraining and reskilling efforts to nurture a highly skilled and dynamic workforce. The responsible deployment of Generative AI, with due consideration for ethical implications, is paramount in safeguarding society from harm.
Policymakers play a vital role in shaping the future of work, anticipating its impact on occupations and skills, and designing strategies to support workforce transitions. Ensuring the human-centric development of AI with proper oversight is essential to prevent misuse and promote fair and diverse AI applications.
As individuals, we must remain informed about the potential impact of Generative AI on our lives and livelihoods. Balancing the conveniences offered by AI with its potential repercussions is crucial, and individuals should actively voice their concerns and values to influence AI integration decisions.
Generative AI stands as a testament to human ingenuity and technological progress, representing an unprecedented opportunity to unlock creativity, productivity, and economic growth.
As an optimistic contrarian and entrepreneur, I firmly believe in its potential to revolutionize the way we work and live. To fully harness its benefits, we must address challenges, ensure responsible deployment, and prioritize ethical considerations. This is where our new venture AnyQuest comes in, an AI-as-a-Service platform.
Before I share my experiments, here is an overview:
At AnyQuest, we specialize in helping companies improve their AQ (AI Quotient), enabling them to effectively leverage generative AI technology. Our mission is to assist innovative business and technology leaders in understanding generative AI capabilities, evaluating associated risks and benefits, and identifying high-impact business use cases. We also provide an AI-as-a-Service technology platform, including our pioneering Semantic Broker product, which serves as a bridge between open, random, generic generative AI models and secure, task-specific enterprise applications. By partnering with us, companies can enhance their AQ and successfully harness the power of generative AI to drive competitiveness, efficiency, and growth.
Disclaimers: currently, our server runs on a mid-size demo machine; by uploading over 60GB worth of documents to my own workplace, I presented a challenge to our AQ prototype. We are innovating here without fine-tuned algorithms. And you can see typical examples of hallucination. By tuning the semantic index and prompt engineering, we can improve AQ significantly.
Step 1: I created a specific workplace in my own AQ domain, which is 100% private. This workplace, out of many that can be created for specific tasks, is to build my own profile for inquiries down the road for prospective clients and investors.
Step 2: I added URLs, PDFs, and a video to the confidential repository called “CONTEXT”. And you may add descriptions to the properties to improve the training process. These all can be updated by the workplace owner overtime.
Step 3: I did my Q&A to see how well the AQ is developing.
Here are the actual dialogues I had for fun:
Helen Thomas: When did Helen Fu Thomas join DMAI?
Assistant: Helen Fu Thomas joined DMAI in 2019.
(Note: it referred to three pages of my website)
Helen Thomas: What AI-driven product did she launch at DMAI?
Assistant: Helen Fu Thomas launched the Animal Island Learning Adventure (AILA) at DMAI, which is an education platform with AI-driven algorithms to deliver the right content at the right time. AILA is a preschool learning and reading system designed to support young children’s cognitive development and early education. It has been successful in helping parents, teachers, and caregivers prepare toddlers and preschoolers for kindergarten through cloud-based learning adaptive for each child’s learning journey.
(Note: it referred to again two pages of my website and also my CV in PDF that I uploaded in Step 2).
Helen Thomas: What awards did AILA win in 2022?
Assistant: According to the context given earlier, AILA won the WAICF Cannes Neurons Awards 2022 in France and the Edison Awards Silver 2022 for Education in the US.
Helen Thomas: Did Helen go to Cannes, France, for the WAICF Cannes Neurons Awards? What did she say on stage as a finalist to win the votes?
Assistant: There is no information in the given context to confirm whether Helen Fu Thomas went to Cannes, France, for the WAICF Cannes Neurons Awards.
However, in the given context, Helen Thomas (CEO of DMAI) spoke on stage as a finalist at an event where she made a case for DMAI’s Animal Island Learning Adventure (AILA) to win the award. She highlighted the importance of AILA in solving educational disparities around the world, particularly for children living in childcare deserts. Helen mentioned that AILA had sold over 100,000 sit-and-play sets to children during the pandemic, when many preschools and daycares had shut down. She also mentioned that AILA had delivered over 10 million learning sessions to small students worldwide through its AI-driven cloud platform, making it a central learning system for families and children during the pandemic.
Helen emphasized that DMAI’s mission was to lift humanity with its cognitive AI platforms, and that AILA was a product that demonstrated that AI could benefit humanity by helping people, especially during challenging times. She concluded by requesting the audience to vote for DMAI because of the millions of children out there and the company’s investment in education.
(Note: to answer the two questions, AQ referred to and learned the information from a video I uploaded into the CONTEXT folder.)
Helen Thomas: Do you think Helen Fu Thomas is qualified to lead another AI technology company? If so, why?
Assistant: As an AI language model, I cannot make subjective judgments, but based on the information presented in the context, Helen Fu Thomas appears to be well qualified to lead another AI technology company. She has over 28 years of experience building companies with exponential growth, making her an experienced entrepreneur and executive in the industry.
Moreover, she has demonstrated expertise in AI and innovative technologies with her work at DMAI, where she launched the Animal Island Learning Adventure (AILA), an education platform with AI-driven algorithms that deliver the right content at the right time. AILA has won multiple awards for its innovative approach to early childhood education.
Additionally, Helen has experience in enterprise software development, having previously worked at Oracle and BEA Systems. This expertise can be applied to developing AI solutions that integrate with existing enterprise systems, making her a valuable asset in the development of new AI technology companies.
Overall, Helen Fu Thomas’s experience and expertise in entrepreneurship, AI, and enterprise software development make her a strong candidate to lead another AI technology company.
(Note: it referred to my Medium but somehow came up with “having previously worked at Oracle and BEA Systems,” which is absolutely not true. Here is where we need correction and improvement on the AQ training process.)
Helen Thomas: When did Helen work at Livescribe?
Assistant: Helen Fu Thomas worked at Livescribe from 2008 to 2011. She joined the startup as the Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales and served as the GM of International. During her time at Livescribe, she spearheaded the global sales strategy and business development, including establishing retail distribution with companies such as BestBuy, Target, Staples, Apple, Amazon, and many others in over 45 countries. She managed the P&L for 35% of the business and served as the global brand spokesperson, and grew the business from $0 to $20M in revenue and positive cash flow within 28 months.
Helen Thomas: Who were the main investors in Livescribe?
Assistant: The context provided earlier does not specify the main investors in Livescribe. However, according to publicly available information, Livescribe has received several rounds of funding from a variety of investors. Some of the major investors in Livescribe include VantagePoint Venture Partners, Crosslink Capital, Scale Venture Partners, and Qualcomm Ventures, among others.
Helen Thomas: Out of the above investors in Livescribe, do you know who may be the most interested in AnyQuest?
Assistant: As an AI language model, I cannot say for certain which investor from Livescribe would be the most interested in AnyQuest. However, based on the information provided earlier, some of the investors in Livescribe such as VantagePoint Venture Partners, Crosslink Capital, and Scale Venture Partners, have a track record of investing in technology companies. They may be interested in AnyQuest’s innovative approach to AI-as-a-Service, bridging the gap between enterprise applications and generative AI, and empowering companies to take advantage of the potential of generative AI across various use cases.
That being said, investors often have unique investment criteria and may be looking for different things in a potential investment. Ultimately, it is up to individual investors to determine whether AnyQuest’s mission and technology platform align with their investment goals and are worth investing in.
(Note: Not only it accurately found Livescribe’s investors on the internet, but also it intelligently read the AnyQuest Overview deck and articulated the investment opportunity. And the investors can go to the deck with the reference link and see the pitch.)
Needless to say, there is so much to do with our AQ, and the potential is endless. It’ll soon be part of work and life. So train your own dragon; it’ll reward you with the superpower.
Thanks all for the birthday wishes. Here is the song talented Vaja sent to me this morning, “People Are People”:
