Why I skipped a month of uni to spend time with Asia’s top AI accelerator
I’ve spent the last three weeks working closely with the awesome team at Zeroth.AI, Asia’s first AI accelerator. There, I was able to deep dive into Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML). For a non-technical person (yours truly), the experience has been nothing short of fascinating. In this blog, I share some preliminary concepts of AI and why I believe it is fundamentally important to learn about this emerging technology.
Why AI?
Founders love dropping the fact that their tech idea incorporates elements of AI and/or ML. I often hear words to the effect of, “We’re looking to include a machine learning element in our product so the system becomes smarter and can learn what our customers want.”
I hate to break it to you, but that’s a lot easier said than done. My common response is, “Are you sure what you’re describing is not a database?”
Sure, “AI” is very much a buzzword these days. But looking beyond that, AI is transforming the way we consume, explore and use data. For businesses of all sizes, AI will change the delivery of services across most industries in the long term. The potential and application is nothing short of phenomenal. In the short time I’ve been here, I’ve seen companies working on Natural Language Processing (NLP) for automatic language translation, to developing a tool for diagnosing the health of rice crops and predicting their productivity.
Understanding AI
Everyone has likely heard about AI and understands it as machines being able to learn content to become smarter and use that in an “intelligent” way. But how does this actually look in practice?
I’m by no means an expert on this but for me, there are three key elements to a true AI product: the network, the learning and finally, the data. I’ll endeavour to explain it in a series of separate blog posts. Stay tuned for them and please follow me here and on Twitter if you want the latest updates!
A truly “global” accelerator
When I first walked into the doors of Zeroth’s office, my first question was “Where are the startups?” From my research, I knew Zeroth had accepted teams from all over the globe, from the UK, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan and Taiwan. In Australia, most if not all accelerator programs will provide a co-working space for the teams to work out of, requiring at least one member to be present full-time. Zeroth completely flipped this model on its head - they would only require the teams to come in for two weeks at the start of the program and two weeks at the end before the demo day. The respective two weeks would be an intensive deep dive on various topics with the mentors.
This model has two key benefits to it. First, it allows the companies to be closer to their customers which is absolutely crucial. Why make them move to Hong Kong if their customers aren’t there? Second, it promotes efficiency across the teams when they are in Hong Kong for the in-person delivery. Condensing the material into two weeks allows for a deeper dive into the content which otherwise would not be possible with stand-alone workshops or masterclasses that run for one or two hours.
The benefits of such a model aren’t with out weaknesses. Most notably, the cohort teams spend a limited amount of time with each other and as such, have less opportunities to grow closer and leverage of each other’s expertise. Although the team at Zeroth actively encourages that with the Master’s Dinners and direct introduction, it just isn’t the same as physically spending that time together.
Working Remotely
I have never seen a person more nomadic or have more calls in a day than Tak Lo (Managing Director at Zeroth). Period. The more I worked with him, the more I appreciated how much work could be done remotely with little loss of efficiency. One moment, we would be on a call to Bangalore and next, we’d suddenly jump to Singapore. The teams were still hitting their milestones week on week despite not being physically present.
Even internally, you don’t need to be physically sitting in the same room or office as each other — there are so many tools like Slack and Zoom that make communicating with other exceedingly easy. Working out of cafes and other co-working spaces was the norm, since it makes no sense to travel all the way back to the office only to lose the time in transit and get restarted. Technology makes working remote incredibly easy and its important modern day teams harness that to increase their efficiency.
Shoutouts
A big shout out to tak_lo and the Zeroth.AI Team for hosting this rogue Aussie at their offices for a month — I will cherish the warmth with which you welcomed me and making it a truly a wonderful learning experience. To Nick White, thanks very much for giving me my first lesson into AI and fielding the subsequent flow of endless questions; I hope I am a little more knowledgeable about it now. And of course, to my wonderful mentor, John Henderson, for the introduction to Tak, without which this experience would not have been possible.
