New sections may appear every week or just when I have something new to share.
I invested in startup Liberty Access Technology in 2019. They make EV charging stations and related equipment for school busses and similar vehicles. Although I am bullish on EV companies, I am not so sure about this one. As always, remember most startups fail. Never invest in a startup unless you are prepared to lose every penny you invest.
The big news in AI this week is The New York Times suing Microsoft and OpenAI. The newspaper claims the LLMs and generative AI tools are using copyrighted material. Apparently they tried to negotiate a settlement but it was no go. I suspect this will end up in the Supreme Court. Following are some other developments in AI.
Research and Development:
- AI music composition on the go: Google Magenta created a mobile app called “MuseNet” that allows users to create and edit original music with AI assistance, making music composition more accessible for everyone.
- AI for climate crisis prevention: A new study explored how AI can be used to predict and prevent forest fires,potentially saving lives and ecosystems.
- AI personal assistant for scientific experiments: Researchers developed an AI system called “Adam” that assists scientists in planning and conducting experiments, accelerating scientific discovery.
Industry and Applications:
- AI-powered robots in customer service: Companies are increasingly adopting AI-powered robots for customer service tasks like answering questions and guiding customers, providing 24/7 support and personalized experiences.
- AI in healthcare: Hospitals and clinics are implementing AI for tasks like medical image analysis, disease prediction, and personalized treatment plans, improving healthcare efficiency and accuracy.
- AI for financial services: Fraud detection, algorithmic trading, and personalized financial advice are just a few ways AI is revolutionizing the financial services industry, boosting efficiency and security.
Events and Discussions:
- Global AI ethics summit: The International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI) hosted a summit on AI ethics, focusing on responsible development and deployment of AI systems.
- Debate on AI sentience: Recent advancements in language models have sparked renewed debate about AI sentience and consciousness, raising ethical questions and philosophical considerations.
- AI regulation efforts: Countries and organizations are actively working on developing regulations for AI development and use, aiming to address potential risks and ensure responsible practices.
AI is a rapidly changing and evolving field. It is very difficult to stay informed about the latest developments in AI in order to make informed decisions about how to use AI to your advantage. I hope these weekly snippets provides some highlights of what is going on.
Bitcoin continues to trade between $41,000 and $44,000. Tremendous gain for the year at about 160%. The big question will be the approval or not of Bitcoin spot price ETFs. Basically, that means enabling investors, especially institutional investors, to buy Bitcoin without actually holding Bitcoin. More and more people are viewing Bitcoin as a “store of value” like gold. Institutional investors will likely decide to hold some small percentage of Bitcoin in their various portfolios. If the SEC finds a way to shoot ETFs down again then I don’t know what will happen. There are other technical factors which can support continued price growth. My opinion, but not my recommendation to buy.
Stocks pulled back a bit on Friday, but Wall Street will be finishing a winning year for all the major averages.
I don’t think I add much with my Wall Street comments. I suggest a click on MarketWatch will do a much better job.
Following are videos of talks I gave this year. I have been fortunate to be able to share my thoughts on technology with a number of groups.
On September 14, I gave a talk on AI at the Ridgefield Library in Ridgefield, CT.
On July 21, I gave a lecture on AI @FoundersHallCT. I wan’t sure how many would turn out. It was a lot. Great interest in the topic. In addition to current events and outlooks, I told the audience about Robot Attitude: How Robots and Artificial Intelligence Will Make Our Lives Better.
On March 8th I was the guest speaker at the first meeting of Probus in Palm Coast, Florida on March 8. Probus is a worldwide organization of retired and semi-retired men and women who come together to make new friends, learn new things, and have fun. There are over 4,000 Probus clubs in more than 100 countries, with over 400,000 members. Probus clubs are non-political, non-sectarian, and non-profit. They are self-governing and autonomous, and each club sets its own policies and activities.
On March 30, I gave my 12th annual lecture called Tech Talk at Hammock Dunes Club in Palm Coast, Florida where I live in the winter.
On March 23, gave a town hall-like speech and Q&A with the IT special interest group (SIG) of the New York Executive Forum. The event was via Zoom.
On April 19, I gave a talk and Q&A with a group of Union Carbide retirees. Some years ago, Union Carbide had its headquarters about a mile from where I live in Connecticut. The event was via Zoom.
There are many more videos of my lectures, interviews, etc. on my YouTube channel which you can find here.
