Digital Transformation
If you’re still not bored by the constant stream of articles, posts, blogs, and podcasts about AI, you’re either unfortunate or lucky, depending on your perspective. But the fact remains that the volume and frequency of coverage and commentary is having a major impact.
Looking back or looking to the future?
If you’ll pardon my comment, it’s because most of it is so delayed that it’s outdated and useless before it’s even published. Why? Because most of it focuses on the present or the past. And nothing has been advanced that way. Do we really need another article on accounting jobs that will be lost to AI, or research jobs that will be created by AI? We already know that.
But looking into the future requires imagination and risk. It’s exactly what most people fear. And that’s exactly what I’m trying to do here. Right now. “Imagination is more important than knowledge,” said Albert Einstein. So, after some quiet reflection and a bunch of “what if” scenarios, this is it. Nothing more.
discovery
There are 118 elements known to science, 94 of which are organic and exist on Earth. Does anyone think that’s all? I’m sure AI will discover or guide us to many more elements soon. And there’s still room for expansion in addition to what we already know: nickel in New Caledonia, tons of minerals under the seabed in the Cook Islands, cobalt in Zambia, nickel in Ukraine, etc.
Predictive modelling
“Man is an insoluble puzzle, but collectively a mathematical certainty,” declared Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Consider how accurately AI can predict, or even influence, macro behavioral trends, regardless of demographic or geographic diversity. What a great marketing tool.
vote
Imagine a poll with almost no margin of error, but with a sample size not of a few thousand, but 100 times that.
Marine Literacy
In 2019, Lodewijk Abspoel, an ocean literacy expert in The Hague, Netherlands, and a personal acquaintance of mine, told me that countless solutions and remedies for today’s planet are already here on Earth. They’re just sinking in, and that’s it. And, Abspoel says, we know less about the ocean than we know about the universe. That’s about to change.
expedition
Deep beneath the ocean, atop a mountain, or somewhere beyond our solar system, there is something important waiting to be discovered – but as it stands, it is too unknown, too dangerous, and too hard to reach.
No more.
“AHA!” moments in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry
In 2009, Halicin was being tested as a diabetes treatment, but development and testing was halted due to poor results. Just 10 years later, in 2019, AI researchers used deep learning techniques to identify the same drug as a likely broad-spectrum antibiotic. This was a major breakthrough. The entire process took just three days.
AuthenticTeacation
Many years ago, at a garage sale, an innocent shopper purchased a framed oil painting for $4. When he removed the backing at home, he discovered it was, to his surprise, a genuine original copy of the Declaration of Independence. A lengthy authentication process was then undertaken, involving historians, curators, archivists, forensic scientists, chemists, and forgery experts. It was indeed genuine, but the confirmation took a very long time.
What about AI today? A previously unknown work by Van Gogh? A handwritten sheet of Beethoven music? An authentic Mickey Mantle rookie card? It would be much easier, simpler, faster, and probably more reliable.
Umpires, Officials and Other Rulings
Pitcher throws ball. Batter doesn’t swing. Robot umpire: “Strike 3!” Batter: “Hey umpire, that ball was outside. Were you blind?” Robot: “Are you kidding me?”
The rest is no joke.
