Ada apa? Salutations from Bali, Indonesia. Following a few weeks in Singapore, I jumped over to Canggu (Bali) where I’ve been surfing, visiting friends, and wrapping up a client engagement. My current research interests include AI, Climate Tech, Sustainability, and Social Impact. Are you working in these areas? Let me know what you’re building or who you’re supporting by replying.
Artificial intelligence is evolving at hyper warp speeds, making it difficult to remain on top. Let’s get into what I find intriguing and where we’re going next.
Climate Tech & Sustainability - December Findings
I think it's important to get involved in fields that have the potential to make a real difference in the world. Climate Tech and Circular Economy are two of those fields, and I believe that they can help us create a more sustainable future. It's easy to get involved and this last month I started studying fast fashion, supply chains, and emerging startups.
I wrote an entire blog post that covers the circular economy, established companies entering the circular economy, and emerging startups in the space.
Read the full blog post and let me know your thoughts
Builders — Where Do You Belong?
Product peeps. This 3x3 matrix can help you find your perfect role. Each axes work together to pinpoint what type(s) of job would be most beneficial for an individual’s strengths - whether they’re looking into changing careers or just need some clarity around their future plans. For founders, it helps us improve organizational fit within companies and identify what people’s true callings are.
Nike Launches Virtual Creation Studio
Swoosh.Nike is the official launch of Nike Virtual Studios and represents the brands home of virtual creations, a new platform to buy, show off and trade phygital and virtual Nike goods via Polygon. It’s worth paying attention, especially as the platform boasts the opportunity for co-creator royalties.
How does it work? Co-create products with Nike by winning community challenges and getting a slice of the royalties on sales. A novel and brand-first initiative for customers. Some call it a Nike Metaverse?
Website - http://swoosh.nike
IG - https://www.instagram.com/p/CljK9FygIIm/
AI Agents = the next big thing
The AI is coming, but could intelligent agents be the killer real-life breakthrough technology consumers at scale will adore?
What are AI Agents?
In AI, an intelligent agent (IA) is an independent entity which observes and operates upon an environment and directs its activity towards accomplishing goals. In short, an intelligent agent is an entity that interacts with its surroundings via:
- perception through sensors
- actions through effectors or actuators
Function of AI Agents
Intelligent agents continuously perform the following functions:
- perception of dynamic conditions in the environment
- action to affect conditions in the environment
- reasoning to interpret perceptions
- solve problems
- draw inferences
- determine actions
A Few Examples
Feeling like you're in the dark, or not getting it? Here are some examples of agents that will help clear things up for ya.Human Agents
- eyes, ears, skin, taste buds, etc. for sensors
- hands, fingers, legs, mouth, etc., for actuators
Robot Agents
- camera, infrared, bumper, etc., for sensors.
- grippers, wheels, lights, speakers, etc., for actuators.
Software Agents
Functions as sensors:
- data given as input to functions in the structure of encoded bit strings or symbols
Functions as actuators:
- results deliver the output
So..What?
Where am I going with all of this? A new era of AI Agents that power devices (such as a Nest Thermostat, robots, cars, ar) and software (Siri, search engines, web services, etc) are going to become incredibly responsive with datasets from all sorts of new sources such as health data, world news (oil crisis), weather patterns, dating data, bank account, etc… The list goes on for what these things might know about us yet but one thing’s certain: an AI agent is continually learning and moving towards an intended goal. We, the operator, set the desired goal (keeping my home at a comfortable temperature for each visitor, staying within my budget, and being environmentally conscious) and AI Agents will act, consume, and learn new skills/data to reach those desired goals.
We’ll see AI Agents interacting with other AI Agents. Maybe Zapier can seize this opportunity, or maybe we’ll see a new AI Agent middleware.
A few more AI Agent definitions:
Properties
An AI agent has the following properties.
Environment
- Situated in some environments.
Autonomous
- It can operate without direct interference from humans or other software methods, and controls its own activities and internal environment.
- An agent is autonomous if its performance is defined by its own experience regarding its capability to learn and adapt.
- Autonomous agent decides independently which steps to take in the current condition to maximize improvement towards the purpose.
Flexible
- Responsive (reactive): Agents should recognize their surroundings and react to changes that occur in it.
- Proactive: Agents should not only act in response to their surroundings, but they should also be able to manifest opportunistic, goal-directed performance and take the initiative when suitable.
- Social: Agents are to cooperate with humans or other artificial agents.
Reactive
- A reactive system is one that maintains ongoing interaction with its environment and responds to changes that occur in it (in time for the response to be useful).
- A program’s environment can be guaranteed. It doesn’t have to be worried about its own success or failure. An example of a guaranteed environment is compilers.
- Most environments are dynamic, in which things change, and information is incomplete.
- It is hard to build software for dynamic domains.
- Programs must take into account the probability of failure.
Pro-activeness
Pro-activeness is to take the initiative to generate and attempt the goals.
- Reacting to an environment is easy.
Using response rules
- But generally, we want the agents to do things for us.
- The goal is directed behaviour.
Other than the properties mentioned above, an agent has:
Mobility
The capacity of an agent to actuate around a system.
Veracity
An agent will not communicate when it has false information.
Benevolence
Agents do not have conflicting goals, and every agent will therefore always try to do what is asked for.
Rationality
The agent will perform to accomplish its goals and will not work in such a fashion as to block its goals.
Learning
An agent must be able to learn.
AI Agents will interface with other AI Agents. This weekend would be an ideal time to revisit Her.
Could Chat GPT3 Replace Google Search?
In my opinion, Google's search business has a serious competition problem called OpenAI. It won't take long for GPT3 and AI to outperform SERP.
ChatGPT3 has been trending on Twitter the last few days. It probably doesn't need much introduction, but if you haven't seen it for yourself, you should.
Are websites soon to be a thing of the past? It is both informational and action-oriented, similar to Siri, but much more effective, in my opinion.
Read more about ChatGPT | Start playing with ChatGPT
Fully Autonomous Gym Pod
The Gym Lab is a pay-per use private fitness pod that’s popping up all over Singapore. These fitness pods are the size and shape of shipping container is-max-desktops! You download the app, book 30 minutes of time and enter 4 digit code for entry. At just $7-9 per session, I was delighted to book these on short notice. Pod sessions are a great alternative to the typical gym experience. They’re open 24/7 and offer weights, cardio equipment as well. Feel free to train alone, with a partner, friend, or a personal trainer.
The Gym Lab has a larger competitor named “The Gym Pod“ with locations throughout Singapore, including two at Changi Airport. I’m personally a big fan of this concept so hope they make it over to NA soon enough - can’t wait until my next workout in one of these things. Especially if i’m in transit.
Interesting Links
A curated list of interesting content from the future, IRL, and across the web.
- Feeling stuck or out of ideas? Go for a walk. This paper found walking, whether outdoors or a treadmill increased key types of creative thinking for over 80% of undergraduates. The reasons are not fully clear, but there seem to be direct effects on the brain. Report - https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/xlm-a0036577.pdf
- Scientists develop robotic ‘sixth finger’ for human augmentation. What would you do with a sixth finger? Japanese researchers and the French National Centre for Scientific Research co-developed a robotic “sixth finger” to study how brains react to new and independent body parts. Before the eyeroll skepticism, watch the rubber hand experiment!
- Fifa World Cup: real-time AR visualization of player and game data.
- This is a real ATM at Art Basel that puts your bank account balance & photo on a leaderboard for all to see. This drop is powered by MSCHF. In recent hours, Diplo snagged the top spot with his chequing balance.
- A pro AI/VR studio in your pocket. Demo Video / Website.
- An iOS AR remix with Stable Diffusion. There are a lot of AI apps that are web-based, but I prefer the ones that are made for mobile (that can leverage your camera and touch screen).
- Tesla Full Self-Driving Beta Races Head to Head Against Cruise Tesla arrived in 14 minutes and six seconds, Cruise arrived in 22 minutes and 24 seconds. Full video.
- America is becoming a country shaped more-and-more by loneliness. Via Washington Post. The hours per week stat is rather mind blowing.
- I’m dating myself here, but here’s a video of Sandra Bullock buying movie tickets to The Net. In 1995, she became the first person in the world to purchase a movie ticket online.
- Woah, a door to another world. Nice iOS AR portal
- Black Mirror. This Chinese robotaxi scans your QR code to verify your Covid passport before driving you to your desired location. The red colour indicates that you are walking.
- Maison Hermès = best glass architect in the world 🐐
- Having a bad day? Watch this.
- This ant mould is remarkable.
- Have you ever wondered how train wheels are made? Gotta love how Italians roll.
- Only in South Africa.. 🦒
Asks
I’m taking on new clients as a fractional product or marketing partner, team builder, or venture builder. As I’m testing out a slightly different approach, I’m looking for a project that’s just right for me. Details below:
- New consumer product (zero to one, or PMF looking to 🚀)
- Great people (no jerks). Socially responsible + conscious mindset + craftsmanship culture. Ideally it overlaps with what i’ve been covering above.
- Ideally within one of these verticals: future of work, personal development, social impact, education, and productivity.
If you know someone who fits this bill, have them get in touch, or hit the reply button.
Thanks for reading. Have a great December,
Kenny