4min chapter

Practical AI: Machine Learning, Data Science, LLM cover image

From ML to AI to Generative AI

Practical AI: Machine Learning, Data Science, LLM

CHAPTER

The First Shift in Machine Learning

This is still the dominant frame of thinking about machine learning and AI, at least across industry that has shifted a bit though. Some of these, what's called self supervised models started coming out. And now we're in this kind of wave of generative AI, which is the kind of first wave of AI that has really hit the public perception so widely. The idea being that there was kind of a maybe a first shift, and then a second shift that I've seen.

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Speaker 2
Yeah, that's fascinating. I definitely want to talk about Bitcoin too. Like with your entire journey of fighting and then now doing broadcasting and the podcast, when did Bitcoin get involved? And do you remember like the first time you initially heard about it?
Speaker 1
I remember it really well. I was at dinner with kind of a new acquaintance, new friend. And he was telling me, he's like, man, he's like, you would love this thing called Bitcoin. It just dropped. It's like $72 or $75. It was in the $70 range. He's like, you got to look into this. You should buy some. And I was like, okay. And kind of asked him like, well, what is this thing? And he gave me some kind of basic explanation of what it was. And immediately in my head, it's like, I wrote it off. I'm like, well, clearly the government's going to shut this down, not really knowing any of the technical aspects of it or really not much at all. So I kind of dragged my feet on it. I think I looked up, looked it up a little bit and it seemed like it was a little difficult to buy at the time. And I was in, I guess, more real estate at the time. I had a couple places in Massachusetts and then was living in a place in Los Angeles. So to me, I was like, well, you know, could I do it? Absolutely. Even if I just put a little bit of money in and, and then I just kind of dragged my feet on it and didn't do it. You know, it was kind of like, I made excuses of why I should more than anything else. And it was like, ah, this is not going to work. I'm just going to throw away this money. It's never going to come back. And, and then it wasn't until 2016 where I started really kind of learning about it a little bit more and was more interested in other opportunities besides kind of real estate and just like investing in mutual funds and things like that, just kind of the basic crap that I was doing at the time. And I was like, you know what? I think now's a good time to kind of get into it I was like it sucks that I didn't get it at 70 dollars or whatever but I think it was like maybe in the 800 range something like that if my memory serves uh correctly and um you know bought a little bit of that bought a little bit of you know some other coin and someone's like well you know you just go with something that's cheaper man like this is gonna be other thing so i i did that and then it wasn't until 2017 where i really was kind of like okay i own this thing what is this and what's the difference like really started looking into it and i was like oh okay like bitcoin's the thing um and was all in on bitcoin on on bitcoin in 2017 and have been buying ever since. And it's been one of those journeys like so many others where you're just constantly learning and constantly trying to deepening your understanding of what Bitcoin is and what the benefits are. And it leads you down all these crazy paths. And I feel like every day is an opportunity for me to learn and you know let's say to guys like yourself and all the great information that's out there now especially in the last few years it's just such a game changer now where you can get it relatively quickly where i feel like back 2016 2017 we didn't have as many resources like we do now so it's it's really cool for For those that are out there that want to learn, like there's no excuses. And I think that it's very easy for people to just take a quick glance at Bitcoin and like make these very basic judgments on what it is. And I think that's going to be a costly mistake for many, many years for a lot of people. And it was for me, you know, like, listen, I'm in a great position now, I feel like, but of course, you always want more Bitcoin. And I feel that it behooves anyone who's out there who's interested in it or is looking to kind of look at something different as a digital asset that that's going to change your life. Bitcoin is the thing and the best investment I think you can make.
Speaker 2
Yeah, I mean, I love asking that question to people because most people that are deeply interested and involved in Bitcoin, when they first heard about it, they were like, what is this? It's a scam. It's a Ponzi game. It's fake internet money. That's fun to hear. Like that's a very common initial assumption of what Bitcoin is. I
Speaker 1
love it because, you know, like I was kind of considered an underdog for most of my career. I was like the guy like, you're a fighter? Like what? Oh, this guy's going to get wrecked. And that was always a fun to kind of like prove people wrong and talk about the ultimate underdog. You know, like Bitcoin, it proves everybody So wrong. Like in all the assumptions that people make about it, like not only are you wrong, it's like the exact opposite of what you think. You know, it's like, oh, Bitcoin uses too much energy. You're like, well, that's actually what makes it so powerful. That's what makes it so secure. It's what makes it so efficient. People are like, oh, Bitcoin has no intrinsic value. It's like, no correction. It's decentralized nature and the fact that you can send it peer to peer and all this stuff. Even from Bitcoin, like, oh my initial assumption, like the government's going to shut it down. It's like, no, the government's going to end up having to use it. You know, so it's fascinating hearing how Bitcoin is just this ultimate underdog that consistently finds a way to, you know, humble you.
Speaker 2
Yeah, I love it. I know I didn't send my list of questions over but one of my questions was is bitcoin an underdog so funny right
Speaker 1
on um
Speaker 2
but i totally agree with what you were saying earlier back like 2017 at least when i remember hearing about bitcoin like i remember reading the nakamoto institute by like pierre shard and a couple others and like it was a
Speaker 1
weird blog that was
Speaker 2
like very unprofessionally designed and I was like this makes perfect sense but it's a little sketchy yeah yeah yeah and
Speaker 1
a lot of them were like highly technical like you know it kind of talked about the technical aspects and I think they were trying to like prove some of the like technological advantages and things like that and for me some of that stuff like over my head at the time and anyway anyways i feel just the education of it all is just so much better now was
Speaker 2
there a particular moment in time where like really clicked for you like obviously i think you said 2017 which makes sense that the number was going up that obviously helps everyone you know feel more confident in it um was there anything else or was it just like the market timing and you've you've seen it and you've read enough about it that you were like this thing is not going away yeah
Speaker 1
um you know I think it was kind of an evolution for me it was maybe not one thing in particular but it was a bunch of things that um kind of blew my mind um I guess and and even like the the way that i saw it kind of and still do like kind of changes over time um you know the fact that it was this like um provable ledger um you know just that aspect and how like um that that was pretty cool how it's like this time chain of truth that is verifiable, which is, you know, so different from the system that we're in and what we've known as money. just like, I don't know, just figuring out how it goes against everything that we thought was true. And anytime I find things like that, I always find it really fascinating. And I don't know, like even like something like, you know, Brazilian jiu- for example not not to go down too much of a rabbit hole but um you know i remember you know when the ufc first came around it initially was about you know which martial art was the best and in my mind you know growing up watching a bunch of bruce lee movies and chuck norris and all these other movies it was like well obviously the karate black belt or the boxer the guy who can knock everybody out is going to be the best fighter like clearly that's what we've been told and what we believe to be true and you had this brazilian family um this place in brazil which is not known for martial arts necessarily um and it was this grappling art which isn't really known to be that effective in one-on combat. And here they were defeating the best strikers in the world without a lot of times like throwing a punch. And you're like, wow, this goes against everything I knew to be true. And I think once you have that, like it starts to open your mind. And I think that was also helpful for me in knowing that like, hey man, you've been proven wrong many times before. There's very few experts in the world. Open your mind, listen, figure out what this thing is. And yeah.
Speaker 2
I'm curious, like with your Bitcoin journey, like has Bitcoin changed the way that you just really think about wealth and like personal finance? Or like how has it changed, I guess, since you were fighting and maybe making money fighting and doing something with that money? Like as it, you know, what's the difference between your post Bitcoin discovery and early days?
Speaker 1
Yeah, I think, yeah, I guess to kind of get back to what you were talking about in regards to like what allowed it to click. Another thing that allowed it to click and why I can kind of answer this question at the same time is the fact that like, it's defensive properties. Like a lot of times with fighting, we think about like, oh, like, what am I going to do to be able to defeat that guy? Like, I'm going to go out there and I'm going to do this, this, this and that. And you don think about, okay, well, first let's try to like not get hurt. I can't defeat you if I can't get hurt. And I think Bitcoin has a very distinct and powerful defensive quality, in my opinion, in that there's very few attack vectors. And that to me, like when I realized that I was like, wow like wait a sec the fact that there is not like there isn't a CEO there isn't a you know a team behind it that's marketing this or that like there there are no attack vectors in that way you know the fact that you know it's been built up technologically through all these decentralized nodes globally. You can't just shut it down. And it is as simple as me saying, all right, I have this decree where no one's allowed to use Bitcoin anymore. It's like, well, you kind of have to shut down the internet now, which is not going to happen. And you start to see these things and you're like, wow. so first, if you look at it from that perspective and how, you know, it really is more of like a risk off asset, even though people don't really see it as that, I think that kind of changes a lot of things for me. Like real estate, obviously, all the things that you're paying in regards to, you know, utilities and property taxes throughout the years. And, you know, if you're going to rent it out to somebody, now that's kind of a potential liability, both legally and whether they even want to pay you, depending on what state you're in. Sometimes they have more rights than the owner. So there's all these things that I have seen from owning properties where it's a pain. And even like, okay, well, now you want that money from your house that went up? Cool. Well, how much did you lose in owning it? And now who's going to buy it? And is the market good for it to be bought? And, you know, Bitcoin, you could sell it whenever you want, 24 seven, you know, so there's just so many more advantages. And I think that like, just like fighting, you can't have all of the things, but you want to have most of the things and you want to limit what your opponent can have. And I think that with Bitcoin, there's so many more advantages than disadvantages. And that to me is an extremely powerful thing. It's like, maybe I'm not going to hit you with a hundred punches, but if I hit you with five punches and you hit me with zero punches, I'll take that all day over me landing 100 and you landing 60 punches. Right. Does that make sense? So I feel like, you know, the advantages that you get from something like Bitcoin just is so much better than any other investment. And not to mention, obviously, like, you know, show me an investment that's going to give you 60% pager year after year. If you can show me that, cool, maybe you'll have my attention. But until then, no financial planner is going to tell me that, listen, give me your money and let me do something with it. No.
Speaker 2
Yeah, you made a really good point about the counter arguments against Bitcoin. I think like over the years, similar to you, like that's kind of what made me so bullish is like you would hear very smart, intelligent people go out there and say Bitcoin is not a good way to save for the future because of X, Y, and Z. And then if you look into X, Y, and Z and you're like, ah, like that's not really a good answer to that question. Right. And then you're like, hmm, maybe this person hasn't done the research into what bitcoin actually is yes yeah so crazy to think about it yeah i know i know um you were at uh michael's uh michael saylor's new year's eve party what'd you think about it it
Speaker 1
was cool man you know listen i i think that anytime you're around um a bit a bunch of bitcoiners it's it's a good time um you know, I enjoy kind of talking about Bitcoin and learning from all the experts out there. So I didn't really get that opportunity as much as I would like. You know, it's a party and it's loud and, you know, people are there to have a good time. But so, you know, if I'm at a conference or something like that, that's really enjoyable. But being at a unique party like that and celebrating what I think is a huge milestone in Bitcoin's lifespan is huge. You know, I remember when Michael Saylor was kind of talking about it on Twitter. And, you know, I had no idea that I would actually be at that party one day. I'm like, whoa, this is kind of surreal. I'm actually here. But yeah, it was, it was really cool to kind of celebrate that, you know, it's funny hearing, you know, people like hate on it and all that stuff. Like, you know, we need, there's so much more we need to do and all this stuff. But like, you know, I think you also have to have a good time and celebrate your wins and also understand, man, if you've been a part of the Bitcoin journey for anything longer than a year and a half, two years, you've been there on the lows, man. And it just feels good to know that, yes, we are here now. This is what everybody was talking about. This is what we believed in. And we're here. And I still think it's very, very early. I think this is just the beginning now.

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