AI, Airships, Knowledge Retrieval, & More w/ Anton Troynikov, Founder @ Chroma
Jul 23, 2023
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Anton Troynikov, Founder @ Chroma, dives into topics like airships, AI, knowledge retrieval, and job displacement caused by AI in this insightful and thought-provoking podcast. Other highlights include discussions on techno optimism, AI native platforms, theorem proving, and frameworks for taking your work seriously.
Airships have economic advantages, providing comfortable living and symbolizing technological advancement.
Building airships requires low cost and can be bootstrapped by selling luxury goods to yacht companies.
The true power of AI lies in creating new applications, empowering us to deal with challenges and improve quality of life.
Deep dives
Airships' Economic Advantages and Comfortable Living
Airships have economic advantages due to their efficiency increasing as they get larger, making them a high-margin market as luxury goods. They provide an opportunity for comfortable living, allowing individuals to live anywhere in the world with a floating mega yacht-like experience. Airships can offer a unique perspective on what's possible and serve as symbols of technological advancement.
Challenges and Feasibility of Airship Manufacturing
Building airships requires a relatively low cost of under $100 million for engineering and development. The primary cost involves waiting for FAA approval, which can take five to seven years. The engineering itself is simple, utilizing modern materials and existing certified components. Helium is used for initial manned flight, and the business can be bootstrapped by selling airships as luxury goods to yacht companies.
The Future Potential and Native Applications of AI
The true power of AI lies in creating new, native applications that have not been fully explored yet. Current AI applications, such as chatbots or knowledge retrieval, are conveniences or adaptations of existing technologies. The goal is to develop AI that can provide new insights and creative solutions in various fields, similar to how AlphaGo inspired new strategies in the game of Go. The possibilities include autonomous email agents and AI assistants that augment human capabilities in areas like mathematics.
The Importance of Technology in Progress and Capabilities
Technology plays a crucial role in human progress by providing leverage over the material world and enabling humans to impose their values on the universe. It allows us to overcome the limitations of the past and improve the quality of life. Throughout history, technology has been the driving force behind advancements that have made life less horrific. While many focus on convenience technologies, it is essential to recognize that the economic surplus generated by these technologies can pave the way for the development of other capabilities. Technology empowers us to deal with challenges posed by the material world, and by continuing to innovate, we can address issues like climate change.
The Founding of Chroma and its Position in Technological Progress
The founders of Chroma, Jeff, and the speaker, had a shared interest in startups and had been discussing various ideas for a long time. Their focus was not on deciding to found a startup first and then choosing an idea but rather finding an idea they were both passionate about and had been working on already. Chroma has positioned itself as an enabling technology for artificial intelligence. As an infrastructure and programmable memory for AI, Chroma aims to make it easier to explore different AI use cases and pave the way for further technological progress. The early stage of AI development is comparable to the early days of the web, where the full potential and the most powerful applications are yet to emerge.
