BOM - Scary Smart by Mo Gawdat

Our book this month is called Scary Smart by. Mo Gawdat. Mo was the Chief Business Officer at Google where he was responsible for much of Google’s global expansion, country specific localization and the introduction of translation and voice recognition all over the world. He’s a super smart guy and he has been an insider when it comes to Google’s AI projects. Prior to Google, Mo was at Microsoft. When I heard a podcast where he was speaking on his perspectives on AI, I knew I needed to read this book. 

Computing has accelerated according to Moore’s Law which predicted a doubling of the density of circuits on a chip every 18 months. That held true for a long time. We keep thinking that we are reaching the fundamental limits of circuit density. Merely shrinking the feature size of the transistors is starting to approach fundamental limits like the number of atoms needed to make up a circuit.

The advent of accelerated computing in the form of graphics processing engines of the type that Nvidia and AMD create has enabled the backbone of the AI revolution.

Machine learning is the second dimension of acceleration. The pace with which machines are able to learn is also accelerating.

Think of AI like fuel that will amplify and accelerate virtually every aspect of life.

The super rich will get richer. The lazy will get lazier. The security system and law enforcement will become more vigilant. The weapons systems will become more ruthless. Marketing will become more targeted and more sophisticated. Loopholes in the tax code will become easier to find. The list of accelerated aspects of our lives is extensive.

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Host: Victor Menasce

email: podcast@victorjm.com