Teaching BabyAGI

Inevitable and scary?  Agents teaching your models bottom up.

Auto-GPT and BabyAGI: How ‘autonomous agents’ are bringing generative AI to the masses

Autonomous agents may mark an important step toward a world where AI-driven systems are smart enough to work on their own, without need of human involvement.

Auto-GPT and BabyAGI: How ‘autonomous agents’ are bringing generative AI to the masses

By Mark Sullivan  in Fastcompany

Over the past week, developers around the world have begun building “autonomous agents” that work with large language models (LLMs) such as OpenAI’s GPT-4 to solve complex problems. While still very new, such agents could represent a major milestone in the productive application of LLMs.

Normally, we interact with GPT-4 by typing carefully worded prompts into ChatGPT’s text window until the model generates the output we want. But most of us lack the skill and patience to sit and write prompt after prompt, guiding the LLM toward answering a complex question, such as “What is the optimal business plan for capturing 20% of the fingernail-polish market?” Quite naturally, developers have been thinking of ways to automate much of that process. That’s where autonomous agents come in.

In general terms, autonomous agents can generate a systematic sequence of tasks that the LLM works on until it’s satisfied a preordained “goal.” Autonomous agents can already perform tasks as varied as conducting web research, writing code, and creating to-do lists....  ... '

IEEE Spectrum Looks at LIkely Emergent Milestones

12 Exciting Engineering Milestones to Look for in 2022 An electric aircraft race, a new dark-matter detector, and a permanent Chinese space station await   By Michael Koziol  ....  Only the first example is written out below. 

Psyche’s Deep-Space Lasers

In August, NASA will launch the Psyche mission, sending a deep-space orbiter to a weird metal asteroid orbiting between Mars and Jupiter. While the probe’s main purpose is to study Psyche’s origins, it will also carry an experiment that could inform the future of deep-space communications. The Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) experiment will test whether lasers can transmit signals beyond lunar orbit. Optical signals, such as those used in undersea fiber-optic cables, can carry more data than radio signals can, but their use in space has been hampered by difficulties in aiming the beams accurately over long distances. DSOC will use a 4-watt infrared laser with a wavelength of 1,550 nanometers (the same used in many optical fibers) to send optical signals at multiple distances during Psyche’s outward journey to the asteroid.  .....  (11 more at the link) 

State Department Sets Up Bureau for Cybersecurity, Emerging Technologies

Need for new examination of emergent tech and its application. 

State Department Sets Up Bureau for Cybersecurity, Emerging Technologies

The Hill, Maggie Miller. January 7, 2021

The establishment of a new bureau at the U.S. State Department for cybersecurity and emerging technologies has been approved by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. The Bureau of Cyberspace Security and Emerging Technologies (CSET) will help spearhead diplomatic programs around these topics, including prevention of cyber conflicts with potentially adversarial nations. The announcement came as the federal government continues to deal with Russia's breach of information technology company SolarWinds, which affected the State Department and about a dozen other federal agencies. A State Department spokesperson said, "The need to reorganize and resource America's cyberspace and emerging technology security diplomacy through the creation of CSET is critical, as the challenges to U.S. national security presented by China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and other cyber and emerging technology competitors and adversaries have only increased since the Department notified Congress in June 2019 of its intent to create CSET."

Pilot 44 Used by P&G

Note

 Powering Digital Innovation
 Startup Informed,  Pilot Driven

We believe the fastest, most effective way to drive digital innovation is to go to the source:
the VCs, technologists, and startups that are investing $50B per year
to re-invent your markets and business.  ....

Located in the San Francisco Bay Area, our team brings together proven startup entrepreneurs, digital thought leaders, top technologists, and experienced executives from leading global brands.  We seek to  cultivate the passion of the entrepreneur, the agility of the startup, and the expertise of the enterprise. Together, we strive to always retain the highest possible level of integrity in our work and our relationships.


Jon is a serial entrepreneur with over 20+ years of experience developing  new technologies & building successful startups.

Andrew is a seasoned brand executive who previously led P&G's Silicon

Valley Innovation Outpost.

DEVELOP STRATEGIES

We'll help you understand the latest trends and technologies, their impact on your consumers & business, and the opportunities they offer for advancing your digital strategies and creating competitive advantage.

DISCOVER SOLUTIONS

We leverage a proven methodology and our global startup network to map the technology landscape against your specific needs and curate the best solutions. We'll offload the heavy lifting necessary to vet technologies, drive "in-market" pilots, and deliver quantified outcomes.

DRIVE RESULTS

Clients will attest that our “startup informed, pilot driven" approach generates 5X the outcomes, at a fraction of the cost & time. Our work consistently leads to scaled enterprise rollouts, and the implementation of entirely new digital practices.

We help top brands leverage the power of emerging, startup technologies
to accelerate digital innovation and drive competitive advantage.  ... "


Team

Jon Corshen
Chief Technology Strategist

Andrew Backs
Chief Innovation Strategist

Located in the San Francisco Bay Area, our team brings together proven startup entrepreneurs, digital thought leaders, top technologists, and experienced executives from leading global brands.  We seek to  cultivate the passion of the entrepreneur, the agility of the startup, and the expertise of the enterprise. Together, we strive to always retain the highest possible level of integrity in our work and our relationships.


Jon is a serial entrepreneur with over 20+ years of experience developing  new technologies & building successful startups.

Andrew is a seasoned brand executive who previously led P&G's Silicon Valley Innovation Outpost.

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P&G connect:

Biology of the Evolution of Cooperation

Very old problem in Biology.   Why should organisms cooperate? A solution?  Could this same technique be used when solving genetic algorithms?  Or say the collaborative genetic evolution of intelligent swarms?

New Model of Evolution Finally Reveals How Cooperation Evolves

By treating evolution as a thermodynamic process, theorists have solved one the great problems in biology.    by Emerging Technology from the arXiv  June 21, 2017

One of the great unanswered question in biology is why organisms have evolved to cooperate. The long-term benefits of cooperation are clear—look at the extraordinary structures that termites build, for example, or the complex society humans have created.

But evolution is a random process based on the short-term advantages that emerge in each generation. Of course, individuals can cooperate or act selfishly, and this allows them to accrue benefits or suffer costs, depending on the circumstances. But how this behavior can spread and lead to the long-term emergence of cooperation as the dominant behavior is a conundrum that has stumped evolutionary biologists for decades. ... " 

Machine Learning and Emergence

Complete article at the link in DSC:

The E-Dimension: Why Machine Learning Doesn’t Work Well for Some Problems?
by Shahab Sheikh-Bahaei, Ph.D.*
Principal Data Scientist,  Intertrust Technologies.

Introduction
Machine Learning (ML) is closely related to computational statistics which focuses on prediction-making through the use of computers. ML is a modern approach to an old problem:  predictive inference. It makes an inference from “feature” space to “outcome/target” space. In order to work properly, an ML algorithm has to discover and model hidden relationships between the feature space and the outcome space and create links between the two. Doing so requires overcoming barriers such as feature noise (randomness of features due to unexplained mechanisms).

In this article we argue that “Emergence” is also a barrier for predictive inference. Emergence is a phenomenon through which a completely new entity arises (emerges) from interactions among elementary entities such that the emerged entity exhibits properties the elementary entities do not exhibit. We present the idea that success of machine learning, and predictive inference in general, can be adversely affected by the phenomena of emergence. We argue that this phenomena might be partially responsible for unsuccessful use of current ML algorithms in some situations such as stock markets. .... " 

Sky Robots

Sky Robots

From the HBR ... 

If you have a robotic vacuum, thank Helen Greiner, a cofounder of iRobot. And Greiner has moved on to think about what it would mean if that robotic vacuum could fly. After leaving iRobot, she founded CyPhy Works, a drone company. One of its first products was a tethered drone—one that’s connected to a ground power source and can transmit data across wire constantly. Tethered drones can hover indefinitely, and their hardwire connection makes them more secure than free-flying drones, which transmit data wirelessly. A tether limits a drone’s range but opens up a host of apps that the untethered type are less suited to. HBR senior editor Scott Berinato spoke with Greiner about those apps, the emergence of commercial drones, where she sees the industry going, and why she can’t think of any industry whose leaders don’t need to think about a drone strategy. .... " 

A Roadmap for the Programmable World.

Considerable article from IEEE Software, via InfoQ .....

A Roadmap to the Programmable World
     Posted by Antero Taivalsaari,  Tommi Mikkonen .... 

Key Takeaways

- The emergence of IoT means our everyday things—light bulbs, door knobs, toothbrushes, etc.—will become connected and programmable dynamically.

- Today’s mainstream development methods, languages, and tools are poorly suited to the emergence of millions of programmable things in our surroundings.

- Despite the apparent diversity in the IoT market, a common end-to-end architecture is emerging with a number of common elements, such as devices, gateways, and the cloud.

- Two important trends in the evolution of IoT solutions are the shift from data collection to real-world manipulation and the rise of the edge computing paradigm, where data is processed locally before being sent to the cloud.

- The main challenges that developers face in a programmable world are the intrisic hardness of distributed computing, the inadequacy of languages and tools that are becoming central to IoT development, such as JavaScript, and security.

>> This article first appeared in IEEE Software magazine. IEEE Software offers solid, peer-reviewed information about today's strategic technology issues. To meet the challenges of running reliable, flexible enterprises, IT managers and technical leads rely on IT Pro for state-of-the-art solutions. ..... " 

Intelligence and Analytics Case Studies

A nice set of broad examples that are insightful.

5 Business Intelligence & Analytics Case Studies Across Industry
Last updated on April 4, 2017 by Daniel Faggella

When businesses make investments in new technologies, they usually do so with the intention of  creating value for customers and stakeholders and making smart long-term investments. This is not always an easy thing to do when implementing cutting-edge technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. Business intelligence case studies that show how these technologies have been leveraged with results are still scarce, and many companies wonder where to apply machine learning first (a question at the core of one of TechEmergence’s most recent expert consensuses.)

Artificial intelligence and machine learning have certainly increased in capability over the past few years. Predictive analytics can help glean meaningful business insights using both sensor-based and structured data, as well as unstructured data, like unlabeled text and video, for mining customer sentiment. In the last few years, a shift toward “cognitive cloud” analytics has also increased data access, allowing for advances in real-time learning and reduced company costs. This recent shift has made an array of advanced analytics and AI-powered business intelligence services more accessible to mid-sized and small companies.

In this article, we provide five case studies that illustrate how AI and machine learning technologies are being used across industries to help drive more intelligent business decisions. While not meant to be exhaustive, the examples offer a taste for how real companies are reaping real benefits from technologies like advanced analytics and intelligent image recognition.  .... " 

Marketing Led Growth

Article - McKinsey Quarterly - February 2017
The new battleground for marketing-led growth    By David Court, Dave Elzinga, Bo Finneman, and Jesko Perrey

" ... In the digital age, consumers are always shopping around. New research shows that hooking them early is the strongest path to growth. . ... Since 2009, McKinsey has studied the emergence of consumer decision journeys (CDJs)—the often irregular paths consumers take as they move from brand awareness through to purchase and loyalty—as a critical lever to driving top-line growth (Exhibit 1). Like the apparel company described above, many have responded to nonlinear consumer behavior by doubling down on customer-retention and loyalty programs. Selling more to consumers who are already buying seems a dependable, low-risk, and potentially quick way to boost sales growth. Recent research shows a 26 percent increase in loyalty-program memberships between 2013 and 2015.   ... " 

AI's Cooperating

Perhaps the most important question of all,  both in the relatively simplistic sense of assistants cooperating with us, and the much deeper sense of working together.  Both considerable challenges. Recall our look at approaches like swarms.

Google Just Found the One Question It Can’t Yet Answer  by Jeremy Kahn
 DeepMind explores emergence of competition, cooperation
Finds environment plays big role in fostering AI cooperation ... " 

Connecting Robotics, Future Trajectories

And more on the future of assistants.  And will the use of assistant/toys mean that children will be well primed for these capabilities?   And their acceptance of virtual worlds.    Its already well underway with their use of tablets and smartphones.  From the Conversation: 

Why connecting all the world’s robots will drive 2017’s top technology trends
If you want to make predictions for the future, you need to find the trajectory of events in the past. So to work out what shape digital technology will likely take next year, we should look back to the major developments of 2016. And the past year’s developments point to a 2017 shaped by the next phase of virtual and augmented reality, the emergence of an internet for artificial intelligence and the creation of personalised digital assistants that follow us across devices.

Virtual world

One technology in particular has dominated the news throughout the year and made the birthday wish-lists of children and adults alike: virtual reality. VR began to bloom commercially in 2016 – with HTC, Oculus (owned by Facebook) and PlayStation all releasing their latest headsets. But 2017 will almost certainly be a pivotal year for VR, given its rather precarious position on the “hype cycle”.

This is a research methodology for predicting the commercial dominance of an emerging technology as it matures and goes through periods of increasing hype, sudden disillusionment and eventual success. Presently VR is on the precipice of the “peak of inflated expectations”, where the hype exceeds the reality and quality comes second to novelty.  .... "

Brainspace Data Visualization

Brainspace

Augmenting intelligence to accelerate human potential

Welcome to the future of digital investigations.  ... 

Discovery 5 is the fastest and most powerful weapon for conducting digital investigations. Developed using our patented machine learning platform, Discovery is a comprehensive investigative application designed to help you quickly decipher the truth. ... " 

I see that the CIA is funding brainspace via IQT (IN-Q-Tel) .   Like the fact that Brainspace is emphasizing specific business challenges (investigations) .  More on the funding here.

" .... Partnership will empower the U.S. Intelligence Community with advanced machine learning and data visualization for investigations and cyber security.

Dallas, Texas – October 11, 2016 – Brainspace, creators of Brainspace Discovery™, an industry leader for unstructured data analysis, today announced a strategic partnership agreement with an investment from In-Q-Tel, Inc. (IQT). IQT is the non-profit strategic investor that identifies and accelerates the development of innovative technologies to support the mission of the U.S. intelligence community. This strategic partnership accelerates the emergence of Brainspace as the market leader in analytics for digital investigations and further validates the company’s machine learning technology in supporting the operational requirements of the U.S. intelligence community. ... " 

Also their blog.

Internet of Robotic Things

I remember an effort that sought to share the learning of robots, this is different:

The latest Internet of Things (IoT) sub-segment to emerge is the Internet of Robotic Things, where intelligent robots operate with relative autonomy.

As reported by ZDNet, ABI Research is championing the emergence of IoT-powered robots.

In essence the Internet of Robotic Things (IoRT) describes devices that are able to combine data from various sources, monitor events, determine a best course of action and manipulate objects in the real world.

And though the IoRT concept has been kicking around for a few years, ABI’s practice director of robotics Dan Kara says the technology is still in the early stages.

However, he says new innovations are starting to appear in this space, like iRobot which uses Amazon Web Services to connect consumer robotic devices to the cloud.   .... " 

Re Emergence of Google Glass

According to this piece it has never gone away.  We spoke with Google on uses, and never got a very supportive answer.   I get the idea that at the time the snarky press had already eroded some of the possible augmented reality style possibilities.  Saw some impressive medical applications demonstrated, without a scary headset.

Fog Computing for Distributed IoT Analytics

I like the emergence of new ways to address the complexity and volume of data.

How IoT Can Benefit from Fog Computing  By Ben Dickson. ...

What I’m mentioning a lot these days (and hearing about it as well) is the chaotic propagation and growth of the Internet of Things. With billions of devices slated to connect to the internet every year, we’re going to be facing some serious challenges. I’ve already discussed how blockchain technology might address connectivity issues for huge IoT ecosystems.

But connectivity accounts for a small part of the problems we’ll be facing. Another challenge will be processing and making sense of the huge reams of data that IoT devices are generating. Close on its heels will be the issue of latency or how fast an IoT system can react to events. And as always, security and privacy issues will remain one of the top items in the IoT challenge list.

Fog computing (aka edge computing) can help mitigate – if not overcome – these challenges. As opposed to the cloud, where all the computation takes place in a central location, fog computing pushes the computation of tasks toward the edge of the network and distributes it among smart routers or gateways. The term and concept was coined by networking giant Cisco even before the IoT became a buzzword, but it was the advent of the Internet of Things that provided it with true, legitimate use cases.  .... " 

Emergence of Legal Robots

Have examined related problems, like the legal examination of contracts.  So not unexpected we are seeing attempts for legal AI to replace elements of expensive services.  In Inc.

Building Morality into Machines

Remember when this was discussed during the last emergence of smart machines.   The problem has not gone away.   Good detailed piece with a number of useful case descritpions.  Note the decision aspect. Decisions need to be improved under another set of complex constraints.   In the CACM: 

Building Morality into Machines  By Samuel Greengard
" .... In the past, there was not a strong need to have technology ethics embedded into machines, because most systems had merely automated tasks, or operated under direct human control, explains John P. Sullins, a professor of philosophy at the Center for Ethics Value and Society at Sonoma State University in California. As autonomous machines step, roll, and fly into our lives, however, there is a growing need to draw on elements of psychology, sociology, philosophy, anthropology, theology, actuarial science, political policy, and law to guide actions and machine behavior. This translates into hierarchies or scoring systems that sort through real-world events and guide automated decision-making.  .... " 

Store Formatting by Kroger and other Retailers

In Retailwire:  Something we examined in the innovation centers.  At both the shelf and broader store design level.  Here some interesting views of how this is linked to demographics.  How has the emergence of online changed these designs?   Comments by other observers is also interesting.

P&G Looks at Digital Marketing

An interview.  We worked with Marc Pritchard.   He 'grew up' with the emergence of digital marketing, so his thoughts are interesting to follow.

In Adage:
Where P&G Sees Future of Digital Going and Its Impact on Agencies, Creative ... Ahead of Ad Age's Digital Conference, Marc Pritchard Talks About How Digital Reshapes Relationships and Strategies  ...  "