Framework: Generative AI to Accelerate Scientific Discovery

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The history of humanity has been one of accelerating scientific and technological progress. Now, by amplifying the cognition and capabilities of scientists with AI, we can dramatically step up the pace of discovery.

By the very nature of discovery, we cannot know what we will learn. The coming advances in life and brain sciences and medicine alone will be absolutely transformative, let alone those in energy, materials science, food, and more.

This framework is a high-level distillation of a few of the cognitive tools and techniques for GenAI to assist scientists. As always it is a Beta version 1, please let me know any feedback or input to improve it!
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The business models to support a prosperous future for news media

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I believe the media industry has a prosperous future. Today at the fabulous humAIn conference by Unmade I made that case in the concluding “debAIt”, arguing strongly against the proposition “AI is news media’s extinction level event”.

What this debate really boils down to is the business models for news media.

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Framework: Humans + AI in institutional investment portfolio decision-making

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The primary application of my Humans + AI work over the last 18 months has been in strategic decision-making, working with boards and executive teams to augment their decision-making processes and outcomes using generative AI.

The other major Humans + AI application I’ve been working on is in institutional investment decision-making. I am currently shifting more of my attention and work into this space. 

This framework provides a very high-level slice of a few of the many human and generative AI roles in different phases of portfolio decision-making.

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Jorge Luis Borges and the impact of AI on human creativity

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Jorge Luis Borges has been one of my favorite authors since my teens. Over the last couple of years I have often thought of one of his masterpieces, Pierre Menard, Author of The Quixote, written in 1939, which turns out to be extremely relevant to the age of AI. 

The story recounts how a contemporary writer, Pierre Menard, rewrites Cervantes’ epic Don Quixote word for word. However he writes it entirely from his own context, making the text laden with layers of meaning missing from the original. The reviewer played by Borges in the piece finds the new Quixote, coinciding word for word with the original, enriched, astounding, and more significant than the original.

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Humans + AI in financial decision-making: consumer, portfolio, and organizational

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Arguably the entire finance industry can be framed as a massive inter-related array of decisions, by both clients and financial insttutions.

In this world AI wil be transformative, in most cases not by supplanting humans in the decision-making process, but in playing a role in ‘Humans + AI’ decision-making.

I was recently interviewed for the NAB Digital Next podcast for an episode titled Futurist Ross Dawson on humans and AI achieving more together. You can listen here, with some distilled reflections below.
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The most dangerous idea ever is that humans will be vastly transcended by AI

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The advent of next-generation AI has brought into sharp focus one of the biggest divides of all: our perception of humanity’s place in the Universe.

I endlessly read people arguing that humans will be to AI as animals or insects are to humans. They envision a future where AI’s relentless advancement transcends every faculty we possess.

The countervailing stance is that human potential is unlimited. We have deliberately and consistently increased our capabilities and knowledge, and now we will use the tools we have created to continue to advance.

The rise of AI has intensified this debate, leading us to question: Are we, as humans, inherently limited or unlimited?

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University education still matters, especially for generational economic mobility

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Formal education is critical for generational mobility, allowing young people to transcend engrained perceptions to not just learn, but demonstrate their capabilities by recognised paths.

Jose Luis Alvarado, dean of the Fordham Graduate School of Education, has written an excellent counter-narrative to those saying that tertiary education doesn’t matter any more, om the deep inequity of the anti-college movement. He shares how he was told at school he shouldn’t aspire to going to college. Others didn’t see his potential, quite possibly because of his family background.
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David Droga at SxSW Sydney on creativity and AI

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David Droga is absolutely someone I wanted to hear from at SxSW Sydney (among many other claims to fame he is the most awarded creative ever at Cannes Lion and CEO of the $16 billion agency Accenture Song).

Creativity was long supposed to be last bastion of human dominion over machines,. Yet over the last 18 months that has been cast into doubt. So what is the future of creativity in a world in which AI is – in some ways at least – becoming creative? It’s best to get it in David’s words. Here are some of most interesting quotes I captured from the session.

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Four pillars boards need to understand about generative AI

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Generative AI is moving past being a buzzword to being woven into the fabric of business strategy and operations. It will undounbtedly lead to innovation, reconfiguration, and transformation across sectors. As it moves to the heart of business models and work structures, boards and executives must not only understand but adeptly navigate its complexities.

Responding to the results of a survey of board members, leading business thinker Tom Davenport asks Are Boards Kidding Themselves About Generative AI? In particular he points to their claimed degree of expertise in generative AI.

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What the democratization of software development means for organizations

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Low-code and no-code software development have been around for a while. Now the rise of AI-assisted software development is pushing the power of software creation to the next level. This provides big opportunities but also risks that need to be managed.

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