New sections may appear every week or just when I have something new to share. I want to thank everyone for giving me the SurveyMonkey feedback about Current Events blog post. Here are the results:
75% said “I like the Current Events blog post and I read most of the sections”
25% said “I look at all sections and read at least a few of them”
Some comments made were:
“Offers an insightful, and some times different, perspective.”
“Helps me keep up with current events that might not be covered other places.”
Numerous comments expressing interest in AI
This one takes the cake. Gabriel’s Restaurant has great food but the owner established the worst Wi-Fi authentication credentials I have ever seen. Seems he wants to make things as difficult as possible for his customers.
The trip to the Catskill Mountains was great. We spent some time with friends. We walked the circumference of Oquaga Lake (2.75 miles). The shared photo album is here. There are pictures of Chestnut Inn in Deposit, NY where we stayed two nights. You will also see pictures of the Tesla and EVolve NY charging stations in Hancock, NY. You will also see the Ford F150 Lightning charging on a Tesla Supercharger. We made a side trip to Calicoon, NY. It is an authentic frontier town. On Sunday we departed for New York City. You will see some pics from Central Park. For some unexplainable reason, Apple does not allow the use of captions in shared albums.
My talk on AI on Thursday at the Ridgefield Library drew 92 attendees. Used all of their chairs. Interesting Q&A session. I will post the video when it is ready.
The startup I am sharing about this week is Caper AI, a startup I was lucky enough to get into near its beginning via FundersClub. Caper offers contactless and automated checkout powered by AI and computer vision. Their self-checkout tech commonly works in grocery and convenience stores. In October 2021, Caper was acquired by Maperbear Inc., which does business as Instacart. Since FundersClub now holds Instacart shares, a good return may happen soon if/when Instacart goes public, which they are planning to do.
According to Bard AI, following are some of the latest developments in AI. As usual, the list contains some very positive things along with some scary things.
- Stability AI unveils ‘Stable Audio’ model for controllable audio generation. This new model can generate audio that is both realistic and controllable, making it a promising tool for a variety of applications, such as creating virtual assistants, generating music, and dubbing movies.
- White House secures safety commitments from eight more AI companies. The White House has been working to ensure that AI is developed and used safely and responsibly. This week, the White House announced that eight more AI companies have signed a pledge to adhere to a set of safety principles.
- MLPerf Inference v3.1 introduces new LLM and recommendation benchmarks. MLPerf is a benchmark suite for measuring the performance of AI models. The latest version of MLPerf, v3.1, introduces new benchmarks for large language models (LLMs) and recommendation systems.
- OutSystems: How AI-based development reduces backlogs. OutSystems is a low-code development platform that uses AI to help developers build and maintain applications more quickly. The company recently published a study that found that AI-based development can reduce backlogs by up to 50%.
These are just a few of the latest developments in AI this week. AI is a rapidly growing field, and it is constantly evolving. We can expect to see even more exciting developments in the coming months and years.
President Zelenskyy explains what happened in Crimea. This is a big deal.
Today there is something to specially commend the entire staff of the Security Service of Ukraine and our Navy for. I thank you for today’s triumph – the destruction of the occupiers’ air defense system on the land of our Crimea. It is a very significant achievement, well done!
Glory to all who fight for Ukraine! And thank you to everyone who helps!
Glory to Ukraine!
Crypto was a major topic at the G20 summit, which gathered the leaders of many of the world’s biggest economies in New Delhi, India last weekend. The summit, which was hosted by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (and attended by leaders including President Biden), issued a joint declaration which included a section on crypto policy — an indicator that governments around the world see the growing need for clarity in crypto regulation. Following was reported by Coinbase Bytes.
What is the G20?
The Group of 20 is a consortium of many of the world’s largest economies, consisting of 19 countries and the European Union. Members — including the U.S., China, Russia, India, and South Africa — meet annually in an attempt to coordinate policy around issues that impact the global economy. Key issues up for discussion this year included the war in Ukraine, global climate policy, and crypto regulation.
Why was crypto on this year’s agenda?
There’s growing international consensus on the need for regulatory clarity in crypto. According to a recent Coinbase report, “83% of G20 members and major financial hubs have made progress toward regulatory clarity for crypto.”
The host country sets the agenda, and since last year, major Indian political figures have been signaling their intention to make crypto a key topic, with the country’s finance minister saying that “no one single country can succeed in individually, being in a silo, trying to regulate the crypto assets.” In the runup to this year’s meeting, India also requested that the International Monetary Fund and Financial Stability Board detail a roadmap toward a global crypto regulatory framework and policy recommendations.
Which crypto topics were discussed at the G20?
Participating countries agreed to work toward implementing the IMF-FSB policy roadmap — although the plan is short on specifics. Instead, it provides broad recommendations: that countries shouldn’t implement outright bans of crypto, that they should institute sound monetary policies to ensure that citizens don’t begin to prefer crypto over fiat currencies in the long run, and that central banks shouldn’t hold crypto. Because G20 resolutions are non-binding, actual regulations will come from each member’s domestic legislative process.
What happens next?
As India’s G20 presidency winds down, all eyes are turning toward Brazil, which will assume the presidency in December, and which is expected to have a more progressive approach to crypto as a global leader in crypto regulation. Latin America’s largest economy already boasts a domestic crypto framework, has multiple spot crypto ETFs trading on markets, and allows for tax payments in cryptocurrency.
JRP comment: Come on United States! Get with it and pick up the pace.
U.S. stocks ended sharply lower on Friday as chipmakers dropped on concerns about weak consumer demand. Seems like the number of variables is increasing making it hard to predict what the markets are going to do. All seven GAMMNAT stocks declined today, but their market cap is still above 11 $Trillion.
Following are videos of talks I gave this year. I have been fortunate to be able to share my thoughts on technology with a number of groups.
On July 21, I gave a lecture on AI @FoundersHallCT. I wan’t sure how many would turn out. It was a lot. Great interest in the topic. In addition to current events and outlooks, I told the audience about Robot Attitude: How Robots and Artificial Intelligence Will Make Our Lives Better.
On March 8th I was the guest speaker at the first meeting of Probus in Palm Coast, Florida on March 8. Probus is a worldwide organization of retired and semi-retired men and women who come together to make new friends, learn new things, and have fun. There are over 4,000 Probus clubs in more than 100 countries, with over 400,000 members. Probus clubs are non-political, non-sectarian, and non-profit. They are self-governing and autonomous, and each club sets its own policies and activities.
On March 30, I gave my 12th annual lecture called Tech Talk at Hammock Dunes Club in Palm Coast, Florida where I live in the winter.
On March 23, gave a town hall-like speech and Q&A with the IT special interest group (SIG) of the New York Executive Forum. The event was via Zoom.
On April 19, I gave a talk and Q&A with a group of Union Carbide retirees. Some years ago, Union Carbide had its headquarters about a mile from where I live in Connecticut. The event was via Zoom.
There are many more videos of my lectures, interviews, etc. on my YouTube channel which you can find here.
