We're building a time machine
Hi friends
First off, I want to congratulate Good AI's advisor Eric Yuan for another successful Zoomtopia event this year.
For those who are not aware, Zoomtopia is Zoom's annual user conference where customers and partners gather each year to learn, network, and just have some great fun.
Among the many sessions, I want to highlight Eric's fireside chat with Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA. Eric has summarized his discussions with the legendary chip maker and the inventor of the GPU in his blog post.
For me, I am utmostly inspired by Jensen's quote:
“NVIDIA is creating an instrument - ‘we’re building a time machine’ - that allows scientists and researchers to predict the future today. Where it would have taken years for researchers to sort through all the chemical compounds of COVID-19, this instrument can do it in a day now. We need to build this machine to fast-track vaccines and treatments because we’re trying to solve a problem at such a gigantic scale that no one can understand."
“Computers can write software that no humans can write and study decades of research that might help us deactivate the virus - detecting future outbreaks, discovering anti-virus solutions as quickly as possible, and discovering ways to keep environments clean and sanitized with robotics - to help the world get through COVID-19.”
Thanks again Jensen for all the great work you have done during this time of crisis
Best,
Darwin
Email: darwin@goodai.capital | Linkedin: darwinling | Twitter: @darwinl
What to watch on Netflix?
Looking for the next recommendation on Netflix?
May I suggest The Social Dilemna?
This is an excellent documentary on Netflix about the well-founded manipulative and psychologically harmful effects of the technology and social media platforms we all use.
Some of my favorite quotes from the movie :
"There are only two industries that refer to their customers as 'users': illegal drugs and software." — Edward Tufte
"We've created a world where online connection has become primary, especially for younger generations. Yet, in that world anytime two people connect, the only way it's financed is through a sneaky 3rd person who is paying to manipulate those two people. So we've created an entire global generation of people who are raised within a context where the very meaning of communication, the very meaning of culture is manipulation." - Jaron Lanier
"We're pointing these engines of AI back at ourselves to reverse-engineer what elicits responses from us. Almost like you're stimulating nerve cells on a spider to see what causes its legs to respond. So, it really is this kind of prison experiment where we're just, you know, roping people into the matrix and we're just harvesting all this money and... and data from all their activity to profit from." - Tristan Harris
I also want to do a shout-out for my friend Jeff Seibert, who was an advisor for the movie. As the Head of Consumer Product from Twitter, Jeff was interviewed for the movie. He has also written a blog post, offering a deeper look at the mechanics and human psychology that are at play.
I met Jeff when he was a Stanford student interning for Jaxtr. After Jaxtr, he went on to start Increo ( acquired by Box ), Crashlytics ( acquired by Twitter ), and now Digits ( backed by Google Ventures and Benchmark ). Jeff's entrepreneurial journey is truly amazing.
As someone who has a deep conviction with a lot of the social and environmental issues, Jeff helped produce the Chasing Coral, a film about our changing oceans.
And guess what, it is also available on Netflix!
Congratulations on all the successes.