The entire startup space has become spoiled in the last couple of decades via new business models that can be tweaked for a variety of purposes. How many companies have raised money on the pitch of “Airbnb for this” or “Uber for that”? Too many to count. But no team has ever become a dynasty […]

It’s rare that a technology is created and has an immediate impact. It usually takes months or years to find product-market fit. In the case of mesh networking, it took 7 years and a cultural calamity to bring about the widespread use. Specifically, the protests in Hong Kong precipitated the perfect atmosphere for mesh networking […]

40% of AI startups don’t even use AI… Sounds preposterous, right? Well, a venture capital firm in Europe studied more than 2,830 European companies classified as AI companies. And came to the conclusion that 40% of them didn’t use AI in a way that was material to their activities, focus, and funding. This is what happens when […]

From books to blouses, who would’ve guessed that Amazon would ever dominate the retail clothing business. But at every turn they’ve silenced the doubters. And their steady investments in the Amazon Fashion Technology lineup continue to raise eyebrows. The latest is a machine learning algorithm called the Amazon Personal Shopper which will help stay effortlessly […]

Rick Ross unfollowed his 17-year-old daughter on Instagram after he found out she was pregnant. A picture of an egg became the most liked post on Instagram, beating out Kylie Jenner. These are perhaps the two greatest parables for humanity’s relationship with social media I’ve ever come across. So where’s the future of social media […]

Foresight is one of the more achievable superpowers that humans can possess. Obviously not to the point of determining next week’s winning lottery numbers. But a milder version. Not to toot my own horn, but it’s a skill I’ve been honing for the past 12 years. On the frequent occasions I make a prediction that […]

Your eyes take the first bite of every meal. It’s the first judgment every diner makes. Which is why restaurants care so much for the presentation of a meal. Even the chain restaurants must present their food consistently and appetizingly. Naturally, we’re not far from restaurants using AI to assist in this department. One of […]

What would happen if someone created an AI writer that could create at the rate of the entire staff of The New York Times? What if it were equivalent to that of 10 complete staff? Or 100? Naturally, we all fear the worst – a complete crumbling of public media. This belief is what led […]

What happens when you cross AI and VR? Sorry, but you get a riddle that doesn’t have a joke at the end. Actually what you get is NeuroVR. A surgical simulator and assessment platform all bundled into one. It’s a model poised to greatly impact education. NeuroVR isn’t an anomaly. It signals the beginning of […]

There’s always an interesting interplay we can analyze between culture and technology. Sometimes it takes a meme movement on Twitter in order to make a technology like AirPods culturally relevant. Other times you need technology like the fax machine in order to change the culture of work life. And then there’s Instagram. An image engine […]

One of the greatest conundrums of 90s culture was trying to figure out how Cosmo Kramer made a living on Seinfeld. His ability to cook up schemes here and there was laughable and totally unrealistic. Thirty years later, this style of work has become a standard amongst more than 36% of the US population. The Gig Economy glamorizes […]

A little less than two years ago (October 2017), I was toying around with the idea of a computer therapist. Not a novel idea, by any means. In fact, one of the earliest artificial intelligence programs was a computer therapist named ELIZA – created in 1964. Impressive for the time. Laughable today. However, the language models are […]

Human health data is the most valuable data we collect and analyze. It’s the only data I can think of that directly impacts the length of a person’s life. While fitness wearables have helped popularize the mass recording of individual, daily health data. Most monitors miss meaningful data – body temperature, blood pressure, blood glucose, […]

Social media platforms have been designed very similarly to casinos. They’re loaded with psychological tricks to keep you around for as long as possible, monetizing your attention all the while. It’s devious, genius, and problematic all at the same time. Aside from people changing their behaviors one at a time, how can we turn around […]

Not too long ago, Forbes created their annual Next Billion-Dollar Startups list. It’s sort of a prediction list for companies that’ll soon join the nearly 400 unicorns(worth a billion dollars). It’s not a proverbial, blind prediction list. All of these companies have some early traction. They’re a reflection of what’s working now. Not necessarily a guide to […]

Sometimes I wonder why we’ve romanticized the role of advertising but vilified the role of sales. They do the same thing. Both tap into people’s feelings, desires, and memories in order to sell. Look no further than the juxtaposition of Jordan Belfort (The Wolf of Wall Street) and Don Draper (Mad Men). One is portrayed […]

AI employees are already fairly prevalent around us. Chatbot customer service reps, content recommendation algorithms, spam filters – they are literally doing the jobs that would take tens of millions of people to do. We don’t get mad at Google for using AI spam filters, for the same reason we don’t get mad at Ford […]

Every great creator is contrasted by a critic. Zeppelin had The Rolling Stonemagazine. Kubrick and Spielberg had Siskel and Ebert. But when we look out twenty years – realizing that the next Shakespeare, Pollock, or Spielberg could actually be a piece of software – will creative AI also be faced with critical AI? Are creative algorithms such as […]

There’s a good chance that the Internet has tricked you once. Accidentally buying something you didn’t mean to, agreeing to something that gave away your data, or clicking an ad that looked like native content. These are traps known as Dark Patterns. They are psychological design elements that turn you into a puppet – forcing […]

Amazon, Google, and other Internet of Things companies have been feeding us the idea of the smart home for years. This paradise-like ecosystem that is sustainable, safe, automated, and self-updating. While most of us are waiting for these commercial behemoths to roll out this vision – others are taking it upon themselves to update their […]