There is an interesting series in the Financial Times where business book authors pick others they enjoy.
Recently, Amy Webb, author of The Big Nine, recommended Aldous Huxley’s dystopian novel Brave New World (1932): “Covid resulted in the acceptance and rapid deployment of mRNA, a groundbreaking advancement in an emerging field called synthetic biology, which aims to rewire living organisms and programme them with improved or new functions.
“If you re-read this as a business book about the future of biotech, you will inevitably find yourself asking new questions: what assumptions must hold true for our current strategy to succeed? What parts of our business make us a target for disruption? What happens to our business model if life expectancy is extended 30 years? How could the future of the workforce look very different than it does today?”
This touches on whether we are reportedly on the brink of a new era of innovation, with digital technology as an enabling factor but no longer centre stage. “The future will not be written in the digital language of ones and zeroes, but in that of atoms, molecules, genes and proteins,” according to entrepreneur and author Greg Satell.
Quantum computing to use the spin of electrons to store data, allied to advances in classical computing, are creating exciting opportunities for artificial intelligence (AI) and neuromorphic technology (more on the latter in our Global Healthcare Council report next month).
AI scientists, such as Jürgen Schmidhuber, as he mentioned in his Nvidia GTC 2021 talk in April, still expect convergence or the singularity to happen by 2040. Looking at the progress of AI and computing infrastructure efficiency towards brain-like levels of sparsity, the goal seems closer at hand than ever.
But what questions will it uncover before and after we get there?
Global AI Council
GCV is forming a Global AI Council that will be co-chaired by Jeff Herbst (Nvidia) and George Hoyem (In-Q-Tel).
The Council will help drive content and programming for the AI industry sector as well as seeking to promote collaboration between investors and innovative companies.
