GenAI is the New Metaverse
Have you noticed that nobody really talks about the metaverse anymore?
Yep. There’s a new buzz-word out there. It’s called GenAI (or generative AI). What is GenAI? It s a form of artificial intelligence that takes (learns) known patterns, and then uses these patterns to generate new output. It can do that for all kinds of things: text, graphics, code, audio… It’s very impressive.
Actually, in terms of artificial intelligence, while it’s very impressive, it’s not where I imagine AI will be in the future. It’s not really inventing fully new things. It’s spoon feeding us bits and pieces of stuff it was taught, reassembled in the context we asked it to operate in. It’s not capable of taking a split second decision based on a completely new environment and deliver actions or facts that are totally new. But it’s impressive, and it’s very visible.
In terms of AI, I’m more interested in things like neural networks that identify what I’m trying to take a picture of, and fine tune the result to optimize the scene for the subject. Or something capable of recognizing a living obstacle on the road, and avoid a collision. Or something interpreting a totally standard road environment and capable of deciding the speed limit, whether it’s allowed to pass another vehicle, turn left or right, need to stop or start and so one. GenAI doesn’t deliver on this. It will take powerful neural networks or maybe quantum computer chips (possibly combined in a low latency IoT environment) to provide that kind of AI.
Yet, everybody and their neighbor is talking about GenAI. Yes, the same (more or less) people who were all about metaverse 2 years ago (remember what I wrote in Jan 2022 on that subject). And the same who were all about NFTs a year before that (I wrote about that too), and blockchain 2 years again before (I wrote about the blockchain hype in 2018).
Do you see a pattern there? I do. I think in 1 to 3 years we’ll have stopped buzzing about generative AI and will be talking about something else.
So if you’re like everybody else and jumping on the GenAI bandwagon (even a company like Oracle is announcing a GenAI strategy), do so, but fast. And don’t waste too much permanent resources on it, you’ll need to reassign them elsewhere soon.
Note (20240510): I corrected a few typos… But more importantly… This article shows a direction I really like in AI. Neuromorphic computing. Watch that space!
