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What is "proven" to you? I mean, the tech displayed today is basically unmatched by most humans. Curating the best shots in Google Photos, all the integration w

What is "proven" to you? I mean, the tech displayed today is basically unmatched by most humans. Curating the best shots in Google Photos, all the integration with Google Home, Lens that can identify almost any object in meat space... the list goes on and on. It is not going to regress somehow... I mean, it is probably exponentially increasing in power by the day. There is no AI competition against a company that has Tensor Processing Units among the absolutely incomprehensible data store that Google has amassed.... Especially if you are not some world class mathematician or computer scientist. The best you can hope for is to be acquired if you are in the ML/AI space as a stand-alone entity. In most cases they can probably safely ignore the bulk of AI startups.

eanzenberg 9y ago
That's still only computer vision and speech recognition. Google still does piss-poor at answering your questions using snippets.
skybrian 9y ago
It seems like picking the best photos, at least, is a pretty forgiving task. It's subjective, and I expect people will accept any set of pretty good shots. Also, those TPU's are available for rent.
- monkmartinez 9y ago
  Definitely forgiving, but I think you are missing the point. The fact is, Google owns the whole process from top to bottom. Nice that TPU's are available for rent, but to what end? If I run something truly innovative on their hardware (TPU), with their software platform(Tensor)...is that actually innovation, will they have the means to just copy it? How do I compete with that?
  - skybrian 9y ago
    Would you say the same thing of Go or Chrome? These are tools anyone can use. Building something higher in the stack isn't cheating, it's just reuse. (Snapchat is built on Google Cloud, for example.) As always you want to be careful about dependencies, but that doesn't mean rewriting everything.
    - monkmartinez 9y ago
      Yes, I would, as there is no way for me to truly compete with Google if I am using their tools. The premise is so flawed that I have trouble even formulating possible counter arguments you may suggest. I use chrome and little snitch is always telling on it. It calls home so much that I have just given up in order to have a decent experience and gave it full connection rights. I don't know how much of the browser Chrome owns, but I guess it is not insignificant. That is a lot of data that I will never have access to... let alone for my family nor on at Google scale. Netflix uses AWS and competes with Amazon Prime... I get it. I do think that no one knows the whole story. Getting back to OP... it has to be damn tiring/frustrating to even contemplate competing in AI/ML space with these big mega corps. I simply would not, that ship has sailed.
  - EGreg 9y ago
    That's the age old question - what if Facebook copies what you did, in a week? Like they did with Twitter or Snapchat? By the time they copy you, you're already big. I don't really see the problem as long as the tech companies don't hoard the information and spread the knowledge - which they are doing with initiatives like OpenAI and many more. The big question is, what happens when they invent AI that builds its own programs and exponentially accelerates? Who needs startups at all then?
    - monkmartinez 9y ago
      Bull. Instagram is eating Snapchat for lunch right now, for starters. Twitter is going down in flames soon enough as well. There is a massive consolidation taking place in social, and I think with tech in general. We are at a point where automation, AI/ML and resources are the next battle grounds. Sure there will be wins here and there, but like the app stores in 2014... the gold rush looks like it's over.
nightski 9y ago
So in your opinion having accurate visual recognition/identification is the final human technology? We can stop now?
- monkmartinez 9y ago
  No, you didn't read what I wrote: It [Google AI efforts] are not going to regress somehow... I mean, it is probably exponentially increasing in power by the day. They not only have custom silicon (TPU), they have the software too. Do you have extraordinary insight|foresight|genius or have you discovered/developed a major breakthrough in AI/ML? If not, good luck competing with these companies. It is a resource problem at this stage, as consolidation happened and there is no going back.

eanzenberg 9y ago

That's still only computer vision and speech recognition. Google still does piss-poor at answering your questions using snippets.

skybrian 9y ago

It seems like picking the best photos, at least, is a pretty forgiving task. It's subjective, and I expect people will accept any set of pretty good shots. Also, those TPU's are available for rent.

monkmartinez 9y ago
Definitely forgiving, but I think you are missing the point. The fact is, Google owns the whole process from top to bottom. Nice that TPU's are available for rent, but to what end? If I run something truly innovative on their hardware (TPU), with their software platform(Tensor)...is that actually innovation, will they have the means to just copy it? How do I compete with that?
- skybrian 9y ago
  Would you say the same thing of Go or Chrome? These are tools anyone can use. Building something higher in the stack isn't cheating, it's just reuse. (Snapchat is built on Google Cloud, for example.) As always you want to be careful about dependencies, but that doesn't mean rewriting everything.
  - monkmartinez 9y ago
    Yes, I would, as there is no way for me to truly compete with Google if I am using their tools. The premise is so flawed that I have trouble even formulating possible counter arguments you may suggest. I use chrome and little snitch is always telling on it. It calls home so much that I have just given up in order to have a decent experience and gave it full connection rights. I don't know how much of the browser Chrome owns, but I guess it is not insignificant. That is a lot of data that I will never have access to... let alone for my family nor on at Google scale. Netflix uses AWS and competes with Amazon Prime... I get it. I do think that no one knows the whole story. Getting back to OP... it has to be damn tiring/frustrating to even contemplate competing in AI/ML space with these big mega corps. I simply would not, that ship has sailed.
- EGreg 9y ago
  That's the age old question - what if Facebook copies what you did, in a week? Like they did with Twitter or Snapchat? By the time they copy you, you're already big. I don't really see the problem as long as the tech companies don't hoard the information and spread the knowledge - which they are doing with initiatives like OpenAI and many more. The big question is, what happens when they invent AI that builds its own programs and exponentially accelerates? Who needs startups at all then?
  - monkmartinez 9y ago
    Bull. Instagram is eating Snapchat for lunch right now, for starters. Twitter is going down in flames soon enough as well. There is a massive consolidation taking place in social, and I think with tech in general. We are at a point where automation, AI/ML and resources are the next battle grounds. Sure there will be wins here and there, but like the app stores in 2014... the gold rush looks like it's over.

nightski 9y ago

So in your opinion having accurate visual recognition/identification is the final human technology? We can stop now?

monkmartinez 9y ago
No, you didn't read what I wrote: It [Google AI efforts] are not going to regress somehow... I mean, it is probably exponentially increasing in power by the day. They not only have custom silicon (TPU), they have the software too. Do you have extraordinary insight|foresight|genius or have you discovered/developed a major breakthrough in AI/ML? If not, good luck competing with these companies. It is a resource problem at this stage, as consolidation happened and there is no going back.