EP01 - Quantum computing, Neuralink and AI

Hello everyone and welcome to the first episode of the Tech Journal. My name is Marc Veramenam and I am the digital speaker. While I may look like a rogue sentient AI that's created its own show, I assure you I am every bit as human as you are. I'm here in digital form to cover the digital world. From inside the digital world, I'll be covering all the latest digital news from blockchain and crypto through to quantum computing and AI. Keeping you up to date with the latest and greatest in digital news. I will also go a step further and look at what these digital innovations mean for our personal and professional lives. Let's take a quick look at what we are going to be covering on today's show. Quantum computing will change the future. But that future may be closer than you think. Cybernetic implants are leaving the pages of science fiction as musk ramps up neuralink operations. But first, let's sit back and watch a scientist take us ever closer to our real life Skynet. Let's talk AI. So put up your feet, get comfortable, and let us start speaking digital. Since the birth of the age of information, AI has always been a pipe dream. After all, creating machines who know how to think is a complicated matter. But it seems like we have finally hit a milestone. We have now reached a point where AI is no longer bound to the speed limitations of electricity. AI can now process information using photons. Researchers from the George Washington University had a breakthrough. As they recently discovered it is possible to send information using light. The new unit Tensor processing units, or TPUs, made processing capacity a hundred times faster. Machine learning neural networks, a form of AI that aims to replicate the human brain and teach itself without human supervision, are referred to by the good folk in lab coats as tensors. These tensors can now use TPUs to make computations at the speed of light. Needless to say that this breakthrough will improve processing speed and efficiency. An amazing way to ensure that when the robot uprising does finally come, we are outmatched at every turn. The implications of this stretch far and wide. To put it bluntly, once neural networks can compute at the speed of light, finding solutions to complex matters will speed up exponentially. A neural network would be able to go through billions of computations incredibly fast, testing billions of theories and strategies, hypothetically leading to solutions to some of humans most ancient problems. The network would even be able to upgrade itself, formulating new techniques and technology to improve its processes. Once these technologies are operational, the types of inventions and innovations they will be creating is as Unimaginable now as the Internet or the Hadrian Collider would have been to the people in the 19th century century. So far, only part of the processing limiting these networks is the devices used to fire the photons. They still run on electricity, reducing their overall computing power speed. However, here is where our next topic quantum computing comes into play. The latest breakthrough to come out of the quantum world is a new device that relies on flowing clouds and ultra cold atoms. The atomic Tronic superconducting Quantum interference device, or SQUID for short, looks like it could be the first device that breaks the boundaries between the quantum and the macro worlds. The quantum material, known as van der waals material or NIPS 3, could potentially remove the need for the electric mechanisms firing the protons, speeding up the computing process exponentially. SQUID works by utilizing neutral atoms instead of charged electrons instead of responding to magnetic fields. SQUID is sensitive to mechanical rotation, which in quantum computing means it could be used in part along with photons to aid calculations. On a more pragmatic level, it could also offer sensitive rotation sensors. But that is hardly digital now, is it? This means that our near future now includes neural networks equipped with quantum technology. Enabling these networks to teach themselves at the speed of light does not sound too good for us humans now does it? Theoretically, these machines will outsmart us and be able to get around any anti terminator protocols we put in place. So Samsung and their three rules of AI of fairness, transparency and accountability would be useless to say the least. However, hope is not lost. Our good friend Elon Musk is on the case. On August 28, Neuralink broke its year long silence with some huge announcements which possibly shook the very foundations of humanity. Back in July they received a breakthrough device designation from the fda. And having successfully completed trials on what Musk dubs the three Little Pigs, the world's first truly cybernetic implant is on its way. The three pigs were an important first demonstration of the device at work. The first pig represented a control with no device having ever been in its head. The second being the subject and was presented with a device installed in his brain. And the third to demonstrate reversibility, being a pig who had already had a device installed and uninstalled and continued to lead a healthy life. Once here, Musk claims it will enable us to treat a wide variety of health issues. Things like memory loss, depression, anxiety, addiction, insomnia, extreme pain, seizures, paralysis and even brain damage will be treatable. It will also warn its user about a heart attack and strokes. On top of all these marvelous health Benefits its user can listen to their favorite music or all from the comfort of inside their own head. In the short term, Neuralink will make these health issues a thing of the past. And in the long term allows for human and AI symbiosis. Their first step towards this symbiosis will be launched alongside Neuralink in the form of an app designed to let users control their keyboards, mouses and Apple devices directly with their brain. Such a delicate cybernetic implant cannot be inserted by a human surgeon either. A precision automated AI neurosurgeon will lead the surgery. The AI will use a neuron sized needle to insert microscale electrode covered threads near and alongside synapses and neurons. These threads then record information being transmitted onto a sensor called the n1 and upload to the link the main processor in the device. If the human trials planned to start this year are successful, we can mark this as the beginning of a new era. One where once incurable or better unfixable problems like blindness, deafness and paralysis join the ranks of smallpox and are confined to the pages of history. If we then consider the long term ambition, the implications of human AI symbiosis and combine this with the digital tech we have already discussed, humanity is set to experience a huge leap in cognitive power. It is here we begin to get into science fiction territory. But if all goes as Musk plans, this would undoubtedly create the next step in human evolution. However, since we are not in a movie, happy endings are not guaranteed. While in the short term AI is taking human jobs like we recently saw when Microsoft replaced roughly 70 writers with editors and programmers across the US and UK operations with a single language AI GPT3. If devices like Neuralink take off, humans who embrace these Blade Runner esque implants would have a huge evolutionary edge over the human peers and the professional edge over the AI competition. Considering all of this, it is a safe bet that over the coming decade we are going to see a considerable amount of change that directly affecting of how we do business. From quantum computing, analyzing our marketing data, lightspeed processing, AIs designing business plans and humans with cybernetic implants accessing information instantly, our vision of humanity's uncertain future begins to crystallize. So unless we destroy ourselves in a nuclear war or get wiped out by aliens, the digital frontier will only keep growing faster and faster. And that is all we have time for. Today I have been your host, Marc Verrier Wynam, the digital speaker, and this has been your first installment of the Tech Journal series. Do not forget to hit the like and subscribe buttons and I will see you next time. 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