What's New With AI?

📆This Week’s Topic

This week, we’ll talk about some interesting updates in the world of AI. There are several ventures that could affect our everyday lives as consumers, such as the introduction of artificial intelligence into retail, but also could greatly improve businesses, namely the Ricursive ventures into a self-developing AI.

💳 Cause & Effect

Companies are currently trying to use AI for all aspects of their business, from chatbots at checkout lines, maximizing the efficiency of their supply chains, or using AI to advertise their products. John Furner and Sundar Pichai, the respective soon-to-be and current chief executives for Walmart and Google claimed that AI would redefine shopping at the National Retail Federation conference in New York. Large corporations such as Furner’s Walmart and fellow retail giant Amazon have already implemented AI assistants, to help you not only pick out items and do your shopping, but plan events and prep meals.

Planning for retirement raises many questions. Have you considered how much it will cost, and how you’ll generate the income you’ll need to pay for it? For many, these questions can feel overwhelming, but answering them is a crucial step forward for a comfortable future.

Start by understanding your goals, estimating your expenses and identifying potential income streams. The Definitive Guide to Retirement Income can help you navigate these essential questions. If you have $1,000,000 or more saved for retirement, download your free guide today to learn how to build a clear and effective retirement income plan. Discover ways to align your portfolio with your long-term goals, so you can reach the future you deserve.

Get The Guide

📊 Statistics

20 years ago, Amazon’s highly convenient online shopping revolutionized purchases, but these executives don’t want to destroy the current process for buying things, as Amazon did. In the 00’s, the rapid switch and usage of Amazon forced many brick-and-mortar stores into closure or financial losses. However it seems as if AI usage in stores has greatly diversified, as there are scores of start-ups which offer products from robots that can stock your shelves to security cameras that can tell how old and what gender a customer is. Currently, most companies across all industries don’t use AI at such a large scale as this, so in the future its speculative as to which companies might gain the potential advantages brought on by this so-called “new era.”

🔚 Outcome

While this development in AI could affect all of us, there is another conversation topic becoming key in many discussions; Self-Improving AI. The idea behind this new AI is to create a model that can work a better chip for itself. Thus, that chip will produce a better AI model, and the loop will go on. The creators of the model say that this self-improving loop is what inspires them to keep working on it.

⛱ Consumer Effect

The name of the model is Ricursive, and is the creation of two former Google researchers, Anna Goldie and Azalia Mirhoseini. The main goal of the project is to create an AI that can improve and help itself without the assistance of humans, which would be groundbreaking. What the Ricursive AI model would do is improve the chip it uses, which would allow it to use the better chip and hypothetically create a better, more efficient chip every time and grow infinitely, as long as there’s enough resources to support it.

🏢Business Effect

The project is gaining traction, and has gathered $335 Million in donations from venture capital firms. Ricursive is a recent venture (a little over a year old), and is already valued at $4 Billion dollars. Even though financial analysts and experts have warned against the AI Bubble, funding has poured in because the computing power so expensive and requires a lot of resources. If the bubble doesn’t pop and the Ricursive succeeds in improving itself, it could open doors to improving any type of technology using AI.

⏳ Final Summary

AI is being used in more creative ways with lots of potential, and there’s a bright future with self improving AI and with assistance to planning and purchasing. But if we rely too much on AI for everyday needs, what will happen to us as a society?

🙏Thank You & Important Information

As always, we hoped you enjoyed this edition of Friday Finance. Consider subscribing if you enjoy the biweekly newsletters, and think about sharing Friday Finance with a family member of friend you think would also enjoy it.

Best,

Grayson Stein & Jacob Gans