Editor’s note: Tom Snyder, executive director of rapidly growing Raleigh-based RIoT and a thought leader in the emerging Internet of Things, is the newest columnist to join WRAL TechWire’s list of top drawer contributors. “Datafication Nation” are part of WRAL TechWire’s Startup Monday package.
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RALEIGH – I had the pleasure of attending Collision recently in Toronto. Collision is a major international conference focused on emerging technologies and entrepreneurship. Nearly 2,000 startups from around the world attended, joined by major corporate executives including AWS CEO Adam Selipsky, Stripe CTO David Singleton and Google DeepMind CBO Colin Murdoch. More than 35,000 people attended, along with ~1,000 members of the media, including world-renowned technology journalists like WIRED Editor-at-Large, Steven Levy.
The three day, high-energy event explored the latest technology and business trends. I’ll list the biggest themes here and follow up with deeper explorations of these in the coming weeks.
AI is the new black
AI was the hot topic at Collision this year. Everyone from startups to big corporations was talking about how AI is transforming their businesses. GPT-4, Bard, and StarCoder are just a few of the large language models that have opened the eyes of the public to the power of software-generated automation. These models are capable of generating text, translating languages, writing different kinds of creative content, and answering your questions in an informative way.
While AI and Large Language Models have been around for decades, it is only recently that LLM transformers have become widely accessible to the public. This has led to a wave of creativity and innovation as startups explore new ways to use AI to solve problems. Right now we are in more of a hype and marketing phase as the maturity of the tech improves. For most enterprise applications, the accuracy and reliability is still too buggy – but the rate of improvement is unprecedented, so now is the time to engage if you have not already. Everyone should be learning how to use generative AI tools, no matter what your job or field is.
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Data ownership is about more than just privacy
Another big trend at Collision was data ownership. Most public discourse around data ownership has centered on corporate mis-use of (or even visibility to) personal data. While this is a hugely important topic that warrants continued discussion and regulation, the bigger focus right now is on the ownership of large datasets.
This is especially true in the context of AI. Large language models like GPT-4 require massive amounts of data to train. Companies are beginning to rethink how accessible they make their data sets to entrepreneurs and startups. This has led to some companies like Reddit,Twitter and Linkedin making their datasets more restrictive or expensive to access. While social-media platforms are the early movers, expect companies of all kinds to explore how to monetize their data in the coming weeks and months.
As AI becomes more sophisticated, businesses will need to have a clear understanding of who owns what data. This will be essential for ensuring that data is used ethically and responsibly. At the same time, companies are recognizing a new value derived from mass troves of raw data and are exploring methods to monetize it.
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Decentralized systems are in the trough of disillusionment
Decentralized systems and decentralized assets were all the rage at Collision last year. However, this year, the mood was much more subdued. The collapse of FTX and the future uncertainty at Coinbase have led to a decline in interest in decentralized solutions. While there was still a crypto track at the conference this year, the tech industry has taken a massive step back from the hype.
One exception is blockchain, one of the underlying technologies with much broader application than just cryptocurrency. Many expect new tools to emerge that enable blockchain microtransactions as a solution to the big data access challenge described above. It is clear that these technologies are still in their early stages of development. It will be interesting to see how they evolve in the years to come.
The wild west needs a sheriff
Most truly disruptive technologies are initially accessible to a small fraction of the population. Nuclear refinement and cloning technology are two examples. These technologies have the potential to create amazing positive impacts on society, but they are also open to abuse. However, the high cost, specialized facilities and equipment, and specialized expertise required to practice and use these technologies make them relatively easy to regulate and monitor. The lack of broad accessibility also allows time to discuss appropriate and inappropriate use and then regulate and set global precedent. For example, the ethical boundary of “don’t clone humans” has withstood the test of time.
Generative AI doesn’t have the luxury of restricted access and immediately we see deep fakes and fake news and all manner of unethical applications. This creates an opportunity for a new industry to arise, analogous to the anti-virus industry that emerged early in the internet age. Anti-virus software is responsible for detecting and removing malware from computers. In the same way, generative AI regulation software would be responsible for detecting and removing unethical applications of generative AI. Data and application veracity is a massive market opportunity.
Canada is making huge investments in entrepreneurship
Canada is making a big bet on entrepreneurship. At the event, Sean Fraser, the Canadian Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship made several huge announcements. Canada already has extremely tech-friendly policies to attract startups and entrepreneurs from around the world. At Collision they announced streamlined small business licensing procedures, new channels for startups to hire foreign workers, extended residency periods for immigrants on a citizenship track and a startup visa program for founders and early employees to move their company to Canada.
Perhaps the most significant initiative is Canada’s announcement that it will give 10,000 residency visas to any US-based tech worker who has been laid off this year and was previously on an H1B visa. That is a massive help for thousands who are struggling to find new H1B sponsors in the US and a direct strike at US competitiveness for top talent.
It remains to be seen if Canada’s strategy will be successful. But Toronto recently passed Chicago to become the 4th largest city in North America (behind Mexico City, NY and LA) and based on the construction cranes all over the city, the future looks bright.
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