As I walked on the treadmill this morning I listened to several podcasts. My kids laugh at me for listening to podcasts instead of music while I work out. However, I find that doing something I enjoy and benefit from (like listening to podcasts or audiobooks on a range of topics including investments, behavioral finance, religion, current events, technology, politics, and etc.) while simultaneously doing something I hate, but benefit from (like working out) helps motivate me to do more of the latter. It makes me feel better about myself and makes me more efficient. Anyway, the podcast segment linked here about the ethics of artificial intelligence caught my attention. https://worldandeverything.org/2019/07/the-ethics-of-artificial-intelligence/ I thought it was ironic that on the way to the gym, my wife and I had discussed how Amazon, Facebook, and Google is making our life much easier but the cost to our privacy is probably higher than we even realize. While Dr. Marks’ insight on AI was enlightening, his comment about the limitations of AI being its inability to be creative or “think outside the box” started me thinking about the fact that most of the people on the world’s richest people list got there by turning traditional wisdom on its head or “thinking outside the box.” Who would have thought that you could become the world’s richest person by selling books? Jeff Bezos did! But he didn’t become the richest man in the world by doing it the way everyone else was doing it. Instead he took the traditional brick and mortar retail model, turned it on its head, and combined it with the mail order model. Today, my Alexa can announce that UPS just delivered a box of toilet paper to my front door. I’m happy because instead of going to the store I just have to walk to my front door to retrieve my toilet paper and Jeff Bezos just got a little richer. The take away – If Jeff Bezos can become the richest man in the world by having books and toilet paper delivered to my front door, maybe I should be spending a little more time “thinking outside the box” in my business and life in general.
The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence and How to Become a Billionaire
