Garnet S. Heraman’s Post

They say that #automation is the future, but is that really true? Here’s a some thought provoking, first-of-its-kind news from Interesting Engineering today that might challenge that statement. In South Korea, a civil servant “Robot Supervisor” at Gumi City Council was found fully dysfunctional after it fell down a two-meter staircase. Accidents happen, right? The funny thing is, it seems as though the robot’s plunge was deliberate — it wasn’t vandalized or pushed by any physical thing but rather performed it in its own will. Witnesses claim they saw the robot circling in one spot before falling down the stairs, and some #experts have been suggesting the robot had experienced “an emotional breakdown” due to “high stress of its #workload,” and others are writing it off as a simple technical malfunction. What do you all think? Is this a robot “suicide”? Does this make you rethink the limits of technology? Should we consider the moral/ethical concerns of robot integration seriously now?

Grim news from Forbes last week. #Point72 Ventures (run by famous billionaire, Steve Cohen) has laid off their fintech team in an attempt to #pivot away from crypto and shift into more of a focus investing in #AI and defense technology startups. Five #investors, and a few rumored partners of the company including are also rumored to separate from Point72 as well. The initial wave of fintech #startups were intended to disrupt the old school banking system and allow modern technology to thrive. Now that AI is an #industry wide trendsetter, Point72 are making a dire mistake of using it as a replacement for human input and perspective instead of a supplement. Hopefully this won’t set a precedent for future companies to get rid of their fintech experts and #investors who use their skills to great success.

Is there a future for generative #AI in the #music industry? According to this article by MIT Technology Review, it might be too expensive to be worth pursuing. Last week, two major AI music startups, Suno and Udio were both sued by numerous major record labels under the claim that the companies’ #copyrighted music is used in the learning data “at an almost unimaginable scale,” giving the AI tools ability to imitate many copyrighted artists, and songs. YouTube is finding their own niche in the AI music market by offering incentive for users to add to their pool of music. The stakes are higher for AI music — music in the public domain is sparse and not exactly trendy to current listeners. I highly recommend the full article to get the most perspective, but in my opinion aside from the well discussed concerns about generative AI’s place in #artistic mediums, I don’t think Suno nor Udio have a case in their favor. These apps are much more “imitative” than generative, and don’t really have an ability yet to make music that is “new” or at least doesn’t heavily borrow from existing works. But what do you all take away from this case? Is this an honest mistake from two startups, or is all AI music bound to repeat the same mistakes? I’d be open to rear what the broad consensus is.

It's concerning to see the impact of financial #fraud on older Americans in the digital age. According to the National Institute of Justice, they lose nearly $36 billion annually to these types of scams, impersonating a #bank branch or a loved one, with the added threat of AI-powered spam calls, the situation becomes even more #challenging for those less #techsavvy. However, there is hope on the horizon. Fast Company recently featured Charlie, a banking fintech company dedicated to older Americans. Charlie is developing an innovative anti-fraud system called SpeedBump. This system #detects unauthorized money transfers, delays payments for 6 hours, giving users the crucial time needed to prevent fraudulent activity. Do you have a loved one who is aging out of current technology? Would you consider recommending Charlie Banking to them? Why don’t more banks implement anti-fraud systems for elders?

Nearing the end of my #Tokyo trip as an advisor to #startups in the JETRO Startup #climatetech program, I have a deep appreciation of AI’s central role in multiple climate related tech segments, including #renewableenergy. 🇯🇵 One of the Japanese startups in this cohort uses AI to help owners of renewable energy facilities optimize production and meet operational goals. 🇯🇵 One uses AI in their advanced IoT sensors to optimize building infrastructure (HVAC, etc) performance 🇯🇵 Multiple startups have libraries of proprietary elements/ingredients/formulations that would benefit from AI powered search methods. So I’m especially proud to have a global leader in AI search + knowledge management like Pryon in the Aperture® Venture Capital Fund I portfolio. While I was working with Jetro StarX here in Tokyo, Pryon’s CEO was delivering a powerful & timely keynote speech in New York on the role of AI in meeting future goals in renewable energy. #synchronicity Alfredo Coppola Noriya Tarutani Momoka Ueda Charlie Cook Kyle Hayes

An interesting prediction from Going Concern that might be worth considering. If you’re old enough to remember the early #internet “dot-com bubble” in the late 90s/early2000s, then you also remember the great dot-com #stock market #crash. Basically, as the World Wide Web expanded and the internet was popularized, all sorts of #investors tried to find business on the web by claiming all sorts of URLs/domain space. This would end very poorly. Infamously, #domains like Pet.com, Boo.com were claimed and then their respective companies were soon bought out by larger companies — the only survivors being big name brands like Amazon. Does the current #technological AI and accounting #landscape sound familiar? Investors are frantically placing bets on the #accounting x AI market, and while competition does encourage #innovaton up to a point- how long until these investments back-fire and the bubble bursts? What do you think?

I’m happy to share that I’m starting a new position as Investor and Board Member at MOGL! 🏈 🏀 ⚾️ 🏐 ⚽️

Today’s read asks the big question on everyone’s minds again: can #AI technology replace my job? In this case, can AI replace legitimate human #VC investors? Well, the short answer is no. The role of a VC requires a lot of knowledge, prior experience, and #intuition that AI technology at this moment cannot replicate in a way that’s helpful. But b2venture did put AI to the test in three different experiments related to things that #investors like me do on an everyday basis. For example, Python Coding #GPT4 was used to generate investment memos, typically written when VCs have interest in a company and want to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of a potential startup. The final product was very much a rough first draft, but did produce results in five minutes versus the several hours it would take to do the task otherwise. GPT-4 was also put to use for market analysis and intro writing, to various #mixed results. GPT-4 has its strengths. It’s really great at summarizing text, extracting information efficiently, and superficially finding patterns. But with all of those useful things come with large shortcomings such as data “hallucinations.” Basically, while these tools have promise and well on their way to keep improving, it will take a while for technology to evolve from being demonstrative #gimmick to something used in a #daily context. What do you think? Are you someone that uses #AI to help with your job? Does it work with you and your workflow?

A SAFE and convertible note had a baby and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati was the midwife- out popped the D-SAFE! 👶🏽🎉 A new #climatetech funding instrument was announced by Elemental Excelerator last week. One of the company’s main goals is to support smaller, up and coming companies during the awkward “Scale Gap” phase between #VC funding and natural growth. It’s called the #DSAFE (Development Simple Agreement for Future Equity) and it aims to aid the process by giving companies a small amount of cash to overcome initial risks and expenses during the developmental stages of a product launch or company. How does it work? D-SAFE has a redemption clause meaning companies can choose to have their payments offered as a loan or convert to equity at the investor’s discretion. Funders and companies will have clear communication and expectations about where the money is going and how it will be applied to either the company or the projects at hand. Financiers and companies will work together with more #transparency, and that’s a great boon for #startups and VC alike. As of this month, Elemental has already invested using D-SAFE in eight different companies, including Dimensional Energy and Origen — both companies investing in innovative and out-of-the-box solutions to environmental issues! Seems like a win-win on the surface. What do you all think about the D-SAFE? Alfredo Coppola Momoka Ueda Tim Wagner Stephen D. Torres Olya Irzak Natsuho Toyama Noriya Tarutani Shin Ogawa

Little known fact about your boy…I’m fixated with flowers and the art of floral arrangement. Not sure where it comes from- my single mom raised us to be self sufficient not so much self expressive. Plus, we couldn’t afford cut flowers- too busy saving for the next heating oil delivery during those cold ass NY winters. The Japanese are also obsessed with flowers and the search for the most artful, impactful arrangement. For a brief while in my restless 20s I studied Ikebana with my teacher/mentor Chieko, a Sogetsu (specific style of ikebana) master based in Delray Beach, FL. Such a gift to be here in #Japan, like this little tableau standing all by itself in an otherwise drab brown elevator lobby.🙏🏾 #lifecomesfullcircle