SNS: The (Beyond) AI Cloud

 

In This Issue Week of 07/16/2018 Vol. 23 Issue 23

The (Beyond) AI Cloud o   The Cloud Today o   Current Cloud Differentiation o   "Old School" AI o   Unintended Consequences o   $1T in Evolutionary Pressure: Beyond AI Cloud   Quotes of the Week Upgrades o   Blue Origin's New Shepherd o   The INVNT/IP Digest Ethermail Inside SNS Upcoming SNS Events o   FiRe 2018 o   Where's Mark?

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Book of the Week:

Those in the know are already aware of China blocking the publication of Clive Hamilton's now-famous book, Silent Invasion, by Australia's second-largest publisher. Hamilton, a professor and author of multiple books, pulled the title and found a new publisher. When SNS members read this nonfiction book, they'll find it almost impossible to believe - which is exactly why it should be a must-read, for anyone concerned about China's effectiveness in attacking free speech, democracy, and innovation as an economic driver. - mra

From Amazon:

Respected academic Clive Hamilton realised something big was happening when, in 2016, it was revealed that wealthy Chinese businessmen linked to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had become the largest donors to both major Australian political parties. Hamilton began to investigate the Chinese government's influence in Australia. What he found shocked him.

From politics to culture, real estate to agriculture, universities to unions, and even in primary schools, he uncovered compelling evidence of the CCP's infiltration of Australia. It is no exaggeration to say the CCP and Australian democracy are on a collision course, with the CCP determined to win, while Australia looks the other way.

Thoroughly researched and powerfully argued, SILENT INVASION is a sobering examination of the mounting threats to democratic freedoms Australians have for too long taken for granted. Yes, China is important to Australia's economic prosperity; but, Hamilton asks, how much is sovereignty as a nation worth?

The (Beyond) AI Cloud

There are moments in the history of technology driving the economy when the fortunes of whole industries, and even of countries, depend upon a single product. Smartphones is a good example. Microsoft's inability to gain traction in this market had a terrific negative impact not only on Microsoft, but also on Intel, and on Nokia. Since Nokia once represented about one-fifth of the entire Finnish equity market, this failure affected Finland as well.

Personal assistants are in a similar gatekeeper position, and autonomous electric cars will be another (see "SNS: What Is a Car? Part II," 3/8/18) - and China, Germany, and the US will be fighting over it for years to come.

Data centers, now morphed into different "cloud" offerings by different companies, represent the fastest-growing and largest pool of both revenues and earnings on the technology landscape: all the major tech firms are now cloud vendors. The cloud has become the leverage point for an entire industry, with the costs and benefits of winning or losing becoming an existential issue for CEOs.

For these reasons, SNS members will likely have taken notice when, virtually overnight, every cloud vendor suddenly rebranded its service as "AI Cloud." Today there are no longer any cloud vendors, but there is a fast-growing list of "AI Cloud" companies.

The point of this week's discussion is to explore how and why this happened so quickly, and where it leads us in terms of market threats and opportunities.