radical Insights.

Weekly Research and Commentary on the Future of Business and Technology.

Quantum Computing, AI, Blockchain and the Future of Building Houses.

Sep 26, 2019

Welcome back to the radical briefing. In this edition we take a look at some of the buzziest buzzwords in the industry — and see them creep closer and closer from disappointment to disruption.

The other day Peter Diamandis and I got to sit down and talk about the future of Entrepreneurship and Branding. Here’s the video — can you tell we had a blast?

And in be radical news — we are making exciting progress on our upcoming book on the future (of) business(es). Stay tuned, you are going to be the first to hear about it!

That being said, let’s dig in:

[Quantum] On our way to Quantum Supremacy

Quantum supremacy, the ability of a quantum computer to perform a calculation a conventional computer simply cannot, is getting closer to being solved. First IBM announced a 53-qubit computer, then Google released (and removed) a paper claiming that it’s researchers have reached actual quantum supremacy. There is a bunch of back and forth in the community about what was actually achieved and what it means. But make no mistake: Quantum computing is real, it is getting closer and closer to being here and it will allow us to solve problems which were impossible to solve before. Keep an eye on this space!

[Real Estate] Robot builds House

Pascal gets asked pretty regularly about the changes we see in real estate. Outside of the many small (and disruptive) changes such as the use of AI in the design and building phases to the use of new materials such as carbon nanofibers in buildings, one of the more dramatic changes (which until recently felt it was still a ways off), is the use of 3D printers and robots to build buildings. A group of Swiss researchers build a three-level house which is largely built by robots — the first public display of what is already possible.

[AI] Learning Machine Learning through a Comic

Our friends at Google have released a fun comic explaining Machine Learning and AI. It’s a wonderful way to learn about the key concepts in the space. And of course — it features a cat! 😄

P.S. As a quick reminder, Andrew Ng’s (of Stanford-fame) excellent newsletter The Batch is an amazing resource for anyone who wants to stay on top of AI and dig deeper.

[Blockchain] The Rap Battle

Comics aren’t your thing? How about a good old rap battle? Watch Hamilton and Satoshi battle it out! (Bonus: Spot a couple of our Silicon Valley friends make cameo appearances)

Until next time!

radically yours,

Jane, Mafe, Amber and Pascal