August 4, 2017

AI Dreams the Future

Posted on August 4, 2017March 15, 2019 by Staff Writer

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been given its very own imagination by Google’s DeepMind. The London-based designers have created two distinct types of AI that use imagination to perform tasks and plan ahead. The team found that AIs with imagination perform much better than those without. DeepMind researchers outline their latest findings as “a new family of approaches for imagination-based planning.”

When the researchers added a ‘manager’ component that helped create a plan, it learns to solve tasks even more efficiently with fewer steps.

According to MSN, researchers say imagination is crucial for ensuring the AI can deal with real-world environments. This functionality allows the computer to test multiple possible outcomes in its head before predicting which one is best.

The DeepMind website details how the process works in real-life, and how it can be applied to AI technology. “Imagining the consequences of your actions before you take them is a powerful tool of human cognition. When placing a glass on the edge of a table, for example, we will likely pause to consider how stable it is and whether it might fall. On the basis of that imagined consequence we might readjust the glass to prevent it from falling and breaking. This form of deliberative reasoning is essentially ‘imagination’, it is a distinctly human ability and is a crucial tool in our everyday lives.”

This same concept has been applied to the DeepMind “Imagination-Augmented Agents, or I2As” which use an internal imagination encoder to help the AI decide upon useful predictions related to its environment.

Imagination in AI

DeepMind founder Demis Hassabis recently wrote a paper, published in Neuron magazine, about how AI development and success is dependent on encoding and understanding human capabilities. Accurately duplicating key competencies like imagination, memory, and curiosity can drastically change the future of AI.

Hassabis outlines how I2A agents were given different tasks to test their predictive abilities. They were tested using a Sokoban puzzle game, where an alien must push boxes into the correct location. However, the alien is unable to pull said boxes. The agent only had one attempt to solve it; therefore it tried out different scenarios in its head, utilizing its imagination, before testing them in its environment. Researchers found that the agents performed better than when tested against AIs without imagination.

“Imagination AIs learned how to navigate the puzzles with less experience by extracting more information from their internal simulations. When the researchers added a ‘manager’ component that helped create a plan, it learns to solve tasks even more efficiently with fewer steps,” MSN writes.

Hassabis states that the imagination capabilities currently evident in AIs are nowhere near as powerful as human imagination. But, the test demonstrated that AIs performed much better when they have the ability to imagine different scenarios before acting upon them.

Within his Neuron paper, Hassabis says creating agents with an imagination that can rival what we can do “is perhaps the hardest challenge for AI research: to build an agent that can plan hierarchically, is truly creative, and can generate solutions to challenges that currently elude even the human mind.” He believes that as time progresses he will be able to achieve that dream.

Brandless; A Bold Move in E-Commerce

Posted on August 4, 2017March 15, 2019 by Staff Writer

“A good name is better than great riches.” It might be a cliché, but more often than not for companies large and small, it is a truth to live by.

Brandless strength is quality and transparency at a low cost, while Amazon’s message is watered-down with its “sell everything” approach.

Brandless^TM is an e-commerce company that provides high-quality and essential, yet unbranded products. The company sells all their products for a whopping fixed price of only $3, a bold move that has cost-conscious consumers turning their heads.

The start-up company does not follow the status quo. Choosing to incorporate unbranded products can be a risky move, but according to the founders of Brandless, the risk is worth taking.

Ido Leffler, a serial entrepreneur, and Tina Sharkey, an investor in Sherpa Capital, are the founders of the start-up company. Brandless is currently supported by numerous well-known investors from the Silicon Valley.

The goal of Sharkey and Leffler is to create a company that avoids the brand tax, which can be thought of as the hidden cost of national brands. The company does not believe that paying brand tax increases the quality of the products, it just increases the cost to the consumer.

According to Sharkey, “We’re not an anti-brand, we’re not not a brand, we’re just re-imagining what it means to be a brand.”

Follow the Money

Brandless has already raised $50 million in order to sell unbranded products for just $3 a piece online. Fortune says that the support of investors has helped the startup company with its mission to develop better stuff for fewer dollars.

Sherpa Capital – was established in March 2013 in America. Scott Stanford and Shervin Pishevar are the founders of Sherpa Capital. The company focuses on growth and early stage startups ranging from technology to e-commerce. For the latest fund, the company has raised $470 million in the year 2016.
Cowboy Ventures – is based in Palo Alto, California and is a seed-stage focused fund company. Cowboy Ventures invests in startups that cater to the digital market. Aileen Lee is a venture capitalist and the CEO of Cowboy Ventures.
Redpoint Ventures – Just like Sherpa Capital, the company focuses on investments in seed, growth-stage, and early companies. Located in Menlo Park, Redpoint Ventures has raised a $3.8 billion of capital.
Google Ventures – The company is a venture capital investment arm of Alphabet Incorporated. Google Ventures gives venture, growth stage, and venture funding to companies that cater to technology. Bill Maris is the CEO of Google Ventures, which is now known as GV.
New Enterprise Associates – was founded in 2007, and at one time was regarded as the world’s largest venture capital firm with over $18 billion in assets under its management. Scott Sandell is the CEO of New Enterprise Associates.

How Can Brandless Go Wrong?

Brandless develops, owns, and sells all its products. Everything that the company sells online is either organic and/or natural. The items that are being sold do not have a specific brand, but they are rather identified by exactly what they are made of and labeled accordingly.

The company’s unique method makes people compare their products head to head with other company’s offerings, rather than on the basis of brand names and advertising. Leffler said that, “Consumers want new options. They don’t necessarily care about buying Heinz or Tide.”

TechCrunch stated that the design of its simple ‘white labeling’ was made by a group of food scientists, marketing, and product experts. Its packaging highlights the important details of every product. And they have chosen to sell online instead of selling through traditional retail stores.

Amazon is probably the most important competitor to Brandless. But Brandless strength is quality and transparency at a low cost, while Amazon’s message is watered-down with its “sell everything” approach.

Another company that Brandless could consider as a competitor is Jet.com. This is an e-commerce platform, where there are a variety of products including; books, clothes, electronics, athletic gear, and baby goods that are simply sold at low prices.

The innovation that Brandless is bringing to the online world with transparency about product contents, rather than catchy names and brands, may be a game changer in the ecommerce sector. A name can be important, but Brandless is proving that quality at low prices may well be even more important.

Lectins, The Newest Food Danger, or Fad Nonsense?

Posted on August 4, 2017September 6, 2023 by Staff Writer

Keeping up with the latest food trends can be difficult, and could also be potentially detrimental to one’s health. What we know as good food today could fall out tomorrow and vice versa. However, when it comes to keeping healthy, most people take notice. People are now talking about the latest food fad. Lectins are they bad for you? What are the dangers of lectins?

Lectins, the plant protein that health experts are warning you about.

A lot of health experts can’t emphasize enough that most vegetables, if not all, are healthy. However, health reports about the dangers of lectins are still getting a lot of attention. Foods like soybeans, peanuts, wheat, red kidney beans, and tomatoes, to name a few, have lectins or plant proteins. Experts claim that lectins, a type of sugar-binding protein found in foods, should be avoided in large doses. They can cause weight gain and damage the stomach. Lectins cause inflammation and autoimmune reactions in the body.

John Miles, Associate Publisher of Bold Business, had an opportunity to interview Dr. Steven Gundry and extensively talk about the importance of a healthy gut and the dangers of lectin. Dr. Gundry authored the book The Plant Paradox where he explains that most diseases are caused by an imbalance in the microbiome.

Author of The Plant Paradox, Dr. Steven Gundy, dispels the myth of whole-grain goodness.

Understanding the Dangers of Lectins

Megan Rossi, a spokesperson for the British Dietetic Association, says a “high” intake of lectins can cause harm.

Rossi says lectins aren’t an issue for most people and insignificant amounts are not so much of a problem. Lectins can prove more harmful to those who have an intolerance to it, however.

A startling amount of foods on supermarket shelves contain lectins. This is where the dangers of lectins come in. Adding to the ones we mentioned above, grains, eggplants, legumes, peppers, potatoes, eggs, and dairy products all contain them. We must add here that each food contains a relatively small amount. The way you prepare the food can either increase or reduce the dangers of lectins.

“If a person is eating cooked legumes and whole grains, these low levels of lectins are tolerated,” Rossi adds.

So, lectins are they bad for you? Experts advise that for those struggling with their digestion or who suffer from diverticulitis or irritable bowel syndrome it’s best to cut lectins from their diet. However, before taking this drastic step it’s always advisable to seek advice from a healthcare professional or dietician before making such an important decision.

Lectins Are They Bad For You? – Debates Around Food and Health Ongoing

They’re everywhere. Lectins are they good for you?

As always, as with the debate that surrounds gluten and other foods experts tell us to avoid, the facts around lectins can be difficult to discern. Many say that cutting lectins from a diet could do more harm than good unless you have a specific intolerance to it. Rossi points out that there are in fact very few foods that are perfect.

cartoon of a farmer looking over a group of vegetables with lectins, holding signs that say plants don’t want to be eaten — Most veggies, according to many health experts, are healthy. So how do we reduce the risk brought about by consuming lectins?

According to Bulletproof, lectins are bad, suck your energy and make you weak. “Lectins matter to the performance level of everyone, but they are particularly important if you have a thyroid condition, or if you have any kind of arthritis, diabetes, heart disease, cystitis, or even if you are simply 100 pounds overweight. This is because lectins are tied directly to inflammation and autoimmune reactions in your body,” the website states.

Lectins are vegetables’ natural defenses to attack from predators. Experts say the best way to avoid them is by either cutting out foods like potatoes, grains or tomatoes or by soaking food in warm water before cooking to avoid the risk. Cooking itself even reduces the risk.

Dr. Steven Gundry is a Leading Expert on Gut Health

Authority Nutrition says that repeated consumption of lectins could damage the gut wall. This means your body can absorb more, which in turn can cause major health risks. The website states that “lectins can interact with antibodies, which are a core component of the immune system. This may cause an immune reaction not only against the lectins but also the body tissues to which the lectins are bound. This type of response is known as an autoimmune reaction, where the immune system mistakenly starts attacking the body’s own structures.” This is, of course, an extreme reaction but can indeed happen.

Cutting gluten from diets has helped millions of people around the world, it’s always worth trying a lectin-free diet to see what benefits it affords you. Make sure you consult a doctor before making any rash decisions. The question remains the same: lectins are they bad for you?

SpaceX Launch to Mars Seems to Be on Hold: To Launch or Not to Launch?

Posted on August 4, 2017March 6, 2020 by Staff Writer

Elon Musk’s SpaceX project appears to have hit a stumbling block after he hinted that his team will produce smaller rockets than those planned to take large groups to Mars. SpaceX plans originally included a rocket of 12-meters in diameter with 42 individual rockets that could ferry at least 100 passengers to the red planet. Musk recently suggested that the rocket will now be just 9-meters in diameter and will only be capable of carrying a much smaller load. Experts say the new rocket will leave the engines with almost half the mass and a considerably smaller number of rockets—estimated at 21. It would not be surprising if people have this question in mind: Is the SpaceX launch to Mars on hold?

Some Details on the Planned SpaceX Launch to Mars

According to Engadget, SpaceX’s latest move is more feasible on many levels. The new rocket size will cut costs, eliminate issues surrounding production, as well as reduce technical complexity and mass. Weight, of course, is the most important criteria when considering spaceflight.

Musk has previously said that his main challenge would be to find a facility big enough to enable his team to build rockets of substantial size. Without a doubt, the new 9-meter rocket will be a much easier design to produce. Although it will not be the originally planned 12-meter giant, the new 9-meter design will still leave the 3.7-meter Falcon 9 rocket very much in the dust. Thus, it remains to be seen whether the SpaceX project comes to fruition. It’s highly unlikely that the 2019 manned test flight of the SpaceX launch to Mars will become a reality at the current pace of production.

Will SpaceX ever get to Mars?

Falcon 9, Hyperloop, Tesla — Musk Has a Lot on His Plate

In May, a highly secret launch mission performed for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office saw the Falcon 9 successfully launch and land at Cape Canaveral. Although the project has been progressing, it’s proving to be slow and extremely behind schedule. Similarly, Musk’s Hyperloop One train project recently underwent tests at its development plant in Nevada. However, it only reached a maximum speed of 70 mph. Elon Musk predicts its speeds will reach 76c0mph when launched, yet the project is delayed.

Moreover, the entrepreneur recently scrapped plans for his Red Dragon capsule altogether but promised something better would take its place. His solar roof tile project has also begun to slowly bubble under the surface, with operation and staffing issues evident across the organization. Finally, his Boring Company recently unveiled plans for an underground car sled that will supposedly cut congestion by more than half. However, critics laughed at the proposals. Such plans for the construction work would congest roads and tunnels even further—as well as yield costs which will undoubtedly hit epic proportions.

Elon Musk and His Ambitions

Although Musk is managing to make some headroom with his many technologically advanced projects, he’s fast becoming known as an overambitious dreamer who can’t deliver. Experts say the fundamental basics of his projects are good ones, but they aren’t unique. From solar roof panels and vehicle transport models to new train designs and space missions, organizations around the world are delivering similar projects as Musk’s. What has made the billionaire stand out are his promises of innovative modern technologies that can change the course of humanity. However, he hasn’t been able to deliver on these ‘super human’ ambitions yet—especially on the topic of the SpaceX launch to Mars.

Day: August 4, 2017