By Darren Parkin
Greetings from BTC Prague – an excellent crypto conference in the Czech Republic showcasing a vibrant community, a strong ecosystem, a powerful infrastructure… and lots of people wearing orange and black, the so-called Bitcoin ‘colours’.
Sometimes Bitcoin maximalists, such as those who always wear orange and black, look and talk as if they’re in a cult instead of an industry, but technology does strange things to people, especially when it comes to doomsayers who seem to want humanity to die.
Look at the generative AI hype and hysteria. Earlier this week serial venture capitalist Marc Andreessen dropped a 7,000-word report describing ‘AI doomers’ as also being part of a cult and talking up a doomsday scenario that is far from the truth.
Andressen is famous for once having said that software will eat the world, but he’s more optimistic on generative AI, dismissing the doomers and telling the world to embrace this new technology and ‘build, build, build’.
He’s right. AI is not going to eat the world, it’s going to help the world.
Humans will not be extinct, humans and AI will work together and that is the future of the world. Some are doing it already.
Frederik R Pedersen is an AI expert and the CEO of EasyTranslate, a Copenhagen-based company. He recently told me about things called limited language models (LLMs) and was as optimistic, realistic and fascinating as Andreessen.
He has no problem with generative AI even though his company would appear vulnerable if AI can translate every language.
“Generative AI is progressing rapidly. However, it still isn’t fully able to produce brand-specific copy and the quality of outputs vary depending on the language. Having human copywriters to make edits to AI-generated content lets the LLM learn and become smarter,” says Pedersen.
Visionaries such as Andreessen and Pedersen know that humans have to be kept in the loop, to work together. So, what does this mean to crypto and the people in orange and black?
Probably not a lot. They have little interest in other things than Bitcoin, but they are surely Bitcoin miners already harnessing AI to give them a mathematical edge, not least in their supply chains.
They are also others using generative AI to create coins 100x faster than a year ago, looking for gold like ancient alchemists before them. And that’s what generative AI is, certainly a game-changer, but not something that should be feared.
Of course there will be some humans who lose their McJobs, but perhaps they can escape that drudgery and do something better. Many who are reading this column know that crypto will change money forever and that the very nature of work and money cannot last in its current form.
AI and crypto are perfect bedfellows.
So, embrace generative AI, don’t be a Luddite or listen to the cults. Wear all colours, not just orange and black. Love the machine, cuddle the LLM and look towards a brighter future. It’s going to happen.
Monty
Monty Munford advises the world’s fastest-growing companies on growth and visibility. In the past decade his consultancy has helped more than 40 companies raise money/exit for a total of $1.4 billion. He currently works with Mutual Mobile and Degen Labs.
Munford was previously a weekly tech columnist for Forbes in New York, the Telegraph in the UK and continues to write regularly for the BBC, The Economist and… City AM.
He is also a keynote speaker/emcee/moderator/interviewer and has spoken at more than 200 global events interviewing figures such as Tim Draper, the late John McAfee, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Steve Wozniak (twice in Beirut and Vienna), Kim Kardashian (once in Armenia), Amitabh Bachchan, Ghostface Killah, ZZ Top, Guns N’ Roses and many others.
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