???????? Hi friends!
This week’s Lowdown is going to be a little shorter than normal as I’m parked up in Abu Dhabi (travelling again, I know ????). I’m surrounded by family members so it’s a smidge difficult to delve quite as deep as I would normally into all the happenings in the world of venture.
With that said there are a couple of incredibly interesting pieces that, if you haven’t already done so, are worth digging into, so here they are:
???? Techo Optimism
???? The State of AI Report
And in this week’s episode of Nothing Ventured check out my conversation with Julio Martinez, founder of Abacum, the FP&A tool for scaling and mid cap companies.
We geek out on finance tools, looking for the universal platform for the CFO stack and discuss why neither of us think Excel or Google Sheets are going anywhere anytime soon.
Also, if you have any feedback, or if there’s something you’re desperate to see me include, just reply to this mail or ping me online – I’m very open to conversations.
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(If you are trying to connect with me on LinkedIn, maybe read this post I wrote and make sure to start your request with “Lowdown” and, more importantly, tell me why you’d like to connect ????????)
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Now let’s get into it.
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The Lowdown
These two pieces are long but well worth the read. If you, like me, are excited about the potential for technology to truly change lives, then the first serves as a bastion call for just that. The second gives you a flavour or where we are and where we’re going as the world of AI continues to explode.
Are You a Techno Optimist?
This essay by Marc Andreessen is quite the read. He’s the founding partner of the mammoth Andreessen Horowitz which has something like $35bn assets under management and whom have backed companies like AirBnB, Facebook, coinbase, Github, Oculus and countless more.
Throughout it, Marc takes us through his vision of an abundant future, fuelled by technology and how it can harness and augment human ingenuity and ability as it has done throughout the ages.
Critics say that it comes off as overtly libertarian and unrealistic, but as someone who believes (and has seen first hand) the power and empowerment that technology can bring to people, I broadly agree with his thesis – even if I disagree with some of the specifics. (I’m not sure the planet should get to 50bn even if it can, and I’m not sure all the UN Sustainable Development Goals are evil!)
This phrase in particular is what stood out to me… I don’t buy into the fact that this is ‘trickle down economics’ in disguise, even though this is what some have purported it to be.
Instead, I think that this is a manifesto of hope in the ability of mankind to solve problems and bring abundance to the world.
Yes, Marc may be talking his own book here, but it’s also a message to view the future optimistically and strive to make it better rather than view the present pessimistically and assume any attempt to make it better will only serve the few.
Would You Look at the State of This – AI That Is
Nathan Benaich and the team at Air Street Capital are known as the ‘go to’ guys in AI. As one might imagine, their 2023 report is bursting at the seams with developments over the last 12 months.
In this director’s cut from Nathan, he surfaces some of the key messages, such as the fact that open source is fading away, training data is drying up and where AI is being used in industries like defence.
One of the interesting points he raises is that without the boom in generative AI (GenAI), funding into AI as a vertical would have plummeted by 40% according to their research. This is pretty incredible given how much we take for granted how prominent AI has become (because of GenAI).
He also notes that some of the largest rounds have been led by corporates rather than VCs showing how much of an edge businesses believe AI will bring to their product set.
The reason (other than the fact that it is the one report on AI that should be read) I decided to include it in today’s Lowdown was because I think when read in conjunction with Marc Andreessen’s Techno Optimist manifesto, you get not only the big vision from the latter, but can start seeing how (at least in part) that vision can be brought to fruition using technology such as AI.
If you don’t get a chance to read the whole report, do check out Nathan’s thread and have a look at their top 10 predictions for the next 12 months as well.
????The @stateofaireport 2023 is now here.
Our 6th installment is one of the most exciting years I can remember. The #stateofai report covers everything you *need* to know, covering research, industry, safety and politics.
There’s lots in there, so here’s my director’s cut ????
— Nathan Benaich (@nathanbenaich)
Oct 12, 2023
And finally, back to memes from our favourit memester…
It’s a good thing that we don’t need food, energy or shelter to live
— Dr. Parik Patel, BA, CFA, ACCA Esq. (@ParikPatelCFA)
Oct 12, 2023
????And that’s a wrap for this edition of The Lowdown – I’d appreciate your feedback so just reply to this email if you’ve got something you’d like to say.
???? And if you think someone else might love this, please forward it on to them,
???? Finally, if you’re a fan of the Nothing Ventured podcast, please don’t forget to like, rate and subscribe wherever you get your pods – it really helps us spread the word.
That’s it from me so until next time…
Stay liquid 🙂
Aarish
