In today’s issue:

  • 1:21:14 of the AI future
  • Kiss your passport goodbye
  • Diddy’s theme park ride

Editor’s note: Today, we bring you a guest piece by Sam Volkering from his publication AI Collision which was first published on Tuesday 22 October.

You can hear from Sam more often at AI Collision and learn more about the latest developments in AI by simply clicking here to sign up for free.

Welcome to AI Collision 💥,

There are times when you just need to take a moment, stop and spend an hour and 21 minutes (and 14 seconds) listening to the people who are quite literally reshaping our entire world and driving trillions in wealth towards an incredible AI future.

One of those times is now, and the person is Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia.

You can watch the video I’m talking about here.

Take note of how he talks about Elon Musk’s crazy installation of 100,000 H100 GPUs and how he’s absolutely AMAZED at how xAI was able to get it done in just 19 days.

The Elon effect is in full swing, and if it’s not Elon as the most influential person in tech (and the world) right now, then it’s definitely Huang.

AI gone wild 🤪

There’s nothing quite like the “humph” of a British person in a queue at passport control trying to get into the EU.

As a non-British passport holder, I’m well versed in having to go into the “All Other Passports” line whenever entering an EU country.

I’ve been doing it for years. And will continue to do so for many years more. But after Brexit, that queue became a lot more crowded when my fellow Commonwealth citizens had to stand with me in unity as we trundled along at snail’s pace just praying an Airbus A380 from Asia or Africa hadn’t landed quite literally right in front of us.

The “tuts” and “humphs” and “bloody Brexit” underneath the breath were always a fun was for me to pass the time. But alas, now I fear that my days of enjoying these things is soon to approach an end… and it’s all thanks to AI.

A question for you …

Would you have been as bothered about Brexit if it meant no queues, with easy and fast access through passport control when entering the EU?

How would you feel if you landed at your destination, got off the plane, walked through to get your bags and out the door, never having to show your passport and never having to even stop for a passport check?

That’s right, what if you never needed your passport to travel to another country again?

Sounds utterly bonkers doesn’t it. But maybe we’re closer to that idea than you might think.

Dubai Airport is one of the busiest airports in the world. It is very much a connective fibre of the East to the West. In 2023, 86.9 million passengers passed through Dubai airport. That’s just shy of 10,000 people every hour.

As per a report from Executive Traveller,

Facial-recognition cameras backed by artificial intelligence will replace all physical passport control stations and even smart gates at Dubai Airport, with travellers being repeatedly scanned and verified as they move through the terminal.

Now, I’m confident people will say, “Oh, but I don’t want to be scanned and verified as I walk through the terminal.”

Then again, if you’ve ever been to London, you’re very much scanned an identified at every pillar and post. London has around one million CCTV cameras. Research has indicated that if you’re in London, you’re likely captured on London’s CCTV cameras around 70 times per day.

So at an airport, if it means no more passport queues, no more border patrol… then yeah, I’m all for it.

Of course, this is Dubai we’re talking about, not Alicante-Elche Miguel Hernández Airport, so the chances of these passport-free places popping up before the next Spanish summer hols are pretty slim.

But you’ve got to start somewhere. It wasn’t that long ago that “smart gates” weren’t even a thing (not that they’re even still a thing in some backwards airports). I think if airports can integrate AI into systems like passport control, and make the whole process of travel smoother and hassle free, surely that’s a good thing, right?

At the very least it means no more tuts and humphs in line.

Boomers & Busters 💰

AI and AI-related stocks moving and shaking up the markets this week. (All performance data below over the rolling week.) [Figures correct at time of writing.]

Boom 📈

  • Vicarious Surgical (NYSE:RBOT) up 20%
  • Predictive Oncology (NASDAQ:POAI) up 10%
  • ai (NASDAQ:BBAI) up 9%

Bust 📉

  • Brainchip (ASX:BRN) down 21%
  • Appen (ASX:APX) down 12%
  • AMD (NASDAQ:AMD) down 7%

From the hive mind 🧠

  • AI is good at writing things. AI is good at detecting things. But what happens if AI gets bad at detecting AI writing? In other words, what if AI falsely accuses someone of cheating when in fact… they didn’t cheat?
  • Apple will be Apple. It will try to innovate, and it’ll make lots of money. But I think it’s one of those companies that’s already behind the 8-ball when it comes to its AI vision – and I don’t think that puts the company in good stead for what comes next – real AI devices. This impending failure starts with its AI, which it seems it’s taken a different approach to than most.
  • Nvidia at $5 trillion? Is that too cheap still? Well, it’s at least well on its way to a mind-bending valuation…

Artificial Polltelligence 🗳️

The results from last Friday’s poll are in and it looks like the people want those memecoins!

Weirdest AI image of the day

Diddy’s Basement Theme Park Ride – r/weirddalle

ChatGPT’s random quote of the day

“Optimism is an essential ingredient of innovation. How else can the individual welcome change over security?” – Robert Noyce, 1983

Thanks for reading, see you next time!

Sam Volkering
Editor-in-Chief, AI Collision

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