Some of the most influential people in the world of technology were gathered in Kelowna earlier today.
The theme of the conference – the Level Up AI Summit – was artificial intelligence, but the speakers covered economics, agriculture, marketing, social media and dozens of other topics.
Keynote speaker Peter Diamandis, the founder of the XPRIZE Foundation and Singularity University, spoke about his “optimistic” view of the rapid technological changes on the horizon.
He discussed AI, data, his friend Elon Musk, flying cars, extending the human lifespan, the future of work, energy, ethics, privacy and media.
“I believe we’re truly living during the most extraordinary time ever,” he told the audience at Trinity Church.
The “sheer amount of computation” coming into operation across the world has supercharged AI, he said, while the profusion of data, capital and researchers has made the growth “exponential.”
The future, as he sees it, will be more about finding what it is that you enjoy doing rather than chasing a more traditional financial dream.
“In the long run, we’re living in a post-capitalist society where money has very little meaning,” he explained, discussing the coming of a “billion humanoid robots,” powered by AI, which will perform tasks such as cooking, cleaning – and even surgery.
He spoke of flying cars, drones delivering orders within minutes, the “reinvention of Hollywood” and a revolution in education, the current state of which he branded a “travesty.”
Another benefit he sees coming soon as a consequence of technology is a wildfire system that can, after detecting a new ignition, extinguish it within 10 minutes.
Diamandis, who appeared via video link, also spoke at length about extending the human lifespan by preventing death through sophisticated monitoring technology and the editing of genes.
Some species, he said, can live as long as 500 years.
“Why can they live that long and we can’t?” he asked. “It’s either going to be a software problem or a hardware problem. And this is the decade where we’re going to solve those problems.”
On the potential dark side of AI, he said he is aware of the risks, but ultimately hopeful. We can shape and guide AI, he said, though we can’t control it.
Regardless, he emphasized that he would feel safer in a world with super-smart AI “versus the level of human stupidity we have.”
Fears about losing privacy, meanwhile, are misplaced, according to Diamandis. He said “we have the illusion of privacy,” which is anyway “a relatively new invention.”
And what about the potential for a scenario in which humanity and AI enter into conflict with each other? Not likely, Diamandis said, since humans will soon enough “begin to merge with technology.”
“We’re going to upgrade our intelligence,” he said.
Bitcoin, currency and the need to ‘transition’ to a free market
Also in attendance was Jeff Booth, author and BC Tech Association Hall of Famer, who discussed Bitcoin.
Speaking to KelownaNow before his speech, Booth said British Columbia – and the rest of Canada – needs to “transition” to a free market system and “remove the bureaucracy.”
That means, in the long run, abolishing the Bank of Canada.
But why?
“There can be no free market in systems where we're manipulating money,” he said, adding that “we know the natural state of a free market is deflationary.”
“We're at an AI summit and we're seeing all the productivity gains,” he said. “Productivity gains should flow to you in the form of lower prices. Why aren't they? Because something's stopping it. And that's the manipulation of money. The manipulation of money hurts some people unfairly.”
Those people, he said, end up “so hurt” by being in an artificial state of poverty that they “vote for bigger government and bigger regulation because they think it's the corporations” doing the damage.
“If the natural rate of deflation in the market should be five per cent and you have an inflation of 10 per cent, then you're stealing 15 per cent a year that nobody voted for,” he said, emphasizing the damage that does to democracy.
The “inevitable” answer, he thinks, is Bitcoin.
The monetary system ultimately leads to war, he said, as one nation – or currency – attempt to supplant another.
With Bitcoin, however, there is no controlling nation.
“Canada should be one of the richest nations in the world, with our raw materials and educated workforce,” he said. “We're losing that ground because of the manipulation of money and government regulations.”
He added: “In the last 5,000 years, we've never seen money that wasn't controlled.” He thinks the best way for Canada to escape crises of affordability would be to adopt Bitcoin early.
The “manipulation” of money – by the Bank of Canada and, ultimately, the US Federal Reserve – is “creating the pain.”
But wouldn’t the Americans punish us for ditching the system from which they benefit so handsomely? Booth thinks no.
“If you put a regulatory framework around Bitcoin, and drove those businesses here, because Bitcoin's outside the system ... If you attracted those businesses, with a true free market, then what would happen here is those businesses would explode here. They would come here.”
That, he said, is “what has to happen” – in the US, too.
In the meantime, however, he advises people to buy as much Bitcoin as they can, even if it’s just the equivalent of a coffee a week, and to read his book, The Price of Tomorrow, on the subject.
Mushroom-picking robots
Another speaker – British-born entrepreneur Chris Payne – told the audience of his own experience putting AI and robotics to practical use.
His firm, Salmon Arm-based 4AG (“forage”) Robotics, helps automate mushroom farms.
Picking mushrooms, he said, is “backbreaking” work, spent mostly in the damp and the dark. “It’s one of the toughest jobs that exists,” Payne said, explaining that the compost is usually made from chicken manure.
As a consequence, turnover is huge, and most of the employees are temporary migrants.
The robots, he said, can identify mushrooms, choose the right time to pick them to optimize yield and then separate them by quality.
One robot can do the same amount of picking as a human, Payne said, but has the advantage of being able to work 24 hours a day.
“We've got robots deployed working in Abbotsford here in British Columbia, and then we're deploying this year to Ireland and Australia,” he told KelownaNow.
Payne said he moved to Salmon Arm last summer, but thought it would be “impossible to build a leading deep tech robotics company” in “a small town in the Shuswap.”
But he said: “I've been proved completely wrong there. We found there's a real hidden talent pool here of people who live here for lifestyle reasons and like the mountains. The short commute, traffic-free commute.”
The company has been able to “recruit some incredible engineers, roboticists, AI experts, software developers.” He added: “And then the really cool thing is because we then get quite a compelling prospect that you get to work at the best company in the world at your space and in your space, and it's rare to be able to say that in a small town in Canada. When you attract talent to you, they never leave.”
Other speakers at the conference included City of Kelowna Manager Doug Gilchrist, Genesis AI’s Brent Tolmie and the entrepreneurs Kane and Alessia Minkus.
Later, Jim Csek hosted a panel discussion with Product Muse AI Founder Carol Wilder, businessman and politician Gavin Dew, Creative Strategies’ Ben Bajarin, Digital Education podcast host Erik Ellefsen, the entrepreneur Cale McLellan and Csek Creative’s Rob Cupello.
They focused on education, but expanded to many other topics. Wilder, who has worked for the likes of Amazon, even said Kelowna has – “right now” – the “raw material” necessary to become a major tech hub.
