Author: Wesley Diphoko

06.11.24

You Need more than Coding to make it in Tech

BY Wesley Diphoko 2 MINUTE READ

Over the past few years young people have been advised to acquire coding skills to improve chances of getting jobs in the future. This advice requires an update. AI developments are showing us that more will be required than just learning coding skills. We now know that some AI tools could execute some functions that are performed by programmers.

How can one then prepare for the future if coding will no longer be a sought after skill?

All skills matter, including coding, if one is to add value in the tech ecosystem. The history of tech tells us that there’s more than just technical skills required and that there’s a need for creative thinking skills. If you study founders of some of the leading tech companies some of them had no coding skills however they were creative thinkers. In addition to creative thinking, leadership skills are critical if anyone is to convince other people to use a technology they’ve developed. Once the technology product is developed one of the most important skills is the ability to communicate about the product. Communication skills are underestimated and yet they are what gets a product adopted even if it has not reached perfection.

One leading academic institution was developing a new programme for students aspiring to launch technology startups. To create a framework for this joint degree programme, they sourced valuable expertise, posing a simple question to alumni actively engaged in the industry: What skills are needed to start a tech company? The answer? A little bit of everything. Respondents indicated that founders need to be management jacks-of-all-trades, the resulting study concluded. Being “technical” by the classic definition of learning to code was not a prerequisite. And that’s not all that surprising. Brian Chesky of Airbnb and Chad Hurley of YouTube famously have fine arts degrees. While working to build a company, there are many skills that are needed, and building a tech startup is no different.

Steve Jobs stands out as one of the most successful leaders in tech and yet he had no coding (coding) skills. This tells us that in getting more young people in tech, there’s a need to move away from just focusing on technical skills. This thinking has chased away many who could have entered the field. To get more young people in the sector there’s a need to start focusing on what one can accomplish through the use of technology in society. The more young people are inspired to think about how technology can address challenges in society chances are we will have more of them getting into the industry. Young people need to view technology as a tool that they can use to achieve their objectives. Young people with an interest in addressing health challenges can get into tech with an aim of tackling health challenges through tech. This is true of any other field that can use technology to make life better. Coding is good for critical thinking, let us not consider it as the only skill required to be valuable in the tech industry.

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06.04.24

Anatomy of an AI Mobile

BY Wesley Diphoko 2 MINUTE READ

When OpenAI unleashed ChatGPT other tech companies felt pressured to reveal their AI powers..

Many were not ready to share their AI capabilities. As a result, many have claimed AI powers where they don’t exist. Hardware and smartphone manufacturers however have been impressive about their AI integrations. The hardware and smartphone market has brought forward products together with the AI tag which raises the question about the makeup and anatomy of an AI device.

At the foundation of it all there’s data. The device needs to have data about behaviours in general and in addition to that, data about its primary user. Data about behaviours in general will assist the device to recognise certain actions and act as expected. As for data by its user this is what would make an AI device a personal device. Imagine a device that has data about your health, finances, food and clothing preferences. Such a device would be in a better position to warn you about allergies based on two forms of data, health and food. It’s a device that can become your official financial planner and coach by accessing your financial data. Clearly, an AI device would force you to give up access to your data in return for a personalised service. This brings me to another important part of an AI device, its hardware features. In addition to data, an AI device will come packed with powerful chips that process data and all this critial information.

Smartphones have always had chips however an AI device will need to come packed with chips that enables the device to process data without handing it over to the cloud.

The more we use AI devices, there will be a greater need to safeguard personal data. Countries will have to demand that its citizens data is processed without crosising borders .

This will place a heavy burden on device manufacturers to design products that avoid data violations.

While taking care of all these elements an AI device will have to solve some of our challenges. Some of these challenges include language barrier, multitasking and other basic things that we need to function and live with others. An AI device that can be our personal assistant in communicating with others is what would make it a device that adds to our intelligence in a way that does not threaten us.

I’ve seen a couple of AI devices and one that stands out so far is developed by Samsung, the GalaxyAI. One of the most impressive features is it’s ability to enable a call that translate a language of the caller to the language of the receiver. This is one great example of using AI to assist human beings. My other favourite functionality on the Galaxy is its ability to transcribe notes from my interviews. After recording I’m able to get written notes from the device. For now all of these tools are not perfect however I foresee that in the future they will become very useful in our lives.

The devices that we have currently have some AI capability. Be prepared to see some form of AI in your devices.I do see gaps and I can’t wait to see more AI smartphones.

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06.03.24

AI revolution is getting ready to shake the Media and Publishing industry

BY Wesley Diphoko 3 MINUTE READ

When Google launched Artificial Intelligence products at their annual event (Google IO 2023) it was clear to me then that at some point they would threaten the publishing industry. What I’ve always feared about Google AI products was confirmed during the latest annual (Google I/O 2024) event. One of those latest AI products is AI Overviews.

They are a new search feature that provides users with AI-generated answers to certain queries. And they appear above all other search results. AI Overviews work very differently than chatbots and other LLM products that people may have tried out. They’re not simply generating an output based on training data. While AI Overviews are powered by a customised language model, the model is integrated with Googles core web ranking systems and designed to carry out traditional “search” tasks, like identifying relevant, high-quality results from Googles index. That’s why AI Overviews don’t just provide text output, but include relevant links so people can explore further. Because accuracy is paramount in Search, AI Overviews are built to only show information that is backed up by top web results.

It’s worth noting that this feature has now been rolled back after the new technology errors. I have no doubt it will be improved and returned on Google Searches firstly in the US and thereafter rolled out to other countries.

The A.I.-generated summaries are the latest area of tension between tech companies and publishers. The background to this issue has a lot to do with the fact that links on Google Search have been a source of income for the publishing industry. A highly ranked website stood a chance of receiving more attention. Google is now beginning to tamper with this important element of the publishing industry. Most big publishers, receive a significant chunk of traffic from people going to Google, searching for something and clicking on articles about it. Thereafter the online traffic, in turn, allows publishers to sell ads and subscriptions, which pay for the next wave of articles, which Google can then show to people who go searching for the next thing. AI Overviews in its current format seems to be showcasing Google information on top followed by other links. The publishing industry is concerned that this move by Google could impact their earnings. The industry is justified in raising concerns. The AI revolution has already shown terrible signs for publishers. We now know that some AI companies have used content from the media and publishing industry to train AI models. The use of articles from news sites has also set off a legal fight over whether companies like OpenAI and Google violated copyright law by taking the content without permission to build their A.I. models.

As a result of concerns raised by the media and publishing industry some AI companies have begun cutting deals with major media companies. OpenAI, which scraped news sites to build ChatGPT, started cutting deals with publishers. The company indicated that it would pay companies, including The Associated Press, The Atlantic and News Corp., which owns The Wall Street Journal, to access their content. But Google, whose ad technology helps publishers make money, has not yet signed similar deals.

It’s also important to note that these deals are mainly done with US based media companies. What about media companies in the African continent? Is it possible that AI companies have avoided content from African media companies in the process of training their models? If content from African media entities has been used, it is only fair that they also receive a cut on the basis of their content being used for AI platforms.

These developments should be watched closely by African media and publishing companies. Part of the strategy should be about engaging with tech companies as a collective. On the other hand there’s a need for African media and publishing companies to find alternative means of income. It seems that In future, Google will no longer be a source of income.

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05.28.24

Countries and Governments need an Operating System to deliver

BY Wesley Diphoko 2 MINUTE READ

Everything (almost) now is governed by an operating system. Initially it was our mobile phones, the cars joined and later followed by homes. Your mobile phone is either running on Apple or Android operating system. This is also true of some latest cars. The systems have given us and other objects super powers. Considering the struggle faced by governments in delivering on promises, is it not about time they consider country operating systems? Human leaders have tried to address health, transport and economic challenges however they often fail even though some of their intentions may be good. What has not been tried are operating systems that are designed specifically to run governments and countries. What do I mean by an Operating System for a country and government. In simple terms, it’s a tool that can be used to deliver a task with minimal intervention from a human being. Of course such a system would still require an input from a human being and the rest will be taken care of by a machine. Most tasks that are carried out by governments are repetitive. Education ministries at an administrative level are mostly carrying out tasks that are repetitive. Most of these tasks often require an annual visit to the government office to provide tiny details over and above known personal details. Is there an opportunity to assign these tasks to operating systems that work with human beings?

The advantage of adopting operating systems within governments could enable efficient delivery. Such systems could limit the chances of a government that begins its term of office with major promises and end it with minor deliverables.

The process of enabling operating systems to form part of government delivery would involve hard work in the beginning. Most government departments would have to digitise their operations. This would form the basis for enabling Country Operating Systems to run the show in future.

This process would also require some governments to take the lead in pioneering some of this work. The South African Revenue Services is one of the few that is already paving a way in this regard. In future, Home Affairs could also join others judging by their current work with digitisation. To ensure that countries adopt operating systems in governance, leaders would be required at the highest level. In the case of governments, a Ministry of Technology would be one entity that could make this a possibility. Tech leadership within governments can play a significant role in designing systems that can enable them to deliver.

In addition to all the above, there’s a need for countries to develop their own digital versions. As society digitizes governments will also have to find ways of exisiting fully in digital spaces.

If one day metaverse will be a reality, we have ask, will your government exist in metaverse?

It is time for governments to start viewing themselves as digital entities. All other things will be governed by operating systems and exist as digital beings. In what form will a government exist as a digital entity? This digital thinking should form of anyone who is planning society in the future. Society will have dual existence, physical and digital. It’s time for governments and countries to go digital.

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05.20.24

We Need National Health Digital Systems to make NHI a reality

BY Wesley Diphoko 2 MINUTE READ

Now that NHI is a law of the land, it’s time to focus on what will make it a reality. Many have focused on the financial side, however, there’s also a need to focus on the technology side. Complete overhaul of the national health system will be impossible without technology and digital health records. The National Digital Health Strategy for South Africa (2019 to 2024) demands such a transition. It may be difficult to understand why this is important when there’s so much negative noise about the NHI. To understand part of the need for digital foundation you have to think about the current situation and reflect about future prospects.

Currently, if you visit most hospitals you will find mines and mines of health paper records. It’s well known that they are easy to disappear in paper format. They also create difficulty in connecting the dots to make informed decisions based on historical health data. I’m aware that keeping paper records is a legal requirement and they have a role to play in maintaining health records. At the same time, I’m a strong believer that digital records will make a difference in addressing some health care industry challenges. I believe that a digital system will enable doctors to have better access to patient information. In turn this will improve the quality of health care.

Another current scenario is the fact that right now we are almost treated the same for unique health challenges. In future, digital health records will enable personalised health care. A prescription assigned by a doctor will be customised for each person. Although personalised health care is something that will happen in the future through Artificial Intelligences tools, its foundation is health data which requires digitisation of health records. NHI is a legal instrument that will take us to such a future at a national level.

The good news is that there’s some work being done to take us there. In the Western Cape there’s a company, Health System Technologies (HST), that has been pioneering the process of digitising health records. What has been done by this company needs to be rolled out nationally. NHI will need such companies to enable citizens to have better access to health care.

It is also good to know that the Health Patient Registration System (HPRS) project has been started as an initial requirement before developing a template for what a patient Electronic Health Record (EHR) would include.

These are just some of the few things worth mentioning about the value of technology in the process of enabling NHI and there’s more.

One day you will walk into a general practitioner’s room and they will know everything they need to know about your current health situation before you even speak. In this regard there’s a need to be careful. This is one part of tech that should not be handed over to BigTech companies. Local health tech companies should be supported to build local solutions. The last thing you need is to pay a BigTech company from elsewhere to access your personal health record. NHI may be what is required to safeguard the future of access to health care, it just needs the health tech plumbing.

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05.16.24

Exec Resignations are back at OpenAI

BY Wesley Diphoko < 1 MINUTE READ

OpenAI co-founder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever is leaving the startup at the center of today’s artificial intelligence boom.

“OpenAI would not be what it is without him,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wrote in a message to the company, which OpenAI posted on its blog.

Microsoft-backed OpenAI makes the popular ChatGPT chatbot, which sparked a race among the world’s largest tech companies for dominance in the emerging generative AI field.Jakub Pachocki will be the company’s new chief scientist, the company said on its blog.

Pachocki has previously served as OpenAI’s director of research and led the development of GPT-4 and OpenAI Five. “After almost a decade, I have made the decision to leave OpenAI,” Sutskever said in a post on X.

Sutskever posted that he is working on a new project “that is very personally meaningful to me about which I will share details in due time.”Sutskever played a key role in Altman’s dramatic firing and rehiring in November last year. At the time, Sutskever was on the board of OpenAI and helped to orchestrate Altman’s firing. Days later, he reversed course, signing onto an employee letter demanding Altman’s return and expressing regret for his “participation in the board’s actions.”

After Altman returned, Sutskever was removed from the board and his position at the company became unclear.

FastCompany

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05.14.24

The new ChatGPT is trying to be a human

BY Wesley Diphoko 2 MINUTE READ

OpenAI held a webcast Monday to roll out a new version of its ChatGPT app, which sounds and acts a lot like the AI in the 2013 Spike Jonze film, Her.

The experience is powered by a new version of its GPT-4 large language model—available on desktop and mobile—called GPT-4o (“GPT-four-oh”). The new model, OpenAI says, returns answers much faster than GPT-4, and improves on its text, vision, and audio capabilities.

The model is a showcase for OpenAI’s development of multimodal AI. GPT-4o can receive and reason about text, audio, and visual inputs, then deliver outputs in natural language and natural-sounding voice.

OpenAI researcher Mark Chen demonstrated the new model’s impressive conversational capabilities during a live demo. He told the chatbot that he was nervous about the demo, and asked her for advice to help calm down. Chen then mock-hyperventilated into his phone, to which the app responded, “Mark! You’re not a vacuum cleaner.” The AI was spontaneous and funny, much like the voice assistant (voiced by Scarlett Johansson) in Her, which has become a North Star for people developing consumer AI.

The app was asked to tell a story with various levels of “drama” in its voice, which it did, convincingly. The AI then told the same story in a stereotypical robot’s voice, and then again in sing-song fashion.

Chen also demonstrated how he could interrupt the AI voice, and she would quickly stop talking. ChatGPT, in other words, is getting more “emotionally” intelligent. This is very similar to what Inflection.ai was developing with its Pi AI app. But Inflection.ai was essentially bought out by Microsoft, the same tech giant that owns almost half of OpenAI.

The ChatGPT app also has the ability to “see” things and reason about them. Through the phone camera, the app was shown a math problem written on a white board and asked for help in working it out. It was then asked to explain some computer code. The app also did a live translation from Italian to English and back.

The new features in the ChatGPT app will roll out to users of ChatGPT Plus over the next few weeks. OpenAI says it’s also making GPT-4o available to developers through its API. OpenAI’s live-streamed announcement Monday seemed timed to steal some thunder from Google, which is expected to make a series of AI-related announcements at its I/O developer conference Tuesday.

FastCompany

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05.10.24

Editorial: Unpacking the Most Innovative Companies

BY Wesley Diphoko 2 MINUTE READ

Nowadays the word “Innovative” is thrown around very easily without paying attention to its meaning. In this issue through the chosen “Most Innovative Companies” we attempt to pay attention to the true nature of an innovative company. Globally there’s no company that comes close to Nvidia. Our Global technology editor Harry McCracken spoke with co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang for a story about how Huang realised his long-gestating vision and what’s next for the company. Locally, in South Africa we pay attention to 10companies whose work serves as a reminder of what it means to be innovative in a country with immense challenges. We pay special attention to their solutions.

One solution that stands out in this issue has been developed by our cover star Mamadou Toure. He is resolving an old age dilemna for the African continent and the world. Since time immemorial Africans have been trying to find a way to derive value from its gold. Africas mineral resources have enabled just the elite to be wealthy. Ubuntu Tribe under the leadership of Mamadou has married technology with a physical object and devised a way for ordinary people to generate value from gold.

This is not just a solution for the African continent as you will read. It is a means through which the world can generate value from mineral resources without extracting them. Tokenisation as enabled by a technology developed by Ubuntu Tribe is what will make this possible. The solution by Mamadou is a prime example of what innovation means for the global community.

We also revisit a story we’ve been tracking, the “Please Call Me” story about the on-going battle between Nkosana Makate and Vodacom. As this matter is drawing to a close we outline key lessons from this debacle that companies can apply to support innovators internally. Lastly, we visit one of the most important innovation accelerators in the world, theY-Combinator. Our senior writer Ainsley Harris looks at the power-ful diaspora of Y-Combinator. Nineteen years after the startup incubator was launched as a way to circumvent the Silicon Valley VC establishment, YC has become the establishment (not to mention the launchpad for more than a dozen of 2024’s Most Innovative Companies).We were so inspired by stories of YC alumni that we wondered about MIC alumni or the companies that were enabled and recognised by FC. Be on the lookout for my conversations with some of these leaders who are making even more impact in society. It is my hope that their journey will serve as an inspiration to you as you develop solutions. Once again I challenge you to share your innovation story with us. As we develop the “Innovation Index” we would like to add all SA’s innovative companies to inspire each other and future innovators. Who knows this could just contribute towards developing an innovation nation.

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05.06.24

How African Online Stores can fight back

BY Wesley Diphoko 2 MINUTE READ

There’s a growing concern about Temu, the Chinese online platform, and its operations in South Africa. The latest concern focuses on economics. The usual pain point is around unfair advantage of foreign online stores of not paying local fees. All of these concerns are valid. I still recall that they were raised directly with me by someone high up at Multichoice. The concern then was Netflix and its unfair advantage. My standard answer for this is simply, innovation. I’m of the view that local online stores can have more advantage than foreign online stores. Local online stores understand the local environment far more. They can provide exactly what the market needs. I also believe that the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC) can find a way to cushion local business economic from external economic factors. It won’t help to cry foul. As we’ve seen with Netflix and now with Temu, we will see more global players entering the local market. Local online stores need to find ways of differentiating themselves from the global players. One example in this regard could be an online store that is purely African or South African in terms of product range. Such an online store could work closely with local product developers to provide them with digital powers. A local online store could also workout the best logistics methodology for delivering products in townships. I believe new products could emerge from an entity with a focus on local solutions. Such an online platform could even scale globally to the world and offer local goods abroad.

The digital space allows local and global activity. The world is waiting for an African online store amongst many that exist currently.

As the DTIC contemplates how they can stifle global e-commerce platforms locally, the empowerment of local platforms should also be considered. Is there a strategy to ensure that local online stores can grown across the continent? Is there a digital plan to take South African products to the global community? The Proudly South African initiative was a useful intervention for other products, it needs to be extended and include introduction of local platforms abroad.

Protecting local companies from global competition will not go far enough to keep local players afloat. In the same way that we find Italian products globally, there’s a need to flood global markets with local products through digital means.

This does not mean African products will be adopted just because they are African, innovative approaches will be required. Local wine, music, designs and art have a potential to be adopted globally. iROKO by Jason Njoku has done this very well in the film sector. The African film platform has taken African film production to the world. Online stores need to follow suit and not limit themselves to local markets. The world is hungry for African designs however they need to be accessible. There’s a good reason why the African curio market is flourishing based on just foreign buyers. Online stores need to close this gap as part of their fighting strategy against global players. The internet has flattened the world, African online stores can also be global players if they are innovative enough.

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04.30.24

It’s time to create an AI version of Yourself

BY Wesley Diphoko 2 MINUTE READ

The fake AI video of Elon Musk which was used to solicit investment is a classic example of bad use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) video technology by bad actors. Sadly, this has also raised concerns about what can be done to harm people’s reputation. Lately, I’ve been impressed by the same technology if put into good use. One great example in this regard has been shared by the founder of the LinkedIN platform, Reid Hoffman, who has also been an investor in OpenAI (creator of ChatGPT). He has been experimenting with positive uses of AI. At some point he co-wrote a book with the assistance of AI. What has caught my attention however is the fact that he recently created a version of himself as an AI avatar. The coolest thing about this experiment is that Reid was interviewed by an AI version of himself. I must say that it did a good job based on its understanding of the person it was interviewing. It was also interesting to note that the AI has Reid’s mannerisms to an extent that while watching the interview it was difficult to distinguish between the Real Reid Hoffman and the AI – Reid Hoffman.

What is more important about this experiment by Reid is the fact that it shows us the positive aspects of Fake AI videos. It shows that we can create a version of ourselves as AIs. In my view, this matters for many reasons. In my line of work, I can foresee how useful it would be to assign my own AI avatar to interview someone on my behalf when I need to take care of something else. I can also see how useful it would be for me to assign my AI avatar to some meetings that I cannot attend. The possibilities are endless. My sense is that AI videos can enable us to achieve more than what we’ve imagined. I also believe that our own versions of AI can enable us to counter fake AI versions that could be created by other people. I think we are at a point where we need to start creating AI avatars and versions of ourselves as a countermeasure against fake versions created by others. We no longer have a choice in this regard. During the social media era, one way of discouraging fake social media accounts was to create one of your own. When you create an AI version of yourself and mark it as your AI avatar this will be a form of your identity protection.

Here’s how Reid created an AI version of himself: the video avatar was generated by Hour One. The voice cloning was done by 11ElevenLabs. The persona or the way Reid AI formulates responses was generated from a custom chatbot built on GPT-4 that draws from his own books, speeches, articles, and podcasts that I’ve produced over the last 20 years. This may also include older statements and thinking shared by Reid online.I challenge you to create your own AI avatar. I will do the same and share results on this column by the end of May. As many workers around the world are preparing to celebrate the workers day on the 1st May it’s time to find ways of working together with AI. Based on what I’ve seen it can assist us to become more productive at work. If we succeed with this experiment, we may begin a process of turning around the bad use of AI to good use for our own benefit. Please try it and let me know online via X and on LinkedIN.

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