Pssst. Hey you! C’mere. You wanna get rich? I’m selling AI unicorns. Don’t worry, the first one’s free.
In this issue, three human-centered “Pre-AGI” startup ideas that should be possible well before artificial general intelligence:
- Kinetic barriers (257 words)
- A playing field leveler (158 words)
- Autonomous agriculture communes (385 words)
Kinetic barriers
Pitch: Have you or someone you love been affected by gun violence? Well, what if there was a way to render a significant percentage of kinetic attacks ineffective with good old-fashioned AI?
Tech: Current class rockets, some military aircraft (including the near half-a-century-old SR-71), and numerous lasers are all capable of speeds eclipsing that of a bullet fired from an AR-15.
The equipment design for a kinetic barrier would employ a fast recognition and response mechanism utilizing extremely high speed computer vision and sound processing to detect incoming ballistics. Once a kinetic threat was identified, a “counter fire” system would activate.
This system would work similar to an airbag in that it would “deploy” a barrier between the intended target (you) and the impact mechanism (the bullet) via either laser or chemical activated substance expansion or hyperkinetic solid object deployment.
In laypersons’ terms: If someone shot at you, an AI system would register the sound, solve the bullet’s trajectory, and generate a physical barrier to protect you by either agitating a prepared substance with a laser or other high-speed chemical effect or by “shooting” a countermeasure at the bullet to intercept it.
You know those shiny silver car windshield sun protectors that fold down to fit in your hand, but when you let them go they rapidly “flip” open to their full size? Imagine something like that popping out of your jacket or hat to intercept a bullet. Sure, you might still feel the impact, but the bullet’s penetration (and destructive potential) would be highly mitigated.
A playing field leveler
Pitch: Isn’t it interesting that governments around the world have released forensic AI systems capable of processing your data for the benefit of the government yet, somehow, nobody’s managed to create a simple system that parses government red tape autonomously on your behalf so that you’re always in an optimum citizen position?
Tech: A private, encrypted, distributed, forensic AI system that’s hard-tagged to an individual user at birth and optimized through open-source code to ensure said user receives fair access and treatment to and by government services without regard to intelligence, social standing, or financial status.
In laypersons’ terms: We create an AI that exists to ensure its client (you) get the rights, privileges, and resources you deserve. In a world where whoever can afford the most expensive lawyers and accountants tends to get the best treatment, a simple set of optimization algorithms applied to the right systems could tirelessly advocate on behalf of individual humans for free.
AI agriculture communes
Pitch: Do you or does someone you love enjoy eating food? Wouldn’t it be great if there were communes of robots spread around the world whose sole purpose for existing was to create sustainable seed-to-table agriculture communes providing food services to local geographical areas?
Tech: Bespoke automation tools combined with existing automated farming equipment, and a relatively simple autonomous shipping system.
In laypersons’ terms: this one’s pretty easy to understand. We plop down a bunch of machines capable of planting, harvesting, packaging, and preparing food for shipment and then connect them to an autonomous delivery service. We push the “on” button on the system and it starts making and delivering food. Then we leave it alone. Forever.
Okay, so this one isn’t a unicorn so much as it’s a communist automation paradigm designed to shake up the status quo idea that not everyone on the planet deserves to eat food. If it makes you feel any better, we could call it “robo-socialism” since, technically, humans would be losing the means of production.
The real innovation would be finding legal methods by which the machines and the commune they work on would be given “international immunity” from government interference. Essentially, we build them and then treat them like “The Keepers” from Mass Effect (creatures that serve a mysterious purpose, whom everyone leaves alone). They’d just make us food until every human on Earth has more than enough to eat.
The only reason we aren’t already building such communes is because it would cost a lot of money and, by design, nobody could profit off them.
The sentiment was tension in the barnyard
Throughout the years they had been through mad drama
With the farmer, word is bond
And they all came to one conclusion
They argued there was no way they’d ever be free
If it was up to humans
Therefore the only course left was revolution
Which was understandable
And since the pigs promised to lead in the interest of all the animals
They planned a full attack under the leadership of Hannibal
The fattest pig in the pack
The next morning on the farm, everything was calm
Just before dawn but before long
The sun got so hot it made the farm seem electric
Now check it, this is when that shit got hectic
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