Aaha! Well, if you're reading this article, it means you're either interested in AI, Crypto, or want to get ahead of the other 99% of students. This article could be a paradise of insight for you. It's going to be a long one, so grab a cup of coffee and enjoy!
Let me start with a story about how I lost a bunch of opportunities in the past four years (2020-2023).
Firstly, imagine if I had invested just Rs 1000 in SHIBA INU in 2020, I would've been worth INR 850,000,000 (85Cr). It generated almost an 85 million % return between 2020-2021.
I know people are going to say, "Oh, if you knew, why didn't you invest already, Alhaaz?" The reason is because I don't know !!
I could give a thousand excuses, but in reality, I just don't know the answer!
But I guess it'll be the reason for my kids to remember me by cursing. And if this sounds crazy, then wait, I have more!
My luck with Bitcoin.
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Let’s talk about Bitcoin. Recently, in March, BTC touched ATH INR 60,00,000 ($73k), and I've been watching BTC for almost four years and still haven't invested a single penny. Why?
Well, for me, investing Rs 1000 or Rs 5000 and gaining only 1000 or 5000, respectively (a 100% return that BTC has given in one year), has no use. Your 1000 will become 2000 and 5000 will become 10k, ignoring the losses and 30% tax to the government. And platform charges vary from 1-2% if you withdraw the amount.
It doesn’t make sense until you have a sufficient amount of surplus to invest.
But still, I believe there’s an opportunity in crypto to make some handsome money because coins like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Mana, & Matics have more future plans and potential use cases for the next 10 years, and they are highly volatile. So make sure you do your own research.
Now, if you think Blockchain is just limited to crypto, then let me introduce you to two of the most important pillars of blockchain:
1. NFTs:
NFTs stand for Non-Fungible Tokens, which basically means any form of media such as images, music, videos, etc., where you can literally have ownership of it or allow transferability.
For example, suppose I create a digital art, but I don’t want others to claim it, then I can simply mint that artwork on the blockchain, and then that image or artwork is now legitimately owned by me. It’ll show my unique wallet ID on the chain.
I know it sounds ridiculous; you can argue that anyone can screenshot that image and have it.
I agree! The main aim of blockchain is decentralization and transparency, meaning complete information such as who buys, sells, or transfers it, is on the chain, and everyone can keep an eye on it.
In 2021, NFTs were insanely popular among rich celebrities and influencers. People were buying pictures of monkeys with different facial expressions and putting them as profile pictures just to flex, which led to a spike in sales volume, and millions of dollars of NFTs were bought and sold on exchanges like OpenSea.
In 2023, the bubble burst, and almost all NFTs lost 90% of their value in two years.
NFTs are not just created for fun; they have great utility and if used properly, like providing authenticity to music creators and a source of revenue because users need to pay whenever someone uses original art, it’s called royalty.
Another important use case of NFTs is in Gaming Industries for buying and transferring In-Game Assets. Games like Valorant, Genshin Impact, Roblox mint their game items because in-game purchases are the only source of revenue for them.
There's more to it; I'm just listing some:
- Art, luxury brands, sports
- Supply chain and logistics
- Finance
- Domain name ownership
- Ticket Sales, etc.
2. Smart Contracts:
Smart Contracts itself is a complex concept for everyone, and I’m not going to explain what the tech behind it is. Think of it as a self-executing agreement that executes when certain terms & conditions are met.
Let me explain how it works with an example - Consider the vending machine: it dispenses the preferred drink only when you insert a $1 note.
Similarly, it can transfer Tokens, Digital Docs, Digital assets, etc., when certain terms and conditions are met (remembering that it’s non-transferrable, hence it cannot be transferred further or taken back).
Now, I’m very bullish on the use case:
No. 1 use case of smart contracts is for the transfer of Certificates, School Marksheets, College Degrees, Digital documents. Imagine your school or college simply transfers your degree or marksheet to your wallet ID, and you can easily access it without the risk of being lost or physically damaged.
One more important use case is replacing the traditional Stamp paper. Guess it’s the most popular among dads. So, the idea is to use Smart Contracts instead of Stamp paper, which not only is safe but also provides transparency (visible to everyone).
There are a few more I’ve listed; do research if you want:
- Decentralized Financing (DiFi) for borrowing and lending
- NFTs
- Real Estate Agreements
- Healthcare, etc.
If this doesn’t excite you, then let’s talk about something really hot.
Artificial Intelligence (AI).
I’m pretty sure that everyone has used or tried AI tools at least once. It all started with just a viral tweet titled “last selfie on earth”. It contained images generated by OpenAI's first and newest text-to-image model named ‘DALL-E’. The image depicted the scenario of the last man on earth taking a selfie. That tweet sparked chaos across the internet, and everyone started talking about AI.
Even I got curious to know more about it. Unfortunately, it became the main reason for the decline in the growth of WEB3 (Crypto, NFTs, DiFi, etc.).
Rise of AI
After gaining immense popularity, OpenAI launched some further versions of DALL-E and made its API available for the public, or in simple terms, making it available to the general public so they can use the technology in their own apps or websites.
Text-to-image is still not perfect, and OpenAI launched its most capable text-based AI model ChatGPT. And in my opinion, it has literally revolutionized the following:
1. Content: Traditionally making content would cost you time and money. Now making content is cheap and efficient by using several AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini for writing scripts, Midjourney, or Stable Diffusion for generating thumbnails or stock images, Elevenlab for text-to-speech, and many more.
2. Traditional workspace: AI also helps to revolutionize the traditional workspace. Now employees can complete their routine work with GPT
and spend more time strategizing and prioritizing more productive work. Tools such as Sanebox for e-mail, Docugami for document management, Dectopus, Beautifulai, Slidesgo for making PPTs and slides.
3. Learning : A pretty huge number of people are using AI to leverage their skills and learning, and it's still growing really fast. Developers use it to learn or solve critical problems, content creators use it to upgrade their content by improving their script, thumbnail, text-2-voice, or their AI avatars, and students use GPT for school works, presentations, and universities for tailored made personalized study materials.
We are still super early in the game.
I know most people are anxious and might be thinking they are going to be left behind, but trust me, you won’t because we're super early in the game, and you're not going to lose your job either (I know you don’t have one). Despite the boom in the industry, it's still in the early stages right now; only text and image models are developed perfectly.
We have 5-10 years ahead for AI to be fully developed, and in this timeframe, you can learn a lot about AI.
How not to be left behind in the race ?
Let me tell you a few ways by which you can keep up with the rapid development in AI:
1. Learn English.
This sounds hilarious, but it is a core concept of how most people in the AI industry are winning.
You know there are facts in ‘THE INDUS VALLEY REPORT OF 2022’ which says that “If you want to be successful in India you have 3 options – 1. To Crack a competitive Exam, 2. To leave India and 3. To be Fluent in English.”
If you are a student and have basic fluency in English, then you might have an edge over 70% of other people. And I’ll tell you later why it’s important, so if you don’t want to be left behind, then English will be a must-go skillset for you.
2. Prompt Engineering.
It means the practice of refining, providing, and training input to AI, especially into Large Language Models (LLMs), for the desired output. It is the most underrated skill to have in order to generate the desired output from AI.
For example, let’s say you want to generate an image of a “cat riding a bicycle”, this is the prompt you’ll enter, but the image that AI will give you might be different from how you’ve imagined. You might have thought of a brown cat or a different style of bicycle or image style preferences like realistic/cartoonish/anime/etc.
That’s where English plays the crucial role in Prompt engineering. It will give you the power to generate the output according to your imagination, preferences, and style. You’ll have more control over the quality of output generated by AI.
3. Curiosity.
There’s a quote always said by Kunal Shah (founder of CRED), “When someone calls him intelligent,” he replied - “I’m not Intelligent, I’m just curious. And curious people often seem intelligent.”
The psychological factors play an important role in one's development. Your curiosity can take you where your destiny can’t. If you are curious enough to learn everything that interests or excites you, then you’ll surely have the upper hand in terms of growth.
So, that’s my point of view, but there might be more or less.
Now, allow me to introduce you to some Next Gen technologies that are going to completely change the future. It has infinite use cases as a product or service.
Therefore, if you'd be able to build something around it in the next upcoming decade, then there’s a 70 % chance of you being the next OPENAI, APPLE, or NVIDIA.
3 Pieces of Technology for the Next 10 Years.
Let’s start with the most trending one!
I'm certain that once in your feed, you have probably seen a guy wearing a weird headset and walking across the streets. Yes! You guessed it right. I’m talking about – ‘The Apple Vision Pro.’
1. Apple Vision Pro.
Apple Vision Pro is the first mixed reality Headset, which was the newest product launched by Apple on February 5, 2024. The main aim of Vision Pro is to integrate digital media into the real world; it basically works similarly to the famously used technology Jarvis in Iron Man. In Vision Pro, you can interact in real life with different floating displays in mid-air, where users can interact with eye gestures, motion gestures to operate.
You think it’s pretty much a wild piece of tech, and I’m sure nobody believed it was real until 2023.
But Apple was planning this for a decade long. In 2009, Apple first filed a patent for the design of Apple Vision Pro. It was the time when there was no existence of technology like AR/VR.
Still, it’s too early for mass adoption because of several reasons such as bulky design, unstable OS, fewer numbers of app support, battery problems, etc. Therefore, we can expect it to get better till the V3 or V4, where we would be able to do all sorts of work.
How will it benefit you? What's the big idea? Well, by simply building an app on top of it.
The tech is already existing; you just need to find out the gap in between and build something over it so you could make an insane amount of money. I know people can argue with me that “Oh, too expensive to be used by the middle class, only rich kids will use it.”
Let me introduce you to some ideas:
Potential use cases of AR/VR in B2B:
1. Supply Chain Tracking: Using MR to track containers, products, and food deliveries provides clear visibility and reduces uncertainty in the supply chain process.
2. Healthcare Training: VR headsets allow healthcare workers to learn about complex body structures in an interactive, simulated environment before real-world situations.
3. Employee Training in Manufacturing: U.S. manufacturing companies spent around $90 billion in 2020-2021 training employees on operating machinery. VR can provide tailored practice environments for training, potentially reducing costs.
4. Surgery Assistance: VR can make surgeries easier by giving doctors real-time solutions and visualizations during complex procedures.
There are many other potential applications across various sectors. The key is finding the right technology and identifying needs in an industry, then building something useful that bridges the two. Simple innovations at the intersection of technology and industry can lead to major improvements and efficiencies.
My personal opinion: I would never think of buying a $3,500 (~Rs 3,00,000) headset unless I’m Ambani's son. The only thing I could afford is Meta Quest 3 that’ll cost me around $500 (~Rs 40,000) on EMI.
I’m leaving you with this interesting question – “Do you think Apple Vision Pro will be the next iPhone?”
2. Rabbit R1.
The Rabbit R1 is an AI-powered gadget that aims to use your existing apps and services on your behalf, without the need to switch between multiple apps and logins.
It's a simple gadget that currently performs tasks of asking questions either in text or with image formats. What’s the big idea?
Rabbit R1 is a very first AI-powered gadget, and despite being overpriced ($200 ~Rs 14,000), its design is on the next level for
which you can’t take your eyes off. Similar product ideas can be used to build something useful such as:
• Sports – AI assistant sports gears to assist the athletes about the necessary details about everything related to heart, lungs, muscles and external information such as speed, distance, track, humidity, others speed etc.
• Healthcare devices - AI assistant for health monitoring specially for elderly people to regularly check on the blood pressure and sugar levels and help them in timely reminder about medicines or providing customize diet for proper calorie counts.
• Learning – AI-powered gadget that makes notes of whatever teacher is explaining or a device similar to Rabbit R1 which specifically builds for GPTs to help students in their study.
These are some few industries to build something useful. The core idea is simple: build an AI-powered product at a cheaper price point to target a wide audience.
3. Neuralink.
It is a peak technology where humans have ever reached. Neuralink is a company that aims to make cyborgs. It’s a company run by the most influential Elon Musk and a team of seven scientists and engineers. Neuralink plans to develop a ‘sewing-machine’ like device that is capable of implanting thread-like wires into your brain.
Now, you might be thinking no one will be ready for this experiment!
Then let me tell you that “Neuralink has successfully implemented into a man named Noland Arbaugh” who was paralyzed from his neck down due to an accident. Now he’s able to control a mouse through his brain, and his first-ever tweet went viral. Later, he’s seen playing chess complete with his brain that made people scratch their heads and some are left with criticism.
So, why does someone need this? And how it’s going to change the entire planet?
1. To restore autonomy and function for those with disabilities:
• Neuralink aims to help people who have lost the use of their limbs, such as those paralyzed from spinal cord injuries or with conditions like ALS, by allowing them to control computers and devices using only their thoughts.
• The brain-computer interface could potentially restore movement and communication abilities for those with severe physical limitations.
2. To potentially enhance human cognitive ability:
• Musk has suggested Neuralink could eventually enable enhancements like improved memory, the ability to "upload" one's mind, and a "symbiosis with artificial intelligence".
• However, experts have expressed skepticism about the feasibility of these more ambitious, non-medical applications in the near-term.
3. To advance brain-computer interface technology:
• Neuralink is currently developing brain implant technology, which could pave the way for further advancements in this field.
• While other companies are also working on similar technologies, Neuralink's high-profile status and Musk's ambitious vision have drawn significant attention. Basically, you can call Neuralink an iPhone of its industry.
Is there any opportunity for building something around Neuralink ?
Despite being a newest tech advancement, it’s still not completely developed or tested, so building something around it doesn’t make sense at all because you didn’t even know its full potential. And the one major problem you’ll face is regulation. Government regulations are super strict for any type of experiment on human beings.
Therefore, wait for the next 5-6 years for development and make sure to keep an eye on Neuralink, try to understand the technology.
Thats it for the day !! In wrapping up, let's reflect on the journey we've taken through the realms of AI, cryptocurrency, and emerging technologies. It's been a rollercoaster of excitement, missed opportunities, and eye-opening discoveries.
As we stand at the crossroads of possibility, it's not just about chasing profits or being the first to adopt the latest gadget. It's about embracing a mindset of curiosity, empathy, and responsibility. It's about recognizing the impact we can have on each other and the world around us.