AI creating AI?

In the recent years technology has been moving forwards in a ways that we have never thought of or imagined. Artificial Intelligence, machine learning and neural networks have started to become part of our daily lives without us even realizing it. The last several years have also brought some troubling questions about the future of the AI. Is technological singularity coming faster than we ever anticipated? Are machines going to take away our jobs? Is AI going to go rogue on humans like in multiple dystopian movies? Well, even the brightest of us cannot answer those questions with certainty but the issue is starting to become more apparent. Several unnerving news articles that hit the media recently have made a big impact in the IT world. For example in the last week Google published a report that an AI managed to outperform humans when creating a piece of machine learning code (Greene, Oct 2017). This is significant because in the years to come it can lead to a vicious cycle of AI building and reinventing itself on multiple levels. For now, however, researchers working on the project state that there is nothing to worry about due to the current nature of the project.(Nash, Oct 2017) In a way we are closer to revealing AI’s potential to accelerate the technological timeline. On the other hand it poses a question about the measures that are needed to be taken in order not to find ourselves in the “Skynet” scenario. One is for sure, in the years to come we are going to see more and more machines.

References:

Nash, Charlie (2017 Oct 17) Google’s artificial intelligence can reportedly make better machine-learning code than the humans who made it. Available at: http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2017/10/17/report-google-ai-makes-better-code-humans-made/ [Accessed 23 Oct 2017]

Greene, Tristan (2017 Oct 17) Google’s AI can create better machine-learning code than the researchers who made it, Available at: https://thenextweb.com/artificial-intelligence/2017/10/16/googles-ai-can-create-better-machine-learning-code-than-the-researchers-who-made-it/ [Accessed 23 Oct 2017)

While people have their heads turned towards the BitCoin’s record breaking historical high, a new contender for the top place amongst all cryptos is around the block. What makes it different? While relatively few people outside of the IT and trading world have heard about it, Ripple has managed to secure the third place amongst all cryptocurrencies based on its market capitalization (market cap – the total amount of the currency units multiplied by their current intrinsic value). However, Ripple is not a currency in itself. Ripple is a unique real-time gross settlement system (RTGS) which is used for currency exchange and remittance. XRP (also known as ripples),on the other hand, are the default ledger and native cryptocurrency for the protocol. There are many factors that make Ripple XRP unique compared to most of the other cryptocurrencies. 

First: all XRP coins are predetermined and pre-mined – this means that no new coins will be issued ever – at least according to the Ripple’s creators. Second: XRP is established as a deflationary currency. This means that during each transaction, a small amount of XRP is “burned” away making the cryptocurrency more and more scarce with each transaction. Third: XRP is intended as a new method of transaction exchange between banks. In contrast to BitCoin’s slow transaction speed and throughput, Ripple can theoretically support the same throughput as the current Visa transaction system. Fourth: even though Ripple XRP was not initially intended for trading and wealth accumulation, multiple companies and individuals started to trade with it both on a daily basis and as a long term investment pushing the currency’s value higher and higher. 

Fifth and final point is the potential market cap for the XRP. If the system becomes widely used as a means of transferring funds between different financial institutions (including, but not limited to commercial banks), the XRP’s perceived value can skyrocket and become multiple times higher than its current value, making it a potential cash cow for long term investors. On the other hand, due to the currency’s volatility there is the occasional “pump and dump” done by large investors which causes the daily value to fluctuate wildly on a daily basis.

All in all, XRP is here to stay and will most probably keep its place as one of the most important cryptocurrencies in the modern world. It’s centralized and bank-owned system will also guard it against potential governmental bans and regulations. In the end of the day, XRP will most definitely be more than a ripple in the pond of the rising world of cryptocurrencies.