5/5 (2)

Digital currency has on and off been a hot topic over the last years. Every growth and decline has been described and discussed, and virtually everyone has an opinion about this subject.

Banks were also one of them and have always been opposed to the idea. The whole concept of a nonstable coin, not backed up by actual value, was a recipe for disaster according to many banks.

 

However suddenly banks are changing their opinion on this matter. In July Facebook has introduced a stable coin called Libra. Such stable coins are known for being less volatile and are backed up by ‘stable’ assets which changes the core argument of banks. The concept of Libra would be similar to that of WeChat, where you can pay through WhatsApp. This has been a wake-up call as many banks see this as a different and more serious threat to their traditional way of business.  The big reach Facebook has is one of the reasons they feel they should join this development. The People’s Bank of China is taking Libra (and all other related developments) very seriously and has been digital currency since 2014. This could be because WeChat is such an essential platform in china. You could say that Libra has the potential to be the European WeChat so it might be wise to operate similarly to Chinese banks.

 

However, a couple of hours ago PayPal has announced that they are dropping out of the deal. PayPal has not explained its reasons behind it but says they are still supportive of the idea of Libra. Even though PayPal was one of the first members of the Libra association, there are still some other prominent members in the association such as payments company Visa, ride-hailing app Uber and humanitarian charity Mercy Corps. Therefore PayPal leaving does not have to be the end.

 

The question does however rise, is Libra actually a potential threat to the original banking industry? Their first response has been to take them seriously, but this might alter because of the developments of PayPal. It is unclear what the next step will be in this development but as always with digital currencies, it is probably interesting and unexpected.

 

Sources:

BBC, 2019. Accessed at: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-49944421

 

Technology review, 2019. Accessed at:https://www.technologyreview.com/s/614472/should-central-banks-issue-digital-currency-suddenly-its-an-urgent-question/

5/5 (2)

AI (Artificial intelligence) surprises us every day. The basic concept of a technology which can be taught is something people still find difficult to comprehend. However, AI is not planning on slowing down and allowing these people to get used to the idea, it is quite the opposite. Last week AI has made a new development which once again indicates how fascinating and human-like AI can be. Researchers created a program that facilitated multi-agent reinforcement learning. This is the concept of placing two algorithms in a competitive environment which ensures emergent behavior and reinforcement learning. This was done by a game of hide and seek. This seems like a very ordinary game but it facilitates all the aspects needed to show this behavior.

 

Interestingly AI showed 6 strategies over time which were getting more and more developed and none were initially programmed. All these strategies are similar to human development in the way they were organized and their learning sequence.

In the first phase, the hiders and seekers learn strategies and counter-strategies.

In the second phase, the hiders learn to use tools and alter their environment. They build shelters to create better hiding spots.

In the third phase, the seekers learn this alteration as well to enter the hiding spots of the hiders by using ramps.

The fourth phase happens when hiders learn to lock ramps so that the seekers can not use them anymore to enter their shelters.

The most fascinating phase is probably the fifth one. In this phase, seekers use the blocks also present in the game. The ramps can not be moved but the seekers can ‘surf’ on the boxes, therefore, increasing height and ‘surf’ over the walls the ramps has created.

The sixth phase happens when the hiders learn to lock the boxes as well.

All these phases happened over 380 million rounds of training. What makes this case so interesting is that the researchers decided to end this trial after around 500 million rounds. They explained that they initially wanted to end the training around phase 4 as they believed this was the end phase, but then phase 5 and 6 occurred. Therefore, who knows what would have happened if they would have let it run for another 500 million rounds? This once again shows how unexpected AI can be, and how it is still difficult for us to grasp the skills AI is capable of.

 

Bibliography

Technologyreview (2019) available at: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/614325/open-ai-algorithms-learned-tool-use-and-cooperation-after-hide-and-seek-games/

Towardsdatascience (2019) available at: https://towardsdatascience.com/openai-tried-to-train-ai-agents-to-play-hide-and-seek-but-instead-they-were-shocked-by-what-they-3ea32bf7fc95