Jim O'Shaughnessy on AI, Innovation, and the Future of Publishing

Jim O'Shaughnessy, a renowned investor and entrepreneur, recently joined Tobias Carlisle and Jake Taylor to discuss artificial intelligence, innovation, and his latest ventures. The wide-ranging conversation covered topics from AI's impact on games like Go to O'Shaughnessy's new publishing company.

AI and Games

O'Shaughnessy began by discussing how AI has revolutionized complex games like Go:

"Go is one of the oldest games in human history. It is deceptively simple looking - you have black stones and white stones, one player plays Black the other plays white. The amount of potential moves in Go dwarfs the potential moves in chess by a staggering level. The numbers are so crazy that you have to write them in notation form."

He explained that when AI systems like AlphaGo were developed to play Go, they used a different approach than previous game-playing AIs:

"The way that they trained AlphaGo was quite different than they trained Deep Blue or whatever IBM called it that beat Kasparov. IBM used brute force essentially - it fed into Deep Blue every recorded game of chess. But with AlphaGo, they had an insight - what if we just gave it the rules of Go and then let it see what happens?"

This allowed AlphaGo to develop strategies that human players had never conceived of:

"It came up with moves that humans would not conceive of, would not make, or explicitly were told not to make. That was what they were trained, you know, from when they were kids playing Go."

O'Shaughnessy sees this as indicative of AI's potential to find novel solutions across many domains:

"AI is this on steroids - it doesn't think the way we think and I look at that as a really beneficial thing. If you're going to interact and co-create and collaborate with AI, you're going to be able to see a lot of blind spots that we just can't see normally."

Innovation and Optimism

O'Shaughnessy expressed excitement about the pace of technological progress and innovation:

"We are speeding up exponentially. I'm a rational optimist but I'm not Panglossian. I don't think that there's not going to be any trouble ever again - in fact quite the opposite. I think that we will continue to face really difficult problems. I just think that there are going to be better problems."

He cautioned against excessive pessimism or attempts to slow innovation:

"We of course should take precautions, we of course should have plans for if things go wrong, but we should never build them into a place where we actively try to discourage new knowledge, innovation, etc. Stasis is death, movement is life."

O'Shaughnessy believes AI and other emerging technologies will drive massive changes:

"AI is an omnidirectional technology that will affect every single industry. It will affect society, it will affect relationships. It's going to be a game changer in so many ways. But rather than get all freaked out about it, I always try to sort of invert the argument and think - but look at all the new things that we are going to be able to do that we could even dream of doing on our own."

Investing Insights

The conversation also touched on investing principles. O'Shaughnessy discussed the importance of being comfortable with paradox:

"Being comfortable with paradox is kind of table stakes if you're trying to develop models for making better predictions. The truth ought to be predictive in my mind. As Fitzgerald said, the mark of a first-rate mind was the ability to hold two diametrically opposed ideas in their mind at the same time without going insane."

He also emphasized the value of challenging one's circle of competence:

"If you look at all of the verticals that we have at OSV Ventures, I have no experience running a publishing company or a movie company or a media company. And yet I take it as an advantage, not a disadvantage, that I am coming with fresh eyes to things."

O'Shaughnessy believes in trying to envision end states:

"We always try to think about what's the end state. If you can see what the end state of something is, or if you can speculate with a pretty high probability of being right about that end state, well then it makes it a hell of a lot easier to figure out what kind of path you're going to take there."

New Ventures in Publishing

O'Shaughnessy shared his excitement about his new publishing venture, Infinite Books:

"We are getting amazing feedback on our publishing unit, Infinite Books, where we're trying to take all these tools that we have access to and use them to the benefit of our authors, which ultimately benefits our readers."

He explained how they're using technology to address pain points in the traditional publishing process:

"A lot of it is we're using technology to address all of those mundane, horrible long wait times. If you've ever written a book and you send in the manuscript, how long does it take them for that manuscript to get back to you as an author? It's ridiculous the time it takes. We can have it back to you the next day."

Infinite Books aims to be an "AI-first publishing company" while still giving authors control:

"We're building out as an AI-first publishing company, but always at the discretion of our author. Does the author want us to turn it all the way on or all the way off in terms of marketing, in terms of press, in terms of all of those things? We have those capabilities built in day one."

Embracing Technological Change

Throughout the conversation, O'Shaughnessy emphasized the importance of embracing technological change rather than fearing it. He sees AI and other emerging technologies as tools that can augment human capabilities:

"Jobs said computers are bicycles for the mind. AI is a rocket ship for the mind. I literally believe that when retrospectively people are thinking and talking about this period 20, 30, or 40 years from now, that they're going to with a straight face say that AI was as impactful as Gutenberg."

He encouraged listeners to look for opportunities created by technological shifts:

"I definitely think if you believe the end state is mass customization, then you should think within your industry - what does that look like for me?"

O'Shaughnessy's optimistic outlook and willingness to explore new domains serve as an inspiring example for entrepreneurs and investors navigating a rapidly changing technological landscape. By embracing paradox, challenging assumptions, and leveraging new tools, he believes we can solve increasingly complex problems and unlock new realms of human potential.

Conclusion

Jim O'Shaughnessy's wide-ranging discussion touched on the transformative potential of AI, the importance of embracing innovation, and opportunities in fields like publishing. His optimistic yet pragmatic outlook provides valuable perspective for anyone seeking to understand and capitalize on technological change. As AI and other emerging technologies continue to reshape industries and society, O'Shaughnessy's insights on combining human creativity with machine intelligence offer a compelling vision for the future.

Article created from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfN1UaGpVMs