Start up, Cash in, Sell out

Future technologies, especially those portrayed in post-apocalyptic sci-fi, the source of all my fears about the world, are often extremely dangerous. It is as if the writers joyfully turn to the Earth and imagine how our fragile ecosystem, economy and society would respond to some future threat. Some notable examples are: alien invasion, super-virus, alien super-virus, meteor, nuclear war and artificial intelligence.

AI is cause for concern. It is a future technology which walks to the heights of life’s complexity, on a road never previously travelled. And while AI may be disastrous in the future, as Elon Musk and others predict, here and now AI is innovative and profitable.

A Melbourne based private enterprise has essentially used artificial intelligence to cure blindness.

Aipoly is at the forefront of implementing practical AI technology. They have developed an app using machine learning to identify objects in the world using a smartphone’s camera, and then tell the user what these objects are by saying them out loud. Aipoly is now able to identify over 5,000 objects. Here's how it works:

The app uses algorithmic processes in what is known as a convolutional neural network. This network is inspired by the biological visual cortex, so in a sense this app is acting almost exactly like another set of eyes. This neural cortex, much like our own, is trained with over 300,000 images until it ‘learns’ what each object is called. Which I personally think is freaking amazing.

The official description of Aipoly is as follows: “Aipoly is an object and colour recogniser that helps the blind, visually impaired, and colour blind understand their surroundings.”

But as with all new technologies, new opportunities present themselves in unexpected ways. The company has noticed that many of its app sales come from Japan, where they have found people using their application to learn English. As a student who had to drop Chinese in order to survive another year at university, I would pay extensively for a tool such as this.

This technology has possibly hundreds more uses we don’t know about yet.

And Aipoly is providing this all, for free.

Initially I thought this was a little strange, this technology could so easily be monetised. Even if the app costs 50 cents, thousands, or possibly millions of dollars would come their way, with little inconvenience for the customer. I decided to look up their Australian business number, because articles allude to this company being Australian based. And I found nothing.

I searched further, and it seemed that out of the cofounders: Australian entrepreneur Marita Cheng, Swedish developer Simon Edwardsson and Italian entrepreneur Alberto Rizzoli, one of them may have registered the company elsewhere. But the Italian, Swedish and even the American registries yielded nothing. Singularity University, the place where development is taking place, would surely have answers about business structure. But alas, I could not find it.

This situation is very interesting to me. This new and innovative technology, so easily profitable is being given away for free by a company with no official record (as far as I know). From this it could be deduced that Aipoly is a marketing front, for the real but secretive business.

Selling their technology to other companies.

Yes, the conspiracy is alive and well with this particular company. It is known that large conglomerates like Apple and Alphabet love to buy new technologies, and monetise them.

Just recently I was looking at an app designed by a British student that summarised news articles called Summly. I was even going to write a blog on it, but I quickly found out that his technology was bought by Yahoo for $30 million in March of 2013.

Which leads me to an interesting thought.

If the goal of your enterprise is not to develop a product, but simply to rise into the echelons of the upper class, then climbing up the ladder may not seem appealing to you. Instead, if you create a valuable technology, the giant deities of the corporate world will name you their champion and pull you up into paradise. No climbing needed.

They are corporate deities indeed, here is one example on a channel just full of them:

This could be completely wrong. There is every chance that Marita Cheng, Simon Edwardsson and Alberto Rizzoli are developing this app for free out of the kindness of their hearts. And the apparently vague and mysterious business structure is simply due to my own incompetence.

But then again, being kind does not put food on your plate, or buy you that new car.

At least, not in this capitalist meritocracy.

I think the co-founders of Aipoly know this, and are just waiting to be pulled up into the clouds. They are spreading their app across the world and proving its value. I think it wont be long before a conglomerate such as Alphabet comes knocking. But only time will tell.

Calm Ducks Don't Fly

The people of Eora are a group of indigenous Australian who once lived in the region we now call greater Sydney. Eora 3D however, is a new Australian startup based in Syndey, who have just launched their first product: a portable, high-precision 3D scanner for your smartphone.

3D printing is all the rage now, hobbyists and corporations around the world are quickly jumping on board to produce unique components in plastic, wood and even metal. The ability to customise aspects of a system, product or machine, is vital to continued innovation. China Eastern, one of the largest airlines in the world, is even 3D printing lighter components to be used in their planes, how cool is that?

3D Printing's Modern Precision - Sarah Gerrity 3D Printing's Modern Precision - Sarah Gerrity

There are many drawbacks, however. 3D printing requires two main things, the printer, and the 3D model you wish to print. Now with any serious investment, printers are readily accessible, but for the 3D model, anyone without the skill to create one either has to use someone else’s design, or cry softly to themselves. This might require trawling through the mountains of models online, or looking at the world around you for inspiration or the shapes you need. Unfortunately if someone wants to incorporate shapes and designs from their surroundings in their 3D printing, they have to fork out over $10,000 for an accurate 3D scanner, or between $500 and $3000 for inaccurate ones. A ridiculous amount of money, especially for artists.

Eora found its niche. A cheap and accurate 3D scanning system, and with a market price at $10,000 already set, their $300 scanner of extremely high quality is just unfair to the industry, it is almost too cheap. The interesting part, however, was how they got it to market. Rahul Koduri, Asfand Khan and Richard Boers, the three cofounders developed their product first. Claiming to have gone through 7 different prototypes before announcing it. With the skill to just create new technologies by hand, you’d think these people would have no problems selling their product, but alas, the monster that is manufacturing scalability blocked their path. So they went to Kickstarter.

And on Kickstarter they did very well.

With a pledge of $80,000, they achieved over half a million, that is 750% of what they needed. And they earned it. Not only was there a demand, not only did they pick a heavily growing industry, not only did they choose a launching platform filled with artists and tech addicts, but their Kickstarter page, was just extremely well done. They had very detailed videos, lengthy but savvy descriptions, and even interactive examples of things they have scanned, there was truly no bullshit here. I was quite pleased, especially after witnessing the consumerist anomaly of the Kickstarter stonecup (even now I still have nightmares).

Eora did it right in every respect. They created something people wanted, showed them what they needed to see, and did it all in a place they often go. It would be like revealing a large chocolate cake at a children’s birthday party, no one would be disappointed. This sort of marketing (well I guess it isn’t even proper marketing), this sort of pre-marketing is essential for the success of products limited by manufacturing scalability. And these platforms are there to just be used and abused. It almost seems too easy to generate exposure, but I have to catch myself, because these guys have done really well and I would recommend their Kickstarter page as a quintessential example of a page done right.

But an interesting situation is now created. Their company is an 'other unincorporated entity', so in a business sense, the only success is the wealth given to the founders, or any success they choose in their non-binding contracts. With half a million dollars, you could say they have already succeeded, paid themselves a six figure salary each for this year. It is an odd feeling, that Kickstarter has essentially elevated this trio into the echelons of the aristocratic before they have given anything back.

Why step out into the magic if you've already won?

Why step out into the magic if you've already won?

I have no doubt that they will continue to deliver and create their product, and continue to be generally successful, but it leads to an interesting question. Can you over succeed?

With a race to prosperity as fast as this one, there might be a danger in losing motivation. The struggle, the internal conflict, the anxiety of not succeeding is often the fuel for continued success. Just as famous artists race to the tops of charts with songs of loss and struggle. Just as opposing forces lead to massive leaps in technological innovation like Apple v Google. The founders of Eora, however, are unhindered by anything, and have a padded bank account to show for it.

I will be interested to see how far they go.