The Cognitive Revolution
by Erik Torenberg, Nathan Labenz
Latest Business Ideas
AI-Powered Insights Product for Customer Service
Market Gap: Businesses lack clear insights into customer service performance.
This idea focuses on creating an AI-driven insights product tailored for customer service teams, allowing them to analyze interactions and derive actionable insights. Similar to how Intercom has developed its insights tools, this product would utilize AI to process and analyze large volumes of customer interaction data. By leveraging machine learning algorithms, businesses can gain visibility into performance metrics, customer satisfaction levels, and areas for improvement. This product targets medium to large enterprises that require deep analytical capabilities to optimize their customer service operations, ultimately driving better decision-making and performance improvements.
From: The Customer Service Revolution: Building Fin, with Eoghan McCabe & Fergal Reid of Intercom
Custom AI Customer Service Agent Development
Market Gap: Customer service teams struggle to keep up with demand.
This business idea revolves around developing a custom AI-powered customer service agent similar to Intercom's Fin, which has shown significant improvements in resolution rates through careful optimization and context engineering. By leveraging AI, businesses can create a solution that not only addresses the immediate needs of customer service teams but also scales with their growth. The target market includes medium to large businesses that struggle with customer inquiries and seek to enhance their service quality without exponentially increasing their workforce. This solution could be implemented by utilizing existing AI models and enhancing them with proprietary training and customization to fit specific business needs, ultimately allowing companies to improve their customer engagement and satisfaction rates.
From: The Customer Service Revolution: Building Fin, with Eoghan McCabe & Fergal Reid of Intercom
Intelligence Layer for Advanced Manufacturing
Market Gap: Manufacturers lack efficient AI tools for material design.
Periodic Labs aims to develop an intelligence layer that integrates AI capabilities into existing advanced manufacturing processes. This solution would enable engineers and researchers to leverage AI for rapid material design, testing, and iteration. By aligning AI tools with the specific needs of various industries, Periodic Labs can help companies reduce development timelines and improve the quality of their products. The target audience includes R&D departments within large manufacturing firms, government defense contractors, and high-tech companies focused on materials science.
From: Training an AI Scientist with Feedback from Reality, w- Liam Fedus & Ekin Dogus Cubuk (from a16z)
Automated Laboratory for Materials Discovery
Market Gap: Lack of experimental data hampers scientific progress.
Periodic Labs proposes an innovative approach by integrating automated physical laboratories with AI systems, allowing for real-world experiments to inform AI training. This setup enables the generation of high-quality experimental data, directly addressing the need for reliable input in AI models. By automating the synthesis and characterization of materials, researchers can accelerate the discovery process for advanced materials, including high-temperature superconductors. The target audience includes research institutions, manufacturing companies, and any organization involved in R&D that requires iterative experimentation to advance their scientific goals.
From: Training an AI Scientist with Feedback from Reality, w- Liam Fedus & Ekin Dogus Cubuk (from a16z)
Collaborative AI Platforms for R&D
Market Gap: Collaboration between AI and physical science is lacking.
Periodic Labs aims to develop collaborative AI platforms that bridge the gap between AI researchers and physical scientists. By creating a shared platform for data, simulations, and experimental results, the initiative fosters cross-disciplinary collaboration and accelerates the pace of innovation in materials discovery and other scientific domains. This platform would be particularly valuable for academic institutions, research labs, and companies looking to enhance their R&D capabilities through improved collaboration and data integration.
From: Training an AI Scientist with Feedback from Reality, w- Liam Fedus & Ekin Dogus Cubuk (from a16z)
AI-Powered Cancer Knowledge Hub
Market Gap: Cancer treatment knowledge is fragmented and inaccessible to many.
This business idea involves creating an AI-powered hub that consolidates cancer treatment knowledge, making it freely available to patients, families, and healthcare professionals. The hub would leverage AI to curate and analyze vast amounts of medical research, treatment protocols, and patient data to provide personalized and actionable insights. By facilitating access to the latest information and best practices in cancer treatment, the hub aims to improve patient outcomes and empower individuals to make informed decisions about their care. Additionally, the platform could integrate community support features to connect patients and families, fostering a sense of belonging and shared experience during their cancer journeys.
From: The Machines Are Taking Our Jobs - Thank God? Emad Mostaque’s Guide to the next 1000 Days
Foundation Coin for AI Infrastructure
Market Gap: Current monetary systems fail to reflect the digital economy and AI advancements.
The idea is to develop a cryptocurrency called Foundation Coin that is backed by the collective contributions of individuals to AI infrastructure, particularly in healthcare, education, and community services. This coin would be mined by national champions in each country, ensuring that the currency is owned collectively by the people. The revenues generated from the coin would be used to fund free access to AI services for all citizens, thereby democratizing access to technology and ensuring that society benefits from AI advancements. This model would help shift the focus from profit-driven motives to community-focused benefits, aligning incentives with societal welfare.
From: The Machines Are Taking Our Jobs - Thank God? Emad Mostaque’s Guide to the next 1000 Days
Universal AI Access Platform
Market Gap: Access to quality AI services is limited and inequitable.
The proposed business idea is to create a platform that provides universal access to AI resources and tools, funded through a new form of digital currency. This platform would operate under a collective ownership model, ensuring that the benefits of AI technologies are shared among all users. By establishing national champions in each country that manage these platforms, the initiative aims to stack computational power to deliver high-quality AI services to individuals and communities. The platform's goal would be to empower people by providing them with the tools they need to thrive in an increasingly automated world, ensuring that AI serves the public good rather than just corporate interests.
From: The Machines Are Taking Our Jobs - Thank God? Emad Mostaque’s Guide to the next 1000 Days
AI-Powered Merchant Intelligence Service
Market Gap: Merchants need comprehensive insights to assess risk and opportunity.
An AI-powered merchant intelligence service could help businesses gain insights into their competitive landscape by aggregating data from various online sources. This service would utilize natural language processing and machine learning to analyze data about competitors, market trends, and consumer behavior, providing actionable reports to users. The goal would be to enable merchants to identify risks and opportunities relevant to their specific context. This service could be particularly beneficial for small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) looking to enhance their market strategies without the need for a large research budget.
From: Stripe's Payments Foundation Model: How Data & Infra Create Compounding Advantage, w/ Emily Sands
Fraud Detection Optimization Platform
Market Gap: Fraud detection systems struggle with high volumes of transaction data.
This business idea is centered around developing a robust fraud detection optimization platform that leverages advanced machine learning techniques, similar to Stripe's foundation model. The platform would create embeddings for transactions, analyzing sequences of payments in real-time to identify patterns indicative of fraud. By using a modular approach, similar to Stripe's, it can integrate with existing payment systems, providing clients with actionable insights and automated fraud prevention. The target audience includes e-commerce platforms, payment processors, and any business handling high transaction volumes, allowing them to enhance their fraud detection capabilities significantly.
From: Stripe's Payments Foundation Model: How Data & Infra Create Compounding Advantage, w/ Emily Sands
Recent Episodes
The Customer Service Revolution: Building Fin, with Eoghan McCabe & Fergal Reid of Intercom
Host: Erik Torenberg, Nathan Labenz
2 ideas found
Training an AI Scientist with Feedback from Reality, w- Liam Fedus & Ekin Dogus Cubuk (from a16z)
Host: Erik Torenberg, Nathan Labenz
The Machines Are Taking Our Jobs - Thank God? Emad Mostaque’s Guide to the next 1000 Days
Host: Erik Torenberg, Nathan Labenz
Stripe's Payments Foundation Model: How Data & Infra Create Compounding Advantage, w/ Emily Sands
Host: Erik Torenberg, Nathan Labenz
3 ideas found
Full-Stack AI Safety: Why Defense-in-Depth Might Work, with Far.AI CEO Adam Gleave
Host: Nathan Labenz
3 ideas found
Can We Stop AI Deception? Apollo Research Tests OpenAI's Deliberative Alignment, w/ Marius Hobbhahn
Host: Erik Torenberg, Nathan Labenz
User-Owned AI: On-Chain Training, Inference, and Agents, with NEAR's Illia Polosukhin
Host: Erik Torenberg, Nathan Labenz
3 ideas found
Coaching the Creators: Inside the Minds Building Frontier AI with Executive Coach Joe Hudson
Host: Erik Torenberg, Nathan Labenz
Zvi Mowshowitz on Longer Timelines, RL-induced Doom, and Why China is Refusing H20s
Host: Erik Torenberg, Nathan Labenz
In-AI Advertising: Better Answers for Users, Big Questions for Society, with ZeroClick's Ryan Hudson
Host: Erik Torenberg, Nathan Labenz
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