Guess what Apple’s $137b, + new job listings for Siri, equals?

Yep this math is easy. Apple has BIG ambitions for Siri – & they should! “We spend so much time with our cellphones that having an effective personal assistant could be revolutionary,” said Andrew Ng, director of Stanford University’s AI Lab.

It’s fun to speculate about how a business will spend $137b, though ultimately it is indeed speculation. But job postings for Siri developers (as noted today by Wired) give a nice heads up about where some of that cash hoard could go.

It makes sense. Apple’s competitor Google seems to be shifting strategy toward some sort of Chrome/mobile combination, to prepare for hybrid, mobile PCs. Ever get frustrated at fumbling to type or navigate on a small phone?

Think of it – a personal omnipresent (artificial intelligence) intelligent assistant – convenient AND smart. It’s not a matter of if but when. It will be a big, big market, one that Apple has early-adopted… and has the resources to split wide open, with plenty to spare for the rest of their business.

Imagine the potential for learning and getting things done, to create and to create change. And imagine that potential when smart phones get into the hands of souls in the 3rd world…

Data indicate worldwide extreme poverty HALVED in the last two decades

There’s a vaccine for corruption, it’s called transparency. Open data sets. Day-light, you could call it. And technology is really turbo-charging this. It’s getting harder to hide if you’re doing bad stuff.

– Bono said this at a recent TED. I 101% agree. He’s spot-on. Policy + technology is fueling it, lives are improving.

Specifically, “extreme” poverty of $1.25/day has halved from 1990 – 2010. WOW. The battle is far from over and far from sure, but at this pace and other things equal extreme poverty (inflation adjusted) is gone by 2028.

In my professional life I look at trends every day and understand them well. This is a clearly a solid trend and something worth understanding, and technology plays a leading role. Most of my intent in writing on this site is to describe that intersection of technology and helping humanity.

10 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, “The Lions”, have exemplified this trend and demonstrated positive proof of concept by the following:

100% debt cancellation, 3X aid, 10X foreign direct investment, unlocking 4X local resources …spent wisely (good local governance – meaning mitigated corruption) = cut childhood mortality by 1/3, 2X education completion rates…. and they’re on track for 2028.

Oof, that’s a lot of work and resources, is it worth it? Just ask a mother who loves her children as much as you love yours or as much as you love whoever you love most, look into their eyes and yes, we all know it’s worth it. Here’s to not giving up on good policy, and technology in humanitarianism.

Tech taking jobs? Let’s do *this* to be prepared

I believe that when we are into learning (for lack of a better way of expressing it) we are curious, explorative, and we progress in ways that provide economic value.

The part of me that is expert on economics and markets is fascinated by the chronic under/unemployment the US has been experiencing. Explanations abound and most major issues have multiple causes. I strongly believe that the private sector tightened belts after the 2008 economic crisis, precisely at a time of budding digital efficiencies. Hiring froze, workers were laid off, and smarter solutions were found for getting work done. We see this in stock valuations. It’s truly the “jobless recovery” and a profits-fiesta out there, using a “lean” (buzzword!) workforce.

Yes the machines – the robots and A.I. and computers – are coming and taking our jobs. They’re snatchin’ your people up. As it was 100 years ago with the agricultural revolution. Technology does that. New industries then arise, like when our ancestors moved to the cities and factory work.

We’re at the start of one of those seismic shifts, but experiencing the lag before the new industries are on the scene. Are we aware of and thinking about what’s happening, are we tracking it? How are we preparing ourselves and our children? It’s an important trend to follow.

As with many others, my job did not exist a decade ago or when I finished college. There’s a good chance each of us have amazing future opportunities in areas we can’t imagine now.

I think one of the best ways to prepare is to yes, in fact, learn learn learn. Be curious, be creating, be contributing. Keep up on trends. Be in the conversations. Make content. Do extra. Do pro-bono. Whatever. Grow.

Scientific American is running a great piece Yes, Robots Are Coming for Our Jobs—Now What? by one of the authors of the book Race Against The Machine (which I thoroughly enjoyed.)

A couple points the authors make are, first:

The first [of winners in this new economy] is skilled versus less skilled workers, as a result of what’s called skill-biased technical change. As technology advances, educated workers tend to benefit more, and workers with less education tend to have their jobs automated. It’s not a perfect correlation, but there is a correlation.

So be educated. And I’d add be thoughtful about which education you get, i.e. don’t go get some degree just for the sake of a degree, but design your learning to be tailored to who you are and to marketable passions. Second:

We need to unleash entrepreneurs to find more places where humans have capabilities that machines don’t have, and where the two of them working together can create more value than just the machines alone could—what we call racing with the machine. Just as they did a century ago when people were no longer needed on the farm, people came up with whole new industries. We’re not doing that as well as we could be and have to try to jump-start that.

I love that. Let’s all develop a healthy fascination about the world and position ourselves to be ready to be part of the as-yet unknown, new industries to come.