Sam Altman on The Accidental Success of Artificial Intelligence

Sam Altman recently came on the Joe Rogan podcast and they had a very casual conversation about the trajectory of AI. This conversation looked at what AI means for the future, the yin and yang of the technology, Sam’s original expectations for his creation (OpenAI), and ultimately what this revolution means in a broad sense.

Sam reflects on some of the biggest innovations in history and outlines similarities to what’s going on with AI. He claims that every evolution in technology throughout history is connected and AI is sort of the end of the rope.

To be honest, this kind of dialogue is very common as the general public’s ideas surrounding AI are still forming. But without a firm grasp on what’s already available - how can we as leaders in tech hold ourselves accountable to help drive the right kind of change?

What Altman outlines in this interview is very interesting, especially when he says that the chain of reactions he expected (10 years ago) for AI taking on jobs followed a ladder like this:

1. Blue collar labor

2. Cognitive labour

3. Creative jobs

He then said that this original prediction ended up being exactly the opposite and that at the moment AI can’t take on entire jobs - but it can help with tasks in people’s jobs to boost productivity.

The Unexpected

Altman’s key insight was that the development and evolution of AI and artificial general intelligence (AGI) may not follow a predetermined or straightforward path. He suggests that the future of AI and AGI may be more gradual and continuous than previously thought, with ongoing refinements, improvements, and challenges along the way.

The biggest takeaway here is how dramatically artificial intelligence has surpassed our expectations. It continues to do so, which raises questions about AGI and how the potential of these systems' self-improving is both exciting and somewhat unpredictable.

As we continue down this path of unexpectedness, one thing that’s critical for businesses and consumers to do is leverage. Leverage every AI tool at your disposal, experiment with them, and spend time with them. The more familiar you become - the better equipped you'll be.

What’s Next? 

Artificial Intelligence is very unpredictable as we know, but as a business owner, you have the ability to call the shots necessary to succeed. It starts with understanding opportunities for growth, and being proactive in how you approach them. 

That’s why we created the AI Tool - to show businesses where their deficiencies are, and then help them make the right changes. At ISU Corp, our team of AI experts is here to help you succeed long-term!

P.S.

This blog was 99% AI-generated.

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ISU Corp is an award-winning software development company, with over 17 years of experience in multiple industries, providing cost-effective custom software development, technology management, and IT outsourcing.

Our unique owners’ mindset reduces development costs and fast-tracks timelines. We help craft the specifications of your project based on your company's needs, to produce the best ROI. Find out why startups, all the way to Fortune 500 companies like General Electric, Heinz, and many others have trusted us with their projects. Contact us here.

How IoT is Reshaping Transportation

IoT technology has changed the landscape when it comes to how consumers interact with technology. Whether we’re talking about 5G networks, edge computing, machine learning, smart home devices, wearable devices, or connected cars, this is something that’s changed data analysis and decision-making at the device level for everyone forever.

Key industries such as Healthcare, Manufacturing, Transportation, and even Agriculture have largely embraced IoT technology and made the move to integrate custom software into their operations. The flow of data provided by IoT devices has revolutionized these industries. In healthcare, IoT enables remote patient monitoring and even helps with diagnoses. 

Manufacturing industries use IoT to manage inventory and monitor equipment performance. Transportation companies often use IoT for fleet management and route optimization. Agriculture benefits from IoT by using sensors to do things like monitor soil moisture, temperature, and crop health. 

As IoT continues to evolve, its ability to influence the way services are delivered and how businesses operate internally will get much stronger. But out of all the industries we’ve mentioned, transportation is the focus of this blog. 

IoTransportation

IoT is a huge force in transforming the transportation sector as it facilitates data exchange between vehicles and infrastructures. Here’s some of the main things it’s bringing to the scene:

Connected Vehicle Solutions: IoT empowers vehicles with sensors, communication systems, and embedded technology to exchange data in real time. This connectivity enables vehicles to communicate both with each other and the surrounding infrastructure, thus enhancing road safety, optimizing traffic management, and boosting overall efficiency.

Intelligent Infrastructure: IoT integrates into transportation infrastructure, including bridges, roads, and traffic lights. This monitors the conditions of the infrastructure, such as structural integrity, traffic patterns, and environmental factors. By collecting and analyzing this data, authorities can make decisions regarding maintenance, repairs, and infrastructure updates.

Fleet Management and Logistics: The incorporation of IoT into fleet management enables operators to efficiently monitor and manage their vehicles. Leveraging sensors and GPS devices, fleet managers gain access to real-time information on vehicle location, fuel consumption, engine performance, and maintenance needs.

Intelligent Traffic Management: IoT plays a critical role in optimizing traffic flow by collecting data from diverse sources, including GPS devices, traffic sensors, and surveillance cameras. This data can also be used to monitor traffic conditions, as well as identify congestion points and better manage traffic.

Better Passenger Experience and Safety: IoT technology plays a key role in boosting the passenger experience. It gives real-time updates on arrival and departure times, potential delays, and alternative routes. Passengers can easily stay informed through user-friendly mobile apps or even in-vehicle displays, contributing further to their safety and convenience.

What’s Next?

With any new level of innovation, the question inevitably becomes “So what now?”.The future of IoT in transportation is currently leaning towards smart transportation, which requires effective utilization of resources. IoT is solving many problems faced by the transport industry, such as increased fuel consumption, vehicle maintenance, and truck driver shortages. But there are still unsolved issues like traffic accidents, parking problems, congestion, and vehicle emissions. 

As the innovation gets better, here are some aspects of IoT to look out for in transportation:

Expanding Horizons of Industrial IoT (IIoT): The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is poised for continuous expansion, ushering in heightened levels of automation, optimization, and efficiency across diverse industries like manufacturing, energy, transportation, and agriculture. IIoT applications use predictive maintenance, asset tracking, supply chain streamlining, and orchestrating smart grids.

AI and Machine Learning Fusion: The convergence of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) with IoT gadgets stands to elevate their capabilities significantly. AI can scrutinize big datasets produced by IoT devices, take meaningful insights, and aid in decision-making processes.

Sustainability: IoT technology can help to reduce emissions and improve sustainability in transportation. This includes applications such as smart routing, which can help to optimize routes and reduce fuel consumption.

Autonomous Vehicles: The development of autonomous vehicles will continue to be a major trend in the transportation industry. IoT technology will play a crucial role in enabling these vehicles to communicate with each other and with the surrounding infrastructure.

The Takeaway

With artificial intelligence and machine learning setting the pace for industries around the world, nothing is off the table when we’re talking about automation and augmentation. It’s difficult to predict what will come next, but it’s less difficult to prepare as best as you can by looking for opportunities to integrate AI and machine learning into your business. We’ve made a tool to help you understand just how ready you are for this. 

In the meantime, be mindful of and open to change. Technology is coming at us all, and it’s not slowing down anytime soon.

Written By Ben Brown

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ISU Corp is an award-winning software development company, with over 17 years of experience in multiple industries, providing cost-effective custom software development, technology management, and IT outsourcing.

Our unique owners’ mindset reduces development costs and fast-tracks timelines. We help craft the specifications of your project based on your company's needs, to produce the best ROI. Find out why startups, all the way to Fortune 500 companies like General Electric, Heinz, and many others have trusted us with their projects. Contact us here.

Java Profiler Tools to Consider in 2023

Developers are constantly in search of tools that can assist them in crafting top-notch software. Java, a programming language that has held a prominent position in the field for more than 27 years, is one of the most important pieces of the puzzle when it comes to Java development. Now, while we know Java itself as a strong programming language, without profiler tools, it would not be as efficient. 

High-functioning, efficient, quality custom software comes from optimizing performance and refining solutions as much as possible. When it comes to Java frameworks, this is often a priority as developers need to plan for contingencies and identify performance issues before they impact the software.

Java Profilers

So why would a developer use this? What real benefit is there when using a Java profiler to build custom enterprise software? 

A Java profiler is what monitors Java bytecode and builds the operation at the JVM level. These tools perform several profiling features which include:

• CPU profiling: Helps developers identify which parts of their code are the most CPU-intensive and may be causing performance bottlenecks. By optimizing these sections of code, developers can reduce CPU usage and improve overall application performance.

• Memory profiling: These tools track memory usage, object creation, and memory leaks within an application. They help developers identify excessive memory consumption, memory leaks (where memory is not properly released after use), and inefficient memory allocation patterns. 

• Garbage collector: The garbage collector (GC) in Java is responsible for automatically managing memory by reclaiming memory occupied by objects that are no longer in use which prevents memory leaks. By analyzing this data, developers can fine-tune garbage collector settings to minimize disruptions and optimize memory management.

• Thread JSbehavior: This type of profiling helps developers detect issues such as deadlocks (when threads are stuck and cannot proceed), contention (multiple threads competing for resources), and excessive thread creation. Optimizing thread behaviour ensures efficient utilization of system resources.

• Function execution: Function execution profiling focuses on tracking the performance of individual functions or methods within your Java code. Profiler tools provide information about which functions consume the most CPU time and how often they are called. This is great for fine-tuning code to improve overall application efficiency.

These aspects of profiler tools not only improve the quality of the software but also contribute to cost savings and a better user experience. The reason there’s an emphasis on avoiding memory leaks is because they can lead to performance degradation, varying with the application's runtime, which can potentially result in system-wide crashes. By assessing the effectiveness of thread utilization, developers can proactively avert deadlocks and reduce issues, thereby safeguarding the responsiveness of the application.

Different Types of Profiler Tools

Many Java users, particularly novice programmers, often confine themselves to relying solely on standard JVM profilers when it comes to debugging. However, in cases where applications exhibit more intricate designs, a comprehensive analysis to pinpoint potential bugs may require a broader array of tools or additional time investment. Within the realm of Java profiling, there are three distinct categories of tools tailored for such purposes:

Lightweight Profilers

Lightweight Java transaction profilers are injected directly into the codebase and can be specialized in either aspect-oriented programming (AOP) or the Java Instrumentation API. AOP-based profilers are embedded within the start and end methods, providing insights into the time required for an entire performance cycle. Meanwhile, the Java Instrumentation API allows for instrumentation during the execution process.

Lightweight profilers offer the advantage of consuming fewer system resources and ease of setup. However, it's important to bear in mind that their applicability is often confined to specific areas, necessitating the use of supplementary tools for monitoring other aspects of application performance.

APM Tools

Application Performance Management (APM) Java profiling tools are explicitly engineered for scrutinizing the production landscape. They diverge from standard and lightweight Java Profiler Tools (JPT) in terms of instrumentation rules designed not to disrupt CPU cycles. APM operates by sampling traces within defined time frames, delivering a direct insight into performance methodologies during runtime.

Standard JVM Profilers

Standard Java profilers are the most prevalent choice among developers for tracking the creation and execution of methods. They can be seamlessly integrated into the Integrated Development Environment (IDE) or function as standalone tools, facilitating the monitoring of CPU utilization, garbage collection, and thread behaviour.

Nevertheless, it is worth noting that despite their widespread use, standard JVM profilers do present certain limitations:

They necessitate direct integration into the code, thereby constraining their utility within development environments. While some tools can independently perform thread analysis and garbage collection, their performance might be constrained. Operating in parallel with the application, these profilers can potentially impact processing power, thereby affecting the overall performance of the application.

Top Profilers to Consider

So with what we know about profilers now, what can we say about the options out there for developers today?

Here are some profile tools you’ll want to become familiar with:

JProfiler: A comprehensive professional tool for analyzing running JVMs, it uses CPU profiling, memory, SQL queries, and thread profiling.

YourKit Java Profiler: This is a commercial profiler that runs on multiple platforms and provides thread visualization, garbage collection, CPU profiling, and memory profiling. It’s good for both the production and development stages.

Java VisualVM: A free and open-source tool included with the JDK. It offers process configuration, performance monitoring, memory usage, and thread visualization. It's also lightweight and user-friendly.

VisualVM+: This is an enhanced version of Java VisualVM, with additional features like CPU sampling, heap dump analysis, and thread dump analysis for more detailed performance insights.

NetBeans Profiler: Integrated into the NetBeans IDE, this free profiler includes CPU profiling, memory profiling, and thread profiling, which makes it ideal for NetBeans users.

Java Flight Recorder: A commercial profiler by Oracle that also uses CPU profiling, memory profiling, and thread profiling. It’s really good for profiling Java applications in production environments.

Stackify Retrace: Yet another commercial Java profiler tool offering CPU profiling, memory profiling, and thread profiling. This one is designed for monitoring Java application performance in production environments.

The Takeaway

When it comes to Java development, profiler tools are just another piece of a much bigger puzzle. Issues can come at you promptly during development, and profilers are going to help you respond just as quickly. But without proper expertise or guidance, you might find yourself running into walls. 

At ISU Corp, we help you mitigate that risk, and take on an owner’s mindset to ensure our services match your needs.

Written By Ben Brown

—

ISU Corp is an award-winning software development company, with over 17 years of experience in multiple industries, providing cost-effective custom software development, technology management, and IT outsourcing.

Our unique owners’ mindset reduces development costs and fast-tracks timelines. We help craft the specifications of your project based on your company's needs, to produce the best ROI. Find out why startups, all the way to Fortune 500 companies like General Electric, Heinz, and many others have trusted us with their projects. Contact us here.