How I Got Started In AI

Howard Getson4min

Howard Getson

00:00

Hello, this is Howard Getson, CEO of Capitalogix. Recently, I've had a number of people ask how I got involved in AI. And the truth is, is it has been a lifelong passion of mine, I really believe that it's my purpose. But it didn't just start, it's actually been that way for a really long time.

Howard Getson

00:31

I've been the CEO of an AI company since 1991. And that's far enough in the past where it was difficult to spell AI. You know, when I, when I talk about AI, I often make a joke. And I say something along the lines of AI as a good substitute for lack of the real thing. But that's really how I got involved in this.

Howard Getson

00:54

But there's actually a lot of truth in that joke.

Howard Getson

00:57

Think about how many decisions you've made in your life that were unconscious, you just made the decision. But it was a fork in the road, a turning point where your life changed. Some of those things are awesome. For me, my decision to go to Duke University is one of those. So many of the good things that happened in my life were because of who I met there or things that I learned ... or from joining certain groups or clubs, for me, one of those groups was EO, the Entrepreneurs Organization. So many connecting points of goodness.

Howard Getson

01:32

But the same is true for bad things as well. And so, I go back to when I was two years old. My mother and father both worked, and I had a nanny take care of me and my brother. I told my mom that the nanny was mistreating us. And she didn't really believe what a two year olds perspective was. To make a really long story short, couple of weeks later, my brother died. Horrible, devastating, it had massive impacts personally, in my parents' relationship, and my identity.

Howard Getson

02:15

But I understand. Meanwhile, I also understood how important it was for people to make better decisions. And it's something that I actually focused on in college. I was a psychology and philosophy major. In business I focused on which variables most proximately related to success, I loved stuff like that – and I was naturally drawn to it.

Howard Getson

02:43

And it's actually a lot harder than you would think. Because even if you think about trading, what's the best trading strategy? Is it the one that made the most money going back to the beginning of one year test? Or was it the one that did the best over the last three years, or the one that lost the least money in the last crash ... or is it the one that had the best risk adjusted return? There are so many different ways of saying this or figuring out how to measure or judge something.

Howard Getson

03:10

And everybody has their own perspective. And that's really where I love technology, because it's a multiplier that lets you have a perspective of all the different perspectives. It's an amplifier. I call it amplified intelligence because it helps you make better decisions, take smarter actions, and measure and improve performance.

Howard Getson

03:32

Because you can know faster and as you know something faster, you can take decisive action while other people are tentative and taking tentative action. And so by knowing faster, you get time arbitrage the ability to sprint ahead while other other people are jogging or walking or standing still.

Howard Getson

03:55

Anyway. That's how it started.

Howard Getson

03:59

I think it's something that is useful in personal life. I think it's useful in professional life. I think it's useful in your business. And I think it's going to become increasingly so it's a North Star compass heading that says it's time for you to start thinking about how collecting the right data, doing the right analysis and focusing on the right things is going to help you spend your time your money and your resources in the right place.

Howard Getson

04:29

I hope that helps

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