People, remember: make your point and do not insult Atiku, Obi, Tinubu, etc on our feed. They deserve our respect because at least they offered themselves to be evaluated for service. I block those who insult these men, mindlessly. There is no problem if you have your candidate; feel free to make the case for him. But no insults. At the end, only one will win – and I expect everyone to come together to support that person. That is how it works.

Politics drives the economy and no matter how placed you are, it affects you. So, my postulation is simple: do not disconnect. If you do, you do not advance the nation. Yes, at least #vote. Just vote; no need to do anything more where you cannot.

As the nation moves into the injury time before the elections, show civility. If the system becomes more civil, many will be attracted into the fray. I enjoyed my campaign while a student in FUTO when I campaigned and won, becoming the Director of Research, SEEES. So far, President Buhari has done a decent job by providing a largely level playing ground. The old demons of harassment have not been common. We hope he keeps that momentum so that at the end, Nigerians will elect a new leader.

Obi. Atiku. Tinubu. #Respect because one will be sworn in come May! It is #open . Vote NOT fight.

The Pundits: Peter Obi and Rabiu Kwankwaso do not have nationwide political structures like their APC (Tinubu) and PDP (Atiku) counterparts.

My Response: Mobile internet is reducing information asymmetry as more voters can bypass the filters and intermediaries to get information from the sources. The existence of information asymmetry makes market systems imperfect.  In politics, it does the same thing – imperfect electoral systems.

But in 2023, Nigeria will have the first mobile internet era election. This is the first app utility-anchored national election. I am not arguing that decades-old political  structures are not important, my point is that disintermediation (cutting out intermediaries) is evident, and general voters have access to more information about candidates now, to make decisions independently, out of the influence of political bundlers and brokers.

Comment on Feed

Comment: Being politically correct in your post. Even though I don’t support insults but then take a stand. Don’t just say Nigerians go vote. Vote who???? Is there any one of these guys you can not sincerely tell their stories. Nigerians please vote right otherwise you get yourself into another 8 years of hell here on earth. My candid advice. Prof, if we’re not careful Nigeria will keep going messy rout as long as good men like you continue to stand aloof on the fence on Nigeria’s leadership question. Peace.

My Response: When PhD students come to my lab, we do not give them answers. We provide tools to discover a future unborn. If you follow my posts, my desire is that you use the perspectives to make your personal call on events in business, commerce and politics. To write for Harvard Business Review, we have an honour and that honour is sacred because Harvard is like the bible of business which many swear on. Who I endorse is less important than helping people reach personal decisions because I am an intellectual, not a politician.

Of course, this does not mean that I cannot try to make a call on who I think may win, but that does mean an endorsement. In 2019, I wrote that Buhari will win, but I did not endorse him as my call was an intellectual outcome. I predicted that Governor Umahi of Ebonyi will win and within months leave PDP for APC; those were intellectual calls.

So, if you read that I write that Obi, Atiku, Tinubu, etc will win, do not take it as an endorsement. Seems complex….it sure does.

This is a new category-king company: OpenAI is ascending: “OpenAI, the artificial intelligence lab behind the viral ChatGPT and Dall-E 2 tools, could soon become “one of the most valuable U.S. startups on paper,” The Wall Street Journal reports, citing anonymous sources. The company is in talks to sell existing shares in a fundraising round that would value OpenAI at about $29 billion. That’s roughly double the startup’s valuation during a 2021 tender offer. The Journal reports that Microsoft, the parent company of LinkedIn, has also been involved in talks to increase its $1 billion investment in OpenAI.”

LinkedIn userS chronicle the achievements: 

Comment A

• Built an AI that dominated every human DotA 2 player/team (OpenAI Five)
• Created the leading text generation model (GPT-3)
• Created the leading text-to-image generation model (DALL-E)
• Changed the face of programming with their renowned code generation model (Codex which powers the lauded GitHub Co-Pilot)
• Created a model that generates 3D models (Point-E)
• Blown the world away with a chatbot that is ushering in a generative AI renaissance (ChatGPT)
• Revenue projections of >$200M in 2023 and >$1B in 2024

And they’ve accomplished this in a mere 7 years and believe they are still early in their journey.

Comment C

OpenAI with Stability AI are opening a new era. The era of AI as a Service.

With an Opensource approach, they have been able to get traction from a large development community but not only that.

1) OpenAI is heavily backed by #Microsoft (and even Amazon, Tencent, Alphabet) this makes it so it has enough resources to develop and grow its R&D when others have to struggle with multiple fundraising activities during a tech market collapse

2) Microsoft has taken a commanding interest within the platform and turned it into a for profit structure. This allows them to seek better commercial deals

3) Again, Microsoft has announced an integration of ChatGPT within Bing https://lnkd.in/ebxu7T-8

4) Big names like Canva have also stepped in to integrate #GPT3 into their new solutions https://lnkd.in/etPFccRe

5) This “openness” is what makes OpenAI special. It is in the name. They are ready to work with anyone and thus instantly get access to a massive pool of end users.

Comment C

Wait, there is more: ChatGPT has been the fastest platform to reach 1Million users. That is with no marketing activity at all.

Kids at school are already “cheating” and answering their homeworks with it. How long would it take to Microsoft to integrate it to its Students Office Suite package?
Probably it is already in Beta somewhere and nearing release. The future generations are already at reach.

One more thing: OpenAI isn’t just ChatGPT they have a bunch of other services and tiers/specialization within each of them. #dalle2 for images, #Whisper for voice recognition etc…

And finally just one last thing… OpenAI owns OpenAI gym, a toolkit allowing other AI developers to train various type of models. This isn’t just a standalone, it comes with advisory services on top of it.

All in all, OpenAI wins because of its modular, headless like architecture. They don’t fear being copied, they have secured the reach they need for scale up. Any other competitor will struggle getting the same traction.

The only real competition could come from #Meta or #Bytedance if they totally spin-off their AI businesses and seek some big strategic partnerships to push them. And even then, there is infinite space in the field.

“Unless you are part of the old system that has brought us to where we are, there is no way you will oppose a young man like Mr Peter Obi, an untainted, young, educated man with ideas from being the president of Nigeria,…But for education I would not be where I am today…I will celebrate 60 years of my call to Bar this year and by the grace of god, Peter Obi will be there. He is the most qualified to lead this country”
– venerable and highly respected eminent legal pioneer Chief Afe Babalola (SAN), Founder and Chancellor of Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti.

For Obi, this is a converging sequence: “In Nigerian politics, that rule is working for Peter Obi. Magically, President Obasanjo endorsed him and opened a sequence. Now, venerable elder statesman Edwin Clark has come along. And Benue state governor Ortom has joined.  You can see a sequence there. Simply, Obi has used a shortcut to build “structures” which are converging for him.”

Permit me to share as provided; copied.

Founder and Chancellor of Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti, Chief Afe Babalola (SAN) has said that the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, (LP), Mr Peter Obi is the most qualified person to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari.

He said the only people opposed to Obi are those who participated in plunging the country into the state of underdevelopment it is at present.

“Unless you are part of the old system that has brought us to where we are, there is no way you will oppose a young man like Mr Peter Obi, an untainted, young, educated man with ideas from being the president of Nigeria,” he said.

Babalola, who will mark 60 years of his call to Bar as a lawyer this year said he and Obi share a common passion in their love for quality education.

“We have a common ground, and that common ground is that he will give education a rightful place in his administration. Unlike all of you, I never had a conventional education, I never went to secondary school, or university but due to determination and courage I endured. I studied privately through correspondence and obtained my A Level by correspondence, passed the entrance into university by correspondence.

“But for education I would not be where I am today and that is why by the grace of God after a successful practice, I am what I am today. I will celebrate 60 years of my call to Bar this year and by the grace of god, Peter Obi will be there. He is the most qualified to lead this country”.

Source: DAILY SUN NEWSPAPER

Comment on Feed

Comment 1: Prof, I might accept being one of “wrong” reader if you mix it with politics. I have gained a lot from your posts but I feel your personal political preference or an ALMOST appearance of a political preference is making me one of the “wrong” readers as you earlier described. Sorry, but a personal opinion.

My Response: Being a “wrong reader” is not determined by not agreeing with my posts. A “wrong reader” is someone who disagrees but is confused on what he disagrees on. So, from what you wrote here, you are a “wrong reader” because you did not even make any statement. Why? Ndubuisi posted a statement from somebody, now, instead of focusing on the statement or the person, you see “Ndubuisi”. Why is Ndubuisi a subject of this from your angle? You are a wrong reader.

Comment 1R: Prof, I wouldn’t have said anything if you had endorsed someone. Yes, you have your opinions with regards to a lot of things, but I only wanted clarity, particularly on this, because I read your earlier post on the “RIGHT” and “WRONG” readers. If it is just quoting someone without creating a PERCEIVED opinion as I have read here, no problem.

My Response: There is no problem. I enjoy having you on this feed. Happy new year. But note that I support  all but vote none. (I moved all my US equities to Fidelity to avoid the temptation of praising companies which I had invested in at night. So, writing here restricts many things) Be assured that if GEJ endorses Atiku, I will write it here.  And if IBB endorses Tinubu, I will do the same. When Soludo welcomed Atiku, I wrote it for Atiku. If Wike endorses, irrespective of the person, it is post-worthy. But my personal opinion should not be at the center.