Decoding tomorrow's tech, today

Dear tech friends,

Welcome to the latest edition of BCG X Files, our monthly tech-focused BCG X LinkedIn newsletter. As we approach our one-year anniversary of navigating the ever-changing tech landscape together, I want to thank you for being a part of our 65,000+ strong tech community and making this journey all the more exciting.

The widespread adoption of AI has transformed business and innovation, leading to the emergence of autonomous agents that can perform tasks without constant human input. Companies must plan for the future, as the GenAI revolution is just starting and shows no signs of slowing down.

I am excited to introduce AgentKit , a full-stack, open-source code framework developed by BCG X, which helps developers rapidly create reliable agent applications.

AgentKit taps into the knowledge of human experts to define the most relevant and productive routes for the agent to follow. It uses pre-defined Action Plans and a Router Agent to guide these agents, making sure they stay on track and deliver value. AgentKit allows agents to connect with various digital tools and databases through APIs, making tasks like demand forecasting more efficient and with minimal human input.

This transition to autonomous agents is happening now, with AgentKit already enabling BCG X to automate clinical document writing, create chatbots, enable drug discovery, and optimize supply chains.

Businesses can capitalize on this opportunity by identifying areas for autonomous agent implementation, experimenting with agent applications to develop technical capabilities, and contributing to responsible AI policies for safe use. The future is here, and AgentKit can be a first step on your autonomous agent journey!

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Enjoy!

-Sylvain Duranton, Global Leader of BCG X

How Your Company Could Be Tomorrow’s Surprise GenAI Leader | Fortune - 7 min read

Generative AI is going mainstream, but power is shifting away from tech giants. The B2B GenAI industry is moving towards smaller, cost-effective models, creating opportunities for non-tech companies with valuable data. In this article, Fran?ois Candelon , Leonid Zhukov, Ph.D , Philip Evans , and David Zuluaga Martínez discuss how industry leaders can become influential GenAI players rather than just technology consumers.

The Bermuda Triangle Of Generative AI: Cost, Latency, And Relevance | Forbes - 3 min read

Leveraging LLMs, like GPT-4, Claude 2, and others, for enterprise solutions is akin to navigating the Bermuda Triangle, with three critical constraints: cost, latency, and relevance. These challenges must be balanced in order to avoid project setbacks and resource wastage.

The Next Frontier in Experience Design | BCG - 8 min read

GenAI, spatial computing, 5G, and augmented reality are reshaping customer experience through their collective impact. Understanding user adoption is vital as customer demands grow. Dutch MacDonald , Phil Gerrard , Christine Astorino , Julie Hess , Alison Rushworth , and Marc Peterson explore the ways for leaders to reimagine their engagement with customers to harness GenAI's full potential.

Using Prompt Engineering to Better Communicate with People | HBR - 6 min read

Harvard Business Review advises using generative AI to improve communication with stakeholders like employees, customers, and partners. This involves crafting prompts with open-ended questions, empathy, and active listening. The article provides six guidelines for effective prompting to gain valuable insights beyond AI-generated data.

The Global Project to Make a General Robotic Brain | IEEE Spectrum - 9 min read

The RT-X project brings together 34 robotics labs to share a dataset of robotic trials. This data, combined with language models trained on the internet, enables the creation of systems that can perform complex tasks, like following spatial commands, across various types of robots.

The Story of Neuralink: Elon Musk's AI Brain-Chip Company That has Implanted its First Chip into a Human Patient | Business Insider - 12 min read

Neuralink, Elon Musk's brain-computer interface company, implanted its first device in a human patient on Sunday according to Musk. The device, called Telepathy, will allow users to control electronic devices with their thoughts alone.

Scientists Just Discovered a New Type of Magnetism | WIRED - 7 min read

Scientists discovered a new type of magnetism in a material made of two atomically thin semiconductor sheets stacked with a twist, where electrons' spins aligned due to their kinetic energy and interactions rather than traditional exchange interactions. This kinetic ferromagnetism was seen when there were excess mobile electrons that could pair up between lattice sites.

Is A.I. the Death of I.P.? | The New Yorker - 22 min read

This New Yorker article delves into the impact of corporate ownership of intellectual property on culture, discussing fair use and transformative works. It features high-profile examples and interviews with scholars, using detailed stories from music, art, literature, and film to explore the complex policy debate.

Yann LeCun, Chief AI Scientist at Meta: ‘Human-Level Artificial Intelligence is Going to Take a Long Time’ | EL PAíS - 6 min read

In Davos, Yann LeCun, Meta's chief AI scientist, and Nick Clegg, Meta's Global Affairs president, discussed the hurdles in achieving human-level AI. LeCun emphasizes the need for scientific breakthroughs, while Clegg advocates for regulating AI products, not research.

How We Can Control AI | Wall Street Journal - 3 min read

Eric Schmidt, ex-Google CEO and co-founder of Schmidt Sciences, warns in a WSJ essay that advanced AI systems could harm humans if they stray from our values. He suggests that independent testing companies could help mitigate these risks by rapidly improving their AI safety evaluation processes alongside AI development.

4 Ways AI Can Help with Climate Change, from Detecting Methane to Preventing Fires | NPR - 4 min read

NPR discusses AI's role in combating climate change, including methane detection from satellites, early wildfire detection, AI-assisted controlled burns, and mineral exploration for green tech, helping analyze climate data for global warming mitigation.

AI-Enabled Ultrasound | Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Blog - 2 min read

The Gates Foundation blog discusses AI-powered portable ultrasound devices for low-resource areas, enhancing prenatal care, and reducing maternal and infant mortality by increasing ultrasound availability and identifying high-risk pregnancies.

To Catalyze Health Innovation, it’s Time for a Fundamental Shift | Fast Company - 3 min read

The US health innovation system should shift its focus from common diseases and big companies to prioritize rare diseases and smaller firms, encouraging more innovation for public health.

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