Superintelligence in the True Sense of the Word

They used to say that by the time Time or Newsweek had something on the their front cover that thing had already passed its peak. Perhaps London was swinging less after that famous 1966 Time cover than it had been a few months earlier as things shifted to San Francisco. But then somethings are never going to pass their peak.

It's significant that Nvidia has almost exceeded Apple as the most valuable company on the planet and might well do this week. That's significant in that a company that began designing graphics accelerators in 1993 for video gaming is now an AI company and almost the most valuable company in the world. According to the AAB:

During the late 1990s, Nvidia was one of 70 startup companies chasing the idea that graphics acceleration for video games was the path to the future. Only two survived: Nvidia and ATI Technologies, the latter of which merged into AMD.

Which makes it the all more extraordinary. Obviously, it's more complicated than just blind luck, but clearly there's a great deal of luck. Of course, you make your own luck. Still, it could have been any of these companies

Defunct graphics chip makers

These companies designed graphics chips and cards.

• 3dfx – assets were acquired by Nvidia during its Chapter 11 bankruptcy^[1]
• 3Dlabs – merged with Creative Labs' personal entertainment division to form ZiiLABS
• Advanced Logic Research – acquired by Gateway Computers
• Ark Logic
• ArtX – acquired by ATI Technologies
• ATI Technologies – merged into and renamed AMD
• Avance Logic – acquired by Realtek
• BitBoys – acquired by ATI Technologies
• Chips and Technologies – acquired by Intel
• Chromatic Research – acquired by ATI Technologies
• Evans & Sutherland – acquired by Rockwell Collins
• Gemini Technology – went bankrupt, acquired by Seiko Epson to form the Vancouver Design Center
• Genoa Systems – bankrupt
• GigaPixel – acquired by 3dfx Interactive
• Headland Technology – division of LSI Logic's Standard Products Group in late 1990s, assets sold to SPEA
• iXMicro – produced video cards for Macintosh and Macintosh clones
• MOS Technology – produced the VIC and TED line of graphics chips, owned by Commodore International
• Number Nine Visual Technology – pioneer in the graphics industry, developed 1st 128-bit graphics processor; acquired by S3
• Oak Technology – acquired by Zoran Corporation
• OPTi – no longer makes graphics chips
• Paradise Systems – acquired by Western Digital, later sold off to Philips
• Primus Technology
• Radius – made graphics solutions for Apple, out of business mid-1990s
• Raycer – acquired by Apple Computer
• Real3D – acquired by Intel
• Rendition – acquired by Micron Technology
• S3 – merged with Diamond Multimedia, then sold off its core graphics division to VIA Technologies, later sold off to HTC
• Silicon Graphics Incorporated (SGI) – quit developing 3D graphics in-house in the early 2000s and bought GPUs from other companies; later went completely out of business in 2009; its assets were bought in the resulting Chapter 11 bankruptcy by Rackable Systems, which changed its name to Silicon Graphics International
• Tamarack Microelectronics – merged with IC Plus in 2002
• Trident Microsystems – sold its video chip assets to XGI in 2003, bankrupt 2012
• Tseng Labs – sold its video chip assets to ATI Technologies in 1997
• Video Seven – merged with G2 to form Headland Technology
• Weitek Corporation – maker of Power9000 brand of GPUs circa 1991-1994, bankrupt 1995
• Western Digital Imaging – combined efforts of Paradise Systems and Faraday Computing, bought by Western Digital and allowed to go out of business

Defunct graphics card makers

• Actix Systems – dissolved
• Appian Graphics – acquired by ATI Technologies
• Artist Graphics – acquired by ATI Technologies
• BFG Technologies – liquidated in August 2010
• Boca Research – acquired by Ener1
• Cardinal Technologies – bankrupt
• Hercules Computer Technology, Inc. – Hercules brand acquired by Guillemot Corporation^[2]
• Innovation Computer – dissolved
• Media Vision – bankrupt
• Nth Graphics – bankrupt
• Orchid Technology – acquired by Micronics Computers, then by Diamond Multimedia
• Paradise Systems – acquired by Western Digital, then by Philips, then de-emphasized
• SPEA AG – German vendor in late 1990s, acquired by Diamond Multimedia in 1995, then by ATI in 2001
• STB Systems – acquired by 3dfx in 1999
• Vermont Microsystems, Inc. – bankrupt
• Vectrix Corporation – bankrupt

Other

The following companies are still in operation, but no longer design PC graphics chips:

• ALi Corporation – focusing on design and manufacturing of integrated circuits for the personal computer and embedded systems
• Cirrus Logic – sold its video chip assets
• Integrated Information Technology – reverted to a video-conferencing solutions company, and then later a VoiP service provider
• PowerVR – focusing on mobile graphics technologies
• Realtek – no longer makes graphics chips
• Silicon Integrated Systems (SIS) – sold its video chip assets to XGI
• Texas Instruments – withdrew from the computer market
• UMC – became a custom-only fab and discontinued all of its standard products in the late 1990s
• XGI – focusing on embedded and mobile applications

 CNBC talk these days of AI and, indeed, AGI, these days. They might be the present equivalent of Time, but they are reacting to what the markets value. SAm Altman emitted a blog on 5 January in which he stated

We are beginning to turn our aim beyond that, to superintelligence in the true sense of the word.

So, for the first time, I suspect, the word superintelligence and the expression ASI was spoken on CNBC. It won't be the last.

But how to get on the bandwagon. In a recent GeekWire article on investor prediction for 2025, Heather Redman, managing partner at Flying Fish Ventures, opined that the tech skill that will be most in demand for hiring in 2025 will be PhD-level AI skills. I already have a PhD and know something of AI, so that is a start. But how do I acquire PhD-level AI skills over the next few months?