Tech Insider: Mighty Ape co-founder becomes book hero

Among the gems were: “A bookstore? In 2024?”, “Not quite what we imagined, Dylan” and “What is this, 1999?” he told readers about his startup diary.

On the eve of the launch of Book Hero (officially open today, October 21), he spoke Herald that although he has an Amazon Kindle, “nothing beats a physical book. The battery does not discharge. You can walk into someone’s house and see their bookshelf and it can be a great conversation starter. These are great gifts. You can lend them to people. These are ideas in physical form. I’m excited to do whatever I can to encourage more people to buy books.”

He adds: “I’m just as guilty as anyone else. We are all addicted to our phones. If I’m waiting for a meeting, I talk on the phone. If I’m trying to sleep, I talk on the phone. Whenever I make the decision to replace it with a book, I always feel better.”

Book Hero offers nearly 10,000 titles. There are works of all genres, but non-fiction is something of a specialty. “I think we’ll have the best set of biographies in New Zealand,” says Bland.

Herald spots iconic Walter Isaacson painting Steve Jobsas well as non-fiction works by authors such as Bill Bryson and Jeremy Clarkson. One of Bland’s colleagues, Tim Wackrow (another Mighty Ape alumnus), says Book Hero is also rich in science fiction and fantasy. Bland pulls out a book at random. This is the story of the Harrier jump plane.

Books on business and philosophy are also presented. Bland says William Mulligan Everyday Stoic is one of his favorite books, and Ryan Holiday, exponent of Stoicism in modern life and business, is one of his favorite authors.

“Starting a business is scary, even if you’ve done it before. You get a lot of people picking holes. So I had one of his books, Courage is callingon my desk the entire time I was working on this business – to remind myself that I can do this, and there are many people who have done much more difficult things. Really, you just have to deal with it,” says Bland.

Local advantage

Bland cites local warehouse and fast delivery (or immediate pickup) as a key benefit (based on the book Mighty Ape).

“You have a choice. You can order from Amazon or Fishpond and wait, or get it delivered overnight from us,” says Bland.

Or you can collect in person from Book Hero’s warehouse in Hobsonville, northwest Auckland, and talk.

Bland is already contemplating a warehouse four or five times larger, which could potentially provide local wholesale distribution for the industry as a whole.

And he’s eyeing the book experience. He remembers when Borders had a huge shop and cafe on Queen Street.

“When I was 20, I went there on a Friday night. I think people miss that,” he says.

Watch this space. This Stoic is a doer.

Where are the other Mighty Apes?

Simon and Vicky Barton moved to Northland (where they both grew up). They spend time fishing and with family, and also own a wholesale fishing tackle business called Monster Distribution.

Long-time leader in sales and marketing Gracie McKinley, WHO was appointed Chief Gorilla (CEO) after Simon Barton stepped down at the end of his two-year serving period and left the business in April this year. In September, Media and Communications Minister Paul Goldsmith appointed her to the RNZ board.

Deepfakes using artificial intelligence: be vigilant

Newsletter on Sunday reports a Taranaki grandmother lost $224,000 to an artificial intelligence (AI) scam involving Prime Minister Christopher Luxon – or at least an AI-generated version of the Prime Minister promoting bogus cryptocurrency investments.

You might be thinking, “I’ll never be fooled,” or “That’s an unlikely story, and some deepfakes are pretty unreliable.

Think again. Some of them are very smooth. The finance director of Zuru Toys recently came within a hair’s breadth of being duped by a deepfake video version of his boss Nick Mowbray, which was described as “strikingly realistic”.

We’re at a dangerous stage where account verification rules are loose on social media platforms and lawmakers, tech companies and law enforcement are struggling to keep up with the pace of new threats.

Do investors trust AI to make stock market forecasts?

Nope.

Despite the growing sophistication of artificial intelligence, investors prefer human expertise when it comes to stock market forecasts, according to new research from the University of Auckland and Belgium’s KU Leuven.

The study, which included 3,600 US participants, examined reactions to S&P 500 stock forecasts made by analysts, artificial intelligence systems, and a combination of both.

Researchers Dr Gertjan Verdictt, lecturer in finance at the University of Auckland Business School, and Francesco Stradi (KU Leuven), say the findings challenge the assumption that AI’s mastery of data can automatically earn the trust of investors.

“We found that investors are more likely to trust human analysts first and then trust a combination of humans and artificial intelligence,” says Verdictt.

“Forecasts generated by artificial intelligence are viewed with the most skepticism.”

He says this result was somewhat surprising in light of recent developments in artificial intelligence technology.

“Previous research has shown that AI can outperform human analysts, but trust is clearly a major issue.”

The results also showed notable differences between the sexes, with women showing greater openness to AI-based advice than men.

“Men tend to be overconfident about their financial capabilities, which may explain why they are more skeptical of AI,” says Verdictt.

“Additionally, we have seen in other studies that women, on average, receive different and often worse advice from financial advisors, such as recommendations for products with higher fees and lower risk.”

The results also show that investors with a deeper understanding of AI are more likely to trust its predictions.

Meanwhile, people who identified their political affiliation as Democrats were more likely to trust the AI-generated forecasts than Republicans.

To find out whether using more familiar AI tools could increase trust, the researchers also tested whether investors would view ChatGPT’s well-known big language model more favorably.

“Contrary to recent research suggesting that familiarity increases trust in technology, our results show that replacing “AI” with “ChatGPT” does not increase investor confidence. In fact, we found that investors distrust the advice generated by ChatGPT, perhaps even more than the general “artificial intelligence model” we refer to in our research.”

Verdictt says the results show that technical efficiency alone cannot win investor confidence.

“We are the first to study investor reactions to AI forecasts in terms of credibility and belief. Our findings suggest that financial institutions should approach AI integration carefully and consider tailored communication strategies for different demographic groups.”

Researchers say regulators should develop guidelines for disclosing and explaining the use and process of AI in financial analysis.

The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) has been gathering evidence over the past few months as it weighs its response to artificial intelligence.

“FMA is technology neutral and supports innovation. We believe New Zealanders should have access to the same technological advances as people in other countries,” FMA chief economist Stuart Johnson said last month.

“We want companies to use AI to improve the consumer experience in financial markets and services. We are pleased that our discussions with stakeholders have shown that companies are adopting AI to improve customer outcomes.”

FMA executive director of strategy Daniel Trinder said: “Over time, we will assess whether our regulatory framework needs to be strengthened to support better implementation of Gen AI.”

New technology hub coming to Wellington

The University of Victoria has opened a new “innovation and entrepreneurial co-working hub”.

The shared workspace is called the Taiawa Wellington Tech Hub and is located in Rutherford House on the university’s Pipitea campus and includes 51 desks.

The first wave of tenants includes climate technology companies Cogo and CarbonInvoice, botanical prescription drug developer Evithé Bio and scientific literature review assistant Litmaps.

“This comes down to the recognition that Rutherford House is the ideal location in the ideal location for such a co-working space. Opening up our buildings to the city in this way can create great synergy and value not only for our students and researchers, but also for Wellington’s business community,” says Professor Stephen Cummings, co-director of the university’s innovation space The Atom – Te Kahu. o Te Ao.

Chris Kill is a member of the organization from Auckland. HeraldBusiness team. He joined Herald in 2018, is a technical editor and senior business writer.