You don’t need to worry about Artificial Intelligence, you only need to worry about how your competitors are going to use it.

We cannot solve problems with the same understanding that created them in the first place.’ Albert Einstein

To play chess without a strategy means you are going to lose. The same goes for business without a strategy – you will fail. What if you could enhance your prospects for success by using the latest in AI technology – would you turn it down?

The game of chess has been studied avidly by Artificial Intelligence and humans alike. What can we learn from our investigations into chess strategy and how does this relate to business and world economics? The reveal will surprise you.

In 2017 the world was shocked that Deep Mind’s Alpha Zero’s Computer not only learned how to play chess in four hours (through self learning) – but that it beat the worlds best chess programme engine, Stockfish 8 by a system of moves that many Chess Grandmasters could only describe as “breathtaking” – “out of this world” and “superhuman”.

Dennis Hassabis, the founder and CEO of DeepMind (Google’s super computer) and an expert Chess Player himself, describes Alpha Zero’s strategies as alien, “it is not like a programme, nor is it human.” Hassabis explains. “It is interesting how Alpha teaches us how we have been misled by our training and conditioning.”

Alpha Zero thinks about strategy in a completely different way, the amazing aspect is that we can learn from AI and put into practice the learning. Imagine the benefits!

It defied all the normal expected responses that humans would have made. It obeyed totally the rules of the game – but came up with strategies so creative, holistic and mind bending that the Grandmasters of Chess, the world over, were flabbergasted. They are still reeling today from the revelations that AI is so creative and powerful.

So, what lessons can we draw from this brush with AI and Google’s Deep mind?

Perhaps we shouldn’t fear AI so much as learn from AI itself. In Innovation management we know that often the answers to problems can be counter intuitive. That is, the obvious way of doings things is not always the best, especially when it comes to complex situations.

Working with scientists this has proved to be the case. The Darwin Matrix process (based on Chess and Neuroscience Learning) looks not at the consensus but rather the anomalies triggered by overseeing ‘incoming future considerations’ – which often are dismissed. In Chess “seeing ahead” and looking at the big picture is pivotal to learning and winning. This embraces the concept of time and a focused destination. Alpha Zero does not tolerate distractions (which can be a human trait) but instead likes to focus on the destination and the core objective, Alpha Zero teaches us the real value of the quality of the information which can change, moment to moment, in real time. In evolutionary or business terms terms this can be critical.

Presumptions can be a dangerous strategy when you consider $billions could be at stake or lives. In 1968, seven people died after the explosion with NASA Challenger, because the the culture of so called accepted ‘consensus’ ignored the AI warning of unsafe conditions. The culture has now changed to include more challenges to consensus mentality (which can often be construed as silo or internal thinking). Similar experiences at Shell and Motorola confirm that erroneous decisions based on consensus can be costly – if not challenged early enough. We predicted (using the Darwin Matrix) correctly that Shell could save $millions by changing perceptions, just slightly, in operational management and behaviour. (see Ambitious Business Challenge – ABC for Shell).

If AI will truly revolutionise business and economics, and all of industry and society. We will need a new type of understanding, a new type of creative leadership to meet these challenges. Those who can adapt quickly and seize the opportunities, will be the beneficiaries. Those who resist, and do things in the traditional way, will simply be on the wrong side of evolution. AI and Blockchain can be our greatest allies or we can choose to ignore their potential in helping human kind.

The Blockchain and AI proposal for Decision Makers – challenges to current thinking! AI and Blockchain are powerful combinations. Where are the opportunities?

Which industries will respond more quickly? The real driver for change is not crypto currencies but the underlying technology – Blockchain and AI.

As the technological revolution will affect all aspects of society we believe that the warmer prospects, for example, ethically based organisations will respond more positively to collective empowerment and change. Larger companies such as Shell, ABB and Rolls Royce cannot afford to miss out on this profit making technology as it will streamline whole industries with new ways of working.

If we take a small example in data analysis, in smarter retail, we might through Blockchain and AI discover hidden sales opportunities, or beneficial factors, hitherto unseen. The fact for instance that roofing supplies are not only predominant in the spring but that the connections may ‘spring up’ other sales opportunities such as ladders and other roofing materials. It is about connecting the dots and requires a greater understanding of complex adaptive systems and how they might affect other systems. Not all data is created equally and the relevance can fluctuate. This is where AI in Marketing comes into its own.

Courses and training for Leaders and Managers who are involved in the decision making in AI and Blockchain space are crucial if we are to reap the benefits. The idea is that there will be special emphasis on the implications and the culture shift required in management style, both in terms of expectations and deliberations that will help to facilitate the take up of the new Technologies with a newly informed Creative mindset. Chess Grandmasters are now taking on board the fantastic Deep Mind’s, Alpha Zero’s thinking – and applying these new perspectives in creativity and holistic thinking.

Marketing and Branding the advent of these technologies in a positive light is crucial to the take-up of AI and initiatives like Blockchain. It is not enough just to disrupt industries, it has to be supported by a better understanding of how these technologies can contribute to the betterment of working practices, and well being for society as a whole. This requires a paradigm shift in behaviour, attitudes and the mindset. A culture shift unprecedented since the advent of the internet.

Empowerment – making the case for new courses will include creative leadership – how blockchain and AI will accelerate business performance.

Coding brings creativity and problem solving skills. We have been active in Mining and consultancy in the Crypto-currency space. Blockchain technology heralds a new era where man and machine can work closely together so that the benefits become complimentary and the advantages seamless.

Google’s Mantra is that the faster they implement these strategic inclusions the more competitive they become. This has implications far and wide for industry and competitiveness as a whole, including the integration of behavioural science with computer algorithms.

Complex Adaptive Systems (a biological aspect) part of the Darwin Matrix reveals potential inconsistencies which can contribute to success or failure of a project – simply by asking the right or meaningful questions as progress evolves.

The Darwin Matrix is a real time business and organisational modelling construct which works like the brain works and helps us to understand organisational needs particularly where it is weak and strong and provides checks and balances that can be challenged both in a creative and analytical way, just like Chess. Though it provides consensus – it also meaningfully challenges any inbuilt presumptions, which, when implemented by business fully is a powerful resource.

People and AI have the potential not only to improve industrial economics but to create a better way of life which reduces the prospect for failure by integrating learning and empowering ‘collective intelligence’ and understanding behavioural insights. The major concern right now for companies is the pace of technology and how it will affect their prosperity or even survival.

When and how soon are we going to adjust?

Technology is providing new opportunities not just for streamlining – industries but changing the leadership mindset so that the focus is more about opportunities that technologies, like Blockchain can present. Technology is neutral – the challenge for industry is helping leaders (in particular) to understand the potential for life long learning platforms at multiple transitional and even career points.

Open source technology is used to drive innovation worldwide – one of the reasons why collaboration is crucial and alignment of cultural needs which supports an empathetic structure of co-operation. AI is only as good as the people who are using it. The economies that fully integrate these potentials will be the winners of the new age of technology and creative enlightenment. The Darwin Matrix is a pre-blockchain process that evaluates the potential benefits of technological integration as a major competitive advantage on a socially interactive as well as an operational level.

The connections with the author, chess and business.

John (Rainford) won the Liverpool Chess Congress when he was 15 years of age. He was subsequently part of a winning chess team that travelled Europe. His humbling claim to fame is that he played a Russian Grandmaster at Chess (and lost). He has taught business owners to think like chess champions and use digital technology at some of the top business schools in the world.

John has used his strategic mentoring skills (using the Darwin Matrix) to help startups become successful and his process was subsequently used by Shell, Rolls Royce and ABB to create new business models and news ways of management and marketing thinking and working that has substantially increased creativity and patent applications. He invented the Darwin Matrix process which still draws its inspiration from successful Chess Strategy and Tactics. It is being used by consultants to understand pre-blockchain activities and business model predictions and analysis. He has delivered keynote talks on Leadership in Innovation and Technology at World Economic Forums and organisations such as the Deming Alliance and Science Capital. He is a Fellow of the Lunar Society www.lunarsociety.org.uk and is working closely with Creative Technologies and Neuroscience, especially companies like Deep Mind to maximise the benefits of AI from a Brand as well as a motivational and operational perspective.

“We are only limited by our own imagination, we need to throw off the shackles of self limiting belief’s and open our minds.” – John Rainford, from his book “The Unseen World”

Strawberry Fields, the DNA of Technology and Innovation

Transforming people and technology.

If you are interested in what we can learn from AI in chess – this will blow your mind. see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPexHaFL1uo

If you would like to learn more about courses (on line or off line) on how to be a business champion using the concepts of Chess strategy, or in Artificial Intelligence (AI), Blockchain Technology, Creative Thinking, the Darwin Matrix process, Creative Digital and AI Marketing, Compassionate Leadership or Reframing Business Models to accommodate new strategic advantages, or you are interested in the Darwin Matrix Pre-Blockchain analysis, then contact… [email protected]