Announcing The Fast Forward AI Lab

We are excited to introduce Fast Forward AI Lab*, an initiative aimed at harnessing the power of artificial general intelligence (AGI) to unlock prosperity in Africa. In a world where AGI is becoming increasingly prevalent, we recognized the significance of this technology and its potential impact on the continent and beyond.

Unlike previous technological advancements that were overshadowed by hype, the rapid evolution of Language Models and ChatGPT’s sharp rise tells us a lot. AGI is here to stay: The impact of AGI is undeniable and will continue to shape our future.

The African AGI Lab Thesis

After extensive research and analysis of numerous “AI” companies, studying predictions, concerns, and investment trends, we have developed our thesis around how to accelerate AI usage for unlocking prosperity on the continent.

1. AGI can revolutionize Africa like mobile technology did, and introduce efficiencies that help us create more jobs, not lose them. One big area is enhancement of quality of service and in extension, efficiency that increases quality of life. Entrepreneurs who rise to the challenge can transform industries and drive remarkable progress.
2. Natural language adoption will skyrocket: Within the next 24 months, the use of natural language to access value will reach its peak.
3. Data is the new oil: LLMs provide a straightforward way to extract valuable insights from vast amounts of data. ChatGPT will not have access to siloed data in companies – for example, health, accounting and insurance information.
4. The global village just got much smaller.: while you may not be able to deploy billions to deploy first layer LLMs, you can build atop that – and even from a mobile phone!
5. Utilizing OpenAI as-is can be costly: The most successful solutions will emerge from those who innovate on business models and technical architecture, effectively utilizing readily available AI tooling.
6. Capital is not a limitation: Developers can build profitable and impactful businesses on AI without raising capital, by leveraging LLMs and existing products with lots of customers.

How It Will Work

Now is the opportune time to seize these possibilities. Fast Forward’s AI Lab will co-build with existing portcos, co-build new AI-first ventures with ambitious founders, and co-build with large corporate organizations.

Internal collaboration with portfolio companies.

Fast Forward AI Lab will collaborate with portfolio companies to discover opportunities where AI can unlock 10x value for their users. We have already begun witnessing promising early use cases:

• Dojah is enhancing its fraud detection capabilities by leveraging AI models, making it easier for compliance teams to implement rules using natural language.
• Bumpa is utilizing merchant data to provide actionable weekly insights to the merchants themselves. Additionally, watch out for the transformation of Bumpa Shopping’s image quality, powered by AI.
• Fidia enables creators and service providers to set up web pages in minutes using AI.

And many more that would soon be announced.

Co-building with ambitious entrepreneurs

As a venture studio, we also validate new venture opportunities with engineers and researchers who are venturing into the realm of natural language and its impact on technology.

While we acknowledge that major players like Microsoft and Google are poised to dominate broad use cases, we firmly believe that the real opportunity lies in solving unique problems faced by individuals and sectors in the real economy.

We have already identified several compelling emerging market use cases in healthcare, education, financial inclusion, and enhancing job efficiency and quality of service across various segments of society, including merchants, parents, students, teachers, lenders, homeowners, builders, realtors, financial advisors, and delivery riders. Lots of the possibilities we’ve identified, cannot and will not be solved directly by chatGPT or OpenAI – they require entrepreneurs who will build on those capabilities and unlock value for the audiences.

Co-building with large organizations and businesses

Furthermore, we recognize that large companies with substantial data holdings have a higher likelihood of leveraging AI as a competitive advantage or expanding their revenue streams. Hence, we are opening our lab doors to corporations interested in discussing how they can adopt AGI.

Our in-house technology team has been rigorously testing multiple LLMs, vector embedding techniques, and channels such as web, WhatsApp, and IoT, while building minimum viable products (MVPs).

Our lab is supported by many advisors with deep experience and knowledge in the space including Stephen Tse, Harmony One’s CEO and PhD holder in security protocols and compiler verification from the University of Pennsylvania.

Advancing The Space

The last few years of raising easy money was an exciting time to be in tech; the next 3 years of AI explosion is an even more exciting time to do real work and build game changing products accelerated by AI.

We would love to chat with founders with unfair advantage, access and experience in specific industries. We’re also keen to talk to engineers who have sharpened expertise in vector embedding, prompt engineering, and interacting with multiple LLMs beyond OpenAI. And then, of course, Fast Forward is happy to engage with investors seeking early access to these exciting opportunities.

Please reach out to us at hello(at)fastforward(dot)fund.

To conclude, we would like to share a curated list of resources that are simple to understand yet have greatly contributed to our thinking around this space. These resources encompass tools, thought leadership, and tutorials.

Tools and Tips

• LangChain: a framework for developing applications powered by language models.
• Chirp: Universal speech model | Cloud Speech-to-Text v2 documentation | Google Cloud
• https://kern.al/tag/ai (spoiler; this is so you know, that idea is being thought of by someone else. It’s less of the idea, and more of how it solves problems for a type of users)
• YC’s latest batch had 60+ AI companies
• AI Tools Directory
• Therundown.ai with Rowan Cheung
• The Inside Story of ChatGPT’s Astonishing Potential | Greg Brockman | TED
• Difference between AI and AGI

Tutorials

• Prompt Engineering Guide
• Meet AI’s multitool: Vector embeddings | Google Cloud Blog

Technical Thought Leadership

• ChatGPT Is a Tipping Point for AI
• Google “We Have No Moat, And Neither Does OpenAI”
• Humans and AI analyze which jobs AI will take over – a scientific paper

*

1. Even though we are primarily exploring AGI today, we’ve called it AI Lab – it’s less confusing to all.

2. Our lab is virtual – and collaborate with teams in hybrid formats.