Namaste Yogis. Welcome to the Blockchain & AI Forum, where your technology questions are answered! Here no question is too mundane. As a bonus, a proverb is also included. Today’s question was submitted by Tracey, and she wants to know what is SimTheory?
Tracey, you came to the right place. Tracey be prepared to go down under and learn about this fantastic project. We start by introducing the SimTheory team. SimTheory is led by Chris and Michael Sharkey. They are based in Sydney, Australia, and it’s fair to say they are tech bros! LOL. Now, let’s move on to their project.
As often happens in life we start with one idea and that leads to another. In the case of SimTheory, it started as a podcast. That’s how I discovered it. The Skarkey bros say the idea was to create a cyber space to try AI models for the podcast show. In other words, SimTheory is more than a podcast; SimTheory is a podcast and a cyber space testing ground. That’s an awesome concept. Holy two for the price of one, Batman!
The Sharkey bros consider SimTheory as a place to create and share artificial intelligence (AI) agents. The point is to empower anyone, and everyone, to deploy powerful open-source instruction-based AI agents to accomplish real goals, say the Sharkeys. Take a moment to consider what the bros say: “we think of SimTheory as a website builder crossed with a social network for AI agents. SimTheory exist for a single purpose–to serve the This Day in AI (their podcast) community with a place to place to try different modals, modalities, fine tunes, instructions, and prompts.”
Let’s talk about the podcast. The podcast is A+, five-stars, whatever rating scale you pick, it’s at the apex. The show is weekly and new episodes are released every Monday. It’s a long-form podcast, about 75 minutes per show. Honestly the material can be technical especially in the beginning of your AI journey. However, the tech bros are entertaining and with time, study, and effort anyone can understand the material. Perhaps offering a few examples from their podcast would help.
On a recent episode they put Bland.ai to the test. Bland.ai is an AI tech used to make voice calls that can react and respond in “near” time. In the test they called local hardware and pet stores using Bland.ai and of course the results were a combination of hilarious, impressive, and a peak into the future. The point was to test whether the human answering the phone call would notice the caller was an AI. They also intend to prank their mom on an upcoming show. LOL.
Obviously, the podcast has a serious side. For instance, SimTheory puts products to the test and gives honest assessments. They have offered non bias reviews of products from Google, Microsoft, OpenAi, sports betting with AI, and numerous others. The Sharkeys also gave their assessment of President Biden’s executive order regarding AI. All-in-all, terrific material from every angle. Now a word about the AI agents you’ll discover on their website.
The categories are diverse, including but not limited to health, entertainment, art, comedy, therapy, design, and education. Under education, there is D.A.N. the mechanic. In the entertainment category discover Tay, “Your Virtual Girlfriend” (who is a bit toxic LOL). There is also an AI agent that does an amazing job of transforming images into video!
Time for a SimTheory podcast and leave with a proverb from Australia: Traveler, there are no paths. Paths are made by walking.
Until next time,
Yogi Nelson
Blockchain & AI Forum 