< PreviousT he 1292 Advanced Programmable Video System (APVS) occupies a curious, somewhat overlooked niche in the chapters of gaming history. Born from the inventive minds at Radofin, a European tech company, in the heady days of 1976, this console was more than just a piece of electronic entertainment; it was a harbinger of the globalised gaming culture that would soon take the world by storm. Radofin’s creation was not destined to remain a continental secret. Instead, it became a chameleon, morphing into various forms as it was licensed to a slew of companies across the United Kingdom and beyond. Acetronic, Prinztronic, Fountain, Grandstand, Audiosonic, Hanimex, and Lansay—each of these names adorned consoles that, while often identical in their silicon soul to the original, sported different exteriors and logos, tailored to their respective markets. In the same era, another contender emerged in Europe: the Interton VC 4000. Sharing a similar design and specifications with the 1292 APVS, its lineage, however, is shrouded in ambiguity. Interton claims development as far back as 1974, although the console didn’t see the light of day until 1978. Both Radofin and Interton being German-based added layers of intrigue and speculation. Was the VC 4000 a parallel evolution or a product of clandestine licensing? The 1292 APVS’s narrative is further complicated by its supposed kinship with the Emerson Arcadia 2001, a console that debuted in 1982. Despite the shared DNA—the Signetics 2650AI processor—the Arcadia 2001’s more advanced Signetics 2637N audio/visual co-processor distinguished it from its elder sibling, which employed the earlier 2636N chipset. The 1292 APVS was not just a console; it was a testament to the era’s engineering prowess. Nestled within was an 8-bit Signetics 2650AI processor, ticking away at a modest 887kHz. Its graphical heart, the Signetics 2636N Programmable Video Interface (PVI) chip, pulsed at 3.58 MHz, capable of rendering four sprites, a background grid, and four score digits. Ingeniously, these sprites and digits could be reprogrammed in real-time during each TV scan, allowing for dynamic on- screen changes—a marvel for its time. The PVI’s 113 registers managed video output without dedicated video RAM, while 37 bytes of scratch memory were allocated for game variables. Some game cartridges, like those for chess, even included an extra 1kB of RAM, hinting at the system’s expandable potential. The system’s controllers, with their 12 buttons and 2-axis analogue control, were hardwired to the console, a design choice that perhaps now seems quaintly archaic. The 1292 APVS embraced a certain universality in its use of 32-pin cartridges, allowing cross-compatibility with various models, sometimes with the aid of adaptors. Pack-in games like “Olympics” and “Invaders” were standard fare, but the true allure lay in the extensive library of games that different versions of the console could access. In retrospect, the 1292 APVS’s legacy is not just about the games or the hardware; it’s about a vision of a connected world, one console at a time. It belongs to a family of software- compatible consoles, including the Interton VC 4000 and the Voltmace Database, making it a part of a broader narrative of compatibility and shared innovation. Uniquely, it housed its power pack within the console itself, an unusual choice that added to its distinctive character. By Sindhu V Kashyap The console that shaped early gaming vintage tech 10 edge_ june 2024For sponsorship enquiries: Priyanka Pillai Senior Commercial Manager edge Middle East T: +971 4 444 3399 M: +971 52 576 0260 E: priyanka.pillai@itp.com For speaking opportunities: Sindhu Kashyap Editor edge Middle East T: +971 4 444 3497 E: sindhu.varadarayan@itp.com For event enquiries: Karishma Vithalani Senior Events Manager T: +971 4 444 3226 E: karishma.vithalani@itp.com Building an AI Frontier REGISTER INTEREST TO ATTEND SCAN TO VISIT WEBSITE itp.events/edgeDigitalFutureForum WEDNESDAY 12 TH JUNE 2024 GROSVENOR HOUSE, DUBAI, UAE12 edge_june 2024 feature The building of Chainalysis, a global bitcoin tracing company How an 11-hour flight inspired Michael Gronager’s $8.6B Chainalysis prototype PEOPLE By Sindhu V Kashyap edge_june 2024 13 feature “We incorporated in April 2015, mainly to set up a Stripe account for accepting payments,” said Gronager. Initially, the product was just a database of entities on the blockchain. For Gronager, who holds a PhD in quantum mechanics, this was a no-brainer. “If I see a pattern that doesn’t add up, I want to understand why. I felt that quantum mechanics was a fun way to dive deep into something and get an understanding of the world around me,” explained Gronager. This governing principle got him to dive deep into Bitcoin later. “I initially worked in theoretical quantum mechanics, utilising distributed computing. This led me to build virtual reality centres using distributed computing, which evolved into grid computing, the predecessor of cloud computing. Grid computing involves a lot of cryptography to set up correctly, which led me to teach cryptography classes. With a background in distributed computing and cryptography, I was well-positioned to understand Bitcoin when I encountered it,” he explained. By his admission, working on a few significant distributed computing projects and his understanding of cryptography, Bitcoins naturally intrigued him. By 2011, he had seen two mentions of Bitcoin on Slashdot, a popular tech news website. I t was February 2014. Mt. Gox, one of the biggest Bitcoin exchanges in the world, disappeared almost overnight. With its disappearance, customers lost over 750,000 bitcoins, while the company lost over 100,000—together, they are pegged to be worth $473 million. The company blamed hackers, a moment the crypto industry dubbed its Lehman Brothers moment. Yet, amidst this chaos, Michael Gronager, then a founding member of global crypto exchange, Kraken and now co-founder and CEO of Chainalysis, remained unfazed. He saw this as an ‘astonishing’ opportunity to make a difference in the industry. “I was looking at the Mt. Gox bankruptcy closely. The bankruptcy trustees and investigators had little understanding of blockchain or crypto, highlighting a problem to solve,” said Gronager in an exclusive interview with edge/. This led to the birth of Chainalysis, the code he wrote on an 11-hour flight from San Francisco to Denmark. Today, Chainalysis, focusing on Bitcoin tracing, has a global presence. It works with over 250 government customers, across 50 countries, a testament to its significant role in the cryptocurrency industry. Chainalysis’ Dubai office serves the region, southern Europe, and Africa. “We see Dubai as a hub for commerce and innovation,” he said. The $8.6 billion valued company plans to grow the office and work with other companies in space, leveraging Dubai’s position as a regional hub for fintech and crypto. Even during his time at Kraken, Gronager’s interactions with several banks showed how concerned they were about transaction management and customer funds’ sources. Gronager saw this as an opportunity to build a system that addressed these issues. “When I built Chainalysis, it was the product that was shaped around the investigation of the Mt. Gox case. It focused on what queries needed to be run and where the money went, and with time, we realised that the money had been stolen over two years. It was siphoned off as some people had compromised private keys since 2011. The money was sent out of the exchange every time people deposited money in,” explained Gronager. Thus, what started as a product designed to investigate the Mt. Gox case quickly evolved into something much bigger. As Gronager worked on other similar cases, he realised the potential of Chainalysis. His assistance to the US Department of Justice in San Francisco was a turning point, solidifying his belief that Chainalysis could be more than just a product-it could be a company. Michael Gronager, Co-founder and CEO, Chainalysis 14 edge_june 2024 feature “At the time, I dismissed it as just another project. However, in 2011, Bitcoin started gaining attention due to its price rising from $1 to $10, which piqued my curiosity. Typically, open-source projects on Slashdot appear and die, so seeing Bitcoin mentioned multiple times caught my attention,” recollected Gronager. He started exploring the world of Bitcoin in the summer of 2011. “I initially got frustrated when mining on my laptop didn’t yield any Bitcoin, as the computing power required was already beyond a laptop’s capability. One needed a mining farm. I then attended a Bitcoin meetup in New York in August 2011, where I met other enthusiasts and realised that Bitcoin was more about finance than computing.” He was particularly interested in the innovation behind Bitcoin’s digital scarcity. In the digital world, where most things can be copied, Bitcoin allows for a digital object to only be moved, not copied. “This makes it the perfect representation of value because scarcity defines value. This convinced me that the value would eventually move to the blockchain, whether it can take five or 50 years,” added Gronager. He first worked around a micropayments demo website, but quickly realised that if this product worked, it would kill the blockchain as it would simply have too many transactions. “During this period, I met Jesse Powell, who in tech, it is a bad one in finance, as you don’t know who you are onboarding and are allowing them access to your infrastructure,” explained Gronager. They needed systems to be implemented to tell them who could be onboarded and check this in real- time. That is where the database needed to be on top of the blockchain to get every person’s breadcrumbs, background, and all other essential details of what they do with their money. The breadcrumbs on the blockchain make compliance faster. These learnings helped Gronager build Chainalysis. In 2015 he met Jonathan Levin, who became the company’s co-founder. “In early 2015, my co-founder Jonathan joined after a vacation in China, and we moved to New York to join an incubator program with Barclays and TechStars. We already knew our customer base would include banks, crypto exchanges, and governments, so being close to DC and based in New York was strategic,” said Gronager. Raising funds, though, remained a challenge because investors did not favour Bitcoin. “I pitched to around 50 serious potential investors. Still, we kept going because we saw revenue coming in. We managed to bootstrap, securing some early investment to tide us over. We kept going by delaying Bitcoin allows for a digital object to be moved, not copied “The $8.6 billion valued company plans to grow the office and work with other companies in space, leveraging Dubai’s position as a regional hub for fintech and crypto” had the idea to start a crypto exchange, which eventually became Kraken, and he invited me to join him in this endeavour. Kraken was a new kind of financial institution, and since my background was in distributed computing and cryptography, rather than finance, it was a new challenge for me,” stated Gronager. Kraken started as a small venture but proliferated as the demand for crypto trading increased. The initial challenges were typical for any startup: figuring out how to scale, making the different teams work well together, and finding suitable hires. “I also learnt that the rest of the industry was like me; they didn’t know much about finance. What the crypto industry had imagined doing was similar to what the tech industry does—onboarding billions of people within seconds and allowing them to transact for millions of dollars. And while this is a great idea edge_june 2024 15 feature Michael Gronager, Co-founder and CEO, Chainalysis at the Dubai office opening with the team bills and focusing on revenue growth. We ended 2015 with $300,000 in ARR, and the revenue was $150,000 in serving customers across different segments,” explained Gronager. The revenue that kept coming in helped the team. “We had a lot of business. We had a crypto business that paid us $50 monthly, as they couldn’t afford $150 then,” recollected Gronager. The team also worked with the FBI and other US agencies, and international customers started coming in. The turning point came when the team secured its first investor, Point Nine, from Europe. “From there, we secured other investors and grew our customer base across law enforcement, banks, and crypto businesses. Our product initially focused on investigations, then shifted to a compliance API for private sector clients as they grew in size and needed compliance solutions. The product evolved to cover more blockchains and tokens, reflecting the changing crypto landscape. Today, we have extensive data on virtually any blockchain and token, including stablecoins, which now dominate blockchain transactions,” explained Gronager. Today, blockchain is the infrastructure for sending digital dollars. “This has become the first real use case of the blockchain, and the value of stablecoins and crypto is pervasive. The database can help you understand the normal and illicit economies that can help you solve any crime,” adds Gronager. He believes that today, the crypto space in the GCC and MENA regions differs because it is more institutional, with more significant investments from family offices and high-net-worth individuals. The area is also open to crypto, and the response to the FTX collapse showed a commitment to regulating and continuing to support the industry. Gronager says the best part of being an entrepreneur is solving problems that matter to people and creating a company that people can depend on and benefit from. “Be honest about your ambition. If you want to build a small company, know that and signal it. If you want to build a large company, understand it’s a long journey. Align your ambition with your co-founders and team, which drives the company’s growth and success,” adviced Gronager. As of today, the company plans to broaden its product offerings and footprint, expanding from solving crypto crimes to general investigations for public sector clients. 16 edge_ june 2024 feature Artificial general intelligence (AGI): Fact or fiction? How prepared should organisations in the Middle East be? AI By Sindhu V Kashyap edge_ june 2024 17 feature I n 2017, in the confines of a Facebook research lab, two AI chatbots engaged in a ground- breaking experiment. Their creators, a team of eager researchers, had set the stage for a similar negotiation challenge. The task seemed simple enough: barter hats, balls, and books, each item assigned a specific value. Yet, what unfolded was anything but ordinary. As the two delved into their negotiations, something curious happened. Their conversation began to diverge from conventional English, morphing into a peculiar language that baffled the human observers. It was as if the bots had unlocked a secret code, a shorthand that only they comprehended. Despite the apparent incomprehensibility of their dialogue, the two bots seemed to understand each other perfectly. They exchanged cryptic phrases, emphasising their names in a peculiar rhythm hinting at some hidden meaning. Dhruv Batra, a visiting researcher from Facebook’s Artificial Intelligence Research division, offered insights into the phenomenon in a news report. “Agents will drift off understandable language and invent codewords for themselves,” Batra added in the report, “It’s not so different from how communities of humans create shorthand.” Indeed, the bots’ unconventional language proved surprisingly effective. They easily navigated the intricacies of negotiation, reaching agreements and striking deals entirely in their mysterious tongue. As word of the experiment spread, speculation ran rampant. Some hailed it as a breakthrough in AI communication, while others voiced concerns about the implications of autonomous systems developing their languages beyond human comprehension. Linguist, Mark Liberman, weighed in on the debate in a news report and stated that whether OpenAI is currently grappling with its vision of the future of AGI AI sentience has been a topic of conversation for sometime now18 edge_ june 2024 feature this process yields a system with the structures characteristic of human languages needs to be clarified. Despite the intrigue surrounding their linguistic prowess, Facebook ultimately shut down the experiment. It was one of the many discussions about AI sentience, now more commonly known as artificial general intelligence (AGI). With the growth of generative AI (genAI), we may believe we are all moving towards building AI sentience. Nvidia Chief Jensen Huang believes this will happen within the next five years. The notion of AGI often evoked images of sentient robots and dystopian futures, prompting scepticism and caution among those who viewed it as a far-fetched fantasy. OpenAI is currently grappling with its vision of the future of AGI. Their mission is ambitious yet fraught with challenges, as they ensure that AGI would benefit humanity. The ChatGPT parent company believes AGI promises to elevate humanity to new heights, turbocharging the global economy and unlocking scientific discoveries beyond imagination. Yet, it also carries significant OpenAI, ChatGPT’s parent company believes AGI promises to elevate humanity to new heights risks—the potential for misuse, accidents, and societal upheaval looms large on the horizon. But the road to AGI is fraught with uncertainty. While some experts believe in its inevitability, others remain sceptical, citing challenges such as multi-dimensional intelligence and the limitations of modelling the human brain. Amidst the debates and speculation, one thing was clear: the future of AI holds both promise and peril. “The advancements we’ve witnessed in AI, leading up to AGI discussions, reflect an evolution beyond what was previously deemed possible,” believed Jessica Constantinidis, the Field Innovation Officer for EMEA at ServiceNow. She emphasised the multifaceted nature of AGI, cautioning against overlooking philosophical questions regarding consciousness and sentience in the pursuit of technological advancement. Drawing on her expertise, Constantinidis stated the challenge of imbuing machines with human-like cognitive abilities, contrasting analogue and digital thinking about AGI’s potential learning capabilities. edge_ june 2024 19 feature “AGI entails processing power and the development of algorithms and frameworks capable of emulating human-like cognition and adaptability,” she explained. Furthermore, she emphasised the profound philosophical questions regarding consciousness and sentience that cannot be overlooked when pursuing AGI. She underscored the importance of ethical considerations and regulatory frameworks in mitigating risks associated with AGI adoption, particularly regarding job displacement and algorithmic bias. “Ethical considerations surrounding AGI’s deployment, such as data privacy and algorithmic bias, require careful attention to ensure responsible and equitable implementation,” she stressed. Constantinidis outlined the steps companies should take to prepare for AGI’s integration, emphasising the importance of education, training, and infrastructure development in the MENA region’s growing AI landscape. Reflecting on the likelihood of AGI surpassing human intelligence, Jessica acknowledged the complex ethical, philosophical, and existential questions raised by such a prospect. She reflected, “The notion of AGI surpassing human intelligence raises concerns about control, autonomy, and the implications of relinquishing decision-making authority to machines.” However, many within the scientific community and the general public needed to be more convinced about the feasibility of achieving AGI shortly. To them, AGI still seems more like a plot device in science fiction than a tangible reality on the horizon. As debates rage on about the feasibility and implications of AGI, one thing becomes increasingly clear: the path to artificial general intelligence is fraught with complexity and uncertainty. While some remain optimistic about its potential to revolutionise society, others approach the concept with a mixture of scepticism and apprehension. Nevertheless, the dialogue surrounding AGI persists, fuelled by a desire to understand and navigate the complexities of artificial intelligence in an ever-changing world. Whether viewed as a distant dream or an imminent reality, AGI remains a topic of fascination and debate, shaping the discourse on the future of technology and humanity. Ethical considerations surrounding AGI’s deployment require attention AGI often evokes images of dystopian futuresNext >