Roger Hamilton, CEO of Genius Group, was recently a guest on Benzinga's All-Access.
Genius Group is a leading provider of AI-powered, digital-first education solutions that is attempting to disrupt the highly standardized system of traditional education with a personalized, flexible and life-long learning curriculum for the modern student.
The company recently announced that it has secured a $22 million ‘Genius Nation' contract with the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan, enabling the development of a Sovereign AI in the country.
Genius Group is a leading provider of AI-powered, digital-first education solutions that is attempting to disrupt the highly standardized system of traditional education with a personalized, flexible and life-long learning curriculum for the modern student.
The company recently announced that it has secured a $22 million ‘Genius Nation' contract with the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan, enabling the development of a Sovereign AI in the country.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Good morning, Roger. Welcome to All Access.
00:07Very good to be here.
00:08Awesome. Look, we've got so many things to talk about.
00:10AI is always fun when it's part of the conversation,
00:13but for the folks at home that might not be familiar with your company,
00:16give us a quick overview.
00:17Sure. Our company is called Genius Group,
00:19and we basically look at genius being a combination of the skills
00:25in terms of AI as well as the talent in terms of human talent
00:28and integrating them together.
00:29So when people come onto our platform,
00:31we have an online platform with coming up to 6 million students on it
00:36with 10 million for this year being our goal.
00:38And the whole idea is when you come on,
00:40you're actually getting your AI avatars already supporting you
00:43in your learning.
00:44And we're actually scaling this out across 100,
00:47what we call genius cities,
00:49which is everything from governments through to businesses
00:51through to students at universities.
00:54Well, I've heard of genius at Apple,
00:56and now you've got something working in that same respect as well.
00:59How does AI kind of enable you to provide better education solutions
01:04in our sector?
01:06Well, the most important thing is knowing that in the same way
01:09that, what, 100 plus years ago, we went from, you know,
01:12one horsepower when everyone was riding horses
01:14to 100 and 1,000 horsepower when people have cars.
01:17We're seeing exactly the same thing happening right now
01:20within the entire age of AI.
01:22Learning is one of the easiest things to be using AI for
01:26because everyone knows if you have a personalized experience
01:29and one that then is guiding you at the pace that's right for you,
01:33that makes all the difference.
01:34So every single person that comes on the platform
01:36gets their own personalized AI.
01:38And it's not just those that are learning formal education.
01:41It's also those who are looking to reskill themselves
01:43through the workplace.
01:44We have many companies using this with all of their team members.
01:48And when you've actually got AI providing you
01:50with the very latest solutions that actually are working with you,
01:53not just in terms of what you need to learn,
01:55but what you can actually be providing to AI experts
01:58or even to AI itself to deliver for you,
02:01then you can find yourself at 100x the results very quickly.
02:04And that's what we are basically delivering
02:06to all of the users that are using our platform right now.
02:10Okay, so I understand, like, the end result with 100x
02:13that you're talking about, but let's get a little nerdy.
02:15Explain to me how the tech actually works,
02:17and especially if it's your own model
02:19or if it's layered on top of something like, say, a chat GPT.
02:23Great. Okay, so if someone's a university student, for example,
02:26they can go straight to our site, which is called student.ai,
02:29and they will see that they have an entire team of AI tutors
02:32that will help them in every area of their studies,
02:34whether it's research or whether it is crafting out their thesis
02:37or whether it is actually solving complex mathematical problems.
02:41And each AI is an agent that actually focuses in a particular area,
02:44and they've been coded to do that.
02:46If they're an entrepreneur, they can go to geniusteam.ai,
02:49which actually provides you with a C-suite,
02:51which includes CFO, CEO.
02:53In fact, our own chief AI officer that we brought into the company
02:58is an AI itself called Alan Turing,
03:00and is actually being coded to be able to have the entire body of work
03:03of Alan Turing, and it comes with a great sense of humor as well,
03:06but it actually has provided us with a full white paper
03:09on how we develop AI out there as well.
03:11So very specific to different characters,
03:13we have Einstein AI, which is crafted around Einstein,
03:16and so it goes on for basically all the top leaders
03:19that we have on our platform as well.
03:21To the question of what is the base that we began with,
03:24we actually started by using OpenAI and having as a base GPT-3.
03:28We now have a partnership with Microsoft,
03:30where Microsoft actually provides us with free credits,
03:33and we're now using basically the basis of Bing,
03:36which is giving us access to real-time information,
03:39as well as Copilot.
03:40And of course, there's a basis to all of that
03:42in terms of how it links in with OpenAI as well.
03:44So we will continue to evolve and grow the platform
03:47based on the very latest technology out there.
03:50And so, for example, if someone comes and actually wants
03:52to be creating their presentations and including on it graphics,
03:56then we already link in with DALI 3, for example, or MidJourney,
03:59and you can have your choice as to which one you use.
04:02But most importantly, we keep your data safe
04:04because everyone who comes on board
04:06is actually capturing their data within our AI platform.
04:10I'm glad you brought up data
04:11because so much concern around AI now
04:13is with the safety and privacy aspect of it.
04:16So how do you ensure that the American people
04:18that are using this product have everything taken care of
04:21and provided in terms of security?
04:24So one thing which we did very early on
04:27as the AI movement started
04:29was we created a partnership with Salesforce.
04:31And Salesforce, which is a CRM,
04:33has built their own Einstein AI as well.
04:36And so they've made sure that from day one,
04:38you know, all the content, all the data
04:40that you are actually managing on their platform
04:42is fully compliant.
04:43We've worked together with Salesforce
04:45to make sure that when you have got a particular user
04:48that's using our AI system,
04:51it's very different from going, for example,
04:53onto something like OpenAI's chat GPT,
04:56where pretty much everything that you're entering in there
04:58is open season for anyone to be able to...
05:00It's the same as the whole internet.
05:01You can actually be, you know,
05:03putting anything onto your website,
05:05and it's open season for any AI
05:06to actually be able to take all that information.
05:08In our case, we've got basically private pockets of data
05:11that you capture and keep for yourself.
05:13And because we're working with teams of AI,
05:15to give you an example,
05:16you know, in conversations with GEMS,
05:18which is the largest private education network in the world,
05:21they had a concern, given that they're based in Dubai,
05:23how do we make sure that students,
05:25you know, kids at primary school
05:27are going to have the safety of, you know,
05:30like, you know, having information on the internet,
05:32but also having local culture
05:33when it comes, for example, to the UAE.
05:35And so what we have is we have different teams of AI
05:39that are specialized in very specific areas.
05:41And when you actually plug those AIs into the team,
05:44you'll have the one that's focusing
05:45at culture of your local area
05:47or, you know, at the kind of parental supervisions
05:50or controls for, you know, a 13-year-old child
05:53that you can plug into it as well.
05:55And then you can exchange it for another one.
05:57So as your child gets older,
05:58they can actually then exchange with an AI
06:00that's going to be at a different level
06:02of what it's checking and how it's tracking.
06:04And so because we actually are building
06:05these armies of AI working together,
06:07that makes it quite simple and easy
06:09to plug and play into the tools that you actually want
06:12that's going to personalize the best,
06:13not just for the individual,
06:15but to the culture and to the country
06:18that you're serving.
06:19I appreciate you breaking that down.
06:21You mentioned Dubai,
06:22and I also saw that you have contracts with Kazakhstan.
06:25You know, it's a place where I've worked with
06:27a few years ago to help with their education system.
06:29So what does it look like when you're working
06:31with governments to kind of craft education programs
06:34using your tech,
06:35especially when their cultures might be a bit different
06:38than what we have here in the United States?
06:40Yeah, this is actually very interesting
06:42that you're actually seeing a lot of the countries
06:44that are the first to be appointing ministers of AI, right?
06:48Like, you know, UAE is one of them.
06:50Kazakhstan's another one.
06:51You know, we're based in Singapore.
06:53Singapore's another one where you've actually got,
06:55you know, AI being very much embraced by the government
06:59and then looking at how do they actually create
07:01their own sovereign AI or localized AI
07:03that isn't data that's then being sent over to America
07:06or to some Western country.
07:08And for us, this is one of the most interesting pathways
07:12is working together with the government.
07:13So you mentioned Kazakhstan, for example.
07:15You know, it's been a couple of deals
07:16that have come out there recently.
07:18Council of Europe, which is linked with the EU,
07:21had a competition to see how could you actually be using AI
07:25to gather all the local data in a particular country
07:28and enable you to be able to track
07:30where all the assets are moving.
07:32And this is a $3 trillion problem around the world
07:35in terms of illegal movement of assets.
07:37Kazakhstan said, okay, we want to actually have a tool
07:40that enables us to do that.
07:41We beat out all of the other AI companies
07:43at actually developing a solution,
07:45and we're now putting that in place.
07:47That's also connected to another project
07:50that we're working with the government on in Kazakhstan,
07:52which is a $22 million contract that enables us
07:55to gather not just databases in terms
07:57of where assets are moving, but database on all data
08:00that enables us to create a sovereign AI
08:02where it's learning-based, which means that every citizen
08:05can learn how to be using AI and the tools,
08:07but they can also access their own data.
08:09So whether it's their medical data,
08:11whether it's their education data,
08:13and they want to be having a really smart way
08:15to be able to not just gather it,
08:17but actually provide it to the doctor
08:19or to your next teacher.
08:21We actually have that as a contract
08:23that we've been delivering already.
08:24We're in the second year of a three-year contract,
08:26which is nationwide.
08:27We're seeing more and more of that happening
08:29around the world, and that's where our Genius Nation
08:32and Genius City model comes in as well.
08:34In a place like U.S., very difficult to work
08:36with the federal government at pace,
08:38but there's certainly a lot of cities with mayors
08:40like Miami, like Austin, Texas, that are very proactive
08:44and actually bringing these same tools
08:46into their cities and their own local ecosystems.
08:49You know, it's always great whenever...
08:51So typically when I talk to executives,
08:53the question's always,
08:54hey, when are you going to expand globally?
08:56But clearly you've already done that
08:57with Kazakhstan and Dubai contracts
08:59and many more that I'm sure might be in the works as well.
09:02Last question for me, you know,
09:04technology used to change every three years,
09:06five years, 10 years.
09:07Now technology is changing every few months,
09:09it seems, with especially AI space.
09:12Where do you kind of see AI as a technology,
09:14say, in the next three years?
09:17I think one of the biggest challenges
09:19is everyone can see how fast AI itself is growing.
09:23The real key thing is,
09:24what is our relationship to it going forward?
09:26I personally believe,
09:27because we're all about education and the future of work,
09:30that the biggest thing that's going to happen
09:31as AI continues to get into a more and more powerful tool
09:35is that it's going to be how we redefine work.
09:37Right now, most of us think of work
09:38as being our productivity.
09:40Well, then you could be having the fear of God in you
09:41if you think that AI is going to actually take over
09:43because they're more productive than you are.
09:45But we actually see work as being partly paid productivity,
09:48but also partly your personal work,
09:50you know, how you're growing,
09:51or your community work, how you're giving.
09:53And what we're seeing
09:54with a lot of these different communities
09:56is that as AI evolves,
09:57it's those cities or countries that say,
10:00this is an opportunity for us
10:02to actually have AI take on a lot more of the productivity
10:04and for us then to have humans learning much more about,
10:07well, that frees up more of my time
10:08to make sure that I'm actually doing what I'm passionate about
10:10or what I'm actually seeing
10:12as being a purpose for my life going forward.
10:14And that's a very good thing
10:15because it means that we're using AI
10:16not to replace humans.
10:18We're using it to enhance humans.
10:19And I think that's probably the biggest shift.
10:21Not everyone's going to make it.
10:22Others are going to miss that boat
10:24and they're going to end up losing their jobs
10:26or basically having major societal issues.
10:28We can see that globally as a big fear that people have.
10:31The whole idea of genius is it's not, you know,
10:33a genius city is not a smart city,
10:35which is smart technology.
10:36It's a genius city,
10:37which is smart humans as well as smart technology.
10:39So how do we actually educate all of us
10:41for this bigger disruption that's coming our way?
10:44You know, I feel like sometimes in school,
10:46they don't teach you how to learn.
10:48You have to learn how to learn.
10:50And I feel like that's what kind of AI can help you do.
10:52Yeah.
10:53I 100% agree.
10:55Yeah.
10:56And you know,
10:57there are going to be certain jobs
10:58that will be replaced with AI.
10:59We've already unfortunately seen that.
11:02However, I feel like net positive
11:04will be where AI helps us do our jobs better
11:07and more effectively and save time as well.
11:09I know I use it in my daily life,
11:11whether it's in terms of trading
11:12or doing interviews like this.
11:13And my day-to-day responsibilities here
11:15have been saying as well.
11:16Raj, before I let you go,
11:17any final thoughts from you?
11:18We've talked about quite a bit already,
11:20but the floor is yours to talk to our viewers.
11:22Yeah, I would just say that
11:24for those interested in Genius Group,
11:26our ticker is GNS.
11:27And the one thing to look out for
11:29as we go forward is our Genius Awards,
11:31which we are awarding at both the country level
11:34as well as the city, the company,
11:37and in the individual leadership level.
11:39And the whole idea of Genius Awards
11:41are who are the people
11:42who are getting smartest at using AI
11:44to enhance humanity, right?
11:45And there are certain people
11:47that are using it in ways
11:48that you could say are negative,
11:49that are replacing
11:50or which are basically not necessarily
11:53of added value to humanity.
11:55And there's those who are doing a really great job.
11:57We want to recognize those same people
11:59in the way we're doing the Genius Awards.
12:00And we are going to be running this year
12:02also the AI Challenge,
12:03which is a global challenge.
12:04It's involving over a hundred cities.
12:06We have thousands of companies
12:07that are part of it as well,
12:09which is going to be bringing
12:10all these use cases
12:11of how you actually use AI
12:13to 100X the returns
12:15that you're actually getting
12:16in both income and impact
12:17within your business.
12:18So I hope that people
12:19will follow along on the journey
12:20and they can find out more about us
12:22on geniusgroup.net
12:23where we share all the latest information
12:25about the movement
12:26within the growth of the age of AI.
12:29Awesome.
12:30Well, hey, we'll be following along.
12:31I look forward to more milestones
12:32being achieved by your company
12:33and for us to have those conversations
12:34in the future.
12:35Roger, thank you so much for your time.
12:37Thanks so much.
12:38You got it.
12:39That was Roger Hamilton,
12:41who is a CEO of Genius Group.
12:43Ticker on the NYSE American is GNS.
12:47And as always, thank you at home
12:48for watching All Access.