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### The AGI hype train has hit some heavy traffic.

While futurists and fundraisers used to make bullish predictions about artificial general intelligence, they’ve become quieter lately. Peter Thiel — the tech billionaire and rumored vampire — says Silicon Valley big brains have lost enthusiasm for AGI.

“Elon’s not talking about it anymore and Larry Page is off to Fiji and doesn’t seem to be working on it quite as hard,” Thiel said at a recent event.

While futurists and fundraisers used to make bullish predictions about artificial general intelligence, they’ve become quieter lately. Peter Thiel — the tech billionaire and rumored vampire — says Silicon Valley big brains have lost enthusiasm for AGI.

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Can self-healing security software fight cybercrime?

Thiel described Musk as “a weathervane for the zeitgeist,” who’s stopped talking about AGI because interest has declined.

Scientists are also increasingly skeptical. A recent study paper posited that AGI is “in principle impossible,” while other researchers have mocked the term’s proponents.

“I have yet to come across work on AGI that I can take seriously,” tweeted Abeba Birhane, a cognitive scientist based at University College Dublin.

### The path towards AGI increasingly appears — at best — a long one.

Imbuing machines with human-like intelligence remains immensely challenging. As Melanie Mitchell, a computer science professor at Portland State University noted in a preprint paper published last year on arXiv:


>Since its beginning in the 1950s, the field of artificial intelligence has cycled several times between periods of optimistic predictions and massive investment
<cite>Alexender Toto</cite>

Critics fear that another AI winter is coming. Hyping AGI helped spurred enormous investment in artificial intelligence, but overconfident predictions could be detrimental to progress in the field — if the real-world advances prove disappointing.

While futurists and fundraisers used to make bullish predictions about artificial general intelligence, they’ve become quieter lately. Peter Thiel — the tech billionaire and rumored vampire — says Silicon Valley big brains have lost enthusiasm for AGI.

The Power of Visualization in the 21st century


[According to research](https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/00251740610673332/full/html), up to 90% of consumers’ snap judgments made about products can be based on color alone. Color also plays an important role in brand identity. Coca-Cola is red, Facebook’s blue, and so on.

A number of companies have actually succeeded in trademarking and “owning” colors that their competitors can’t use.

For instance, Tiffany & Co has trademarked its shade of blue, T-Mobile magenta, and UPS its “pullman brown.”

### Know the legal requirements
The Lanham Act defines trademarks as, “any word, name, symbol, device, or any combination thereof” that’s used to, “identify and distinguish one set of goods or services from other sources.”

Although colors aren’t included in that definition, since 1995, they can be trademarked as part of a service or product, providing they meet four conditions:

* The color needs to work as a source of brand identification.

* It must not have a functional purpose — think yellow or orange for safety signs.

* It needs to show proof of “secondary meaning.” That is, the public has come to associate a 
color with a particular good or service.

* It doesn’t put competitors at a disadvantage by affecting cost or quality.

Ticking all the boxes can prove challenging, especially when it comes to secondary meaning. General Mills, for example, has failed to trademark yellow for its Cheerios box. The court ruled that the color isn’t a distinctive element of the brand, as it’s commonly used by other cereal companies.

### Apply for the color trademark ASAP

You can file a trademark application with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), even before you’ve started using the color in commerce, or proven its secondary meaning.

If the USPTO determines that the color mark isn’t distinctive yet, but can be, if used consistently in the future, it will be registered on the Supplemental Register.

### Hire a trademark attorney

Navigating the legal waters can be challenging, and it’s better to speak with a professional early on, before making a substantial investment.

Trademark attorneys can check whether a color is available for use, and whether there are any similar color marks already being used in the relevant market that could impede registration, or result in lawsuits from competitors.

According to research up to 90% of consumers’ snap judgments made about products can be based on color alone. Color also plays an important role in brand identity.

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The Power of Visualization in the 21st century

Yes, your company can trademark a color — here’s how