AI and the Future of Work: Artificial Intelligence in the Workplace, Business, Ethics, HR, and IT for AI Enthusiasts, Leaders

Send us Fan MailChristopher Penn writes one of the few newsletters I read weekly. I have no idea how I ended up on his mailing list but I’ll never opt out despite the rainbow “Unsubscribe here” buttons he prominently displays.Christopher provides well-researched, thought-provoking commentary on all topics related to generative AI. Like recent guests Pradeep Menon and Ken Wenger Christopher doesn’t settle for soundbite-level commentary and he often shares unpopular opinions backed up with data.Christopher is the Co-Founder and Chief Data Scientist at TrustInsights.ai. He’s a six-time IBM Champion in IBM Data and AI, a Brand24 Top 100 Digital Marketer, an Onalytica Top 100 AI in Marketing influencer, and co-host of the award-winning Marketing Over Coffee marketing podcast. He is also the author of two dozen marketing books. His list of accolades and accomplishments goes on for days.Listen and learn...The number one question Christopher asks data-driven marketersWhat has surprised Christopher most about the capabilities of LLMsWhy the letter to pause AI was "dumb"The right way to remove bias and hate speech from LLMsOpen source vs. closed source AI... and how it's related to making pizzaAre we ready for AI vendors to censor content?Christopher's predictions for how all enterprise software will incorporate generative AIWhy Christopher continues to hone his bow and arrow skillsReferences in this episode...Pradeep Menon on AI and the Future of WorkKen Wenger on AI and the Future of WorkTiernan Ray on AI and the Future of WorkChristopher's (entertaining and informative!) newsletterDreamGPT... to glorify LLM hallucinationsThe bots aren't sentient!

Send us Fan MailAbout 54 million Americans and 936 million patients globally suffer from sleep apnea and 80% of cases go undiagnosed. Today’s guest is fixing that problem.Chris Fernandez co-founded EnsoData in June 2015 to use AI to make sleep studies more efficient, cost effective, and accurate.Since then, he and the team have raised more than $30M from an exceptional group of investors including Zetta Venture Partners, M25 Ventures, and Inspire Medical Systems.Chris received his bachelors and masters degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Biomedical and Medical Engineering. He also wrote one of the most thoughtful perspectives on the entrepreneurial journey when he handed over the reigns to new CEO Justin Mortara last November. At 8,200 words, it may also be one of the longest.Listen and learn...What led Chris to care about solving sleep problemsHow EnsoData overcame being "a solution in search of a problem"How AI and machine learning can be applied to sleep apneaHow being incubated by Y Combinator helped launch EnsoDataHow to use brainwaves to train AI models to diagnose sleep issuesWhen we'll get "smart rooms" that adjust the environment to optimize for healthy sleepHow Chris and the team control for the impact of AI biasHow to improve the quality of your sleep... from an expertWhat led Chris to replace himself as CEOReferences in this episode...Gordon Wilson, Rain Neuromorphics CEO, on AI and the Future of WorkWhy We Sleep by Matt WalkerStanford Professor Dr. William Dement and the origins of sleep science

Send us Fan MailWe’ve had interesting recent discussions about AI and the law with great guests like Robert Plotkin. And we’ve had many interesting conversations about AI with CIO legends like Mark Settle from Okta and Carter Busse from Workato to name a few. In over 200 episodes we haven’t yet discussed how to deliver IT service to the legal industry.Jim McKenna has been delivering technology to attorneys and coaching others who do the same for more than two decades. In his current role at perennial Silicon Valley top law firm Fenwick & West, Jim supports an organization of more than 1,000 employees as CIO. He oversees teams that manage IT and security and is first and foremost a thought leader for the business. Prior to Fenwick, Jim held similar roles at Morrison and Forester. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the International Legal Technology Association.Thanks to Xavier, unsung hero and Fenwick IT specialist, for helping with A/V issues.Listen and learn...What's unique about delivering IT and security service to lawyersHow the legal industry shifted to work from home during the pandemicWhat's ahead for LegalTechWhere there are opportunities for AI to predict future employee needsHow Jim keeps up with security and compliance requirements... while innovatingJim's leadership advice: "Prepare in advance so when the tough occurs you're not afraid!"References in this episode...Robert Plotkin on AI and the Future of WorkMark Settle on AI and the Future of WorkCarter Busse on AI and the Future of WorkHow generative AI is being used to analyze patterns in DNA sequences

Send us Fan MailToday’s guest has had a front row seat for every technology platform shift for the past 20+ years. More important, he has played an important role in enabling several of them.Kit Colbert joined tech stalwart VMware in September 2003 and currently serves as senior vice president and chief technology officer. He is responsible for ensuring VMware’s long term technology leadership through research and innovation programs. Kit manages the VMware Engineering Services team, advanced R&D initiatives, the Design/UX team and the company’s ESG commitments.Kit was previously VMware’s Cloud CTO, General Manager of VMware’s Cloud-Native Apps business, CTO for VMware’s End-User Computing Business, and the lead architect for the vRealize Operations Suite. Kit is a recognized thought-leader on application modernization and multi-cloud trends and a frequent speaker. He holds a bachelor’s of science in computer science from Brown University.Listen and learn...How a Silicon Valley stalwart like VMware innovates from the insideHow VMware's founder-led culture continues to influence the company todayHow VMware reinvented itself beyond desktop virtualizationKit's recipe for innovationWhy crypto and AI hype are similarKit's perspective on how to regulate AIVMware's generative AI strategyReferences in this episode...Andi Mann from Sageable and Splunk on AI and the Future of WorkDiane Greene and the history of VMwareKit's team's blog

Send us Fan MailRon Bodkin is a self-described “serial entrepreneur focused on beneficial uses of AI”. Ron founded ChainML in April 2022 to make it easier to integrate AI models into applications. The AI we know today is immature in so many ways and many of them relate to how crude the tooling is for traditional developers building AI-first features. The ChainML protocol is a cost-efficient, decentralized network built for compute-intensive applications running on blockchain technology. Prior to founding ChainML Ron had a distinguished entrepreneurial career having founded Think Big Analytics before it was eventually acquired by Teradata after which he spent three years in applied AI at Google. Ron is also an active investor and advisor and has degrees in Computer Science from McGill and MIT.Listen and learn...What led Ron to focus on how AI can have a positive impact on the worldWhy Hinton's right when he says "we've invented a superior form of learning"Where the current toolstack for building LLM apps is incredibly immatureHow to control the cost and performance of LLM appsWhy human brains are inefficientWhy the "effective cost of computing" is being reduced by 50% every yearHow we may get to AGI within 20 yearsWhy proprietary datasets and commercial issues will slow down AI innovationThe right way to regulate AIReferences in this episode...Meredith Broussard, professor and author, on AI and the Future of WorkAttorney relies on court cases made up by ChatGPTThe Microsoft Sparks of AGI paper

Send us Fan MailTrent Fitz is the Chief Product Officer at Zenoss after having spent two decades in product and marketing leadership roles at companies like Trustwave and SailPoint.Trent owns product strategy and marketing at one of the pioneers in the space. Zenoss was founded in 2005 and has continued to reinvent itself. With the advent of generative AI, it’s more relevant than ever.We’ve explored the topics of service assurance and monitoring in the past with great guests like Colin Fletcher who coined the term AIOps while at Gartner and Gareth Rushgrove from Snyk who publishes the popular DevOps Weekly newsletter.The field of monitoring is evolving rapidly as new architecture patterns emerge and the data exhaust they generate continues to increase. Listen and learn...Trent's history lesson in system monitoringThe role of AI in monitoring and operationsTrent's perspective on the evolution of monitoring tool sprawlWhat is AIOps vs. observability, monitoring, or event managementHow service-centric monitoring is essential for dynamic apps based on microservicesThe difference between generation one and two AIOpsWhere are manual rules insufficient and real AI is needed to monitor appsHow LLMs are being used to improve observabilityWhy Big Cloud won't own monitoring of cloud-native appsWill there be a time when AI will replace DevOps engineers?References in this episode...Colin Fletcher from Gartner on AI and the Future of WorkGareth Rushgrove from Snyk on AI and the Future of WorkCharity Majors on AI and the Future of Work

Send us Fan MailToday's guest is one of the pioneers in generative AI having spent nine years at Google Research building teams that developed breakthrough technologies that led to innovations like the transformer architecture behind ChatGPT.Jad Tarifi co-founded Integral AI in 2021 after a distinguished career in AI roles as a researcher and leader. He received his PhD in Computer Science and AI from the University of Florida and did his undergrad at the University of Waterloo.Thanks to great former guest and friend of the podcast Hina Dixit from Samsung NEXT for the intro to Jad.Listen and learn: Can machines learn common sense? Do humans have common sense? Why Integral AI is providing a “base model for the world” Can machines ever learn as quickly as humans? How to improve the efficiency of LLMs with better algorithms Why the current transformer architecture is poorly designed for next word prediction How to use AI and robotics to create “magic wands” and “crystal balls” How to use AI to do “science at scale” What are the ethical implications of bots that can change the human life span How AGI is related to objective morality Jad’s four tenets of a new definition of “freedom” References in this episode… Integral.ai Blake Lemoine and the “sentience” debate Podcastle, generative AI for podcasts (a technology nobody needs)

Send us Fan MailToday’s guest is one of the original AI-first entrepreneurs. SambaNova paved the way for generations of other companies including today’s generative AI cohort. Rodrigo Liang, CEO, and his team have raised more than a billion dollars from a legendary group of investors including Temasek, BlackRock, GV, and Walden International.The original vision for SambaNova’s chip architecture and software products came from work his co-founders did at Stanford’s famous AI Lab. Today, SambaNova has embraced generative AI and is again leading the industry. Before founding SambaNova, Rodrigo held senior leadership roles at Oracle and Sun after having received his masters and bachelors degrees in Electrical Engineering from Stanford.Listen and learn… Why AI will be bigger than the internet How SambaNova migrated from designing AI chip architectures to software How to build your own LLM like ChatGPT Where there are opportunities for companies beyond NVIDIA in the AI chip space What will lead to the “trough of disillusionment” for AI What are adjacent opportunities for AI outside chat that are at the early stages of maturity How every knowledge worker will soon benefit from an AI personal assistant How to address the problem of popular LLMs being trained mostly on English contentWhy we’re in the “Linux moment for AI” What contributes to the cost and complexity of training new LLMs What is fine-tuning and how does it work References in this episode… Sam Altman calls for global cooperation to regulate AIThe SambaNova technical blog The SambaNova partnership with Together.xyz to train BLOOMChat Christopher Nguyen, Aitomatic CEO, on AI and the Future of Work

Send us Fan MailWe’ve interviewed some legendary CIOs including Mark Settle from Okta (a repeat guest), Reza Nazeman from SAP Concur, and, more recently, Carter Busse from Workato.We’re joined by another unicorn CIO today, Karl Mosgofian. Karl has helped grow Gainsight to more than $200M ARR and 1,200 employees. He has been leading the IT organization for nearly six years after having spent time at Harmonic, Apple, and Cadence Design.Thanks to friend of the podcast Carter Busse for the intro to Karl.Listen and learn...How Karl's role has changed since he joined Gainsight as a startup six years agoWhy it's hard for CIOs to "just keep the lights on"How Karl navigates the duel role of enabling the business to innovate with technology while making sure teams stay focused on solving business problemsHow Karl formulated the Gainsight employee ChatGPT policyWhy ChatGPT won't replace the help deskKarl's advice to vendors embedding AI in their productsHow Karl partners with his CISO and legal team to establish policies for LLM usageHow Gainsight is using AI internally to improve productivityAll about the quirky culture at GainsightReferences in this episode...Mark Settle on AI and the Future of WorkCarter Busse on AI and the Future of WorkReza Nazeman on AI and the Future of WorkLegendary Gainsight videos on YouTube

Send us Fan MailNo field is being upended as much as the legal profession. We’re all confused about how content generated by AI will be protected under the law and many lawyers are also asking how relevant they’ll be in a world where large language models can pass the bar and do legal research.Robert Plotkin is a luminary in the software patent space having been in the field for 25 years and having been involved in important IP cases related to everything from AI to quantum computing to autonomous vehicles and speech recognition.Robert also published the book Genie in the Machine back in 2009 which amazingly foreshadowed the legal implications of AI on IP. Robert has lectured at the Boston University School of Law and received his undergrad in Computer Science and Engineering from MIT.Listen and learn...How we should regulate LLMs... from an expertWhat entrepreneurs most often don't understand about IP lawWho has the rights to the inputs to LLMs?Can work derived from LLMs be patented?Is AI-generated work subject to copyright laws?What surprised Bill Gates when he saw GPT-4Is there an AI winter up ahead?References in this episode...Robert's personal siteHarvey raises $5M to be the AI co-pilot for lawyersAndy Clark's Natural-Born CyborgsBob Rogers, AI pioneer, on AI and the Future of WorkThe Blueshift IP whitepaper about how AI is automating the inventive process

Send us Fan MailToday’s guest is the author of a popular Medium blog where he has recently been dissecting generative AI for technologists. I read his introduction to the transformer architecture and immediately realized our audience needs to meet him. A bit like great recent guest Ken Wenger, Pradeep makes complicated technology accessible. By day, Pradeep Menon is a CTO at Microsoft's digital natives division in APAC. He has had one of the best ground floor views of generative AI since Microsoft first invested in OpenAI in 2019 and then again in March of this year.Pradeep was previously in similar roles at Alibaba and IBM. He speaks frequently on topics related to emerging tech, data, and AI to global audiences and is a published author.Listen and learn...What surprises Pradeep most about the capabilities of LLMs What most people don't understand about how LLMs like GPT are trained The difference between prompting and fine-tuning Why ChatGPT performs so well as a coding co-pilot How RLHF works How Bing uses grounding to mitigate the impact of LLM hallucinations How Pradeep uses ChatGPT to improve his own productivity How we should regulate AI What new careers AI is creating References in this episode...Ken Wenger on AI and the Future of Work Pradeep's book Data Lakehouse in ActionD-ID speaking avatars

Send us Fan MailWe often discuss the technology that is automating the future of work. We perhaps don’t spend enough time talking about the human element - what it’s like being an employee whose career may be at risk or whose employer may not share her values. The future of work is about employers embracing the humanness of every employee and creating safe places. Mark McCrindle is a best-selling author, futurist, demographer, and popular TEDx speaker who is regarded as one of Australia’s foremost social researchers. He works with senior leaders to help them devise strategies for making their products and services future-proof. He’s also the host of The Future Report, a podcast featuring the themes of his social research.Listen and learn...How work culture directly impacts employee productivityHow to measure the quality of employee experiencesHow the mining industry attracts and retains workers... and how AI may replace traditional rolesShould humans feel threatened by AI?Mark's advice to young leadersWhy Mark says "we're made for work"... but that doesn't necessarily require an exchange of time for moneyHow human relationships with machines will always be different than human relationships with each otherWhy the culture in Sydney is uniquely favorable for entrepreneursReferences in this episode...Mark's social researchmccrindle publicationsAI's impact on humanity with Gary F. BengierBryan Talebi, Ahura AI CEO, on AI and the Future of Work

Send us Fan MailWhat does it mean to be human when your colleague's a bot? Can AI ever truly understand us? This week, we're thrilled to welcome Gary F Bengier, eBay's first CFO and author of the award-winning novel, Unfettered Journey, as we dive into the future of work and the role of AI. Gary's background in Silicon Valley and his understanding of AI and technology make him the perfect guest to shed light on the ethical implications of AI, the potential impact of large language models on business, and the crucial differences between symbolic software and large language models.As we unpack the World Economic Forum's prediction that AI will generate 97 million new jobs while eliminating 85 million in the next three years, Gary and I contemplate the implications of machines and humans working together. We discuss the possibility that robots could eventually build robot factories, detaching the output of the economic system from labor hours, and explore the question of sentience in the age of advanced technology. Join us for an important conversation and peer into the mind of one of the great philosophers and technologists of our time.Oh, and learn what Gary says is a better definition for the acronym "LLM" :).References in this episode:Tiernan Ray on AI and the Future of WorkWow... ChatGPT is very thirsty!The Santa Fe InstituteGary's book Unfettered Journey

Send us Fan MailThe current Hollywood writers strike is the highest profile example of shifting dynamics in the entertainment industry. Studios are spending less to produce more content. Fees paid to writers have plummeted. Generative AI is only accelerating the trend. This has profound implications for the future of storytelling.Today’s guest is an expert in the entertainment industry having founded Divisadero Pictures in 2011 to advise entertainment companies from Disney to Comcast to Microsoft on strategy and finance topics. Daniel Davila received his MFA from USC and his MBA from Stanford. For historical perspective, today is only the second episode in more than 190 where we’ve discussed AI and the future of the work in the entertainment industry. For long-time listeners the last time was episode 87 back in April 21 with Michael Solomon and Rishon Blumberg, authors of Game Changer: How to be 10x in the Talent Economy, who managed Bruce Springsteen and John Mayer in a previous life.Thank you to friend of the podcast Matthew Perez for the introduction to Daniel.Listen and learn...The history of media consumption patternsThe economics of the entertainment industryHow AI is changing the entertainment industryHow Daniel used generative AI tools to write a 70-page movie scriptDaniel's pitch to Francis Ford Coppola about the role of AI in movie-makingThe impact of streaming on media production and consumptionThe bias inherent in text to image tools like MidjourneyReferences in this episode...Michael and Rishon, Bruce Springsteen's former managers, on AI and the Future of WorkDivisadero PicturesThe Hollywood writers strike

Send us Fan MailGuru Banavar is the founding CTO of Viome where he helped raise $150M from a list of top-tier investors including Khosla Ventures and Bold Capital Group. Viome offers insights into health and disease using host and microbiome gene expression. Guru led the development of a first-of-a-kind saliva-based early detection system for oral and throat cancers which won the FDA’s designation as a breakthrough device.Prior to Viome, Guru was a global VP & Chief Science Officer at IBM and the founding VP of the Watson AI Research team.Guru has received many awards including a Leadership in Technology Management Award and a National Innovation Award from the President of India. He has published extensively and holds more than 35 US patents. His work has been featured in media outlets including the New York Times, the Economist, the Wall Street Journal, BBC, and NPR.Listen and learn… Why our healthspan is more important than our lifespan How DNA to RNA transcription determines your health state How to sequence your mRNA to understand how to optimize your diet and predict disease risk What AI techniques can be used to develop personalized treatments How to use data that varies across patients to make automated decisions for all patients How Guru thinks about false positive prescriptions as a scientist when health and safety are at stake Where the FDA is regulating how AI is used to make healthcare recommendations Why it’s impossible to know the best diet for you without first understanding the composition of your microbiome How to use biomarkers to turn your biological fingerprint into a data problem Guru’s perspective on the ethical and philosophical implications of extending the healthspan How digital twins will help perfect the ability to engineer biology References in this episode… What it means to practice responsible AIThe KEGG ontology of biological pathways The Viome blog Dr. Shiv Rao, CEO of Abridge, on AI and the Future of Work

Send us Fan MailToday’s guests are using machine learning to turn real world data from past interactions into insights. Dr. Hyde is the co-founder and CEO of Atropos Health which has commercialized the insights exchange for healthcare. Dr. Hyde raised a $14M series in August 2022 from an exceptional group of investors including Breyer Capital and Emerson Capital. Dr. Hyde is joined by an early user of Atropos, Dr. John Halamka, President of the Mayo Clinic Platform. Dr. Halamka has been developing and implementing healthcare information strategy and policy for more than 25 years. He specializes in artificial intelligence, the adoption of electronic health records and the secure sharing of healthcare data for care coordination, population health, and quality improvement. He was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2020.For AI and the Future of Work trivia buffs this is one of only three episodes we’ve recorded with multiple guests. The last one with Tooso founders Ciro Greco and Jacopo Tagliabue was one of our most memorable.Listen and learn...Why ChatGPT shouldn't be used for medical diagnosesHow Atropos uses healthcare data from the Mayo Clinic Platform combined with AI to assist caregiversHow to use AI to automate the research that can otherwise takes weeks or monthsHow the lack of access to data-driven recommendations leads to dangerous patient outcomesWho is responsible when AI makes a bad decision that adversely impacts a patientHow to use NLP to remove PII to make it usable by AI (and certify data hygiene)The challenges of managing patient data at scale in a way that complies with HIPAA regulationsReferences in this episode...ChatGPT's phenomenal adoption rate... by the numbersCiro and Jacopo from Tooso (acquired by Coveo) on AI and the Future of WorkPaddy Padmanabhan on AI and the Future of WorkDipanwita Das, Sorcero CEO, on AI and the Future of WorkThe Mayo Clinic PlatformAtropos Health

Send us Fan MailDr. Shiv Rao is a cardiologist, teacher, former corporate VC, and the CEO of an exciting company that is changing how doctors help patients. Dr. Rao started Abridge in March 2018 to solve one of the biggest problems in healthcare. He has since raised $27M most recently in a $12.5M series A extension last August from leading investors including Bessemer, Union Square, Wittington Ventures, and legendary AI pioneer Yoshua Bengio.Today we explore what happens when AI automates the error-prone task of doctors taking notes during patient visits. It’s easy to imagine a world where quality of ilife improves because doctors are present, focused on patient outcomes, and able to develop more genuine, human relationships while AI automates everything else.Listen and learn… How much of a doctor’s time is spent not focused on patient care How AI can replace “pajama time” for doctors… and reduce burnout Why doctors require a 27-hour work day to deliver the quality of care patients expect How to use generative AI to assist doctors to capture better notes Who is responsible when AI makes mistakes that lead to incorrect diagnoses for patients Why AI won’t replace doctors… but doctors using AI may replace doctors not using it How Abridge reduces the risk of generative AI hallucinations How a design thinking lecture changed Dr. Rao’s life References in this episode… Paddy Padmabhan discusses the future of healthcare on AI and the Future of Work The Abridge homepage The open letter from Musk, Wozniak, and others to “slow down” the pace of AI development

Send us Fan MailGuillermo Corea is the Managing Director of the SHRM Workplace Innovation Lab and Venture Capital initiatives. He joined SHRM in 2015. He and his team are focused on finding and cultivating technologies that will impact the future of work. Guillermo’s team organizes the SHRM Better Workplaces Challenge Cup and Workplace Tech Accelerator plus they lead the organization’s impact investing program. Guillermo is a vocal leader in the HRTech community. This was a fun one because we got to record in person at SHRMTech 2023 in San Francisco. Only our fifth live recording in more than 190 episodes!Listen and learn...How HR teams should drive workplace innovation Which Shark Tank shark is judging the Better Workplaces Challenge CupHow SHRM Labs connects tech entrepreneurs with HR leaders Why the CHRO is the most strategic exec in the C-suite How the pandemic and an aging employee population are creating opportunities for HRTech The technology Guillermo says will change work most in the next decade How to confront the problem of biased algorithms making HR decisions Why the HR blockchain will replace background check vendors The HRTech company Guillermo is ready to fund! References in this episode...Reza Nazeman, former CIO of SAP Concur, on AI and the Future of WorkKamal Ahluwalia, Eightfold President, on AI and the Future of WorkJason Corsello, VA at Acadia Ventures, on AI and the Future of WorkSHRM Labs

Send us Fan MailDaniel Marcous comes to fintech from an unconventional background. Before co-founding April he was the CTO for the Waze product at Google, the social traffic app originally called FreeMap Israel that was acquired by Google in 2013 for $1.3B. Daniel started his career as a data scientist in the Israeli Defense Force and actively gives back to the Israeli Data Science community through involvement with DataHack, DataLearn, and KaggleIL.Listen and learn...What Daniel learned at Google and Waze about scaling AIWhy an Israeli data scientist left Google to start a company automating tax filing for AmericansWhy doing taxes is like finding the best route on a mapWhy continuous tax planning is the future of personal financeHow to manage consumer data responsibly... and still use it to train AI modelsWhy the U.S. tax code is so complicatedWhy ChatGPT will never do your taxesWhen AI will replace CPAsDaniel's favorite cocktailReferences in this episode...Why you shouldn't trust search results from LLMsThe April blogDaniel's gallery of home-made cocktailsArvind Jain, Glean CEO, on AI and the Future of Work

Send us Fan MailArtem Koren, co-founder and Chief Product Officer at Sembly AI, started the company in January 2019 to bring the power of AI to online meetings. Artem and his team developed an app that listens in on virtual meetings and does all the note-taking for you including recommending action items and suggesting the most important topics. These are hard AI problems to solve and Sembly’s success is an indication they’re off to a great start.Before Sembly, Artem was an executive and co-founder at companies including Neusana and Visual Trading Systems and he spent time as a manager in big company land at Ernst & Young.Listen and learn...Why Artem and his co-founder decided to fix the problem of broken meetings Why the evolution of online meetings… is like the evolution of airplanes Why we’ll soon send AI agents to attend meetings on our behalf When meetings are required… and how to make them more efficient How neural nets are solving traditional voice transcription problems related to accents and background noise How to solve the problem of automatically determining who said what in a conversation How Sembly uses generative AI to summarize meetings What are the risks of having AI decide what tasks to assign to meeting participants How to prevent sensitive information from being passed to large language models as training data References in this episode... Safety and ethics are being compromised in the rush to get new generative AI products to marketKrish Ramineni from Fireflies on AI and the Future of WorkRich White from Fathom on AI and the Future of WorkSembly AI

Send us Fan MailToday’s guest is one of the most recognized investors and thought leaders in the conversational AI community. Bradley Metrock is the CEO of Project Voice, author of the popular Substack newsletter This Week in Voice with more than 30,000 subscribers, and a General Partner at Project Voice Capital Partners. Congrats to Bradley and the team on their recent announcement of their new rolling fund. Bradley’s a proud citizen of the Volunteer State of Tennessee. Fair warning: you may be ready to move to Chattanooga after today’s conversation. Oh, and he’s also an ironman in the world of podcasting having just launched season eight of This Week in Voice, a podcast he launched in 2017. We’re on about episode 180 of this podcast going back to 2019 so I admire Bradley’s stamina.Listen and learn… Where there’s opportunity for entrepreneurs to innovate in conversational AI How conversational AI is changing quick serve restaurants, contact centers, banking, and hospitality How Bradley evaluates new pitches at Project Voice Capital Partners How Bradley defines voice technology in his market map Is voice the new app… or perhaps the “original app” Why generative AI is so disruptive Should we be concerned about voice assistants like Siri and Alexa listening in on our conversations What jobs will AI create over the next decade Bradley sells the great state of Tennessee to entrepreneurs establishing roots outside a coastal state References in this episode... Dr. Lance Eliot describes the risk of sharing your data with ChatGPTApplied Brain Research, a Project Voice Capital Partners investment Bradley’s voice technology market map The Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights Project Voice 2023

Send us Fan MailKen Wenger is the author of the forthcoming book Is the Algorithm Plotting Against Us?: A Layperson’s Guide to the Concepts, Math, and Pitfalls of AI. I’ve been reading it and it is excellent. Ken is a deep thinker and a great writer. He’s also the senior director of research and innovation at CoreAVI and chief technology officer at Squint AI. His work focuses on the intersection of artificial intelligence and determinism, enabling neural networks to execute in safety critical systems. Kenneth has co-authored two articles in the scholarly journal Machine Learning with Applications and several white papers for different publications, including Embedded Computing Design. He also holds several patents under CoreAVI’s auspices.Listen and learn...How neural nets emulate the brain to make decisionsWhy we have to be careful when using the term "intelligence" to describe "AI" systemsWhen Ken trusts machines to make decisions... and when he doesn't Why LLMs like ChatGPT "hallucinate"How generative AI replicates human biasWhy Ken feels "if we haven't addressed ethical issues we're not ready to deploy AI solutions"What AI explainability is and why it's importantReferences in this episode...Ken's book: "Is the Algorithm Plotting Against Us: A Layperson's Guide to AI"Krishna Gade, Fiddler CEO, on AI and the Future of WorkCoreAVISquint AISurprising results from the Pew Research Center's survey about attitudes toward generative AI

Send us Fan MailBob Rogers, AI pioneer, entrpreneur, and author, started Oii in 2019 to automate supply chain design. The company uses advanced modeling and AI to optimize supply chain planning and automate the configuration of complex networks. Bob started his career as a Harvard physicist using neural networks to measure activity near black holes in deep space. During his 35 year career Bob has been a trailblazer in using AI to solve complex problems. He’s also an Expert in Residence for AI at UCSF Smarter Health and was Chief Data Scientist in the Data Center Group at Intel as well as co-founder and Chief Scientist at Apixio, a Healthcare AI company. Additionally, he co-authored the books Artificial Neural Networks: Forecasting Time Series and “De-mystifying Big Data and Machine Learning for Healthcare“. Bob received his BA in physics at UC Berkeley and his PhD in physics at Harvard. Listen and learn...How neural nets work... from a pioneerWhat it was like to co-author a book with ChatGPTWhat surprised Bob most when he tested the boundaries of ChatGPTWhy ChatGPT spews credible nonsenseThe ethics of using generative AI to sell content derived from copyrighted materialsWhy ChatGPT became an instant global phenomenonHow OpenAI trained ChatGPT "to be nice"Is there another "AI winter" ahead?References in this episode:The book Bob co-authored with ChatGPTCan AI be an author of a publication in a scientific journal?Bob's previous book: Demystifying AI for the enterpriseStanford's Dr. Fei-Fei Li in conversation with OpenAI CTO Mira MuratiFuturists Peter Scott and David Wood on AI and the Future of WorkBob's company: Oii.ai

Send us Fan MailCisco got its start in 1984 connecting computers at Stanford University to form the first local area network. Other than maybe Microsoft or Apple, it’s easy to argue Cisco has had more influence on the growth of the internet, and by extension, the modern world, than any other company. 15 years after Cisco started today’s guest was hired to begin what would become a legendary career. Nearly 25 years later JP Vasseur has changed the world again and again. In the process, he has been recognized as the #1 inventor at Cisco with 600 patents to his name. He has authored or co-authored 35 standards, published three books on internet technologies, and has been recognized as a Cisco Fellow, a prestigious title awarded to the top few most-distinguished technical leaders at the company. Today we learn from a living legend about the past, present, and future of technology.Listen and learn...How AI at Cisco has evolved in the past 12 yearsDisruptive vs. incremental innovationHow predictive networks learnThe design principle JP used when designing the first predictive networkThe challenges of predicting outages using unsupervised vs. supervised machine learningJP's process for innovating like a startup within CiscoInnovation in networking we can expect in the next decadeJP's best memory from the early days of CiscoReferences in this episode:JP's blogKevin Roose from the New York Times had a disturbing conversation with Microsoft's BingChambers Talks, the great podcast from former Cisco CEO John ChambersYann LeCun on how babies learnPhil McKinney, former HP CTO, on AI and the Future of Work

Send us Fan MailNavindra Yadav is the co-founder and CEO of Theom, the cloud data security leader. He and the team recently raised a $16M series A from an impressive group of investors including Microsoft’s M12 venture fund and Ridge Ventures. Prior to Theom, Navindra was the founder and CEO at Tetration and prior to that he was a distinguished engineer at Cisco. Navindra’s work has received more than 182 patents.For full disclosure, Dan is an investor in Theom. Thanks to Patty Hatter, great former guest, for introducing us to Navindra.Listen and learn... What CISOs least understand about the security of enterprise data Why CASBs (Cloud Access Security Brokers) are inherently vulnerable The hardest technical problem Theom has solved How to assign a “criticality score” to data How to use NLP (natural language processing) to detect PII (personally identifiable information) How to protect from unauthorized data access through social engineering Why data stores like Snowflake, Databricks, and Confluent don’t already monitor data inappropriately leaving their platforms? When consumers will be able to trust that data they provide SaaS vendors is secure. The security startup Navindra and Dan are ready to fund! References in this episode… Navindra’s company: Theom.ai Patty Hatter on AI and the Future of Work Congressman Ted Lieu on the creation of an “FDA” equivalent to regulate AI

Send us Fan MailWe often discuss the future of work for enterprise employees. What technology will they use, how will people and machines interact, and how teams will be organized when geography and language are no longer barriers. Few have spent more time in and around enterprise service management than today’s guest and few are better qualified to share insights about what’s ahead.Andi Mann has been a technology leader in technology companies around the world since the 90s. He founded Sageable, the digital transformation advisory services practice, in 2015 and has also recently served in roles that include CTO for DevOps at Splunk and VP Products and Strategy at CA which is now part of Broadcom. Andi and I both did time at BMC Software in the early 2000s. Andi is the author of multiple books including The Innovative CIO, he’s a sought after speaker, and tech provocateur who is never shy about what’s wrong with IT and where the world of digital is headed.Thanks to friend of the podcast Steve Kaplan for the intro to Andi.Listen and learn… Why Andi summarizes his career this way: "I make computers do more work to allow people to do more creative things" The best use of enterprise AI Andi has seen How Andi helped an industrial transportation company save a billion dollars Why “less complex systems can’t understand more complex systems” Why the best use of AI is targeting “known knowns” by augmenting vs. replacing human intelligence How to overcome the lack of trust in AI Why AI won’t eliminate any jobs… and why it will create many new ones Skills to invest in today that will never be replaced by automation References in this episode... Dr. Lance Eliot writes about ChatGPT dispensing therapy advice Colin Fletcher, father of the term “AIOps”, on AI and the Future of Work Andi’s book “The Innovative CIO" Andi’s company Sageable

Send us Fan MailMeredith Broussard is one of the most visible, vocal leaders in the emerging field of algorithmic accountability. Professor Broussard is a data scientist and Associate Professor at NYU whose research focuses on AI in investigative reporting and using data analysis for social good. Meredith is the author of Artificial Unintelligence: How Computers Misunderstand the World and the forthcoming More Than a Glitch: Confronting Race, Gender, and Ability Bias in Tech. Among other things, Professor Broussard was featured in the seminal documentary Coded Bias. Today's discussion is about one of the most important topics in our field and in this episode we explore it with someone whose name is on a shortlist of AI ethics pioneers. You’ve heard me say repeatedly coursework in AI ethics should be required for every student graduating with a technical degree. Here's why!Listen and learn...How AI reveals bias encoded in societyWhy it's important to always ask "what could go wrong" What is the new field of "algorithmic accountability reporting"What the Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights may mean for bad acting companiesWhat's the right role for the federal government in AI regulationHow to assign an "accountability score" to algorithmsThe ethical issues related to AI we'll be discussing in a decadeReferences in this episode...More Than a Glitch, Professor Broussard's new book... and her "love letter" to an amazing group of women who are pioneers in the emerging field of algorithmic accountabilityProfessor Broussard's personal websiteThe racist soap dispenserJoy Buolamwini's Algorithmic Justice LeagueRumman Choudary, formerly head of the META team at TwitterCathy O'Neil's ORCAAThe ethical judgments built into generative AI modelsGoogle's "stochastic parrots" debacleThe Agnes Irwin School outside Philadelphia

Send us Fan MailArvind Jain, Glean CEO and Rubrik co-founder, started Glean in March 2019 to make it easier to find answers strewn across myriad SaaS apps. Prior to Glean, Arvind had an incredible run at data security company Rubrik which he co-founded in 2014. Prior to Rubrik Arvind was a distinguished engineer at Google. Glean became a unicorn last year having raised $100M in May from a list of iconic investors including Lightspeed, General Catalyst, Kleiner Perkins, and Sequoia.Enterprise search is one of the best examples of a field that was in desperate need of disruption. In this episode, we meet one of the disruptors.Listen and learn...Where there's a gap in traditional search technology including GoogleHow to retrieve the best answers across hundreds of SaaS appsHow to understand what users need even when they don't know the right way to ask for itHow to use LLMs like ChatGPT to improve search accuracyHow products like Alexa and Siri are teaching us to ask questions using natural language rather than searching with keywordsHow to personalize enterprise search without improperly using user dataWhat is the future of knowledge managementReferences in this episode...The ethics of ChatGPTSeth Earley from Earley Information Science on AI and the Future of WorkThe Glean blog

Send us Fan MailParul Saini has been a technology leader at tech-first companies like Zuora, Splunk, and Uber for more than a decade in roles with increasing responsibility. She has had a birdseye view of AI tech trends and the future of work. In her current role at Uber, her service portfolio includes contact center, employee productivity, and identity management applications.Today, we learn from an expert how to manage enterprise apps that support thousands of employees for a rapidly growing global company.Listen and learn...Why "empathy" is the baseline for ITHow to hire and retain IT talentHow to navigate the dual challenges of being a technology leader and people manager simultaneouslyHow to use AI to increase the velocity of hiring decisionsWhy great CIOs... are also great at sales and marketingWhat Parul has learned from Shantanu Narayen, Adobe CEO, and Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber CEOOne thing only Uber insiders knowParul's advice for aspiring female IT leadersReferences in this episode...Mark Settle, seven-time CIO, on AI and the Future of WorkHow autonomous vehicles are changing global traffic patterns

Send us Fan MailBinny Gill started his career as a programmer after studying CS and Engineering at IIT Kanpur and later UIUC, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He then had an impressive eight-year run as a technology leader at Nutanix, the hyper converged infrastructure company, eventually becoming its CTO for cloud services. In January 2021, Binny left Nutanix to start Kognitos based on a bold vision to make everyone a programmer. In this discussion, we learn about his journey and how generative AI just may change everything.Thanks to Steve Kaplan for the intro to Binny.Listen and learn:Binny's inspiration for starting Kognitos: "...why should humans need to think like machines... when machines can now think like humans?"What makes programming so hard.Why the future of programming is using natural language to describe the features you want.How computing interfaces restrict us from communicating like humans when programming.Why Binny says "generative AI is the new electricity."The most important leadership lesson Binny learned working alongside iconic leaders at IBM.References in this episode:How Petals just became the BitTorrent of LLMsPhil McKinney, former HP CTO, on AI and the Future of WorkThe Kognitos blog

Send us Fan MailToday’s guest belongs on the Mt. Rushmore of amazing female leaders we've interviewed on this podcast. Daphne and I met in November while co-presenting at the HMG Strategy event in New York City. Daphne’s energy is infectious. Her passion for inspiring leaders was obvious on stage and even more obvious when we met afterward. Daphne’s new book Win When They Say You Won’t: Break Through Barriers and Keep Leveling Up Your Success became an instant best seller. Listen to this one and you’ll understand why.Before becoming an author, Daphne started The Board Curators to help others prepare for serving as paid company directors. She serves on numerous boards including AMN Healthcare and Masonite International. Earlier in her career, Daphne was a serial CIO serving in IT leadership roles at companies including IBM, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, and GE Healthcare.Listen and learn...Daphne's remarkable path from poor kid in rural Illinois to global CIOHow to overcome racial bias as a black femaleThe subtle ways bias infiltrates organizationsWhere imposter syndrome originates... and how to conquer itHow to "version your life" to adopt a growth mindsetHow to use Daphne's EDIT process to achieve your goalsWhy DEI "won't be a thing any more" in a decadeReferences in today's episode...Daphne's book: Win When They Say You Won'tCharlene Li on AI and the Future of WorkGiselle Mota on AI and the Future of WorkKai Nunez on AI and the Future of WorkDaphne's websiteFun facts about AI adoption in 2023

Send us Fan MailThis is one of my favorite episodes of the year. It’s our third annual long, strange trip into the mind of a Silicon Valley legend. Dave Kellogg is one of the best marketers, CEOs, tech provocateurs, and board whisperers around. He was an executive at iconic companies like SAP, MarkLogic, and Salesforce turned investor and board director who is now an executive in residence at Balderton Capital. In this episode, we discuss, well, just about everything that matters for the tech economy… startup growth metrics, generative AI, how to get funded in 2023, and of course our favorite jam band.Listen and learn: What Dave got right… and not so right… in his 2022 predictions How startups can survive downturns How to fix the problems at Salesforce, Amazon, and Facebook What single theme will characterize 2023 in Silicon Valley What will happen to startups that raised massive rounds in 2021 Why virtual companies won’t outperform companies built around hubs in tech centers What’s ahead for consumption-based pricing and PLG Why generative AI poses an existential threat to Google References in this episode: Dave’s (excellent) blog Peter Fishman, Mozart Data CEO, on AI and the Future of Work Derek Steer, Mode co-founder, on AI and the Future of WorkHow ChatGPT can detect Alzheimer's disease

Send us Fan MailCarter Busse has been leading IT organizations for more than two decades. He has been an IT leader at successful, high-growth organizations ranging from Salesforce to MobileIron to 8x8 to Cohesity Among his many accolades, he was recently named a 2022 ORBIE Bay Area CIO of the year and was also the first IT leader hired at Salesforce back in 2000. Carter understands the challenges of managing tech infrastructure for high-growth tech companies where there’s zero margin for error because everyone thinks they know tech better than you. CIOs are like plumbing: nobody appreciates them when everything’s working but they’re the first to get blamed when there’s a blockage.He's now the CIO of rising star Workato, the integration automation platform that has raised more than $400M, was most recently valued at nearly $6B, and has about 1,000 employees in 13 offices around the world. Listen and learn...What a CIO does.Why CIOs have the shortest tenure in the C-suite.The role of AI to improve employee experiences.How to recreate the Apple Genius Bar at work... for at-home employees.How generative AI will be used in the enterprise.Key questions to ask when evaluating new uses of AI.How CIOs deliver strategic value and avoid being "technology traffic cops".References in this episode:What happens when ChatGPT is wrong?Mark Settle, seven-time CIO, on AI and the Future of WorkWorkato

Send us Fan MailDarren Murph has been Head of Remote at GitLab for 3.5 years and has been a part of its rise to prominence. His leadership helped shape GitLab’s remote-first culture. GitLab went public in 2021 and has about a $7B market cap. It’s one of the leading DevOps platforms and has grown its team to more than 2k employees. Before GitLab Darren has been an entrepreneur, journalist, and author. Oh, and by the way, he holds one of the most awesome records in the Guinness Book of World Records.Listen and learn:How to make work an organizational principle instead of a perk or policyWhat a Head of Remote does... and why every company will soon hire oneWhy there's no such thing as "hybrid" workThe number one mistake organizations make when transitioning to remote workHow remote-first teams make the most of in person teamHow GitLab uses the personal "readme" to help remote employees get to know each otherHow to Zoom happy hours with "community service hours"How Darren earned his place in the Guinness Book of World RecordsReferences in this episode...Matt K. Parker on AI and the Future of WorkDarren Murph on TwitterChase Warrington, Head of Remote at DoistHow voice assistants are helping the elderly age in placeElliQ, the voice assistant from Intuition Robotics

Send us Fan MailToday's episode first appeared on Peter Scott's (excellent!) AI and You podcast.Peter Scott and David Wood are two of the most recognized AI futurists. Both are respected authors, speakers, and visionaries. Peter is a popular TEDx speaker and long-time NASA engineer. David was recently named one of the "top 100 most influential people in technology".Today's discussion is a must-listen in which we discuss the future of technology, the future of work, and the future of humanity. In this one, Peter hosted and the three of us had a round table discussion about everything from generative AI to sentience. Let us know what you think after listening. Our DMs are open on Twitter and LinkedIn.Listen and learn...Where AI won and lost in 2022Our predictions for AI in 2023What will the impact of ChatGPT be on the future of technologyWhat tasks are best-suited for generative AIHow we'll regulate generative AI when it spews nonsenseWhat is artificial general intelligence (AGI) and when we'll achieve itWhat is sentience and are today's bots sentient?How and where the US AI Bill of Rights falls short vs. AI regulation in the EUWhat we should be doing to systematize the practice of responsible AIReferences in the episode:Peter Scott on AI and the Future of WorkEric Olson from Consensus on AI and the Future of WorkMichael Osterrieder from vAIsual on AI and the Future of WorkJim Lawton from Zebra on AI and the Future of WorkGary Bolles on AI and the Future of WorkMeta's Galactica bot failure

Send us Fan MailWe’ve met some brilliant product minds on this show over the years. If you’re a long-time listener you hopefully enjoyed discussions with legends like Phil McKinney, former CTO of HP, and Philippe Cases, founder and CEO of Topio Networks, among others. Today’s guest belongs on that list. Rich and I first met when he was starting UserVoice around 2010 and I was at ServiceNow. I love his approach to innovation. He pioneered the idea that listening to customers can be as easy as adding a feedback tab to every web page back when all that existed were clunky survey tools. Today, thousands of sites use the widget he invented. He’s now out to make meetings more productive by helping attendees focus on conversations while an app transcribes them and offers simple buttons to annotate what’s happening. It’s obvious once you’ve used Fathom that this is the future of meetings.Rich White is not only a serial innovator but also a repeat entrepreneur who has raised from a group of exceptional investors over the years and was part of the YC Winter 2021 batch. Enjoy!Listen and learn...As a product expert and innovator, how to know when you've found "an itch worth scratching"What is "product-market fit" and how to know when you've achieved itWhat is a viral coefficient and how do you calculate itHow the "jobs to be done" framework led Rich to develop the key feature of FathomThe hardest problem Fathom has solved... has nothing to do with voice transcriptionHow Fathom trains developers to practice responsible AIReferences in this episode:Project Linchpin from the US Army is centralizing more than 685 AI projectsPhil McKinney on AI and the Future of WorkPhilippe Cases on AI and the Future of WorkFathom

Send us Fan MailSpecial episode this week! We recorded two live discussions from Turing's BOUNDARYLESS "Future of Work" event in San Francisco. In the first, Rani Mavram, Complete.so CEO, discusses using data to transform compensation policies from being a liability to an asset for high-growth companies. In the second, Ankit Jain, Aviator CEO, discusses using automation to improve developer productivity for remote-first engineering teams.Listen and learn...From Rani Mavram:Why compensation policies have an outsize impact on employee engagementWhat's required to make compensation plans transparentThe difference between compensation plans and "total reward" packagesWhere innovation is happening in the field of employee compensationFrom Ankit Jain:How to make remote-first engineering teams successfulUsing automation to improve developer productivityHow startups can replicate the developer experience at Google and FacebookThe future of generative AI and GitHub Copilot in assisting human developersReferences in today's show:Turing's BOUNDARYLESS eventComplete.so for compensation transparencyAviator to improve developer productivity

Send us Fan MailMerve Hickok is one of the most recognized thought leaders in the emerging field of AI ethics. Merve is the founder of AIethicist.org and Lighthouse Career Consulting. Her work is at the intersection of AI and data ethics along with social justice and DEI policy and regulation.Merve was recently listed among the top 100 most brilliant women in AI ethics and in the past she lectured at the University of Michigan’s School of Information on Data Science ethics. Merve’s at the forefront of this emerging field that will define how we live and work for the next several decades. This is an important conversation. Enjoy!Listen and learn… What led to Merve founding AIEthicist.orgHow the AI ethics conversation has evolved over the past year What the White House got right (and wrong) in the blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights What responsible AI means to Merve Why regulation doesn’t necessarily constrain innovation How AI policy and regulation are different around the world References in this episode... Why Meta’s newest LLM survived only three days onlineJonathan Frankle on AI and the Future of WorkRene Morkos from ALICE Technologies on AI and the Future of WorkPanos Siozos from LearnWorlds on AI and the Future of WorkPaddy Padmanabhan from Damo Consulting on AI and the Future of Work

Send us Fan MailEmmanuel Turlay spent more than a decade in engineering roles at tech-first companies like Instacart and Cruise before realizing machine learning engineers need a better solution. Emmanuel started Sematic earlier this year and was part of the YC summer 2022 batch. He recently raised a $3M seed round from investors including Race Capital and Soma Capital. Thanks to friend of the podcast and former guest Hina Dixit from Samsung NEXT for the intro to Emmanuel.I’ve been involved with the AutoML space for five years and, for full disclosure, I’m on the board of Auger which is in a related space. I’ve seen the space evolve and know how much room there is for innovation. This one's a great education about what’s broken and what’s ahead from a true machine learning pioneer.Listen and learn...How to turn every software engineer into a machine learning engineerHow AutoML platforms are automating tasks performed in traditional ML toolsHow Emmanuel translated learning from Cruise, the self-driving car company, into an open source platform available to all data engineering teamsHow to move from building an ML model locally to deploying it to the cloud and creating a data pipeline... in hoursWhat you should know about self-driving cars... from one of the experts who developed the brains that power themWhy 80% of AI and ML projects failReferences in this episode:Unscrupulous users manipulate LLMs to spew hateHina Dixit from Samsung NEXT on AI and the Future of WorkApache BeamEliot Shmukler, Anomalo CEO, on AI and the Future of Work

Send us Fan MailKevin Mulcahy, co-author of the Future Workplace Experience, has been thinking and writing about the future of work since 2016. Six years ago the future of work was dramatically different. Reading Kevin’s book makes him seem like a clairvoyant who predicted the future. In addition to being a successful author Kevin is a sought after speaker on all topics related to the future of work and workplace trends. In the past, he also lectured on entrepreneurship at Babson College.Listen and learn:What HR teams need to know about delivering great employee experiencesHow Airbnb created a culture of measuring and improving the employee experienceWhat are progressive employers doing to make the transition back to office work easierThe three "soft leadership" questions every manager should get great at askingHow to measure the quality of employee experiencesHow AI can be used to detect changes in tone in employee engagementWhere to start when using AI to improve the employee experienceHow the metaverse will improve remote workReferences in this episode:Twitter boss Elon Musk fires the entire ethics team as one of his first acts of "leadership"Charlene Li on AI and the Future of WorkGary Bolles on AI and the Future of WorkMark van Rijmenam on AI and the Future of WorkBurn In: A Novel of the Real Robotic Revolution by P.W. Singer and August Cole

Send us Fan MailToday’s guest is the co-founder and CEO of vAIsual, the company pioneering the use of generative AI to create synthetic stock media. All of those photos you see online and in print publications of people promoting products usually are human models posing in generic ways. Their pictures are sold by companies like Getty Images in marketplaces that are inefficient and limited in scope. Michael Osterrieder and his partner Nico are legends in the world of stock media who realized there’s a better way. They created what they call an algorithmic camera and launched vAIsual last year to scratch their own catch. Michael is a serial entrepreneur and photographer based in Budapest and he’s out to test the limits of generative AI.Listen and learn:How growing up listening to heavy metal inspired Michael's career in visual mediaWhat are the challenges of using generative AI to create synthetic stock images of peopleHow visual media content creation has evolvedThe ethics of generative AIWhat Michael describes as "the biggest art heist in history"How vAIsual extends human photos using machine vision and human labelingCan an AI be the owner of copyrighted material it produces?What is the definition of consciousness?References in this episode...AI has a burnout problemEric Olson from Consensus on AI and the Future of WorkJonathan Frankle on AI and the Future of WorkMichael's whitepaper about vAIsual

Send us Fan MailOtto Soderlund co-founded Speechly in 2016 with Hannes Heikinheimo in their hometown of Helsinki. He believes voice should be a first-class citizen for all apps and making it easy for developers to add voice support from any platform will unlock new innovation.Speechly is a member of the YC Winter 22 batch. Otto and I recently co-presented at the VOICE22 event in Washington DC although I presented remote so this is the first time we’re actually meeting. I heard good things about his talk so I was eager for this discussion. It didn't disappoint.Listen and learn...Why voice is the new app and what it means to develop "voice-first" appsHow RAIN Agency uses Speechly to help auto technicians use voice assistants to fix cars How to accurately detect and transcribe speech when dealing with common challenges like background noise and accentsWhen speech detection achieved "superhuman" levels of accuracyHow Speechly combines speech recognition with natural language understanding (NLU) on the local deviceHow Otto thinks about exercising responsible AIWhy "voice technology won't exist as a separate field in a decade"References in this episode...Responsible AI has a burnout problemAlex Capecelatro from Josh.ai on AI and the Future of WorkKrish Ramineni from Fireflies on AI and the Future of WorkThe Speechly demo site

Send us Fan MailJonathan Frankle, incoming Harvard Professor and Chief Scientist at MosaicML, is focused on reducing the cost of training neural nets. He received his PhD at MIT and his BSE and MSE from Princeton.Jonathan has also been instrumental in shaping technology policy related to AI. He worked on a landmark facial recognition report while working as a Staff Technologist at the Center on Privacy and Technology at Georgetown Law.Thanks to great guest Hina Dixit from Samsung NEXT for the introduction to Jonathan!Listen and learn...Why we can't understand deep neural nets like we can understand biology or physics.Jonathan's "lottery hypothesis" that neural nets are 50-90% bigger than they need to be...but it's hard to find which parts aren't necessary.How researchers are finding ways to reduce the cost and complexity of training neural nets.Why we shouldn't expect another AI winter because "it's now a fundamental substrate of research".Which AI problems are a good fit for deep learning... and which ones aren't.What's the role for regulation in enforcing responsible use of AI.How Jonathan and his CTO Hanlin Tang at MosaicML create a culture that fosters responsible use of AI.Why Jonathan says "...We're building a ladder to the moon if we think today's neural nets will lead to AGI."References in this episode...The AI Bill of RightsMosaicMLJonathan's personal site

Send us Fan MailEric Olson, CEO and co-founder of Consensus, is a collegiate athlete turned data scientist turned entrepreneur who needed faster access to reliable data while working at DraftKings. Consensus is a search engine that uses a large language model to find answers in peer-reviewed research articles. Eric's living proof that the best entrepreneurs start by solving a problem they've encountered. Hear how Eric's scratching his own itch.Listen and learn...Why Google isn't the answer for scientists seeking evidence-based answers onlineWhy a business model that relies on ads can't solve the "unbiased answer" problem for researchersHow Consensus addresses the problem of conflicting information online from credible resourcesHow to use labels to improve search retrieval accuracy... without introducing bias into resultsHow to use extractive large language models (LLMs), to extract relevant portions of documents and match them to NLP questions Why generative AI like GPT-3 can't answer "what's the consensus opinion out there" when multiple potential answers existWho is responsible if Consensus delivers answers that lead to harmful outcomesWhat Eric learned as a division I NCAA athlete (Go Wildcats!) that has helped him as a high-tech entrepreneurReferences in this episode:Elon Musk launches the Optimus bi-pedal robot at AI dayDan Grunfeld, Stanford athlete and Lightspeed partner, on AI and the Future of WorkConsensus

Send us Fan MailMona Akmal, CEO of sales intelligence platform Falkon, is the outspoken co-founder behind an emerging leader in a hot space. Mona migrated to the United States at age 20 with a CS degree and little else. She had an impressive 12-year run as a product leader at Microsoft where she helped scale OneDrive and Office. She subsequently led product and technology organizations at places like Code.org and Amperity. Two decades later, Mona’s the CEO of Falkon AI, an intelligence platform for go to market teams. Falkon recently raised $16M from a group of A-list investors that includes Greylock and Madera among others.Listen and learn...Why Mona's philosophy revolves around two words: "efficiency" and "excellence"What makes a standout sales rep great.How do find signal in noisy sales and marketing dataHow many touches are required from stage one to closing a B2B dealHow to fix the CRM data hygiene problemWhy econometrics approaches perform better than machine learning to solve the "small data problem"Why "everyone needs to be coached and nobody needs to be managed"Mona's (legendary) mental health advice to entrepreneursReferences in this episode...Barr Moses from Monte Carlo on AI and the Future of WorkDerek Steer from Mode on AI and the Future of WorkPeter Fishman from Mozart Data on AI and the Future of WorkStephen Messer from Collective[i] on AI and the Future of Work Kamal Ahluwalia on AI and the Future of WorkLeading scientists fear AI could lead to nuclear war by the end of the century

Send us Fan MailHina Dixit, venture capitalist leading AI investing at Samsung NEXT, grew up in a small town in India from humble beginnings. She couldn’t afford a Starbucks coffee and graduated with significant student debt… which fueled her passion for mentoring and coaching as she became financially independent. Prior to Samsung NEXT, Hina was an Apple engineering leader who helped launch two-factor authentication and other core iOS technologies. Hina’s a reluctant venture investor having always been a builder. A mentor from Homebrew encouraged her to pursue investing and she’s now passionate about finding and funding the next generation of AI and web3 entrepreneurs.Listen and learn… How Hina overcame institutional biases to achieve success in engineering leadership roles and venture investing How being trusted with money at a young age by her father helped Hina become independent and confident in her career The challenges Hina faced transitioning from a builder at Apple to an investor at Samsung NEXT What Hina looks for when investing in AI and web3 startups Where there are opportunities for innovation in web3 and metaverse infrastructure What will prevent Big Tech from centralizing the decentralized web How Hina thinks about responsible AI when evaluating new investments How and when entrepreneurs should engage corporate venture capital (CVC) firms The AR/VR technology Hina wants to invest in… her inbox is open :) References in this episode: Paul Lee, Synesis One CEO, discusses AI, web3 and crypto for gaming on AI and the Future of Work Krishna Gade, Fiddler CEO, discusses AI explainability on AI and the Future of Work Barr Moses, Monte Carlo CEO, discusses data pipeline monitoring on AI and the Future of Work Bindu Reddy, Abacus AI CEO, discusses training and managing data models on AI and the Future of Work How Jack Clark is incorporating AI ethics into new AGI research

Send us Fan MailRana Gujral, CEO of Behavioral Signals since 2018, joined the company after a distinguished tech career growing companies like Logitech, TiZE, and Cricut. Behavioral Signals uses emotion and behavioral science to help contact center agents deliver better service. Rana and the team are on a mission to improve customer interactions by using signals other than the spoken word to understand exactly what they need based on indicators like voice tone and pitch.Listen and learn...How to train AI models on past service interactions and outcomes to determine which agents should speak to which customersHow to use deep learning and NLP to process non-speech behavior signals like intonation, pitch, and tonal varianceHow behavior signals can be used to predict stress, duress, and propensity to buy or payHow to achieve high levels of prediction accuracy without processing "the spoken word"Why tone and pitch are better indicators of sentiment than actual words across any language How to compete with Google/Microsoft/Amazon for data when building an AI-first conversational intelligence productThe biggest opportunity Rana sees to use AI to help humans live better livesReferences in this episode:Mahesh Ram from Solvvy (now Zoom) on AI and the Future of WorkGadi Shamia from Replicant on AI and the Future of WorkHow personalization algorithms work in your social feedsBehavioral Signals

Send us Fan MailAhmed Elsamadisi built the data infrastructure at WeWork before realizing every company could benefit from his team’s innovation. Traditional star schemas aren’t the best way to manage data. Ahmed instead pioneered a new approach using a single-table column model better suited for real questions people ask. He launched Narrator in 2017 to make it easier to turn data questions into answers and has since raised $6.2M from Initialized Capital, Flybridge Capital Partners, and Y Combinator. Ahmed received his BS in Robotics from Cornell. Hear from a pioneer (and tech provocateur) how new data wrangling techniques are making it easier for mere mortals to get more value out of their data.Listen and learn…How a roboticist who got his start building self-driving cars and designing missile defense systems ended up redefining how data is storedWhy traditional approaches that require SQL to access data are brokenHow a single-column schema eliminates the complexity of joining systems and tablesWhy it’s easier to tell better stories with data using temporal relationships extracted from customer journeysWhy Snowflake, Redshift, and BigQuery are really all the same… and data modeling is the place to innovate What it means to replace traditional tables with activities… and why they’ll eliminate the need for specialized data analysts How to reduce data storage costs by 90% and time to generate data insights from weeks to minutes Why data management vendors are responsible for bad decisions made using your data What is data cleaning and how you should do it What is a racist algorithm Why querying data with natural language will never work Is the WeCrashed version of Adam Neumann’s neuroticism accurate? Hear from someone who lived it... References in this episode:Google’s LaMDA isn’t sentientChandra Khatri from Got It AI on AI and the Future of Work Derek Steer from Mode on AI and the Future of Work Barr Moses from Monte Carlo on AI and the Future of Work Peter Fishman from Mozart Data on AI and the Future of Work Ahmed on Twitter

Send us Fan MailSeth Earley is a Chemist by training and an expert on AI. Specifically, how AI is used to improve knowledge management. In fact, he wrote the book on the topic titled “The AI-Powered Enterprise” in which he explains the importance of ontologies when applying AI. Seth is the CEO of Earley Information Science. He has been advising companies on technology strategy since 1994 and is currently focused on AI and knowledge engineering. Listen and learn: Seth’s contribution to AI history… including the term he coined that was co-opted by former IBM CEO Ginni Rometty Why all AI is a data (and information architecture) problem How the Applied Materials field services team reduced time spent finding information by 50% with knowledge engineering and ontologies Why proper information architecture is required for virtual agents to reduce call volume and help live agents What has changed since Seth first published his AI book in 2020 The benefits of semantic search vs. traditional keyword search Where to start with a knowledge management strategy Why “data scientists spend more time being data janitors” How to mitigate the impact of bias in AI training data References in this episode: How AI can detect employee burnoutThe Innovation Delusion on Amazon Earley Information ScienceThe AI-Powered Enterprise on Amazon Kevin Dewalt, Prolego CEO, on AI and the Future of Work

Send us Fan MailPeter Scott, author, TedX speaker, and futurist, worked at NASA’s JPL laboratory after receiving his Masters Degree in Computer Science from Cambridge. Raising kids made him realize the potential impact of AI to do both good and harm. He left NASA and switched careers to feel confident he was doing all he could to secure their future. He recently published Artificial Intelligence and You after publishing Crisis of Control five years back. Listen and learn: When will we achieve artificial general intelligence (AGI)… and is that the right goal for the AI community? Why we weight the potential of AI doing harm about five times as much as the potential for it doing good. What’s the biggest global problem AI might solve in the near term. How DeepMind’s AlphaFold protein folding technology could change humanity. What does it mean to be human in an era when machines can do more tasks historically reserved for humans? Why Peter blames Big Tech for “breaking” democracy. What Peter expects will be AI’s greatest achievement in the next decade. Why the evolution of a digital race hinges on global economic incentives.References in this episode: Peter’s site: humancusp.comPeter’s podcast: AIandYou.netReducing “radicalization pathways” in social media feedsStuart Russell’s AI textbook Dr. Mark van Rijmenam on AI and the Future of Work Peter Scott’s homage to Monty Python… and how it relates to AI