AI and the Future of Work
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Episode Number : 69
Slater Victoroff is a machine learning expert and science fiction writer who is never shy when sharing opinions about AI and the future of technology. His passion for giving unstructured content meaning led to the founding and success of Indico. The company has since raised $36M from an impressive set of investors including Jump Capital and Sandbox Ventures. In this discussion, hear how Slater went from dorm room programmer to entrepreneur.
Show moreShow lessListen and learn…
- How Indico was launched by pineapple and onion pizza consumed from 5:00 PM to 5:00 AM on Sunday nights.
- What it was like to found the company as CEO then later hire a replacement to become CTO.
- How Slater defends his 2012 comment that “the war is over… deep learning lost.”
- How NLP is being used to unlock value trapped in unstructured data.
- Why every knowledge worker “needs a bionic arm”.
- Why Slater says AGI, artificial general intelligence, doesn’t exist as a concept.
Follow Slater @sl8rv on Twitter.
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Episode Number : 68
A first on the show this week… we meet a guest whose digital twin has its own YouTube channel. Dr. Mark van Rijmenam is a futurist, best-selling author, and entrepreneur. He is a popular keynote speaker about issues related to how we co-exist with technology in an increasingly digital world.
Show moreShow lessListen and learn….
- Why it is we’re living in “exponential times”
- How future societies will be organized by “digitalism” instead of “liberalism” based on who can access and control data
- Why blockchains as a technology are currently about at the maturity level of the internet in 1997
- What Dr. Mark means when he says “…be prepared to reinvent yourself every five to ten years”
Resources mentioned in the episode:
- The Future is Faster Than You Think by Peter Diamandis
- Coded Bias, the documentary
- Weapons of Math Destruction by Cathy O’Neil
- Charlene Li on AI and the Future of Work
- Bill Davidow on AI and the Future of Work
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Episode Number : 67
Zi Wang, Timeless founder and CEO, learned a lot at Google in eight and a half years. Enough that he was inspired to turn his Google-esque bold vision for the future of time management into a company. Timeless isn’t solving the calendar app problem – Zi and his team are solving the problem of how to get the most out of what little time we have.
Show moreShow lessListen and learn…
- The founding vision of Timeless
- About the future of time management
- The value of a “marketplace for time”
- Why data privacy is a 21st century human right
- How time graphs will be used to optimize your calendar
Resources mentioned on the show:
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Episode Number : 66
Most of us won’t learn as much in a career about DevOps as Banjot Chanana forgets in an afternoon. Having built teams and products that have given rise to DevOps over a 20-year career as a product leader, Banjot is qualified to have strong opinions about the right ways to develop and deploy software. The best part? He’s as enthusiastic as ever about what’s ahead.
Show moreShow lessListen and learn…
- Where there are opportunities to innovate in and around DevOps.
- Where VMs failed and created an opportunity for containers.
- What ephemeral infrastructure means for the future of CI/CD.
- What attributes are common across companies with great product cultures.
Companies and projects referenced:
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Episode Number : 65
It’s tough being entrepreneurs in Belgium and Italy. Our appetite for risk and access to capital in the U.S. is an unfair advantage. Ciro and Jacopo moved to Silicon Valley to pursue their dream and, in the process, learned why entrepreneurship is a full-contact sport. Their journey from MIT to startup to successful exit is a classic tale of grit and determination.
Show moreShow lessListen and learn…
- What’s unique about Silicon Valley for founders.
- How to turn a technology into a product.
- What distinguishes human cognition from machine intelligence.
- Why NLP is so hard.
- How product interfaces can introduce bias.
- What we can (and can’t) expect from AI.
People and organizations mentioned:
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Episode Number : 64
Kordel France taught himself to code to automate his Calculus homework. He was inspired by seeing robot tractors on the family farm. Not the conventional background for a high-tech CEO. Kordel and Seekar have turned a passion for AI and machine learning into novel applications in fields as diverse as medicine, law, and professional sports. The best parts of this conversation are when Kordel describes what it means to practice responsible AI. A heads up for investor-types: Seekar is a hot company in a hot space and will soon be raising a series A. Contact Kordel for details.
Show moreShow lessListen and learn…
- How to instrument explainability into AI algorithms and create a culture where algorithm developers are required to explain how their algorithms work
- Best practices for monitoring AI model accuracy to know when re-training is required
- The challenges and opportunities of putting AI models at the edge of the network
- How AI is making radiologists better at detecting medical conditions like COVID… and why AI won’t replace human experts any time soon
Episodes and companies mentioned:
- Philippe Cases, Topic Networks CEO, on AI and the Future of Work
- Deryk van Brunt, CredibleMind CEO, on AI and the Future of Work
- Seekar Technologies
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Episode Number : 63
Rishon Blumberg and Michael Solomon, authors of Game Changer: How to be 10x in the Talent Economy, discuss AI, freelancers, and what it takes to be 10x better at everything
Show moreShow lessThey’ve since published the popular book Game Changer: How to be 10x in the Talent Economy and have been busy helping the tech community find gigs.
Listen and learn…
- What it takes to be 10x better at everything.
- The unique personal attributes that separate “10xers” from everyone else.
- What the guys learned managing Bruce Springsteen.
- How one 10xer changed the world…starting with energy bars.
- Why managing rock stars is a lot like managing tech talent.
- The guys advice for entrepreneurs: “…when hustling fails grit is what gets you back to hustling again.”
References in the show:
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Episode Number : 62
This week’s guest has been called “America’s Best Leader” by U.S. News and “The Entrepreneur Whisperer” by ABC, Fox, and NPR. Linda Rottenberg is the Co-founder and CEO of Endeavor, the world’s leading community of high-impact entrepreneurs. She’s also an accomplished author, speaker, investor, and mentor for global entrepreneurs. Linda’s a mom of twins, a compassionate leader, and a force of nature having overseen the creation of more than four million jobs and 27 billion in revenue from Endeavor companies.
Show moreShow lessListen and learn:
- About inspirational entrepreneurs like Wences Casare from Argentina and Vu Van from Vietnam.
- Why “…chaos is the friend of the entrepreneur.”
- Why “…the days when we thought entrepreneurs were boys in hoodies in Silicon Valley will soon be an ancient relic.”
- How personal tragedy made Linda a better leader.
- About Linda’s advice to a younger version of herself: “be less super and more human.”
- Why you should take the #MindsetChallenge from Endeavor and Masters of Scale.
Entrepreneurs and companies mentioned in the episode:
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Episode Number : 61
Denis Jacquet is concerned that automation is causing traditional jobs to mutate… and governments around the world are mismanaging the opportunity to prepare citizens for the new labor market. He has written extensively on how regulation is stifling innovation. Denis is a serial entrepreneur having started and sold multiple successful companies including EduFactory in the e-learning space. He’s also an accomplished author and frequent TV and radio contributor in France on the future labor market.
Show moreShow lessListen and learn…
- Why many events will remain virtual long after the pandemic… even though humans have a fundamental need for direct contact.
- What Europe can learn from countries like Israel and Korea about how to embrace innovation to stimulate company creation.
- Why companies like FoxConn are preparing to replace a million low-paying jobs with robots in the next decade.
- Why so many entrepreneurs sacrifice family for career.
Thanks to Philippe Cases, Topio Networks CEO, for the introduction to Denis.
References in this episode:
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Episode Number : 60
Joe Rehmann went from investment banking to fish farming. His passion for solving the protein problem in Eastern Africa led to one of the most successful aquaculture farms in the world.
Show moreShow lessJoe’s story should inspire entrepreneurs everywhere. No problem is too big to solve. Technology we take for granted can be used in ways we can’t imagine… until leaders like Joe redefine what’s possible.
Listen and learn…
- What inspired Joe to start Victory Farms
- How Victory Farms used mobile phones to solve the tilapia cold chain problem
- What the western world doesn’t understand about building a business in Kenya
- How fish guts and market ladies may be part of the next great technology success story
Companies and organizations mentioned on the show:
- Endeavor, the world’s leading community of high-impact entrepreneurs
- Victory Farms
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Episode Number : 59
Philippe Cases has been an entrepreneur and investor in Silicon Valley for more than 25 years. Most recently, he founded Topio Networks to automate the process of generating business insights in tech markets like edge computing, IoT, and blockchain. Philippe has strong opinions about everything from autonomous driving to augmented reality and is paid to influence how they evolve.
Show moreShow lessListen and learn…
- How an engineer growing up in France and Germany came to be a Silicon Valley success story.
- Why we may never “fully automate the process of generating business insights”.
- What technology is limiting mainstream use of edge computing for AI tasks.
- Of truck drivers, stock brokers, and real estate agents, which will be made obsolete first by AI.
- What needs to change about Silicon Valley.
Also mentioned on the show:
- Accelerators including YC and Alchemist
- Waymo and Mobileye for autonomous driving
- TinyML low-power machine learning for edge computing
Thanks to Erin McMahon for the introduction to Philippe!
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Episode Number : 58
Tim Crawford, accomplished CIO, CIO advisor, and influencer, distinguishes transformational CIOs from the rest. For more than 20 years, he has been coaching CIOs about embracing new technologies by first identifying how they’ll solve business problems.
Show moreShow lessTim is a frequent contributor to publications like The Wall Street Journal, CIO.com, Forbes, SiliconAngle and TechTarget. Thanks to Steve Kaplan from Nutanix for the introduction.
Listen and learn…
- How three distinct types of AI help businesses in different ways
- The single biggest way AI could help employees today
- A strategy for helping CIOs adopt AI
- How and when AI should be regulated
- Which jobs are at risk of being complemented… or eliminated by AI
- Why “companies and countries will ultimately be measured based on how well they leverage technology and data”
Episodes and podcasts mentioned on the show:
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Episode Number : 57
Rory O’Driscoll has been investing in startups since founding Scale Venture Partners 27 years ago.
Show moreShow lessHe and his team have invested in transcendent companies like Box, DocuSign, Omniture, Bill.com, HubSpot, and others. Listen to this one multiple times. You’ll learn something new each one.
Hear Rory’s insights on AI and venture investing…
- “The venture business is more a decision business and less an action business.”
- “The purpose of AI is to make better, more cost-effective decisions.”
- “It’s extraordinarily hard to replace people with AI.”
- “It’s hard to regulate what you don’t understand.”
- How software is eating into traditional spending on telco and banking.
- Why successful startups must pick one of three strategies: “fight, focus, or fly”
Previous episodes and companies mentioned on the podcast:
- Bill Davidow on AI and the Future of Work
- Dave Kellogg on AI and the Future of Work
- Forter
- Dialpad
- Zoom
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Episode Number : 56
This week, Wendy Pfeiffer, Nutanix CIO and former CIO at GoPro, shares her journey to becoming a public company exec and how she has grown as a technologist and leader. Hear about Wendy’s proudest accomplishment at Nutanix and what she’s learned from an eclectic group of role models.
Show moreShow lessListen and learn…
- What it means to “lead with grace”.
- Why the future of enterprise tech will look more like consumer tech.
- How to empower girls to pursue STEM careers.
- How Wendy and her team have used NLP technology to help employees and consistently achieve 90+ NPS scores.
Resources mentioned in the episode:
- Nutanix
- GoPro
- randomfrankp on YouTube
- The John Madden RV
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Episode Number : 55
Rak Garg recently shifted from Product Management at companies like Atlassian and Redfin to investing at OpenView Venture Partners, the iconic firm behind companies like Datadog, ExactTarget, Instructure, and others.
Show moreShow lessHe shares the playbook for enterprise software startups looking to disrupt incumbents like Splunk and Atlassian. His thesis on SIEM (security event management) and log analytics spawned an excellent blog post on how startups are unbundling Splunk and defining new categories in the process.
Follow Rak at rak_garg on twitter.
Listen and learn…
- Why investing is harder than being a Product Manager
- Where Splunk and Atlassian are vulnerable to disruption from startups
- Rak’s perspective on what must change about Silicon Valley culture
- The importance of “don’t F&*%$ the customer” as a core component of company culture
Companies mentioned in this episode:
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Episode Number : 54
Glenn Solomon has discovered and invested in many iconic companies like Slack, Zendesk, and Square. In this episode, he shares his investing philosophy and how he became great at what he does. This one’s worth a listen just to hear Glenn share stories from when he first met the founders of Airbnb and HashiCorp.
Show moreShow lessListen and learn…
- Why the stock of Domino’s Pizza has outperformed Google over the past decade.
- How Opendoor stumbled… before eventually going public and reaching a $20B valuation.
- Why Nike employs more software engineers than shoe designers.
- What technology will define the next “Zoom” moment.
Companies, episodes, and people mentioned in this episode:
- Barr Moses from Monte Carlo
- Unravel Data
- Tonic
- Evangelos Simoudis from Synapse Partners
- Haixun Wang from Instacart
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Episode Number : 53
Elaine Zelby is an investor at SignalFire, a blogger, podcaster, and former Product Marketer at Capriza and Slack. She shares her perspective on the proliferation of SaaS tools, what’s sexy about unsexy markets, and what companies she’s ready to fund.
Show moreShow lessListen and learn…
- Why entrepreneurs describe SignalFire as the “kind” VC
- The one technology that will change work most in 2025
- What Elaine learned as an operator that has helped her as an investor
- Why the exodus from big cities may not be a thing after all
Thanks to Ilya from SignalFire for the introduction to Elaine.
Episodes and companies mentioned on the show:
- Deborah Hanus from Sparrow
- Testbox
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Episode Number : 52
The future of cities, work, and transit all rely on technological advances in the field of autonomous vehicles. On this week’s episode, Evangelos Simoudis, acclaimed author, futurist, and investor, discusses the present and future of everything from robo-taxis to urban planning.
Show moreShow lessListen and learn…
- How ethical implications and regulatory frameworks pose as big a threat to adoption of autonomous vehicles as technology
- Why a combination of knowledge-driven and ontological approaches are often required to optimize the accuracy of AI
- Why the classic trolley problem from a 1970s philosophy paper is more relevant than ever
- The pros and cons of using neural nets to train autonomous vehicles
- Why Evangelos attributes his success to a history of systems thinking
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Episode Number : 51
Ashu Garg is a General Partner at Foundation Capital, one of the most iconic venture firms in Silicon Valley. Ashu was first an entrepreneur before becoming an investor and discovering amazing companies like TubeMogul, Cohesity, Eightfold, and Databricks.
Show moreShow lessListen and learn…
- How Ashu translated his unique brand of hustle into finding and backing amazing entrepreneurs
- Why Ashu feels, as an entrepreneur, it’s worse to be too early than too late
- The challenges and opportunities of applying NLP to enterprise software
- What emerging technology will most impact work in 2031
- How the ability to automate routine tasks creates an opportunity to change the world
Companies mentioned on the show:
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Episode Number : 50
Great episode to kick off 2021. Dr. Haixun Wang has been at the forefront of introducing AI-based innovation to the world’s leading technology companies including IBM, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and Amazon.
Show moreShow lessHe’s the current VP Engineering and Distinguished Scientist at Instacart where he focuses on improving the grocery delivery experience with AI.
Listen and learn…
- Why knowledge graphs may be the solution to improve today’s e-commerce search experience.
- Why it’s hard to create an algorithm to help shoppers pick items from store shelves.
- What defines a “technology” company.
- Why it’s difficult to “make the physical world smart”.
- What happens when you search “insomnia” on Amazon.
- Haixun’s proudest accomplishment.
Resources mentioned in the discussion with Dr. Wang:
- Bill Davidow
- Alex from Josh.ai
- Darius from Meratas
- Charlene Li
- Tiernan Ray
- Dave Kellogg
- Haixun’s quarantine reading: In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust
- Haixun’s blog
