The Importance of Working Backwards From the Problem

In episode 78 of The Gradient Podcast, Daniel Bashir speaks to Antoine Blondeau.

Antoine is a serial AI entrepreneur and Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Alpha Intelligence Capital. He was chief executive at Dejima when the firm worked on CALO, one of the biggest AI projects in US history and precursor to Apple’s Siri. Later, he co-founded Sentient Technologies, which boasted the title of world’s highest funded AI company in 2016. In 2018, he founded Alpha Intelligence Capital to support future AI unicorns, and has raised more than $300 million, which has been deployed into 31 companies.

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Outline:

* (00:00) Intro

* (01:30) Antoine’s background

* (04:00) Dejima and the CALO cognitive assistant (the precursor to Siri)

* (07:35) More detail on CALO

* (10:10) Sentient Technologies and entrepreneurship during the AlexNet moment

* (14:35) Early predictions on scale

* (17:15) Role of evolutionary computation and neuroevolution

* (20:00) Antoine’s motivations for becoming an investor

* (22:30) Alpha Intelligence Capital’s investment focus

* (27:40) Safety and trust issues in fully automated systems

* (37:00) Models of culture, discernment in the use of AI systems

* (39:30) Antoine’s experience as an investor in today’s AI environment

* (44:43) How modern LLMs impact standard advice regarding the appropriateness of cutting-edge technologies in business

* (49:00) Data (and other) moats

* (52:07) Application/research areas Antoine is watching

* (55:00) Antoine’s advice for people watching AI’s current developments

* (58:47) Outro

Links:

* Alpha Intelligence Capital Homepage