Regulation's Role in Driving Responsible AI with Asa Whillock

In this week’s episode, Charna welcomes Asa Whillock, the VP & GM Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence at Alteryx. Asa shares a surprising perspective on AI regulation, explaining how it sets a baseline for responsible practices. Discover why he believes regulation is crucial in guiding the ethical development and deployment of AI and learn the importance of continuous learning and what the past can teach us about navigating the challenges and opportunities of AI today. 


Episode timestamps

(01:47)  Asa Whillock's career journey at market-leading companies and the role of open source in each (Adobe, Macromedia, Alteryx)

(04:56) Feature Labs acquisition by Alteryx and its open source roots in democratizing machine learning capabilities

(11:00) Survey findings on enterprise board members' perspectives on AI and the need to move beyond policy creation to implementation and governance.

(27:00) Applying AI capabilities and decision-making related to AI  

(30:00) The future of AI predominance, including cost reduction, open source model advancements, and the push for demonstrating business value

(43:33) Advice for navigating AI expertise and decision-making, including continuous learning, self-awareness of decision-making models, and acknowledging knowledge limits


Quotes

Asa Whillock

"I love regulation. I think it's great. And people are like, what? Why would you say that? And the reason why I say that is because I think it puts a floor underneath all of us of what do we think good looks like?"

Charna Parkey

"I think we need to, as a community, focus on meeting them where they are if we really want the democratization that is promised. Yeah, I don't know any other way to do it."