Alan Cowen, CEO and Founder of Hume AI: Over $17 Million Raised to Measure and Improve How Technology Affects Human Emotion

In today's episode of Category Visionaries, we speak with Alan Cowen, CEO and Founder of Hume AI, a research lab and technology startup that's raised Over $17 Million in funding, about how unchecked machine learning can lead very quickly to exploitation, and why we need to develop technology more in line with people’s mental health. With algorithms targeted specifically for more positive behavioral outcomes, positive emotions and desirable life outcomes, Hume AI is charting a new course in the development of human-AI interaction.

We speak with CEO and Founder Alan Cowen about his background education in psychology and being a pioneer in the field of data science and human emotion, his motivations for founding Hume AI and the risks of unchecked machine learning development for people’s mental wellbeing, and how he sees the current frenzy surrounding AI technology developing in the years to come.

Topics Discussed:

• Alan’s background education in psychology, and being one of the people who brought data science to the study of human emotion 
• Experiences at Google’s AI program and the decision for Alan to strike out on his own with a new company
• The potential risks of unchecked AI development and the risks of exploitation even when unintentional
• Why wellbeing-aware algorithms are an essential part of a healthy relationship with the technology we rely on every day
• The current media frenzy surrounding ChatGPT and similar language models, and what it means for AI in the future
• Where Alan believes AI should sit in our future society, and some practical suggestions for how we might get there.

Favorite book: 

Human Compatible: Artificial Intelligence and the Problem of Control