The TWIML AI Podcast (formerly This Week in Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence) Social Intelligence with Blaise Aguera y Arcas - #340
Jan 20, 2020
Blaise Aguera y Arcas, a distinguished scientist at Google AI, joins to discuss the fascinating realm of social intelligence. He reflects on his journey through physics to machine learning, highlighting his career transitions and innovations at Microsoft and Google. The conversation dives deep into how social interactions shape intelligence and the intricate relationship between microbiomes and behavior. Aguera y Arcas also challenges traditional metrics of success in AI, advocating for empathy and understanding as central to advancements in the field.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Blaise's Background
- Blaise Aguera y Arcas's academic background spans physics, applied math, and biophysics.
- His early work involved studying bacterial chemotaxis in Stan Leibler's lab at Princeton.
Meeting at MBL
- Blaise met his wife, Adrienne Fairhall, during a computational neuroscience course at the Marine Biological Lab.
- This led them to move to Seattle, where he started a company later acquired by Microsoft.
Microsoft Acquisition and Work
- Blaise's company, which focused on multi-resolution document representation, was acquired by Microsoft.
- At Microsoft, he led teams working on computer vision projects like Photosynth, OCR, and HoloLens tracking.