AI-podden

This week our guest host, Sifted's Mimi Billing and Ather discuss April's AI developments, including; implications in geopolitics and business, highlighting Microsoft's warning about AI's potential use to disrupt elections in the US, South Korea, and India. They explore China's advancements in AI, the impact of quantum computing on AI development, and recent innovations in human behaviour modeling and reasoning algorithms in large language models. The episode also touches on AI's role in the food and beverage industry, exemplified by an AI-developed coffee blend in Finland, while acknowledging the technological hurdles in mimicking human sensory experiences. 

In this episode, Ather hosts guest Alex Baker, global retail strategist, entrepreneur, and Principal at Nordic Retail Hub. They discuss the evolution of AI in retail, highlighting its shift from backend applications to enhancing customer-facing experiences with technologies like dynamic pricing and personalized promotions. They also explore various AI applications that are transforming retail operations, from supply chain management to targeted advertising via retail media networks. The conversation also touches on AI's broader impact on personal productivity and corporate efficiency, underscoring the technology's potential to augment human capabilities. 

Ather interviews Vilhelm von Ehrenheim, co-founder and CAIO of QA Tech, discussing the use of AI in automating quality assurance for web applications. Wilhelm details how their AI agents test web functionality to ensure reliability before launch, leveraging large language models for enhanced decision-making. He also addresses the challenges of adapting AI to different platforms and anticipates future AI capabilities in broader applications, including the potential developments towards Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).      

In this episode, Ather interviews Ramprakash Ramamoorthy, AI director at ManageEngine, who clarifies AI's role as a practical tool for pattern recognition and productivity in IT management, rather than a threat to human jobs. Ram discusses how ManageEngine has integrated AI across their product suite since 2011 to optimize IT operations and customer service, enabling proactive management decisions. He emphasizes the evolution of AI from a hyped technology to a crucial component in streamlining business processes and enhancing decision-making capabilities within the IT sector.    

This week our guest host, Sifted's Mimi Billing and Ather discuss March's AI developments, including; Elon Musk has sued OpenAI, alleging violation of their nonprofit agreement through a Microsoft collaboration and deviation from open-source values. Concurrently, Musk introduced his open-source language model, GROK. Meanwhile, Anthropic's new AI, Cloud 3, reportedly surpasses ChatGPT and Google's Gemini in performance. The episode also covers the EU AI Act and a UN AI resolution, drawing varied perspectives on their impact. Additionally, the resignation of Stability AI's CEO and the company's financial woes post a $101 million October 2022 funding round were discussed, underlining the difficulties in AI monetization and the saturated startup landscape.

This week our guest host, Sifted's Mimi Billing and Ather discuss February's AI developments, including OpenAI's new video tool, Sora, and its careful release strategy amidst ethical concerns. They explore the bias issues in Google's Gemini AI and contrast different AI philosophies, highlighting the debate between practical AI applications and the pursuit of genuine intelligence. The conversation also covers NVIDIA's significant market valuation, the concept of an AI bubble, and Google's approach to AI-written content for publishers. Investments in robotics by NVIDIA and OpenAI are mentioned as forward-looking strategies. Finally, the hosts ponder the hype around AI compared to past excitement in the crypto industry. Don't forget to subscribe and follow us on Linkedin.

Salman Avestimehr, USC professor and FedML co-founder, discusses AI, federated learning, and large language models. This week's topics include; AI definition, distributed and federated systems research, current challenges in generative AI, and trustworthiness in ML. Ather and Salman explore the future of accessible LLMs on personal devices, stress the importance of data, and discuss challenges like distinguishing machine-generated outcomes. The conversation touches on enforcing regulations in the era of open-source tools and recommends the book "Life 3.0” Don't forget to subscribe and follow us on Linkedin.

In this episode of the AI Podcast, host Ather Gattami interviews Michal Sustr, co-founder of EquiLibre, a company that uses game theory and reinforcement learning for trading. Michal discusses the company's approach to trading, which is based on the idea that markets can be modelled as games. He explains that EquiLibre uses game theory to develop algorithms which can predict the behaviour of other traders and make profitable trades. Ather and Michal also discuss the future of AI, and Sustr predicts that large language models (LLMs) will continue to be a major area of research in the coming years. Michal believes that LLMs will eventually be able to reason and solve problems in a way that is indistinguishable from human intelligence. Don't forget to subscribe and follow us on Linkedin.

Reinforcement learning is a type of machine learning that allows agents to learn by interacting with their environment. DeepMind researcher, David Abel is interested in using reinforcement learning to understand and build intelligent agents. One of the big questions in AI is what exactly "intelligence" is. Another big question is how to build intelligent agents that can reason and solve problems. Abel believes that it is important to achieve conceptual clarity in AI.   Abel's research focuses on AI's core scientific questions, emphasizing the need for conceptual clarity about intelligent behavior and agents. David express skepticism about creating AI with certain reward functions, suggesting that multi-criteria objectives could better align AI with human interests.    Don't forget to subscribe and follow us on Linkedin.

In this episode, Mimi and Ather delve into the impact of AI on elections and political communication as well as deepfakes and cybercrime. They address OpenAI's suspension of a developer for creating a politician-impersonating chatbot and an AI-generated robocall falsely imitating President Biden, demonstrating AI's potential misuse in politics. They also discuss McAfee's Project Mockingbird, an AI technology introduced at CES 2024 to combat deepfake audio and cybercrime. Additionally, the episode covers The New York Times' lawsuit against OpenAI, highlighting the intricate legal and ethical issues surrounding AI-generated content in the realms of copyright and media.   Don't forget to subscribe and follow us on Linkedin.