
Gradient Dissent: Conversations on AI
Join Lukas Biewald on Gradient Dissent, an AI-focused podcast brought to you by Weights & Biases. Dive into fascinating conversations with industry giants from NVIDIA, Meta, Google, Lyft, OpenAI, and more. Explore the cutting-edge of AI and learn the intricacies of bringing models into production.
Latest episodes

18 snips
Feb 1, 2024 • 1h 8min
The Power of AI in Search with You.com's Richard Socher
Richard Socher, CEO of You.com, discusses the power of AI in search and the transformation of search engines with advanced language models like GPT-4. He explores the practical applications and challenges of integrating AI into search functionality and the ethical considerations and future implications of AI in our digital lives. They also touch on the role of AI in automating and transforming digital work, as well as envisioning the future of AI in daily life and work.

16 snips
Jan 18, 2024 • 1h 4min
AI’s Future: Investment & Impact with Sarah Guo and Elad Gil
Join Sarah Guo and Elad Gil on a deep dive into the world of AI, exploring topics such as fine-tuning versus RAG in AI, evaluating AI research for investment, the impact of AI models on product development, AI's role in evolving job markets, code generation technologies in software engineering, AI's broader industry implications, importance of product-driven approaches in AI startups, AI's impact on traditional roles and industries.

10 snips
Jan 4, 2024 • 58min
Revolutionizing AI Data Management with Jerry Liu, CEO of LlamaIndex
Jerry Liu, CEO of LlamaIndex, discusses the integration of diverse data formats with AI technologies, addressing challenges in data retrieval, analysis, and conversational memory. They explore topics such as Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG), vector databases, AI model hallucinations, text extraction applications, and the role of LlamaIndex in the rapidly evolving field of AI-driven systems.

Dec 7, 2023 • 1h 15min
Bridging AI and Science: The Impact of Machine Learning on Material Innovation with Joe Spisak of Meta
Joe Spisak, Product Director, Generative AI @Meta, discusses the influence of AI models like GPT and Llama2 on user experiences, as well as their contributions to fields like biology and material science. The podcast also explores AI's practical business applications and the significance of open-source AI development and collaboration.

5 snips
Nov 16, 2023 • 52min
Unlocking the Power of Language Models in Enterprise: A Deep Dive with Chris Van Pelt
AI expert and co-founder of Weights & Biases, Chris Van Pelt, shares insights on startups connecting with early users, melding AI with web development, AI model capabilities, advising enterprises on language model integration, and the future of AI.

34 snips
Jul 27, 2023 • 1h 1min
Providing Greater Access to LLMs with Brandon Duderstadt, Co-Founder and CEO of Nomic AI
On this episode, we’re joined by Brandon Duderstadt, Co-Founder and CEO of Nomic AI. Both of Nomic AI’s products, Atlas and GPT4All, aim to improve the explainability and accessibility of AI.We discuss:- (0:55) What GPT4All is and its value proposition.- (6:56) The advantages of using smaller LLMs for specific tasks. - (9:42) Brandon’s thoughts on the cost of training LLMs. - (10:50) Details about the current state of fine-tuning LLMs. - (12:20) What quantization is and what it does. - (21:16) What Atlas is and what it allows you to do.- (27:30) Training code models versus language models.- (32:19) Details around evaluating different models.- (38:34) The opportunity for smaller companies to build open-source models. - (42:00) Prompt chaining versus fine-tuning models.Resources mentioned:Brandon Duderstadt - https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandon-duderstadt-a3269112a/Nomic AI - https://www.linkedin.com/company/nomic-ai/Nomic AI Website - https://home.nomic.ai/Thanks for listening to the Gradient Dissent podcast, brought to you by Weights & Biases. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review to help get the word out about the show. And be sure to subscribe so you never miss another insightful conversation.#OCR #DeepLearning #AI #Modeling #ML

30 snips
Jul 13, 2023 • 1h 9min
Exploring PyTorch and Open-Source Communities with Soumith Chintala, VP/Fellow of Meta, Co-Creator of PyTorch
On this episode, we’re joined by Soumith Chintala, VP/Fellow of Meta and Co-Creator of PyTorch. Soumith and his colleagues’ open-source framework impacted both the development process and the end-user experience of what would become PyTorch.We discuss:- The history of PyTorch’s development and TensorFlow’s impact on development decisions.- How a symbolic execution model affects the implementation speed of an ML compiler.- The strengths of different programming languages in various development stages.- The importance of customer engagement as a measure of success instead of hard metrics.- Why community-guided innovation offers an effective development roadmap.- How PyTorch’s open-source nature cultivates an efficient development ecosystem.- The role of community building in consolidating assets for more creative innovation.- How to protect community values in an open-source development environment.- The value of an intrinsic organizational motivation structure.- The ongoing debate between open-source and closed-source products, especially as it relates to AI and machine learning.Resources:- Soumith Chintalahttps://www.linkedin.com/in/soumith/- Meta | LinkedInhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/meta/- Meta | Websitehttps://about.meta.com/- Pytorchhttps://pytorch.org/Thanks for listening to the Gradient Dissent podcast, brought to you by Weights & Biases. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review to help get the word out about the show. And be sure to subscribe so you never miss another insightful conversation.#OCR #DeepLearning #AI #Modeling #ML

19 snips
Jun 22, 2023 • 1h
Advanced AI Accelerators and Processors with Andrew Feldman of Cerebras Systems
On this episode, we’re joined by Andrew Feldman, Founder and CEO of Cerebras Systems. Andrew and the Cerebras team are responsible for building the largest-ever computer chip and the fastest AI-specific processor in the industry.We discuss:- The advantages of using large chips for AI work.- Cerebras Systems’ process for building chips optimized for AI.- Why traditional GPUs aren’t the optimal machines for AI work.- Why efficiently distributing computing resources is a significant challenge for AI work.- How much faster Cerebras Systems’ machines are than other processors on the market.- Reasons why some ML-specific chip companies fail and what Cerebras does differently.- Unique challenges for chip makers and hardware companies.- Cooling and heat-transfer techniques for Cerebras machines.- How Cerebras approaches building chips that will fit the needs of customers for years to come.- Why the strategic vision for what data to collect for ML needs more discussion.Resources:Andrew Feldman - https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewdfeldman/Cerebras Systems - https://www.linkedin.com/company/cerebras-systems/Cerebras Systems | Website - https://www.cerebras.net/Thanks for listening to the Gradient Dissent podcast, brought to you by Weights & Biases. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review to help get the word out about the show. And be sure to subscribe so you never miss another insightful conversation.#OCR #DeepLearning #AI #Modeling #ML

37 snips
Jun 1, 2023 • 52min
Enabling LLM-Powered Applications with Harrison Chase of LangChain
On this episode, we’re joined by Harrison Chase, Co-Founder and CEO of LangChain. Harrison and his team at LangChain are on a mission to make the process of creating applications powered by LLMs as easy as possible.We discuss:- What LangChain is and examples of how it works. - Why LangChain has gained so much attention. - When LangChain started and what sparked its growth. - Harrison’s approach to community-building around LangChain. - Real-world use cases for LangChain.- What parts of LangChain Harrison is proud of and which parts can be improved.- Details around evaluating effectiveness in the ML space.- Harrison's opinion on fine-tuning LLMs.- The importance of detailed prompt engineering.- Predictions for the future of LLM providers.Resources:Harrison Chase - https://www.linkedin.com/in/harrison-chase-961287118/LangChain | LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/langchain/LangChain | Website - https://docs.langchain.com/docs/Thanks for listening to the Gradient Dissent podcast, brought to you by Weights & Biases. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review to help get the word out about the show. And be sure to subscribe so you never miss another insightful conversation.#OCR #DeepLearning #AI #Modeling #ML

May 18, 2023 • 58min
Deploying Autonomous Mobile Robots with Jean Marc Alkazzi at idealworks
On this episode, we’re joined by Jean Marc Alkazzi, Applied AI at idealworks. Jean focuses his attention on applied AI, leveraging the use of autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) to improve efficiency within factories and more.We discuss:- Use cases for autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) and how to manage a fleet of them. - How AMRs interact with humans working in warehouses.- The challenges of building and deploying autonomous robots.- Computer vision vs. other types of localization technology for robots.- The purpose and types of simulation environments for robotic testing.- The importance of aligning a robotic fleet’s workflow with concrete business objectives.- What the update process looks like for robots.- The importance of avoiding your own biases when developing and testing AMRs.- The challenges associated with troubleshooting ML systems.Resources: Jean Marc Alkazzi - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeanmarcjeanazzi/idealworks |LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/idealworks-gmbh/idealworks | Website - https://idealworks.com/Thanks for listening to the Gradient Dissent podcast, brought to you by Weights & Biases. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review to help get the word out about the show. And be sure to subscribe so you never miss another insightful conversation.#OCR #DeepLearning #AI #Modeling #ML