Practical AI

Terri Jordan, a material scientist leading Aryballe’s US division, and Yanis Caritu, their Chief Software Officer, dive into the fascinating world of digital olfaction. They discuss the innovative technology of electronic noses and how AI is reshaping odor detection and classification. The guests share insights on using scent in industries like food quality and health monitoring. They also explore the evocative power of smells and their links to memory, hinting at future advancements that could enhance our sensory experiences.

David Kanter, the Executive Director of MLCommons, shares insights on accelerating machine learning innovation. He discusses the organization’s three key pillars: benchmarks like MLPerf, the People's Speech dataset, and best practices via MLCube. Kanter emphasizes the importance of equitable standards and collaborations in ML to enhance accessibility, particularly for underserved communities. He also draws parallels between AI's evolution and early aeronautics, showcasing how standardized components can drive innovation and community engagement.

Madhurima Khandelwal, Vice President and Head of American Express AI Labs, leads the conversation on their groundbreaking $1 trillion machine learning model. Discover how this model automates over 8 billion decisions and tackles real-time fraud detection in a digital-first world. Madhurima shares insights on integrating AI to enhance customer experience and operational efficiency, while stressing the importance of ethical AI practices. The future of finance with AI promises innovation that will reshape credit decisioning and fraud prevention.

Braden Hancock, Co-founder and Head of Technology at Snorkel AI and former Stanford PhD student, dives into innovative AI solutions. He discusses how noisier data sources can improve scalability and efficiency in labeling. Braden shares his transformative journey from mechanical engineering to founding Snorkel, emphasizing the practical application of machine learning. The conversation also highlights Snorkel Flow's advantages for managing AI pipelines and explores the ethical implications of AI, including auditability and privacy in training data.

Emily Martinez, the Interoperability unit chief at the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, shares insights on how AI can enhance public health initiatives. She discusses the critical need for equitable data usage, particularly in healthcare and renewable energy. The conversation highlights innovative approaches to leveraging government data during the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on privacy and accessibility. Emily also emphasizes the importance of community engagement and addressing disparities through careful, race-conscious data analysis.

Bharat Sandhu, Director of Azure AI and Mixed Reality at Microsoft, discusses making AI both accessible and practical for users. He shares insights on the research-to-product journey and highlights advancements in computer vision, including groundbreaking image captioning technologies. The conversation also covers empowering accessibility tools like Seeing AI, which help individuals with visual impairments. Lastly, Bharat emphasizes the importance of responsible AI practices as companies integrate these innovations into everyday applications.

In this discussion, Luke Chesser, Co-founder and Head of Product at Unsplash, and Timothy Carbone, Data Engineer at Unsplash, unveil the world's largest open library dataset, boasting over 2 million high-quality images. They explore innovative applications for machine learning and AI, the challenges of managing such vast data, and the importance of collaboration in the open data ecosystem. Their insights into the balance between sharing and business pragmatism reveal why this dataset is a game changer for researchers and developers alike.

Lucy D’Agostino McGowan, an assistant professor of statistics at Wake Forest University and co-host of the Casual Inference Podcast, dives into the nuances of causal inference. She discusses how misunderstandings in COVID-19 data reporting can impact public trust. The conversation highlights the ethical challenges of communicating vaccine efficacy and the significance of randomized trials. Lucy also shares insights on upcoming workshops at the R conference, emphasizing the importance of community in advancing data science.

Discover the ins and outs of building a deep learning workstation, from hardware choices like GPUs to optimizing performance. The hosts discuss the balance between custom builds and pre-built systems while addressing hardware shortages. Learn about crucial considerations like motherboard design, cooling solutions, and the nuances of network connectivity. They also share insights on development workflows using TensorFlow and PyTorch, plus tips on effectively upgrading your setup. It's a treasure trove of information for AI enthusiasts!

Lukas Biewald, Founder and CEO of Weights & Biases, shares insights from his journey in machine learning and the developer tools his company is creating. He discusses the challenges of tracking experiments and the need for better tools to manage machine learning workflows. The conversation touches on navigating the complexities between DevOps and Data Ops, and the importance of metrics in model performance. Lukas also emphasizes community engagement and his vision for future advancements in machine learning tooling.