Stories in AI by Ganesh Padmanabhan

Why was ChatGPT so Successful? l Gaurav Rao l Stories in AI

In this episode, I sit down with Gaurav Rao, EVP & GM Machine Learning and AI at AtScale. In this episode we discuss what it truly takes to deploy a successful machine learning to the public. ChatGPT was a prime example of successful adoption of these technologies, and we dive deep into why it was so successful. Hope you enjoy this conversation.
About Gaurav: Gaurav is currently the Executive Vice President and General Manager of Machine Learning and AI at AtScale. He is responsible for defining and leading the business that extends the company’s semantic layer platform to address the rapidly expanding set of Enterprise AI and machine learning applications.
Most recently, Gaurav served as VP of Product at Neural Magic - innovators in software acceleration for deep learning utilizing sparse model architectures. Previously, he served in a number of executive roles at IBM spanning product, engineering, and sales that were focused on taking cutting edge data science, machine learning, and AI offerings to market. He specializes in model training and serving, mlops, and trusted AI in the context of driving business outcomes for enterprise applications. He is also an advisor to data and AI companies.
Outside of work Gaurav is an avid sports fan, foodie, traveler, and enjoys spending time with his wife and kids.
Learn More:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gauravraotechenthusiast/
Data Council: https://www.datacouncil.ai/speakers/gaurav-rao?hsLang=en 
 

Creating Value in Healthcare with AI | Rajeev Ronanki | Stories in AI

I had a fabulous discussion with Rajeev Ronanki, President Elevance Health (parent company of Anthem) on Healthcare, the current exponential technology age, risks and opportunities and the current market. Rajeev is a brilliant thought leader and builder at heart and has really pioneered an AI-first approach to healthcare at Anthem, delivering disruptive value to shareholders, providers and patients!
Rajeev's bio: Rajeev Ronanki serves as Elevance Health’s (Anthem's parent company) president of digital platforms. Ronanki is responsible for creating and driving plans to commercialize digital capabilities for consumers, care providers, and the health ecosystem as we reinvent care delivery, operations, and interactions. To achieve this transformation, he drives the vision, strategy, and execution of Elevance Health’s digital-first approach across the organization’s digital, artificial intelligence (AI), exponential technology, service experience, and innovation portfolios. He is reimagining the future of healthcare by enabling Elevance Health to harness the power of AI and data to provide consumers predictive, proactive, and personalized insights into their health. Rajeev has written a book: You and AI: A Citizen’s Guide to AI, Blockchain, and Puzzling Together the Future of Healthcare.
You can read more on the links below.
https://rajeevronanki.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajeevronanki/
https://twitter.com/RajeevRonanki 

Getting a Head Start on the Age of Quantum Computing | Whurley (William Hurley) | Stories in AI

This latest Stories in AI episode features my good friend, Whurley, Founder and CEO of Strangeworks, Founder/GP at Ecliptic Capital. It was amazing to talk to Whurley and discuss the future of quantum computing and the forces driving change in the sector.
Please be sure to like and subscribe for more content, and I hope you really enjoy this episode!
Whurley's Bio:
William Hurley "whurley" is founder and CEO of Strangeworks, a quantum computing startup based in Austin, Texas. Whurley’s career has spanned over 25 years, founding startups such as Honest Dollar and Chaotic Moon Studios, as well as working in technical leadership roles for Apple, IBM, and Goldman Sachs. Prior to founding Strangeworks,Whurley was managing director at Goldman Sachs which he came to through the acquisition of Honest Dollar; a fintech startup that offers a retirement savings platform that simplifies and brings transparency to the investment products available for a range of consumers. Whurley is dedicated to fostering collaboration and establishing unified metrics and standards across the quantum computing community. He partnered with StackOverflow to create the world’s largest community of quantum computing developers, and currently serves as the Chair of the Quantum Standards Working Group at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). He is leading the development of the first quantum commuting standards, PAR7130 “Standard for Quantum Computing Definitions” and PAR 7131 “Standard for Quantum Computing Performance Metrics for Performance Benchmarking”.
Whurley is committed to making quantum computing more accessible and improving quantum literacy. His latest book, "Quantum Computing For Babies," offers simple explanations of quantum computing for the youngest audiences and is one of the best selling books on quantum computing. His upcoming book, Endless Impossibilities, continues his mission of improving quantum computing literacy and helps readers understand the potential of quantum computing. Whurley is a regular contributor to TechCrunch and regularly speaks around the world on the potential power and impact of quantum computing and what quantum needs to succeed.
He has received numerous awards and recognitions including being named a 2018 Eisenhower Fellow, the 2012 International Genius Grant recipient, and an IBM Master Inventor. Whurley is an advocate and works on a range of issues he cares about, including diversity and equality. Whurley is a founding partner of UN Women; ‘EQUALS’: The Global Partnership for Gender Equality in the Digital Age bringing together partners across sectors to bridge the gender gap in technology by championing equality of access, skills development, and career opportunities.
 
Find Whurley at: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/whurley/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/whurley
A note about our sponsor: Experian is the world’s leading global information services company. We empower our clients to manage their data with confidence and build trusted relationships with consumers, using advanced analytics, decisioning technology, and fraud prevention tools. We help businesses to make smarter decisions and thrive, lend more responsibly, and prevent fraud and financial crime. As the world’s leading repository of consumer credit data, Experian is transforming data into solutions that facilitate transactions, ensure financial safety and improve the financial lives of millions of consumers around the world.

The Responsibility that Comes with Powerful AI | Chirag Shah | Stories in AI

On the latest Stories in AI episode, I sit down with Chirag Shah, a professor at the University of Washington and Co-Director of RAISE (Responsible AI Systems and Experiences). As someone who has tremendous experience in both the research and industry side of AI advancement, Chirag provides us with an extremely unique perspective on the current market. We talked about the negative consequences that come with increasingly powerful AI tools and how to solve them.
 
Chirag's Bio: "I am a Professor at the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle. My research interests include search and recommender systems specifically focused on task-based applications, conversation AI, user experience, multi-objective optimization, and cold start problems. While I apply various Data Science and Machine Learning techniques to make systems "smart", I also care about reducing biases and increasing fairness in search/recommendation and in general in ML/AI systems. I primarily teach in Information Science and Data Science programs - at the undergraduate and graduate levels.
I also work closely with industrial research labs on cutting-edge problems, typically as a visiting researcher. The most recent engagements included Spotify (2018), Amazon (2019), Microsoft Research AI (2020), and Getty Images (2021). Some of the problems I have worked on recently include zero-intent and zero-query recommendations (cold start problems), marketplace fairness, and task/journey/mission-based ranking and recommendation. A few of these have led to solutions, features, and products that now affect hundreds of millions of customers in dozens of markets."
Find Chirag on: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shah-chirag/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/chirag_shah?lang=en
A note about our sponsor:
Experian is the world’s leading global information services company. We empower our clients to manage their data with confidence and build trusted relationships with consumers, using advanced analytics, decisioning technology, and fraud prevention tools. We help businesses to make smarter decisions and thrive, lend more responsibly, and prevent fraud and financial crime. As the world’s leading repository of consumer credit data, Experian is transforming data into solutions that facilitate transactions, ensure financial safety and improve the financial lives of millions of consumers around the world.

Developing a Disruptive AI Strategy | Charles Franklin | Stories in AI

Thanks for tuning into the Stories in AI podcast. In this episode, I am joined by Charles Franklin, Head of product development, Analytics & AI at Experian. I had a really great time talking to Charles about a variety of topics, including how Experian is disrupting traditional markets with AI, the drawbacks of utilizing AI, and much more.
Charles Bio: Charles Franklin is the SVP of product development for Global Analytics & AI, including Ascend Intelligence Services. He has been with Experian since January 2021 and is working with teams across DA, CIS and Health to build our next generation of analytics solutions.
Before joining Experian, Charles was a Partner at Oliver Wyman, where he led the global data science practice. He was a founding member of Oliver Wyman Labs, a business unit creating analytics-powered applications across sectors including finance, travel and retail.
Charles moved from the UK to the US in 2014 and now lives in San Francisco with his wife and son. They enjoy exploring the Bay Area by foot or by kayak, as well as trips home to London and France.
Find Charles at LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charles-franklin-90a58357/
 
A note about our sponsor: Experian is the world’s leading global information services company. We empower our clients to manage their data with confidence and build trusted relationships with consumers, using advanced analytics, decisioning technology, and fraud prevention tools. We help businesses to make smarter decisions and thrive, lend more responsibly, and prevent fraud and financial crime.
As the world’s leading repository of consumer credit data, Experian is transforming data into solutions that facilitate transactions, ensure financial safety and improve the financial lives of millions of consumers around the world.

Detecting Fraud using Machine Learning Models | Jesse Barbour | Stories in AI

In this episose of the Stories in AI podcast, I sit down with Jesse Barbour, Chief Data Scientist of Q2ebanking. At their company, Jesse and the team are working to revolutionize the way financial institutions interact and transact with their customers. With this, Jesse provides valuable insight to what it takes to build effect machine learning models to detect fraud and bias. Hope you enjoy it!
Jesse's Bio:
Jesse Barbour is the Chief Data Scientist at Q2ebanking. He uses machine learning to discover hidden structure, insight, and value from data. His work has paved the way for multiple ground-breaking products including Sentinel, Q2’s flagship security offering, and SMART, the company’s targeting and messaging platform. Jesse’s 14 years in the financial services industry have been driven by a relentless passion to deliver technologies that have a fundamental, positive impact on individuals and communities.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jbarbour/
 
A note about our sponsor: Experian is the world’s leading global information services company. We empower our clients to manage their data with confidence and build trusted relationships with consumers, using advanced analytics, decisioning technology, and fraud prevention tools. We help businesses to make smarter decisions and thrive, lend more responsibly, and prevent fraud and financial crime.
As the world’s leading repository of consumer credit data, Experian is transforming data into solutions that facilitate transactions, ensure financial safety and improve the financial lives of millions of consumers around the world.

The Disruptive Force of AI in Industry | Joseph Sirosh | Stories in AI

What a great time it was, sitting down with former Microsoft and Compass CTO, Joseph Sirosh. In this episode, we talk about how AI has been disrupting industries and which sectors have seen the most growth. We also dive deep into generative AI, how AI has been able to democratize creativity, and how to identify true AI value over short-term hype.
 
Joseph's Bio: Joseph is a technologist with a passion for AI, and is currently the Vice President of Alexa Shopping at Amazon.com. We recorded this before he started this role.
Most recently, Joseph served as the Chief Technology Officer of Compass Inc, building the real estate industry’s first end-to-end platform. Previously, Joseph served as Microsoft’s Chief Technology Officer for AI. During his tenure, he held product and engineering responsibility for all enterprise database, big data and machine learning products. At Microsoft, he built Azure ML, the first Machine Learning as a Service platform in the cloud.
Prior to Microsoft, Joseph spent nine years as a VP at Amazon where he managed the Global Inventory Platform for Amazon’s Consumer Business, and built the machine learning, data warehouse and Transaction Risk Management teams. Joseph holds a PhD in Neural Networks from the University of Texas at Austin.
You can follow him on Twitter and read about what he finds exciting in AI on his Generative AI Substack.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joseph-sirosh-39803b1/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/josephsirosh
Substack: https://josephsirosh.substack.com/
A note about our sponsor:
Experian is the world’s leading global information services company. We empower our clients to manage their data with confidence and build trusted relationships with consumers, using advanced analytics, decisioning technology, and fraud prevention tools. We help businesses to make smarter decisions and thrive, lend more responsibly, and prevent fraud and financial crime. As the world’s leading repository of consumer credit data, Experian is transforming data into solutions that facilitate transactions, ensure financial safety and improve the financial lives of millions of consumers around the world.

Utilizing AI to its Full Potential | Gurdeep Pall | Stories in AI

In this episode, I had an inspiring conversation with Gurdeep Pall. Gurdeep Pall is a Corporate VP and Head of Product Incubations at Microsoft today, and is known in the industry as the inventor of VPN (Virtual Private Networks) and launching Skype for Business/Teams. In this episode we dive deep into the power that AI unlocks for enterprises and just how companies can utilize it to its full potential. We also discuss the power of search engines and language, how to reinvent and transform a mammoth organization like Microsoft, and his inspiring 30+ years career at Microsoft.
 
Gurdeep's Bio: Pall has been with Microsoft since 1990 – a long and fruitful thirty-one years in which he rose from a software design engineer to the Corporate VP for the Information Platform and Experience team. He was the inventor of VPN (Virtual Private Networks), led the Skype Acquisition and integration at Microsoft and worked on several noteworthy projects, including Windows NT 3.1, Windows XP, Skype for Business (now Teams), and many others. Pall was born in Chandigarh, India. In later adolescence, he considered following in his Brigadier father’s footsteps by joining the Indian army. “There was something inside me that kept telling me that this was not what I was meant for,” he told Khushwant Singh at The Global Sikh Trail in an exclusive interview. Instead, he pursued computer engineering at Birla Institute of Technology where he graduated with his undergraduate degree.
Connect with Gurpreet at LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gurdeep-pall-0aa639bb/
 
A note about our sponsor: Experian is the world’s leading global information services company. We empower our clients to manage their data with confidence and build trusted relationships with consumers, using advanced analytics, decisioning technology, and fraud prevention tools. We help businesses to make smarter decisions and thrive, lend more responsibly, and prevent fraud and financial crime.
As the world’s leading repository of consumer credit data, Experian is transforming data into solutions that facilitate transactions, ensure financial safety and improve the financial lives of millions of consumers around the world.