Comet Labs’ Saman Farid – An Investor’s Take on the AI Landscape

Episode Summary:  Our guest in this episode has spent a large part of his life on figuring out how to make machines more intelligent. Loop AI Labs' Chief Scientist Patrick Ehlen has worked on a number of important projects, from DARPA projects to big-company AI solutions at places like AT&T. Loop AI works on getting AI to make sense and meaning of information the way that humans do, like making meaning of unstructured text. Ehlen talks about the potential business applications for this technology and where it's making way its way into industry. Ehlen also touches on the implications for developers in the nascent AI field - like Loop AI - that are vying to implement its technology as an industry standard, and how such organizations will have to market themselves and deliver services to develop a thriving AI ecosystem.

Episode summary: This week, AI in Industry features Jeremy Barnes, Chief Architect at Element AI. Jeremy talks about the common mistakes some businesses might make while adopting AI to solve broad business problems. He also sheds light on the problem areas that could raise the market value of businesses through AI adoption, hiring the right talent with the right combination of subject matter expertise and business experience, and the business and technical aspects executives should consider before contemplating the adoption of AI.

Episode summary: This week, AI in Industry features Dr. David Franke, Chief Scientist at Vast. David talks about how AI can work with scarce transaction data to derive meaningful analytics for big purchases, such as cars and houses. He elaborates on how the AI can glean information from user interaction and marketplace data to provide customers with the relevant product fit, deals and recommendations on big purchases. He also discusses the future trends and business benefits for early adopters of AI for purchase recommendations of high-cost items. 

Episode summary: One of the key challenges that enterprises face in adopting artificial intelligence is finding skilled data science talent. Business leaders want to know when it's best to hire AI talent, to "upskill" existing workers, or simply to bring in AI consultants - and the answers aren't always obvious.

Episode summary: Sales forecasting is big business. If you can better predict how much of a certain product or service you will sell in a given day, you can better stock inventory, better staff your facilities, and ultimately keep more margin in your business's accounts.