Shift AI with Boaz Ashkenazy

Latest Episodes:

AI-Enabled Borderless Talent with DOXA Talent CEO David Nilssen Jan 29, 2024

Show notes

In this episode of the Shift AI podcast, David Nilssen, CEO of DOXA Talent, shares his insights on the evolving landscape of the global workforce and the significance of remote work. He highlights the necessity of developing an international talent strategy in response to the enduring scarcity of talent. Nilssen delves into his personal journey, from early career influences to leading DOXA Talent, emphasizing the role of AI and innovative practices in shaping modern employment. Throughout the conversation, he underscores the importance of adapting to demographic shifts and cultivating a strong, community-focused remote work culture.

Summary of topics covered:

Introduction: David Nilssen discusses the vital need for remote work and an international talent strategy due to ongoing talent scarcity.
Journey in Entrepreneurship and DOXA Talent's Genesis: He narrates his leadership experience in EO and the founding of DOXA Talent, focusing on outsourcing and remote work solutions.
Innovations and Strategies in DOXA Talent: Nilssen explains DOXA's unique approaches to employee loyalty, AI integration, and the creation of DOXACon for community building.
Global Perspective and Post-Covid Workforce Strategy: He reflects on global workforce trends and strategies for fostering community in a remote-first work environment.
DOXA's AI-Enabled Talent Matching Tool: The development and impact of DOXA's AI tool for efficient talent matching in full-time roles is discussed.
Impactful Mentors: Nilssen shares how mentors like Dave Parker, Stephan Roche, and Lex Sisney significantly influenced his professional growth.
The Future of Work: He emphasizes the enduring need for remote work and international talent strategies in the face of persistent talent scarcity.

Developing an AI Social Contract with Santa Cruz County Supervisor Zach Friend Jan 12, 2024

Show notes

In this episode of Shift AI, Zach Friend Santa Cruz County Supervisor shares his journey from working in the Obama Whitehouse to helping the Biden Administration craft meaningful AI legislation with the local community in mind. He also covers the way that governments are dealing with AI regulation and the social contract that needs to be established with county constituents.

Show Description

This episode of the Shift AI podcast features an interview between Boaz Ashkenazy and Zach Friend about AI policy and regulation. They discuss Zach's background working in government at both the federal and local level. They also talk about the work Zach has done to develop an AI regulatory framework at the county level in California and discuss issues like innovation vs regulation, the use of AI tools like ChatGPT in government work, and concerns around personalization and microtargeting in the upcoming 2024 US election. It's an insightful conversation about how to properly govern emerging technologies like artificial intelligence.

Highlights:

Zach Friend has experience working in government at both the federal level (White House, Congress) and local level (Santa Cruz County Supervisor)
He developed one of the first AI regulatory frameworks at the county level in California through a working group with industry
The framework focused on transparency, informed consent, and ensuring AI tools aren't used in ways that negatively impact communities
Zach discusses using ChatGPT and other AI tools to help with constituent services and operational tasks in county government
Personalized microtargeting of political messages is seen as a potential risk for the 2024 US election that needs addressing
Innovation and regulation can be balanced by having startups and industry help inform reasonable policy frameworks
Experiences working directly for President Obama shaped Zach's views on separating urgent vs important issues
The future could bring either abundance through new technologies or risks if we don't get policy and governance right

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Email: ⁠shift@simplyaugmented.com⁠

AI Investing in Seattle with Ascend.vc General Partner Kirby Winfield Dec 18, 2023

Show notes

In this episode of Shift AI, Kirby Winfield General Partner at Ascend.vc shares his journey from founding multiple successful startups to becoming a leading AI investor and outlines lessons learned, insights on the Seattle startup ecosystem, and his optimistic yet pragmatic views on generative AI and the future of work.

Summary of topics covered:

Background and early career: Kirby gained experience as an entrepreneur early in his career through founding multiple companies.
Transition to Venture capital: Looking for a new challenge, Kirby leveraged his experience operating startups to co-found Ascend and advise other founders.
Investment thesis and framework for evaluating AI opportunities: Kirby evaluates AI opportunities through the lens of whether they present applied or foundational uses of the technology.
Portfolio companies: Two of Ascend's portfolio companies applying AI in novel ways are Overland for autonomous vehicles and Clarity for detecting deepfakes.
Incumbent tech companies and AI: Kirby believes startups should focus on radically improving problems rather than competing directly with incumbent features to succeed against large companies.
Seattle's potential as a tech hub: Seattle is poised to become a major tech hub to rival Silicon Valley as its startup ecosystem matures and attracts more founders and engineers.
Mentors and influences: Guidance from mentors like John Keister and Oren Etzioni helped Kirby navigate different stages of his career in startups and investing.
Future of work and AI: Kirby is optimistic AI could automate drudgery and unleash human potential but acknowledges change will be gradual and new challenges will emerge.

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Email: ⁠shift@simplyaugmented.com⁠

AI Isn't Replacing Creators with Vimeo SVP Product Zohar Dayan Dec 11, 2023

Show notes

In this episode of Shift AI, Zohar Dayan SVP Product at Vimeo shares his experience as a startup founder, how he was early to ML with video and how the Vimeo acquisition is pushing to integrate AI into the video creation process.

01:57 - Dayan talks about his early start with technology, founding Wibbitz in college, and its connection to text-to-video concepts.
02:31 - Zohar explains his role at Vimeo as SVP of Product and GM of their Israel office, focusing on connecting product, engineering, and design teams.
06:14 - He shares insights into his family background, noting his father's low-tech entrepreneurship and his mother's involvement in the arts.
06:57 - Zohar reflects on the journey leading to Vimeo's acquisition of his company and the evolution of the digital landscape since 2009.
10:21 - He discusses the use of AI and machine learning at Wibbitz and the advancements in generative AI that are shaping the industry.
12:13 - Dayan expresses enthusiasm for AI's potential to redefine creativity and originality, while also voicing concerns about its power.
21:07 - Zohar predicts the future of video consumption and content engagement, focusing on efficiency and leveraging AI.
24:23 - He describes the future of work as "human connection," emphasizing the importance of fostering connections in remote and startup environments.

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Laying the Bedrock for Gen-AI at Amazon with AWS VP of Gen-AI Vasi Philomin Nov 21, 2023

Show notes

In this episode of Shift AI, Dr. Vasi Philomin, VP of Generative AI at Amazon Web Services (AWS) shares his experience as a visionary in machine learning and AI, his insights on applying generative AI at Amazon/AWS, and his thoughts on the ethical dimensions and future potential of AI technologies.

Highlights from Vasi’s comments, edited for context and clarity:

Early work experiences: Pioneered connected lighting at Philips Lighting with the City Touch system at Philips Lighting, enabling remote management of city lighting grids and achieving global adoption.
First Paying Job: During a summer internship at Benz in Germany, Vasi delved into computer vision for autonomous navigation.
Family Life: Growing up in a family of medical professionals, I diverged into a math-focused area of computer science, specifically AI, supported by my family despite our different professional paths.
Amazon & Generative AI: At Amazon, we identified three key themes in applying generative AI: the diversity of AI models for different use cases, the need for enterprises to differentiate themselves, and the balance of cost-effectiveness and value.
Amazon Bedrock: Bedrock aims to apply technologies like generative AI at scale. Offering choice, customization, and custom chips for improved generative AI applications.
Human and AI Congruence: AI should handle tedious tasks, allowing humans to focus on complex problems. While human oversight is still essential for verifying AI outputs and augmenting productivity.
Amazon Code Whisper: Created to address the challenges of new programming languages, Code Whisperer enhances developer productivity, with recent updates for customization to internal code bases.
Mentors: Azriel Rosenfield, my grad school advisor, taught me discipline, while Jeffery Cassis at Philips Lighting taught me a more inclusive approach to collaboration and problem-solving.
Future of Work: Generative AI is set to bring transformational productivity, surpassing the internet in impact, tackling complex problems, and augmenting human performance at an unprecedented scale.

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Email: ⁠shift@simplyaugmented.com⁠

Additional Resources

A Responsible Approach to AI with Armilla AI CEO Karthik Ramakrishnan Nov 21, 2023

Show notes

In this episode of Shift AI, Karthik Ramakrishnan Chief Product Officer from Armilla AI shares his experience with a startup that empowers enterprises to test and fix their AI models to ensure they release trustworthy products to the market.

In this episode of the Shift AI podcast, we cover the following topics:

02:22 How Karthik's eductation let to working in startups, an IPO; and his pursuit of success as a entrepreneur.

04:40 Family of orgin, Dad was a paper recycling entrepreneur in the Middle East.

08:16 Building trust in AI models for better decisions.

11:14 AI Model training data, rights, and testing of AI responsibly.

12:57 Why are businesses enthusiastic about AI's potential and risks.

16:14 AI designs leading to products that can engage with humans.

21:29 AI advances will make life easier through efficiency.

23:52 2 words describing the future of work and responsible AI

armilla.ai - https://armilla.ai/

simplyaugmetned.ai - https://simplyaugmented.ai

shiftapodcast.com - http://shiftaipodcast.com

Chill Work as the Path to Produtivity with Sparktoro CEO Rand Fishkin Oct 29, 2023

Show notes

In this episode of Shift AI, Rand Fishkin, Co-founder and CEO at SparkToro, shares his experience as a successful entrepreneur and offers insightful perspectives on the current state of generative AI, the challenges faced by VC-backed businesses and the importance of prioritizing the lives of founders and team members. sparktoro.com shitaipodcast.com simplyaugmented.com

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Email: ⁠shift@simplyaugmented.com⁠

simplyaugmented.com

shiftaipodcast.com

Breaking down the doors with Crime Door Producer Neil Mandt Oct 23, 2023

Show notes

In this episode of Shift AI, Neil Mandt, 5-time Emmy Award Winning Producer, shares his experience as a Hollywood producer and director, his take on the implications of AI on our society in the future and how the Studio industry is changing to accomodate this shift.

In this episode of the Shift AI podcast, we cover the following topics:

Introduction to experience and background including with Run DMC and Guiness Book of World Record
Neil's first job that he actually got paid for the work that he did as a teenager making commercials
Neil's parents and upbringing in Detroit and his family influence on work and media and success
Work in the early days of AI, VR and AR and the projects that are firing him up True Crime for AR and AI and Apple Vision Pro and Chat GPT
How AI is changing and transforming the media business in Hollywood and examples of how this will happen
How this will effect the writers guild and TV/film editors as well as reality TV production
Neil's position on the writers stike in Hollywood and how they are going to be affected by AI and why the issue should be punted
The Neil Mandt online courses about how to succeed in Hollywood is discussed
AI and 3D multi-modal conversation is discussed and predictions are made for the future of text to 3D, including haptic gaming
How experiential content will convert to sales and make money using AR and AI
Neil talks about the self generating Seinfeld sitcom that get generated continuously every 30 minutes
Neil talks about how he has mentored others and who has had a big influence on him throughout his career like Mark Shapiro,Steve Borenstein (ESPN)
Future predictions and the emerging technology that Neil is the most excited about in the future, AR Mojo Vision contact lenses, intellectual property rights
The way that spatial experiences will be a huge tool for social media influencers to tag the world in 3D. Website drm.la

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Email: ⁠shift@simplyaugmented.com

Using AI to read the room with Read.ai CEO David Shim Oct 16, 2023

Show notes

In this episode of Shift AI, David Shim CEO at read.ai shares his experience as a serial entrepreneur, angel investor and running one of the most exciting Madrona backed AI startups based in Seattle.

Below is a summary of the topics covered:

Transitioning from a political science major to identifying untapped opportunities in the stock trading market.
Acquiring foundational customer service skills in the early stages of a career.
The influence of a family of Korean immigrant entrepreneurs on work ethic and problem-solving.
The journey of founding and scaling startups like Placed and read.ai in emerging markets.
Adapting product focus based on evolving AI capabilities, such as meeting transcriptions and actionable recommendations.
The importance of collaboration with established companies for market credibility and reach.
Utilizing data analytics and AI for smarter meeting management and equity.
The role of mentors and advancements in AI in navigating business challenges and shaping the future of content consumption.

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Email: ⁠shift@simplyaugmented.com⁠

A new communication paradigm with XMTP Labs CEO Shane Mac Oct 05, 2023

Show notes

In this episode of Shift AI, Shane Mac CEO at XMTP Labs shares his experience as a startup founder, how to run a remote-first venture backed startup and his philosophy on how digital messaging and communication will evolve in the future.

In this episode of the Shift AI podcast, we cover the following topics:

Early Experience: Shane discusses how his early experience as a young CEO of a startup in San Francisco and the imposter syndrome that he felt shaped they way that he approaches his new company and how he treats those around him.
Family Influence: How Shane’s father’s discipline impacted his work ethic and how growing up in a small town masked some of the anxiety that he would later comes to terms with as an entrepreneur.
Emotional Intellegence: How alcohol and extreme confidence helped to mask insecurities that he is finally coming to terms with in life.
Startup Culture: How do you give people the permission to make mistakes, to say I need help to focus on being the best employee they can be without doing things for the sake of being busy.
AI and Creativity: How AI has transformed our ability to use the computer as a tool to be more creative by helping us prototype our ideas.
XMTP and Secure Messaging: How securing messaging and payment is changing the way we think about identity and how we can move from carrier to carrier safely with our DM’s and followers in tact.

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Email: ⁠shift@simplyaugmented.com⁠

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