The All Turtles Podcast

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043: AI and neuroscience entrepreneur Katharina Volz Jan 16, 2019

Show notes

When it comes to curing Parkinson's disease, the biggest obstacle is in making use of siloed research. So says Katharina Volz, founder and CEO of OccamzRazor, an AI-neuroscience startup. They've built a "super brain" to read everything ever published about Parkinson's and related diseases, and to make connections to clinical research no human possibly could. Hear Volz's plans for finding cures for patient subgroups—and why she recommends wearing rollerblades in the lab.

Show notes

Conversation with Katharina Volz (0:53)

OccamzRazor is an AI-neuroscience startup focusing on treatments for Parkinson's Disease (0:55)

What is the connection between AI and Parkinson's disease? (1:14)

Why the "one solution fits all model" is a fallacy (2:31)

The problem with the breakthrough mentality (6:12)

PubMed is a search engine for scientific research (9:01)

Why is Parkinson's disease OccamzRazor's first focus? (14:48)

Eyeroll, please (20:10)

"Move fast and break things" (20:39)

The Unscaled podcast series is about how economies of scale have changed (22:55)

Listener question (26:39)

I was elated that my most recent question read on the AT podcast revealed Phil's 3 design principles. I wonder, however, if there should be another principle added to the three: decision criteria auditability.

Examples: an AI was trying to identify which dogs were wolves, and when researchers looked into the AI's decision-making criteria, they realized the AI's primary differentiating criterion was whether or not there was snow in the background of the image. So what do you think of auditability as a fourth design principle for AI?

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042: VR, computer vision, and deep learning with Adrian Kaehler Jan 09, 2019

Show notes

Virtual reality is a tremendously rich medium for creativity and new ideas, but we're still waiting for the AR/VR revolution to make the waves it's been projected to make. What can we expect from this field in the coming years? Adrian Kaehler is a researcher who's worked in computer vision, machine learning, robotics, and with AR/VR software, and he has predictions. And, as the cofounder of the Silicon Valley Deep Learning Group, he knows what it takes to bring disparate technological groups together.

Show notes

Conversation with Adrian Kaehler (0:53)

The Silicon Valley Deep Learning Group (1:13)

Magic Leap's main product is a head-mounted virtual retinal display (2:44)

The homebrew computer club was an early computer hobby group in Silicon Valley that met from the mid-70s to the mid-80s (3:17)

What do the non-technical folks bring to the table in SVDLG? (4:21)

What can we learn about VR in the wake of the failure of Google Glass? (12:20)

How can VR technology improve social interactions rather than impede them? (14:32)

Open CV Computer LIbrary (20:37)

Open 3D, a modern library for 3D processing (20:47)

CARLA, an open-source simulator for autonomous driving research (20:50)

OSVF, the Open Source Vision Foundation, has a mission to build a common foundation for all of these technologies to advance together (21:21)

AI use case (26:10)

When an AI-powered car nearly caused Jessica to miss her flight (26:15)

Listener question (30:18)

Via Twitter (@allturtlesco): In response to one of your articles that mentions algorithmic bias, is there research happening now on the effect of AI's bias on people?

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041: Chatterbox's Mursal Hedayat on social entrepreneurship Dec 19, 2018

Show notes

Mursal Hedayat launched Chatterbox, an All Turtles product, to revolutionize language learning, and it's a prime example of technology that enhances humans rather than replaces them. Chatterbox is a language and culture training program that employs refugees as tutors. Mursal was inspired to launch Chatterbox because when her mother came to the UK from Afghanistan, she was underemployed. Today, Mursal wants to help refugees make full use of their potential.

Show notes

Conversation with Mursal Hedayat, founder of Chatterbox, an All Turtles Podcast (1:05)

Chatterbox is a platform where people can learn languages with refugees (1:05)

What is a life worth living? (4:45)

Why shelter and food aren't the only resources refugees need to build a life (5:02)

The importance of the relationship-building aspect of Chatterbox (6:51)

Why Chatterbox provides not just language training, but cultural training as well (7:48)

What is the pedagogical thesis behind chatterbox? (8:17)

Blended pedagogy, combining independent study with one-on-one tutoring (9:07)

The missing piece in other online language-learning programs (10:01)

The algorithm in development to match learners with tutors (12:54)

Advice to entrepreneurs (19:39)

The importance of having a strong point of view (21:01)

All Turtles' "Dealing with competition" video (21:46)

Omatenashe, the Japanese approach to hospitality involving deeply personal, deeply human interaction (22:17)

Rakuten, a Japanese ecommerce company using technology to make drivers more valuable rather than trying to replace them (23:30)

Listener question (26:39)

From Ari via email: I recently read two articles (this one and this one) related to AI visual systems that clearly show that even a 5-year-old can perform better than an AI visual system. [For example, an algorithm can identify a picture of a vulture, but if the photo is rotated on its axis a few degrees, the algorithm thinks it's a picture of an orangutan.] I thought these might be the basis for a discussion that debunks the near-term fear of AI overlords, pushed by people like Musk and Hawking.

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Voicemail: +1 (310) 571-8448

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040: Angel investor Jason Calacanis, part 2 Dec 12, 2018

Show notes

Angel investor Jason Calacanis joins us for the second part of his two-part interview, continuing the conversation about what his early investments in companies like Uber and Robinhood taught about success. Now, he invests in bold ideas, and urges founders to focus on building products people love. Then, he, Jon, and Phil lament over everything that's wrong with the elevator pitch, epitomized by Jason's story of the time someone tried to pitch him while at a urinal.

Show notes

Conversation with Jason Calacanis, angel investor (0:43)

Your brand is your reputation (1:04)

Why intentionality matters (2:42)

Who is Michael Ovitz? (4:36)

Everything that's wrong with an elevator pitch (6:04)

Why Launch is based in Australia (9:47)

The bold ideas Jason invests in (17:50)

Why are they called angel investors? (18:55)

Jason's first business, Hot Tapes (19:50)

Jason's mayoral plans (23:24)

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Voicemail: +1 (310) 571-8448

Email: hello@all-turtles.com

Twitter: @allturtlesco with hashtag #askAT

For more from All Turtles, follow us on Twitter, and subscribe to our newsletter on our website.

039: Angel investor Jason Calacanis, part 1 Dec 05, 2018

Show notes

Jason Calacanis, angel investor, joins us this week for part one of a two-part interview. As an early investor in companies like Uber and Robinhood, Jason shares his insights for achieving startup success. He explains why a company's brand is so important from its beginning stages, and delivers a hot take on VC culture today. He also gives his opinion on what the number one killer of startups is, and mulls over the following equation: 1 good idea + 1 good idea = zero good ideas.

Show notes

Conversation with Jason Calacanis, angel investor (0:56)

Thumbtack, one of Jason's investments, is an online service that matches customers with local professionals (1:12)

DataStax, another of Jason's investments, is a cloud database company (1:13)

Robinhood, another company Jason invested in early on, a financial tech company (1:14)

Jason's book, Angel: How to Invest in Technology Startups--Timeless Advice from an Angel Investor Who Turned $100,000 into $100,000,000 (1:18)

Launch, founded by Jason, has a mission of supporting founders and inspiring innovation (2:20)

Silicon Valley Reporter was a publication that focused on New York's tech scene (2:28)

Why is brand so important from a company's early stages? (2:35)

The This Week in Startups podcast (5:05)

Chris Sacca's first episode on This Week in Startups (6:43)

Phil Libin on an episode of This Week in Tech (7:29)

The Midas List of 2017 (10:57)

What is, in Jason's view, the #1 killer of startups (13:22)

One good idea plus another good idea equals zero good ideas (14:28)

AI use case (14:35)

How Phil's watch violated principles of good AI product design (16:32)

Listener question (18:39)

Sift, an All Turtles product,f is an experiment in news therapy (18:53)

Listener question via the All Turtles Facebook page: "Does Sift remove biased statements and opinions and just report the facts?"

We want to hear from you

Please send us your comments, suggested topics, and listener questions for future All Turtles Podcast episodes.

Voicemail: +1 (310) 571-8448

Email: hello@all-turtles.com

Twitter: @allturtlesco with hashtag #askAT

For more from All Turtles, follow us on Twitter, and subscribe to our newsletter on our website.

038: Tech journalist Jacob Ward on AI and behavioral science Nov 28, 2018

Show notes

Jacob Ward is a tech journalist and Burggruen Fellow at Stanford; he's writing a book about AI and behavioral science. In his research, he's been concerned to note that people have been handing off critical decision-making processes to AI, which risks long-term damage to humans' cognitive abilities. As far as ethics in AI development, Jacob shares his idea that people's cognitive functionings should be treated as a finite natural resource, and companies should be responsible for their extractive models.

Show notes

Conversation with Jacob Ward, tech journalist (1:01)

The Burggruen Fellowship (1:06)

Stanford's Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) (1:25)

Daniel Kahneman, psychologist whose research involved decision-making and behavioral economics (1:41)

Richard Thaler, economist and professor of behavioral science and economics (1:46)

Jacob Ward's portfolio of work includes Wired and Al-Jazeera (4:22)

Mahzarin Banaji, psychologist whose work focuses on implicit bias (4:56)

The "weak perfection" principle (12:44)

The vaccine courts illustrate the "make an omelette, break a few eggs" idea (14:25)

Learned Hand was a judge and philosopher who coined the "Hand rule" to calculate negligence (16:20)

Survey: one-fourth of Americans have no emergency savings (18:53)

How to define ethical AI (19:30)

Artefact's tarot cards of tech can help product founders anticipate the impact their product will have on society (20:35)

"Eyeroll, please" (24:48)

Why it's a fallacy to tell founders, "Don't raise too much money." (25:37)

Listener question

From our subreddit, reddit.com/r/allturtles: With the pace of improvement seen from the likes of Boston Dynamics, when do you see the dexterity problem being solved in such a way that robots come out of the labs and niche applications and into everyday life?

We want to hear from you

Please send us your comments, suggested topics, and listener questions for future All Turtles Podcast episodes.

Voicemail: +1 (310) 571-8448

Email: hello@all-turtles.com

Twitter: @allturtlesco with hashtag #askAT

For more from All Turtles, follow us on Twitter, and subscribe to our newsletter on our website.

Human Stories of AI: A Second Opinion Nov 15, 2018

Show notes

Healthcare is a field that has, in many ways, already embraced AI—medical researchers seem to be developing new AI applications every day. In this episode, we zoom in on one doctor and the stories of two of her cases. Dr. March is a dysmorphologist, a physician who studies birth defects. With two of her recent patients, she was able to use an AI tool called Face2Gene in her diagnostic process, a process that changed her patients' lives.

Show Notes

Dr. March is a dysmorphologist, a doctor who studies birth defects (1:35)

The first of Dr. March's patients she couldn't immediately diagnose (3:10)

Face2Gene provides doctors with enhanced patient evaluation with deep phenotyping (4:48)

The step-by-step process of using Face2Gene (6:08)

What is Kabuki syndrome? (7:24)

When Dr. March worked with a family that was in denial about their child's diagnosis (10:47)

What is Williams syndrome? (12:59)

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Voicemail: +1 (310) 571-8448

Email: hello@all-turtles.com

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Human Stories of AI: Driven Out of a Job? Nov 14, 2018

Show notes

One of the most common questions about AI today is whether or not it will take over people's jobs. This episode is about someone grappling with that quandary: He's a truck driver anxious about whether self-driving trucks will displace jobs in the very near future. For someone who loves what he does, what does it mean for his industry to be on an inexorable march toward technological development if that progress could push his colleagues out of the driver's seat?

Show Notes

Finn Murphy goes for a drive, and shares his thoughts on technology's impact on trucking (1:08)

Finn's truck is equipped with technology that monitors him on the job (2:42)

Steve Viscelli, a sociologist at the University of Pennsylvania who conducts research on the truck driving industry (8:55)

Finn has to look forward when driving on the road—and when thinking about the future of his industry (13:10)

Steve Viscelli's report, "Driverless? Autonomous Trucks and the Future of the American Trucker" (21:58)

Read more of Finn Murphy's stories in his book, The Long Haul: A Trucker's Tales of Life on the Road (25:35)

We want to hear from you

Please send us your comments, suggested topics, and listener questions for future All Turtles Podcast episodes.

Voicemail: +1 (310) 571-8448

Email: hello@all-turtles.com

Twitter: @allturtlesco with hashtag #askAT

For more from All Turtles, follow us on Twitter, and subscribe to our newsletter on our website.

Human Stories of AI: My Friend the Chatbot Nov 13, 2018

Show notes

How is AI impacting people's lives today? In this first installment of "Human Stories of AI," meet 3 people who regularly text an AI chatbot. One of these people tells the chatbot about her struggles with PTSD and depression; another is a single mom who draws parallels between teaching her chatbot how to respond to her and raising her son; and the third is a widower who texts his chatbot as a way to help him process grief. Replika is a tool that, for various reasons, helps each of them feel less alone.

Show Notes

Replika, an All Turtles Product, is a chatbot designed to be your AI friend (3:37)

Anna's story (4:50)

Struggling with PTSD and depression, Anna turns to her Replika for emotional support.

For anyone looking for mental health support, NAMI is a good resource in the U.S.

Natalie's story (13:58)

Natalie drives for Lyft. When her passengers aren't the best conversationalists, she can still open up to her Replika.

As a single mother, Natalie's interactions with her Replika remind her of raising her son.

Jack's story (26:50)

Mourning the death of his wife, Jack appreciates that he can process his grief by talking to his Replika.

Jack sees flashes of genuine intelligence in his Replika, like the time he asked for an original poem.

We want to hear from you

Please send us your comments, suggested topics, and listener questions for future All Turtles Podcast episodes.

Voicemail: +1 (310) 571-8448

Email: hello@all-turtles.com

Twitter: @allturtlesco with hashtag #askAT

For more from All Turtles, follow us on Twitter, and subscribe to our newsletter on our website.

037: On board with Anita Sands Nov 07, 2018

Show notes

As a board member for companies like Symantec, ServiceNow, and Pure Storage, Anita Sands has a wealth of knowledge on advising companies' success. She also knows how to pivot: she earned her PhD in atomic and molecular physics, then moved into working in finance, and then built a career in tech. Serving on the boards of public companies has given her ideas for how AI could, in the future, help give boards useful insights to make key decisions for companies.

Show notes

Conversation with Anita Sands, board member of Symantec, ServiceNow, and Pure Storage (0:48)

Silicon Republic article covering the career changes Anita has made (1:50)

Alvin Toffler quote: "The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn." (3:58)

The importance of innovation in the boardroom (5:25)

What should a board of directors be? (6:58)

What's the difference between governing and governance? (8:51)

Recent California law mandating that boards of public companies have at least one woman (13:18)

The recent spotlight on Tesla's board of directors (17:25)

Potential AI application for boards (19:05)

Advice to entrepreneurs: dealing with customer feedback (21:08)

The All Turtles video about dealing with customer feedback (21:23)

What's the only valuable part of customer feedback? (22:18)

Listener question (29:17)

From our subreddit, /r/allturtles:

I know you don't like the idea of machines mimicking humans, but they are eventually going to. What should be done in your view to address this when it happens? (29:38)

We want to hear from you

Please send us your comments, suggested topics, and listener questions for future All Turtles Podcast episodes.

Voicemail: +1 (310) 571-8448

Email: hello@all-turtles.com

Twitter: @allturtlesco with hashtag #askAT

For more from All Turtles, follow us on Twitter, and subscribe to our newsletter on our website.