We are at an exciting point in time where AI continues to push the boundaries of what we thought possible. For the past two years, the People of AI podcast has been at the forefront of this revolution, sharing the stories of the individuals shaping the future of this transformative technology. In season 3, we heard inspiring stories and career anecdotes from the people who are building and pioneering the future of AI, all anchored to several important themes.
One of the biggest themes was the power of open source and community in democratizing AI and fostering innovation. François Chollet emphasizes the broad accessibility of Keras 3 models, enabling anyone to use them regardless of their preferred framework. Kathleen Kenealy discuss the development and impact of Gemma, Google's open model family, on the AI community, allowing developers to fine-tune and personalize models for diverse applications. “We want people to take Gemma and run with it, to build amazing things, to build new capabilities, to build new products, to build new research”. Jeanine Banks further underscores Google's commitment to building accessible developer tools, and the value of community collaboration in driving progress. “When you really can connect how access to technology empowers people to create and build, that then changes their standard of living, their quality of living for themselves, for others in their communities, in their countries ... .That's what we need to be making available to as many people as we can.”
Many speakers emphasize the potential of AI to address real-world challenges and improve accessibility. Adrit Rao's work on developing an AI-powered app for diagnosing peripheral artery disease demonstrates the power of AI in healthcare. Sachin Kotwani highlights the use of on-device large language models for tasks like assisting utility workers in remote areas. Indira Negi discusses her work at the Gates Foundation, investing in AI hardware for improving maternal healthcare in developing countries. “AI can be a powerful tool for improving healthcare outcomes, particularly in low-resource settings”.
Many of our conversations also touched upon the evolving definition of intelligence and the capabilities of AI. Tris Warkentin, through his work on Gemma, discusses the potential of AI for genuine personalization, allowing users to interact with technology in unique ways. François Chollet, while acknowledging the usefulness of large language models, and cautions against equating memorization with true intelligence, reasoning, or autonomy. “I see intelligence as the efficiency with which you can pick up new skills, and LLMs would score non-zero but extremely, extremely low on that scale. ...if you're talking about human-level AI and what it would take to get there, we are very, very far from it."
One final theme that came up throughout several of my interviews was whether or not AI will impact the work landscape. Yet, our speakers were very optimistic about the future and shared their wisdom. Mat Velloso's lifelong passion for programming, starting at age nine, underscores the importance of pursuing one's interests and how passion combined with technology is the key to bringing people together. “AI is going to be something that brings people closer together... there is going to be [an] ever increasing premium on humans and... the value of what it means to be human.” Logan Kilpatrick echoes this sentiment through his own journey. “The intersection of helping people and the intersection of coding really stuck with me and I think that's what gets me excited today...” Tina Huang's career trajectory, from pharmacology to data science and entrepreneurship, emphasizes the power of acquiring valuable skills ("identity capital") and adapting to the evolving needs of the job market and how to use AI to empower your career. Her advice is “it's always better to learn about these tools as opposed to try to hide from [them]....”
The stories of season 3 painted a compelling picture of the rapidly evolving landscape of AI and its potential to address critical challenges, improve accessibility, and empower individuals. The emphasis on open source, community collaboration, and continuous learning underscores the importance of democratizing access to AI and fostering a diverse and inclusive ecosystem for innovation.
The field of AI has exploded from the field of research and development into everyday people’s lives. How does this shift redefine what it means to be a person of AI? In season 4, we want to take a closer look at this question and rethink what it means to be a person of AI today.
We will continue to uncover our guests' personal and professional journeys into the field of AI, highlighting the important work/products they are building. We will take a specific look at how they are staying up-to-date with all these changes, how they are incorporating AI into their work and life, and how this relates to solving important problems, productivity, career growth and shaping the future of work. Starting Thursday Oct. 17th we will release one new episode every Thursday for season 4. Follow us on X and LinkedIn to hear about how AI today is shaping people, their careers and what problems they are solving in season 4.
People of AI an external-facing podcast showcasing inspiring stories and careers from the people who are building and pioneering the future of AI. We aim to inspire, educate and assist the general public on their AI journey, wherever they are in that journey. This 5-star rated podcast is hosted byAshley Oldacre and Gus Martins from the AI Developer Relations team at Google. This podcast is sponsored by Google. Any remarks made by the speakers are their own and are not endorsed by Google.
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