People and AI: Explore the Latest Advances, Research, and Risks of Artificial Intelligence

Philippe Beaudoin - Building Empathetic AI

Episode Summary

A lesser-known challenge in the development of AI technologies is the harm it can cause to our ability to develop and grow optimally as humans. Philippe Beaudoin’s experience in the AI field spans from academia to enterprise, and through his latest venture, Waverly, he aims to hand agency and autonomy back to humans.

Episode Notes

Philippe Beaudoin, CEO and Co-Founder at Waverly, shares his thoughts on how to bridge the gap between academics and industry professionals, the immense challenge of balancing company optimization strategies with the best interests of the users and why empathy should be a much bigger part of the AI conversation.

Key Points From This Episode:

• Phil shares the exciting career journey that led him to where he is currently.
• The changes that have taken place in the AI world since Phil entered it.
• Why a large percentage of AI in enterprise still fails.
• A major difference between the academics researching AI and those applying that research.
• Phil’s thoughts on how to bridge the gap between academia and enterprise.
• An explanation of one of the lesser-known threats of AI.
• The inspiration behind Phil’s app, Waverly, and how it works.
• Why companies are hesitant to change the way their recommendation engines are built.
• Challenges of balancing company optimization with the best interests of the user.
• Problems that Phil sees with the implementation of policies and regulations around AI technology.
• The empathy component of AI technology that Phil thinks we should be focusing on.
• Advice for researchers and practitioners for dealing with the unintended consequences of working in the AI field.

Tweetables:

“[Waverly] is my take on how to build better AI systems, and for me, better means AI systems that care more about the user they are trying to help than we are used to seeing.” — @PhilBeaudoin [0:02:43]

“Vision has improved a lot, natural language understanding, speech recognition, our ability to find patterns, all of that has improved a lot. It’s not AGI but it has improved quite a bit.” — @PhilBeaudoin [0:04:46]

“Bring an open mind, bring a lot of respect, and try to see the importance of the other party.” — @PhilBeaudoin [0:13:05]

“Most people have aspirations, most people have a direction they want to grow into, and when they go about their everyday life they are super happy to have assistance, but this assistance should be at the service of our aspirations.” — @PhilBeaudoin [0:18:50]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Phil Beaudoin

Element AI

Waverly