The Georgian Impact Podcast | AI, ML & More

We all get a few chuckles when autocorrect gets something wrong, but there's a lot of time-saving and face-saving value with autocorrect. But do we trust autocorrect? Yeah. We do, even with its errors. Maybe you can use ChatGPT to improve your productivity. Ask it to a cool question and maybe get a decent answer. That's fine. After all, it's just between you and ChatGPT. But, what if you're a software company and you're leveraging these technologies? You could be putting generative AI output in front of your users. On this episode of the Georgian Impact Podcast, it is time to talk about GenAI and trust. Angeline Yasodhara, an Applied Research Scientist at Georgian, is here to discuss the new world of GenAI. You'll Hear About: Differences between closed and open-source large language models (LLMs), advantages and disadvantages of each. Limitations and biases inherent in LLMs due to their training on Internet data. Treating LLMs as untrusted users and the need to restrict data access to minimize potential risks. The continuous learning process of LLMs through reinforcement learning from human feedback. Ethical issues and biases associated with LLMs, and the challenges of fostering creativity while avoiding misinformation. Collaboration between AI and security teams to identify and mitigate potential risks associated with LLM applications. Who is Angelina Yasodhara? Angeline Yasodhara is an Applied Research Scientist at Georgian, where she collaborates with companies to help accelerate their AI products. With expertise in the ethical and security implications of LLMs, she provides valuable insights into the advantages and challenges of closed vs. open-source LLMs.

Sometimes it’s hard to know where to start when it comes to generative AI. It’s not too hyperbolic to say that many different aspects of a business have the potential to be affected by this new technology. Today, we’re going to talk about something that’s behind the scenes for most people, although hopefully not this audience. It’s coding. On this episode of the Georgian Impact Podcast, we dive into the world of generative AI and its impact on coding, testing, and product design with guest Rodrigo Ceballos. Rodrigo is a Machine Learning Engineer at Georgian and provides firsthand experience and expertise, shedding light on the transformative power of AI in the tech industry. Exploring the exciting possibilities brought about by the fusion of human creativity and AI technology. You’ll Hear About: The progression of software engineering from low-level to high-level languages, culminating in the use of natural language for coding. The daily integration of generative AI, such as ChatGPT, in automating tasks and writing code. The role of large language models (LLMs) as an intermediate layer and a translation layer between different pieces of software. The impact of generative AI in automating functions, unit testing, and API interaction in programming. Using generative AI to brainstorm and guide game design, showing the versatility of AI in enhancing human creativity. The potential upside and downside of leveraging generative AI in streamlining processes and increasing efficiency. Who is Rodrigo Ceballos? With over six years of experience in AI research and engineering, Rodrigo Ceballos is a dedicated Machine Learning Engineer at Georgian. In his current role, Rodrigo collaborates with portfolio companies to implement solutions in computer vision, natural language processing and generative AI. Before joining Georgian, he served as an AI Research Engineer at PAIGE.ai, where he played a pivotal role in developing PaigeProstate, the world's first FDA-approved AI-assisted pathology diagnostic tool.

We’ve all heard about how generative AI is changing almost every aspect of a business. If you crack open the door and peer in on the AI teams. You’ll see them playing with models and, no, we’re not talking about planes and trains. We’re talking about providing the correct inputs necessary to drive desired outputs in an AI model. On this episode of the Georgian Impact Podcast, we will be discussing the impact of generative AI and fine-tuning data strategy with Rohit Saha, an ML scientist at Georgian’s R&D team. Rohit will explore how large language models (LLMs) and fine-tuning are changing the AI landscape for businesses, the necessary skills for data science teams in the age of generative AI, and the pivotal role of dynamic data strategy in leveraging new technology effectively. You’ll Hear About: The role of fine-tuning in tailoring foundational AI models to specific use cases. How the landscape of ML and AI has evolved with the emergence of LLMs. Leveraging LLMs to enhance productivity and build enterprise software. Evolution of skills and talent required in the era of generative AI. Creating a dynamic data strategy and leveraging open source models for fine-tuning. Identifying golden use cases and the impact of LLMs on classification tasks. Who is Rohit Saha? Rohit Saha is an ML Scientist at Georgian's R&D team. He works with the portfolio companies to accelerate their data science roadmap by assisting them in scoping research problems, writing machine learning or AI code, and putting solutions into production. Rohit has worked across various projects, specializing in computer vision, natural language processing and large language models. His expertise lies in helping companies fine-tune and leverage large language models for enterprise software solutions.

Generative AI is redefining businesses with its capacity to write text, generate code, execute tasks, create images, and more. Gen AI is fundamentally changing how companies have to build their products.This is the first in a series of podcasts featuring our AI team, where they share their experiences on the generative AI work they've already done with more than 20 of our portfolio companies. In this episode, we are joined by two technical leaders of Georgian's R&D team Parinaz Sobhani and David Tingle. Parinaz is the Head of AI at Georgian and David is the team's Engagement Manager for our work with our customers. You’ll Hear About: How generative AI is reshaping businesses by excelling in text, code, task execution, and image generation.The importance of a cross-functional collaboration approach and a top-down problem-solving strategy in technology development.An overview of the historical focus of Georgian's AI team on data and machine learning.Exploration of the starting points for companies, including the use of foundational models from big tech companies and the role of first-party data in differentiation.Discussion on the crawl, walk, run stages of generative AI adoption, highlighting the importance of finding a golden use case and the need for a "trust-first" approach for future-proofing.

On this episode of the Georgian Impact podcast, we are talking to a guest we last had in 2020. Back in 2020, we were talking about AI and marketing and how to use things like automation tools to make our jobs easier. Now in 2023, generative AI tools are basically the biggest topic of conversation right now. So, we're here to break that down with Paul Roetzer.Paul is the author of several books on marketing and AI, including Marketing Artificial Intelligence, and he's the creator of the Marketing AI Conference.You'll Hear About:The evolution of generative AI tools in marketing.The role of AI in ideation and strategy, rather than writing.The adoption and integration of AI tools into marketing workflows.The impact of generative AI on content creation and strategy.Building an AI council within organizations.Developing responsible AI principles and policies.The importance of a moral compass in AI application.Transparency and disclaimers for AI usage.The future of AI in entrepreneurship, creativity and scientific breakthroughs.Addressing fears and concerns related to AI in the workplace.

On this episode of the Georgian Impact podcast, we’ll be breaking down the technologies that make up generative AI and how it works. From Large Language Models (LLMs) to deep learning, this podcast will help you understand how AI has evolved to get us to this point with GenAI and what he’s excited about in the space. Mahan Salehi, AI and LLM product manager at NVIDIA, will explain how the space has evolved from his experience at NVIDIA working with AI.  You’ll Hear About: ●  Machine learning vs. artificial intelligence.●  The need for guidance for GenAI models.●  Rules-based models vs. deep learning models.●  The two pieces of generative AI.●  How foundational models are trained.●  The value of first-party data.●  Mahan looking back and looking forward.●  The impact on different industries.

Since our inception, Georgian has identified new trends that we believe will change the way companies do business. This kind of thinking resulted in our thesis areas like Applied AI, Conversational AI and Trust. In this episode of the Georgian Impact Podcast, we talk to Sonia Lagourgue, Georgian’s Head of Purpose & ESG and Emily Walsh, Lead Investor at Georgian. They will break down Georgian’s latest thesis area: Product-led Purpose. Simply put, Product-led Purpose is our view that the next generation of market-leading technology companies will not only deliver superior economic value but also a quantifiable positive impact on societal challenges. You’ll Hear About: ●  Georgian’s purpose and what it takes to get the whole team engaged.●  Where the purpose came from and its ties to Georgian’s history.●  How Georgian’s Purpose Report holds us accountable. ●  Why Georgian launched a Product-led Purpose thesis and what that really means.●  How a strong top-level executive focus on purpose can motivate and drive a company forward.●  The main pillars of the Product-led Purpose thesis.●  The natural tension between pushing technology and purpose.

In this episode of the Georgian Impact Podcast about the importance of purpose within a company, we talk to James Novak. The former CEO of Fiix Software — now a Rockwell Automation Company — explains the company’s journey of discovering its maintenance management solution could go beyond its utility and tackle real problems like climate change. Through that journey, they explained how a purpose was important for employee attrition, attracting consumers and so much more.  

In this episode of the Georgian Impact Podcast, we talk to Tiffany Xingyu Wang, OpenWeb’s first-ever Chief Marketing Officer. With a mission to “save online conversations,” OpenWeb wants to improve the quality of conversations online while enabling conversation-based advertising, which allows brands to connect with their most active audiences. Through connecting with audiences, publishers can garner first-party data for ad targeting — a valuable tool as publishers prepare for the disappearance of third-party cookies. 

In our first-ever episode of Bridging Web3, we’re talking about interoperability with Jon Kol from Hyperlane. Hyperlane allows developers to connect their apps across blockchains and are dedicated to interchain singularity. Our goal is to understand the building blocks to make Web3 more usable and drive adoption, and to understand the real-world opportunities in the long term 

In this episode of the Georgian Impact podcast, we’re talking to Francois Chaubard, CEO of Focal Systems. Focal Systems leverages AI and cameras to automate many steps in the retail delivery supply chain. 

In this episode on commercializing AI, we speak with Cameron Schuler, a key contributor to AI's game-changing prominence. Cameron is the Chief Commercialization Officer at the Vector Institute and is dedicated to advancing the transformative field of AI.  

In this episode of the Georgian Impact podcast, we’ll be talking about one pillar of responsible AI: explainable AI. Explainability provides insight into what's training your data and how it's performing, so if something goes wrong you know exactly where to start looking for a solution. Fiddler.AI founder and CEO Krishna Gade breaks down how explainability provides insights into training data and performance, and why visibility on how this works enables trust.

In this episode of the Georgian Impact Podcast, we talk to PolyAI CEO and co-founder Nikola Mrkšić. PolyAI is a conversational AI company spun out of University of Cambridge research that builds voice assistants at scale in multiple languages. You'll get a helpful breakdown of the challenges of building conversational AI, what makes PolyAI different, and you’ll hear a demo of the tech in action. You’ll Hear About: ●  Nikola Mrkšić and PolyAI’s vision ●  The accuracy needed to ensure customers don’t become frustrated ●  How PolyAI has surpassed previous generations of voice tech●  Mapping non-linear customer journeys●  How PolyAI develops conversation depth with their clients●  How outbound calls differ●  The ways in which PolyAI differentiates itself●  Having the voice match the brand●  Where Nikola sees voice tech going in five years  

No matter how you get into entrepreneurship, once you're in the game, there are some common keys to success. On this episode of the Georgian Impact podcast, we talk to Neha Sampat founder and CEO of Contentstack. Contentstack is a pioneering headless content management system, a fast-growing space that could change how we consume content online. You’ll Hear About: ●  Neha’s entrepreneurial journey and the beginning of Contentstack.●  Working with the technical teams when you aren’t a technologist.●  What does culture mean to Neha?●  Neha’s lessons about entrepreneurship●  Headless content management systems.●  How customers have become more nimble using Contentstack.●  Third-party integration and how it benefits Contentstack and its customers.●  The MACH Alliance.●  The importance of content as the heart of digital experiences.

Working from data has shifted from aggregation to getting helpful insight. With that change, it has become increasingly important to build an open-minded team with effective leadership. In this episode of the Georgian Impact Podcast, we talk to Brian Ritz, Director of Data Science Solutions at SPINS. SPINS connects wellness brands to their retail and omnichannel data, and they've partnered with over 300 brick-and-mortar retailers so far. Bringing advanced analytics to their clients allowing for deep fact-based decision-making.You’ll Hear About: ●  How Brian has seen tech develop over the past few decades.●  Ways to improve at getting more useful information from data.●  Ensuring you don’t get caught up in just the tech and data science side of product development.●  Will we reach a point where there is too much data?●  Data moats and how they can provide a competitive advantage.●  The need for companies to change or pivot.●  The importance of communication when striving to be a good leader.●  Diversity in your data and data team.

At Georgian, we love talking about self-sovereign identity. We’ve discussed it in previous episodes with Drummond Reed, the co-chair of Sovrin’s Governance Framework Working Group, Kaliya Young, a self-sovereign identity expert with over 20 years of experience in the field, and Mathieu Glaude, CEO of Northern Block. There’s a lot of layers to self-sovereign identity, and it’s easy to get lost in the noise of it all. We try to make it easy for you. In this episode, we cover it with Riley Hughes, Sovrin’s second employee and co-founder and CEO of Trinsic. Trinsic, which Georgian recently invested in, provides a cloud-based platform for credential verification and monitoring.  You’ll Hear About: ●  What is identity?●  The different ways Trinsic can be used by developers.●  Ways to disrupt or democratize the current model of identity.●  Decentralized identity and its many use cases.●  The continued need for anonymity in a digital identity world.●  How identity will evolve with web 3 and the metaverse.

On this episode of the Georgian Impact podcast, we are joined by Kaliya Young. Kaliya is an expert in self-sovereign identity. You might know her as Identity Woman. Kaliya has spent the last 20 years developing a layer on the internet based on open standards, with the goal of empowering people.You’ll Hear About:● The Internet Identity Workshop that Kaliya co-founded in 2005.● What it means to have open standards for digital identity and its importance. ● What businesses would benefit most from SSI.● Challenges in creating a user-centric digital identity.● How data became siloed within a few companies.● The link between digital identity and Web3.● The need to create standards that reflect all backgrounds.

In part two of a two-part series on the Georgian Impact Podcast, we talk to Maggie Love, founder of SheFi and co-founder of W3BCLOUD. In part two, Maggie talks about how to get more underrepresented groups interested in Web3 and DeFi, what Maggie has learned about onboarding more people onto DeFi and the SheFi approach to education.  In this podcast, you’ll hear about: How Maggie became interested in blockchainChallenges with onboarding more people onto Web3How SheFi makes it easier to break through Web3The importance of community in Web3 

The old tech adage goes that you should move fast and break things, but moving fast could mean you could be leaving some of your users behind. According to our guest, the way we do design today is “broken.”On this episode of the Georgian Impact Podcast, we talk to Alwar Pillai, the CEO of Fable, a leading accessibility platform powered by people with disabilities. While many companies focus on trying to build for at least 80% of people, Alwar says, trying to build for people at the margins can lead to better design. “You suddenly are creating a product that is adaptable, more personable, more usable, and more customizable, which in turn makes the products accessible to everyone.”In our podcast, she talks about how companies can avoid just “checking a box” and actually get proactive about inclusive design. What you'll hear about: Alwar’s journey into accessible design Why inclusive design builds better productsOvercoming biases in UX design The mindset and approach needed to build inclusivity into design Case studies from FableHow Fable works with enterprise clientsWhat Fable is doing with its Series A