The AI Element: A Podcast
AI is everywhere right now: in our news feeds, our devices, our homes. The hype is spreading quickly to permeate every industry, and the executives of the world want to know,
“Beyond the hype, what can this tech actually do for my business?”
The AI Element host Alex Shee sits down with influencers across several industries to investigate how AI is being used to disrupt and innovate.
Episode 1: What AI Can’t Do
Societal hype around AI is a byproduct of a few recent scientific breakthroughs — speech recognition, computer vision, natural language processing — in short, a computer’s ability to acquire human senses and mimic the human brain.
Yoshua Bengio (world-renowned professor and head of the Montreal Institute for Learning Algorithms) has been at the front lines of the Deep Learning Revolution that has enabled this kind of innovation. In this episode, he gives an overview of where the tech is actually at: how close is it to mirroring human senses?
Featured in this episode:
Yoshua Bengio, Scientific Director of the Montreal Institute for Learning Algorithms (MILA)
Daniel Gross, Partner at Y Combinator and Head of the AI Track
Episode 2: Startups vs. Traditional Industry
As AI seeps into every industry, businesses are being forced to adapt. Old school industries may not be as lean or quick to pivot as startups, but they have access to a motherlode of funding and data. Still, red tape and outdated infrastructure may block them from the timely AI transformation they need to stay afloat tomorrow.
Alex Shee speaks with serial AI entrepreneur JF Gagné about this tension between startups and more corporate environments. Then, 15-year veteran of the insurance industry Natacha Mainville shares some real-world examples of how AI is flipping the industry on its head, forcing incumbents to keep up.
Featured in this episode:
JF Gagné, CEO of Element AI
Natacha Mainville, Chief Innovation Officer at TandemLaunch
Episode 3: What’s an AI Strategy?
Successful adopters of AI develop an AI-first strategy supporting all functional areas of the business: marketing, product development, customer support, sales, and beyond. What does this look like in practice? Naomi Goldapple of Element AI, who consults with execs about AI strategy on the regular, provides some insight.
Alex also talks to Chris Benson who was hired at Honeywell to inject AI into the traditional-but-transforming manufacturing and logistics space. He shares some case studies of AI transformation and touches on the pervasive fear of job loss.
Featured in this episode:
Naomi Goldapple, Program Director at Element AI
Chris Benson, Chief Scientist for Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning at Honeywell
Episode 4: Cybersecurity and Phishing Attacks
Every touchpoint with a prospect is an opportunity to nurture that relationship, but also a potential entry point for hackers. Given that cybercriminals are more resourceful than ever, cybersecurity experts need to be just as sharp.
Oren Falkowitz is combining past experience at the NSA and US Cyber Command with AI to combat phishing attacks worldwide. In this episode, Alex Shee speaks to him and cybersecurity expert Frederic Michaud about how AI is currently being used to make businesses more safe.
Featured in this episode:
Frederic Michaud, Director at Element AI
Oren Falkowitz, CEO of Area 1 Security
Episode 5: A Future with AI
Many have dystopian projections of what our future with AI will look like, but professionals working in AI see things differently. For some, our future with AI may simply mean more free time and cheaper access to quality services.
We check in with Jordan Fisher, Daniel Gross, Natacha Mainville and JF Gagné who together paint a picture of what a not-so-distant future might look, especially in retail and insurance. They may not know exactly what the year 2050 will look like, but they are hopeful.
Featured in this episode:
Daniel Gross, Partner at Y Combinator and Head of the AI Track
Natacha Mainville, Chief Innovation Officer at TandemLaunch
Jordan Fisher, CEO at Standard Cognition
JF Gagné, CEO of Element AI
Episode 6: AI for Good
Charles C Onu is using AI to detect birth asphyxia in babies. His story is inspiring because of its impact on society and the field of healthcare (in 2016, 1,000,000 babies died from asphyxia), but also because of his humble beginnings. In this episode, Charles shows us that a passion for solving problems can help you overcome many obstacles.
Host Alex Shee also sits down with Rediet Abebe, Co-Founder and Co-Organizer of Black in AI, to expand on how others are using AI to change not just their industry, but the world.
Featured in the episode:
Charles C Onu, Founder and AI Research Lead at Ubenwa
Rediet Abebe, Co-Founder and Co-Organizer of Black in AI, Co-Founder and Co-Organizer of Mechanism Design for Social Good
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Our Guests
Rediet Abebe
Co-founder and co-organizer of Black in AI, co-founder and co-organizer of Mechanism Design for Social Good
Yoshua Bengio
Scientific Director of the Montreal Institute for Learning Algorithms (MILA)
Chris Benson
Chief Scientist for Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning at Honeywell Safety & Productivity Solutions
Oren Falkowitz
CEO of Area 1 Security
Jordan Fisher
CEO at Standard Cognition
JF Gagné
CEO of Element AI
Naomi Goldapple
Program Director at Element AI
Daniel Gross
Partner at Y Combinator and Head of the AI Track
Natacha Mainville
Chief Innovation Officer at TandemLaunch
Frederic Michaud
Director at Element AI
Charles C Onu
Founder and AI Research Lead at Ubenwa
Our Team
The AI Element is brought to you by Alex Shee, Steph Colbourn of EDITAUDIO, Amanda Durepos, Simon Hudson, Jacob Shriar, Geneviève Jacovella Rémillard, Caroline Bourbonnière, and Wei-Wei Lin. Music by Bienart and Lee Roservere