This Week In Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence (ai) Podcast

In this, the final episode of our PegaWorld series I’m joined by Vince Jeffs, Senior Director of Product Strategy for AI and Decisioning at Pegasystems. Vince and I had a great talk about the role AI and advanced analytics will play in defining future customer experiences. We do this in the context provided by one of his presentations from the conference, which explores four technology scenarios from Pegasystems’ innovation labs. These look at a connected car experience, the use of deep learning for diagnostics, dynamic notifications, and continuously optimized marketing. We also get into an interesting discussion about how much is too much when it comes to hyperpersonalized experiences, and how businesses can manage this challenge. The notes for this show can be found at twimlai.com/talk/154. For more information on the Pegaworld series, visit twimlai.com/pegaworld2018.

In this episode of our PegaWorld series, I’m joined by Michael Kempe, chief operating officer at global share registry and financial services provider Link Market Services. In the interview, Michael and I dig into Link’s use of workforce intelligence software to allow it to track and analyze the performance of its workforce and business processes. Michael and I discuss some of the initial challenges associated with implementing this type of system, including skepticism amongst employees, and how it ultimately sets the stage for the Link’s broader use of machine learning, AI and so called “robotic process automation” to increase workforce productivity. The notes for this show can be found at twimlai.com/talk/153. For more information on our PegaWorld series, visit twimlai.com/pegaworld2018.

In this show, part of our PegaWorld 18 series, I'm joined by Jim Saleh, Senior Director of process and decision automation at Scotiabank. Jim is tasked with helping the bank transition from a world where customer interactions are based on historical analytics to one where they’re based on real-time decisioning and automation. In our conversation we discuss what’s required to deliver real-time decisioning, starting from the ground up with the data platform. In this vein we explore topics like data lakes, data warehouses, integration, and more, and the effort required to take advantage of these. The notes for this show can be found at twimlai.com/talk/152. For more info on our PegaWorld 2018 series, visit twimlai.com/pegaworld2018.

In this show, the first of our PegaWorld 18 series, I'm joined by Kirk Borne, Principal Data Scientist at management consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton. In our conversation, Kirk shares his views on automation as it applies to enterprises and their customers. We discuss his experiences evangelizing data science within the context of a large organization, and the role of AI in helping organizations achieve automation. Along the way Kirk, shares a great analogy for intelligent automation, comparing it to an autonomous vehicle . We covered a ton of ground in this chat, which I think you’ll get a kick out of. The notes for this show can be found at twimlai.com/talk/151. For more info about our PegaWorld 2018 Series, visit twimlai.com/pegaworld2018.

On today’s show I’m excited to share this interview with Nick Osborn, a longtime listener of the show and Leader of the Global Machine Learning Project Management Office at AES Corporation, a Fortune 200 power company. Nick and I met at my AI Summit a few weeks back, and after a brief chat about some of the things he was up to at AES, I knew I needed to get him on the show! In this interview, Nick and I explore how AES is implementing machine learning across multiple domains at the company. We dig into several examples falling under the Natural Language, Computer Vision, and Cognitive Assets categories he’s established for his projects. Along the way we cover some of the key podcast episodes that helped Nick discover potentially applicable ML techniques, and how those are helping his team broaden the use of machine learning at AES. This was a fun and informative conversation that has a lot to offer. Thanks, Nick! The notes for this episode can be found at twimlai.com/talk/150.

In this episode, i'm joined by Romer Rosales, Director of AI at LinkedIn. We begin with a discussion of graphical models and approximate probability inference, and he helps me make an important connection in the way I think about that topic. We then review some of the applications of machine learning at LinkedIn, and how what Romer calls their ‘holistic approach’ guides the evolution of ML projects at LinkedIn. This leads us into a really interesting discussion about problem formulation and selecting the right objective function for a given problem. We then talk through some of the tools they’ve built to scale their data science efforts, including large-scale constrained optimization solvers, online hyperparameter optimization and more. This was a really fun conversation, that I’m sure you’ll enjoy! The notes for this show can be found at twimlai.com/talk/149.

In this episode I’m joined by Greg Mulholland, Founder and CEO of Citrine Informatics, which is applying AI to the discovery and development of new materials. Greg and I start out with an exploration of some of the challenges of the status quo in materials science, and what’s to be gained by introducing machine learning into this process. We discuss how limitations in materials manifest themselves, and Greg shares a few examples from the company’s work optimizing battery components and solar cells. We dig into the role and sources of data used in applying ML in materials, and some of the unique challenges to collecting it, and discuss the pipeline and algorithms Citrine uses to deliver its service. This was a fun conversation that spans physics, chemistry, and of course machine learning, and I hope you enjoy it. The notes for this show can be found at twimlai.com/talk/148.

In this episode I’m joined by Adam Wenchel, vice president of AI and Data Innovation at Capital One, to discuss how Machine Learning & AI are being integrated into their day-to-day practices, and how those advances benefit the customer. In our conversation, we look into a few of the many applications of AI at the bank, including fraud detection, money laundering, customer service, and automating back office processes. Adam describes some of the challenges of applying ML in financial services and how Capital One maintains consistent portfolio management practices across the organization. We also discuss how the bank has organized to scale their machine learning efforts, and the steps they’ve taken to overcome the talent shortage in the space. The notes for this show can be found at twimlai.com/talk/147.

On today’s show I chat with Song Han, assistant professor in MIT’s EECS department, about his research on Deep Gradient Compression. In our conversation, we explore the challenge of distributed training for deep neural networks and the idea of compressing the gradient exchange to allow it to be done more efficiently. Song details the evolution of distributed training systems based on this idea, and provides a few examples of centralized and decentralized distributed training architectures such as Uber’s Horovod, as well as the approaches native to Pytorch and Tensorflow. Song also addresses potential issues that arise when considering distributed training, such as loss of accuracy and generalizability, and much more. The notes for this show can be found at twimlai.com/talk/146.

In this episode, University of Edinburgh Phd student George Papamakarios and I discuss his paper “Masked Autoregressive Flow for Density Estimation.” George walks us through the idea of Masked Autoregressive Flow, which uses neural networks to produce estimates of probability densities from a set of input examples. We discuss some of the related work that’s laid the groundwork for his research, including Inverse Autoregressive Flow, Real NVP and Masked Auto-encoders. We also look at the properties of probability density networks and discuss some of the challenges associated with this effort. The notes for this show can be found at twimlai.com/talk/145.

For today’s show, the last in our TrainAI series, I'm joined by Qazaleh Mirsharif, a machine learning scientist working on computer vision at Figure Eight. Qazaleh and I caught up at the TrainAI conference to discuss a couple of the projects she’s worked on in that field, namely her research into the classification of retinal images and her work on parking sign detection from Google Street View images. The former, which attempted to diagnose diseases like diabetic retinopathy using retinal scan images, is similar to the work I spoke with Ryan Poplin about on TWiML Talk #122. In my conversation with Qazaleh we focus on how she built her datasets for each of these projects and some of the key lessons she’s learned along the way. The notes for this show can be found at twimlai.com/talk/144. For series details, visit twimlai.com/trainai2018.

Today we continue our TrainAI series with Sarah Aerni, Director of Data Science at Salesforce Einstein. Sarah and I sat down at the TrainAI conference to discuss her talk “Notes from the Field: The Platform, People, and Processes of Agile Data Science.” Sarah and I dig into the concept of agile data science, exploring what it means to her and how she’s seen it done at Salesforce and other places she’s worked. We also dig into the notion of machine learning platforms, which is also a keen area of interest for me. We discuss some of the common elements we’ve seen in ML platforms, and when it makes sense for an organization to start building one. The notes for this show can be found at twimlai.com/talk/143. For more details on the TrainAI series, visit twimlai.com/trainai2018

In this episode of our TrainAI series, I sit down with Anima Anandkumar, Bren Professor at Caltech and Principal Scientist with Amazon Web Services. Anima joined me to discuss the research coming out of her “Tensorlab” at CalTech. In our conversation, we review the application of tensor operations to machine learning and discuss how an example problem–document categorization–might be approached using 3 dimensional tensors to discover topics and relationships between topics. We touch on multidimensionality, expectation maximization, and Amazon products Sagemaker and Comprehend. Anima also goes into how to tensorize neural networks and apply our understanding of tensor algebra to do perform better architecture searches. The notes for this show can be found at twimlai.com/talk/142. For series info, visit twimlai.com/trainai2018

In today’s show, I sit down with David Van Valen, assistant professor of Bioengineering & Biology at Caltech. David joined me after his talk at the Figure Eight TrainAI conference to chat about his research using image recognition and segmentation techniques in biological settings. In particular, we discuss his use of deep learning to automate the analysis of individual cells in live-cell imaging experiments. We had a really interesting discussion around the various practicalities he’s learned about training deep neural networks for image analysis, and he shares some great insights into which of the techniques from the deep learning research have worked for him and which haven’t. If you’re a fan of our Nerd Alert shows, you’ll really like this one. Enjoy! The notes for this show can be found at twimlai.com/talk/141. For more information on this series, visit twimlai.com/trainai2018.

In this episode I’m joined by legendary chess champion, author, and fellow at the Oxford Martin School, Garry Kasparov. Garry and I sat down after his keynote at the Figure Eight Train AI conference in San Francisco last week. Garry and I discuss his bouts with the chess-playing computer Deep Blue–which became the first computer system to defeat a reigning world champion in their 1997 rematch–and how that experience has helped shaped his thinking on artificially intelligent systems. We explore his perspective on the evolution of AI, the ways in which chess and Deep Blue differ from Go and Alpha Go, and the significance of DeepMind’s Alpha Go Zero. We also talk through his views on the relationship between humans and machines, and how he expects it to change over time. The notes for this show can be found at twimlai.com/talk/140. For more information on this series, visit twimlai.com/trainai2018.

In this episode I’m joined by Taryn Southern - a singer, digital storyteller and Youtuber, whose upcoming album I AM AI will be produced completely with AI based tools. Taryn and I explore all aspects of what it means to create music with modern AI-based tools, and the different processes she’s used to create her singles Break Free, Voices in My Head, and more. She also provides a rundown of the many tools she’s used in this space, including Google Magenta, Watson Beat, AMPer, Landr and more. This was a super fun interview that I think you’ll get a kick out of. The notes for this show can be found at twimlai.com/talk/139

In this episode, i'm joined by Rachel Thomas, founder and researcher at Fast AI. If you’re not familiar with Fast AI, the company offers a series of courses including Practical Deep Learning for Coders, Cutting Edge Deep Learning for Coders and Rachel’s Computational Linear Algebra course. The courses are designed to make deep learning more accessible to those without the extensive math backgrounds some other courses assume. Rachel and I cover a lot of ground in this conversation, starting with the philosophy and goals behind the Fast AI courses. We also cover Fast AI’s recent decision to switch to their courses from Tensorflow to Pytorch, the reasons for this, and the lessons they’ve learned in the process. We discuss the role of the Fast AI deep learning library as well, and how it was recently used to held their team achieve top results on a popular industry benchmark of training time and training cost by a factor of more than ten. The notes for this show can be found at twimlai.com/talk/138

In this episode, I'm joined by Jose Hernandez-Orallo, professor in the department of information systems and computing at Universitat Politècnica de València and fellow at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, working on the Kinds of Intelligence Project. Jose and I caught up at NIPS last year after the Kinds of Intelligence Symposium that he helped organize there. In our conversation, we discuss the three main themes of the symposium: understanding and identifying the main types of intelligence, including non-human intelligence, developing better ways to test and measure these intelligences, and understanding how and where research efforts should focus to best benefit society. The notes for this show can be found at twimlai.com/talk/137.

In this episode i'm joined by John Bohannan, Director of Science at AI startup Primer. As you all may know, a few weeks ago we released my interview with Google legend Jeff Dean, which, by the way, you should definitely check if you haven’t already. Anyway, in that interview, Jeff mentions the recent explosion of machine learning papers on arXiv, which I responded to jokingly by asking whether Google had already developed the AI system to help them summarize and track all of them. While Jeff didn’t have anything specific to offer, a listener reached out and let me know that John was in fact already working on this problem. In our conversation, John and I discuss his work on Primer Science, a tool that harvests content uploaded to arxiv, sorts it into natural topics using unsupervised learning, then gives relevant summaries of the activity happening in different innovation areas. We spend a good amount of time on the inner workings of Primer Science, including their data pipeline and some of the tools they use

In this episode, our final episode in the Differential Privacy series, I speak with Chang Liu, applied research scientist at Georgian Partners, a venture capital firm that invests in growth stage business software companies in the US and Canada. Chang joined me to discuss Georgian’s new offering, Epsilon, a software product that embodies the research, development and lessons learned helps in helping their portfolio companies deliver differentially private machine learning solutions to their customers. In our conversation, Chang discusses some of the projects that led to the creation of Epsilon, including differentially private machine learning projects at BlueCore, Work Fusion and Integrate.ai. We explore some of the unique challenges of productizing differentially private ML, including business, people and technology issues. Finally, Chang provides some great pointers for those who’d like to further explore this field. The notes for this show can be found at twimlai.com/talk/135