Joanie interviews Juliette Powell, author, entrepreneur, technologist, and strategist. Juliette’s background is varied and extensive. She is a co-author of the book, The AI Dilemma, and her consulting services focus on global strategy and scenarios related to AI and data, banking, mobile, retail, social gaming, and responsible technology.
Highlights:
Q: How did the book come about?
A: Juliette tells the story of how the book emerged from her graduate studies and talks about the research she incorporated to back up all of the assertions in the book.
Q: How does bias get incorporated into AI algorithms and exacerbated by them?
A: Juliette posits that much of the bias is not introduced on purpose and describes how that can happen. One of the ways bias is introduced stems from the demonstrated fact that we humans have the tendency to want to work with people like us and that can lead to a lack of diversity of experiences and thought. Juliette describes other ways bias is introduced and how to bring different people together to reduce it, from the individual level up to the organization and government levels.
Q: How can we get businesses to invest in AI auditing?
A: Juliette acknowledges that we are still in an experimental space with generative AI, but also suggests incorporating risk analysis at the organizational level to examine potential consequences. Reputation, for example, is important for a corporation. Government regulations are also being formed.
Listen to the episode to learn ways to create and use AI responsibly.
Words of Wisdom about AI:
Ask yourself: how much control do you want to have in your life?
Examine the culture of your organization to determine your AI governance.
What am I not willing to do for a buck?
What are you as an organization not willing to do to make money?
Book:
The AI Dilemma (https://www.bkconnection.com/books/title/The-AI-Dilemma)
Contact Juliette Powell:
Website: juliettepowell.com (https://www.juliettepowell.com/)
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliettepowell/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliettepowell/)
3 May 2023TRANSCRIPT
Abby Malchow: Crafting a Career in Big Tech
Abby Malchow is a Manager of Small Business Partnerships at Amazon. She develops and manages partnerships that help drive success for early-stage entrepreneurs and small businesses through delivering programs and investments that support their continued growth. Abby appeared on Reinventing Nerds Episode 6 and talked about Women Vets in Tech when she was working at Intel. Abby is a retired U.S. Navy Chief and combat veteran, serving more than 20 years in the military. In the current episode, Abby discusses how to navigate a career in a big tech company.
Highlights:
Q: Tell us about the variety of interesting jobs you have had at Amazon.
She has remained focused on small businesses and entrepreneurs in various roles and in various organizations within Amazon. She was first hired to work on the Global Military Affairs team and figure out where Amazon can help military small business owners if they do want to sell in their store and look at entrepreneurship as a form of employment. She gave them educational opportunities and worked closely with the Military Empowerment team. She moved on to the Finance organization to manage strategic partnerships with a diversity of small business owners and entrepreneurs. Now she works in the broader consumer organization, where she has worked in a couple of different roles.
Q: How do you navigate a career in a big company?
Abby talks about the importance of networking and creating partnerships across the organization. Because Amazon is a fairly flat company, it is important to identify people across different teams to drive a goal forward. She says she is a huge believer of going into the office.
Q: Why is going into the office important?
Abby discusses the importance of being in the office to meet people and build relationships and how simply being there in person facilitates networking. Abby also gives other networking suggestions, such as getting involved in different initiatives and finding common interests and being proactive about meeting people in different roles.
Q: How do you maintain your flexibility to work in a fast-moving, ever-changing organization?
Abby likes the unpredictability and being able to innovate and create in her roles. That is what keeps her there. She describes how she has become much more marketable having worked in different roles. She has gained a variety of skill sets.
Q: Research repeatedly shows that people leave jobs because of their manager. How do you find the good ones to work with? What do you look for?
Abby suggests that people learn more from their terrible managers than from their good managers. She also suggests that direct, honest feedback to one’s manager is important and having a manager who gives you opportunity for growth is critical.
Listen to the episode to hear more about Abby’s tips on knowing the culture, being nimble and flexible, being able to compromise, and challenges that women face in big tech.
Words of Wisdom:
I’m a huge believer of being inside the office.
You always have to “make the ask” to schedule time with people and get to know them.
You can almost always come to a compromise, but you have to be open to feedback.
You want a manager who is a gardener, not a gatekeeper.
Contact Abby Malchow:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abbymalchow/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/abbymalchow/)
24 Mar 2023TRANSCRIPT
Franklin Taggart: Humans vs. AI
In this episode, Joanie interviews Franklin Taggart about his recent book about AI called, Straight from the Bot’s Mouth: A Conversation With ChatGPT About Artificial Intelligence. Franklin created the book using ChatGPT and had the whole project done in less than a week. In this interview, Franklin describes his experience as well as AI’s impact on society, jobs—especially jobs in the creative sector—and more. Franklin is a coach who works with creative people at every level of their business and sometimes life.
Highlights:
Q: What was the experience like of creating a book with AI?
Franklin said it was a curiosity and an experiment for him, and he has been a fan of AI for years. He didn’t set out to write the book. He just wanted ChatGPT to answer his questions. This latest wave of artificial intelligence has really captured my attention and my imagination.
He keeps a notebook of questions he has about AI. He had also thought about writing a book about it for a while but didn’t have a year’s worth of time to dedicate to the project. In comes AI…
Q: What are some of the benefits and drawbacks of AI for people in the creative space?
Franklin said that ChatGPT’s responses to his questions about its impact tended to be quite balanced. Franklin does have concerns, though, especially for creatives. He gives a detailed account of how musicians were impacted by technology over the last several decades as an example of what the AI landscape might look for other creative people. It is a gripping story that is worth the listen!
Q: What do you use AI for?
Franklin has used AI to develop sales pages and said he can accomplish this normal hours’ long process in minutes. This raises the question about how to make money for developing sales pitches for people. The hourly rate may no longer be applicable. What will the future be? Franklin uses his experience and imagination to suggest new ways creative people (and everyone!) will need to work differently as AI becomes more prevalent.
Franklin also talks about how AI will affect the workforce, how to utilize AI to increase your productivity, and much more.
Words of Wisdom:
This latest wave of artificial intelligence has really captured my attention and my imagination.
AI can mirror your creativity.
Ultimately, my business model is already changing to adapt to having AI resources at my fingertips–because it has to.
The key is to figure out how to shift your business model so that it can be more fluid and flexible and responsive to the marketplace as AI technology is introduced.
Franklin Taggart’s book, Straight from the Bot’s Mouth: A Conversation With ChatGPT About Artificial Intelligence, available on Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/Straight-Bots-Mouth-Conversation-Intelligence-ebook/dp/B0BWVYS3R6/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1KI25VAW4OBCG&keywords=franklin+taggart&qid=1677781226&sprefix=franklin+taggart%2Caps%2C167&sr=8-1).
Shout Out:
Matt Wolfe curates AI tools and shares them on https://www.futuretools.io/ (https://www.futuretools.io/).
Contact Franklin Taggart:
Website: https://www.franklintaggart.com/ (https://www.franklintaggart.com/)
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/franklin-taggart-coaching/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/franklin-taggart-coaching/)
Podcast: Your Own Best Company
Inside a recent episode
Juliette Powell: Designing AI for People
Published 8 Nov 2023 · Transcript excerpt
[…] And I think that it's really, really important to be able to include organizations that are independent and individuals that are independent, but also that we have a nice cross section of different fields that are represented. […]
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