Our guest this week is Scott Thomson, Head of Innovation for Customer Engineering at Google. Scott’s role at Google and experience with Google Startups sees him helping Google’s customers with engineering challenges, particularly in the innovation space. He supports customers with less than straightforward challenges and helping them to set visions for the future. 

He emphasises the potential impact of AI on the workforce and the need for regulation, reiterating the importance of understanding the problem before choosing a solution and exploring different AI models.

Scott’s knowledge on the topic of generative AI seems second to none! During this episode, he discusses the history and evolution of AI, including Google's DistBelief and the creation of transformers in 2017, while delving into the challenges and opportunities presented by AI, such as ethical, legal, and regulatory questions, and the potential for artificial general intelligence.

The conversation focuses on the race for large language models, with OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft leading the way, and the main use cases for these models in chatbots, search, and content generation. Ian and Scott cover the risks and challenges of using AI and language models, particularly in chatbots, and the limitations of their accuracy and comprehension as well the unintended consequences and potential breaches of GDPR and copyright laws associated. 

Ian and Scott also cover the potential for future advancements in AI and the ethical concerns surrounding its development, including sexist inputs and potential future advancements in AGI. Scott touches on the potential value for investors and startups in the space, with a focus on fine-tuning use cases, building in a regulation-compliant way, and improving ease of use, stressing the importance of thinking about governance, risk, and compliance when using large language models. He encourages startup investors, founders, and CEOs to consider the risks and compliance of AI and language models.

Quickfire Round:

Book: Dune, Frank Herbert

Podcast: Google Cloud Podcast, Kubernetes, Rework

News Source: Google News on Android feature, ABC, The Guardian, Financial Times

App: OurGroceries 

CEO: The first CEO Scott worked for - name unknown 

TV Show: Lego Masters, Eurovision 

TEDTalk Topic: Innovation and Google's culture and process of innovation.

For more information check out the Google for Startups Program via the https://goo.gle/ibnews 

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