Naveen Rao, Vice President of Artificial Intelligence at Databricks: How a Neuroscientist Became an AI Entrepreneur
10/02/24 • 37 min
Naveen Rao, Vice President of Artificial Intelligence at Databricks
Naveen recalls his journey to become a trained neuroscientist and how his PhD studies at Brown University informed his entrepreneurism in AI. We explore how he convinced venture capitalists to invest in hardware startups when it was out of fashion and why the first AI startup founders were often computational neuroscientists. We also learn how he became a serial entrepreneur after successfully selling multiple AI startups.
Finally, Naveen takes us on a deep dive into how AI has evolved and whether the current interest has any signs of a dot-com era bust.
Naveen Rao, Vice President of Artificial Intelligence at Databricks
Naveen recalls his journey to become a trained neuroscientist and how his PhD studies at Brown University informed his entrepreneurism in AI. We explore how he convinced venture capitalists to invest in hardware startups when it was out of fashion and why the first AI startup founders were often computational neuroscientists. We also learn how he became a serial entrepreneur after successfully selling multiple AI startups.
Finally, Naveen takes us on a deep dive into how AI has evolved and whether the current interest has any signs of a dot-com era bust.
Previous Episode
Jack and Rick Take on the Tagged Waymo Car, Anti-Tech Sentiment and Whether Tech Kills Jobs
Jack Kelly and Rick Chen react to the viral social media video of a Waymo driverless car getting stopped and tagged with graffiti in the streets of San Francisco. We look into how it happened, including how driverless cars work and their safety record, and whether the incident might be part of an anti-tech movement and sentiment.
Jack and Rick then talk about how fast they adopted new technology and compare and contrast today's startups and the startups and businesses from the not-so-distant past. We then debate whether tech like driverless cars and the gig economy might cause more layoffs or job losses or if they are a net positive for the world like Silicon Valley suggests they are.
https://www.ktvu.com/news/taggers-target-waymo-autonomous-vehicle
https://www.sfchronicle.com/projects/2024/cruise-sf-collision-timeline/
Next Episode
Jack and Rick Take on Recent Claims of the Tech Job Market's Collapse
Jack Kelly and Rick Chen investigate whether recent news reports of tech jobs disappearing are accurate. Rick explains that the tech industry isn't one of the hardest-hit industries by job cuts and casts some doubt into the methodology of how reporters and their sources count jobs and job losses. He also shares how some companies have slowed hiring without enacting hiring freezes.
Jack shares his reporting about the AI industry and why every company wants to say they are hiring AI jobs. He also covers the growing trend of companies outsourcing some jobs to other countries where compensation can be lower than in the U.S. and whether it should be a cause for concern for Americans.
Finally, we examine why job interviews have gotten longer, especially in the tech industry, and how tech roles have changed to become more specialized. Jack and Rick then share advice about how professionals might avoid layoffs by returning to the office or find greater success in the job market by adjusting their expectations.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2024/09/23/why-the-once-mighty-tech-career-is-no-longer-safe/
https://www.wsj.com/tech/tech-jobs-artificial-intelligence-cce22393
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