
LLMs and Multimodal AI with Dr. Stefania Druga of Google
04/29/24 • 48 min
In this episode, Dr. Stefania Druga (she/her), Research Scientist on the Bard (now Gemini) team at Google, shares insights into her work on developing multimodal AI applications. She explains how Bard, a LLM, is trained on a massive amount of internet data, enabling it to understand and generate text, summarize content, and interact with images. They cover the advancements in AI and importance of multimodal capabilities that extend beyond text to include images and other data forms, pushing the boundaries of AI's application in daily life.
Stefania Druga Quotes
📊 Data Set Sizes: "You can think of what does it mean to scrape the entire internet and that's pretty much it...all the data that was ever created digitally and has the right permissions."
⚙️ “These AI assistants are becoming now embedded in not only standalone applications like Bard and ChatGPT, but also in a variety of products...they can become embedded in your calendar to help with smart planning”
🚀 “I realized in 2016 that AI, voice assistants, machine learning are going to be huge. So I started thinking of how do we teach the next generation? That's how I started working on Cognimates & launched a platform.”
Resources
- Fast.ai: Making neural nets uncool again
- LangChain: Build context-aware, reasoning applications with LangChain’s flexible abstractions & AI-first toolkit
- Stefania’s publications: stefania11.github.io
- Cognimates: Stefania’s coding education project started @ MIT Media Lab
Stefania Druga is a Research Scientist at Google Gemini AI. She was a principal researcher at the Center of Applied AI Research at the University of Chicago. She graduated with a PhD in Creative AI Literacies at the University of Washington and a master of science at MIT. During her PhD, she did several research internships at Google X, Microsoft Research, and Fixie.ai focusing on LLM applications for developer tools, programming languages, and data science applications. She loves trail running & drawing with robots. Connect with Stefania:
Learn More
YouTube! Watch the episode live @YourAIRoadmap
Connect with Joan on LinkedIn
✨📘 Buy the Bestselling Wiley Book: Your AI Roadmap: Actions to Expand Your Career, Money, and Joy. Featured in Forbes!
Who is Joan?
Ranked the #4 in Voice AI Influencer, Dr. Joan Palmiter Bajorek is the CEO of Clarity AI, Founder of Women in Voice, & Host of Your AI Roadmap. With a decade in software & AI, she has worked at Nuance, VERSA Agency, & OneReach.ai in data & analysis, product, & digital transformation. She's an investor & technical advisor to startup & enterprise. A CES & VentureBeat speaker & Harvard Business Review published author, she has a PhD & is based in Seattle.
Disclaimer: Our links may have affiliate codes. This is an educational podcast and not intended as legal, career, or financial advice. Seek professional gu...
In this episode, Dr. Stefania Druga (she/her), Research Scientist on the Bard (now Gemini) team at Google, shares insights into her work on developing multimodal AI applications. She explains how Bard, a LLM, is trained on a massive amount of internet data, enabling it to understand and generate text, summarize content, and interact with images. They cover the advancements in AI and importance of multimodal capabilities that extend beyond text to include images and other data forms, pushing the boundaries of AI's application in daily life.
Stefania Druga Quotes
📊 Data Set Sizes: "You can think of what does it mean to scrape the entire internet and that's pretty much it...all the data that was ever created digitally and has the right permissions."
⚙️ “These AI assistants are becoming now embedded in not only standalone applications like Bard and ChatGPT, but also in a variety of products...they can become embedded in your calendar to help with smart planning”
🚀 “I realized in 2016 that AI, voice assistants, machine learning are going to be huge. So I started thinking of how do we teach the next generation? That's how I started working on Cognimates & launched a platform.”
Resources
- Fast.ai: Making neural nets uncool again
- LangChain: Build context-aware, reasoning applications with LangChain’s flexible abstractions & AI-first toolkit
- Stefania’s publications: stefania11.github.io
- Cognimates: Stefania’s coding education project started @ MIT Media Lab
Stefania Druga is a Research Scientist at Google Gemini AI. She was a principal researcher at the Center of Applied AI Research at the University of Chicago. She graduated with a PhD in Creative AI Literacies at the University of Washington and a master of science at MIT. During her PhD, she did several research internships at Google X, Microsoft Research, and Fixie.ai focusing on LLM applications for developer tools, programming languages, and data science applications. She loves trail running & drawing with robots. Connect with Stefania:
Learn More
YouTube! Watch the episode live @YourAIRoadmap
Connect with Joan on LinkedIn
✨📘 Buy the Bestselling Wiley Book: Your AI Roadmap: Actions to Expand Your Career, Money, and Joy. Featured in Forbes!
Who is Joan?
Ranked the #4 in Voice AI Influencer, Dr. Joan Palmiter Bajorek is the CEO of Clarity AI, Founder of Women in Voice, & Host of Your AI Roadmap. With a decade in software & AI, she has worked at Nuance, VERSA Agency, & OneReach.ai in data & analysis, product, & digital transformation. She's an investor & technical advisor to startup & enterprise. A CES & VentureBeat speaker & Harvard Business Review published author, she has a PhD & is based in Seattle.
Disclaimer: Our links may have affiliate codes. This is an educational podcast and not intended as legal, career, or financial advice. Seek professional gu...
Previous Episode

Season 1 Trailer
Your AI Roadmap launches next week! Enjoy a trailer of Season 1 featuring:
- Stefania Druga, Research Scientist, Google Gemini AI,
- John Pasmore, CEO, Latimer.ai,
- Nicolle Merrill, Founder, Boring AI and Principal Conversation Designer, Intuit,
- Noelle Russell, Founder and Chief AI Officer, AI Leadership Institute,
- Prem Kumar, CEO and Co-Founder, Humanly,
- Daniel Robbins, Principal Designer, 3D, Adobe...
...and many more guests to come this season!
Your AI Roadmap the Podcast
This podcast is on a mission to decrease fluffy HYPE and talk to the people actually building AI. Anyone can build in AI. Including you.
Whether you’re terrified or excited, there’s been no better time than today to dive in! Now is the time to be curious and future-proof your career and ... ultimately your income.
This podcast isn't about white dudes patting themselves on the back, this is about you and me and ALL the paths into cool projects around the world!
What's next on your AI Roadmap? Let's figure it out together. You ready? This is Your AI Roadmap the Podcast.
More about Your AI Roadmap
- Want Clarity to build your AI?: https://calendly.com/hireclarityai/consult-call
- View YouTube Full Episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@YourAIRoadmap
- Connect with Joan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-jpb/, let her know you listened to the podcast!
- BOOK! Joan has a book coming out!!! Publisher is Wiley. Book is about AI, Careers, and Future-Proofing Your Income. Order the book: YourAIRoadmap.com/Buy
Learn More
YouTube! Watch the episode live @YourAIRoadmap
Connect with Joan on LinkedIn
✨📘 Buy the Bestselling Wiley Book: Your AI Roadmap: Actions to Expand Your Career, Money, and Joy. Featured in Forbes!
Who is Joan?
Ranked the #4 in Voice AI Influencer, Dr. Joan Palmiter Bajorek is the CEO of Clarity AI, Founder of Women in Voice, & Host of Your AI Roadmap. With a decade in software & AI, she has worked at Nuance, VERSA Agency, & OneReach.ai in data & analysis, product, & digital transformation. She's an investor & technical advisor to startup & enterprise. A CES & VentureBeat speaker & Harvard Business Review published author, she has a PhD & is based in Seattle.
Disclaimer: Our links may have affiliate codes. This is an educational podcast and not intended as legal, career, or financial advice. Seek professional gu...
Next Episode

Building an Inclusive AI with John Pasmore of Latimer.ai, Black LLMs
John Pasmore (he/him), CEO & Founder of Latimer.ai, collaborates with Joan to explore the importance of an inclusive LLM. Latimer.ai, an AI-driven B2B SaaS platform, enhance the representation of Black & Brown histories & cultures in LLMs. The goal is to provide a more accurate & bias-free reflection of diverse cultures & histories.
John shares his journey of founding Latimer.ai, highlighting the need to address the lack of diverse representation in current LLMs & emphasizing the significance of inclusivity in AI. Committed to authenticity, factual data sourcing, & ethical data use, Latimer.ai leads in creating AI technologies that encompass a broader spectrum of human history & culture, paving the way for tech that is inclusive of all people.
Note: Both Latimer.ai & ChatGPT were utilised to create these show notes.
John Pasmore Quotes
🚀 "We've built what we believe is a premier inclusive large language model trained with additional content on Black & Brown histories & cultures to reflect accurately & without bias."
💡 "Latimer talks about 'formerly enslaved people.’ It's a slightly different use of language, but it frames the people differently."
📚 "I think ultimately, Black & Brown people should own their own history.”
Resources
- Latimer.ai
- New York Amsterdam News
- deeplearning.ai - for those interested in learning more about AI & deep learning.
- Coursera - Resources for AI, coding, & more, including by Andrew Ng
- Tanya Lewis Lee's documentary "Aftershock," a Hulu documentary discusses healthcare disparities faced by Black & Brown women in the U.S.
- Ruth Health partners w/ women on the journey through pregnancy & beyond. Disclaimer: Joan is an investor in this startup
Connect
- Connect with John on LinkedIn
- Latimer.ai: Check out the product for free today
Learn More
YouTube! Watch the episode live @YourAIRoadmap
Connect with Joan on LinkedIn
✨📘 Buy the Bestselling Wiley Book: Your AI Roadmap: Actions to Expand Your Career, Money, and Joy. Featured in Forbes!
Who is Joan?
Ranked the #4 in Voice AI Influencer, Dr. Joan Palmiter Bajorek is the CEO of Clarity AI, Founder of Women in Voice, & Host of Your AI Roadmap. With a decade in software & AI, she has worked at Nuance, VERSA Agency, & OneReach.ai in data & analysis, product, & digital transformation. She's an investor & technical advisor to startup & enterprise. A CES & VentureBeat speaker & Harvard Business Review published author, she has a PhD & is based in Seattle.
Disclaimer: Our links may have affiliate codes. This is an educational podcast and not intended as legal, career, or financial advice. Seek professional gu...
Your AI Roadmap - LLMs and Multimodal AI with Dr. Stefania Druga of Google
Transcript
Hi, my name is Joan Palmiter Bajorek. I'm on a mission to decrease fluffy hype and talk about the people actually building in AI. Anyone can build in AI, including you. Whether you're terrified or excited, there's been no better time than today to dive in. Now is the time to be curious and future -proof your career, and ultimately, your income. This podcast isn't about white dudes patting themselves on the back. This is about you and me. and all the paths into cool pr
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