Naveen Rao
Co-founder and CEO of of Nervana
Discussion
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Naveen Rao
@naveen_rao · CEO, Nervana
Hi everyone. I am Naveen Rao, cofounder/CEO of Nervana (www.nervanasys.com), a tech startup that serves "AI on demand." I enjoy talking about the future of computation, robotics, and neuroscience - but I find a lot of other things interesting too.. Ask me anything!
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Katie Fritsch
@katie_fritsch
My friends company is new to Deep Learning, and he wants to get started with AI. Why should he choose Nervana over Tensorflow?
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Naveen Rao
@naveen_rao · CEO, Nervana
@katie_fritsch Nervana Neon is a fully supported stack. We don't have to rely on the open source community to fix bugs or add features. This is important to providing a high-end experience to our customers.
[deleted user]
@deleted_user
Hello Naveen,
Thank you for giving us an opportunity to ask you questions.
Question: As it stands, humans are guided by three books:
1) What we owe is in the IRS book.
2) What we can not do is in the Law book.
3) What we can do is in the Constitution book.
Are there any books being written for AI?
Thank you!
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Naveen Rao
@naveen_rao · CEO, Nervana
@victorpolyushko As in, what will guide AI? I'd say that AIs are built and trained by us...so they serve our needs.
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Naveen Rao
@naveen_rao · CEO, Nervana
@victorpolyushko Therefore, there isn't a direct need to inform what AIs should be doing. Perhaps in the future we'll have books on how to best use your AI...
Theoharis Dimarhos
@theo_dimarhos · Marketing+Biz Dev at AngelouEconomics
Hi Naveen! If you were to start from zero and try to become useful to the AI community without being technical, how would you go about it?
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Naveen Rao
@naveen_rao · CEO, Nervana
@theo_dimarhos The business side is really just starting to become clear. Go and understand where AI can make the most impact...and find those truly disruptive use cases.
Jacqueline von Tesmar
@jacqvon · Community, Product Hunt ✌️😻
What are the first tabs you open on your computer/phone every morning?
Andrew Ettinger
@andrewett · Product Marketing, Twitter (ex-PH)
It seems that "AI" is such a buzzword these days. Where do we draw the line one what is AI and what isn't?
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Naveen Rao
@naveen_rao · CEO, Nervana
@andrewett That's a good question...it seems to be synonymous with deep learning these days. I'd say any system that learns and adapts from data is a form of intelligence. By that measure, more deep learning systems are intelligent, but only at specified intervals when the models are being retrained.
Tomer Borenstein
@tborenst · Student @ Carnegie Mellon (tborenst.com)
Hi Naveen, thank you for taking the time to do this chat.
I am interested in your thoughts regarding the apparent push towards Conversational UIs by several of the big players? Also regarding conversational AIs - is there any indication that what happened to computer vision with deep learning in the past several years will happen to NLU/NLP?
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Naveen Rao
@naveen_rao · CEO, Nervana
@tborenst Well, i'd say that's already happened. Most of the state-of-the-art NLP approaches are deep learning now. This transition happened fast just as it did in computer vision.
I think anything that decreases the resistance of using a machine is a good technology. Arcane interfaces like a CLI are great for experts, but make technologies less accessible. By making machines interact more like we do, technologies can become more a part of our life.
An Jason
@an_jason · student
I am a grad student in physics, building and numerical simulating all different models, but very limited experience in computer science/AI. Is there any advice to me to enter this field? What's the advantage for us who are not from CS major?
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Naveen Rao
@naveen_rao · CEO, Nervana
@an_jason Physics and the math you're learning lays the ground work for much of AI. I'd say, get some practical experience. Download Neon (from www.nervanasys.com) and get a model up and running. You'll get a sense really fast for what is easy and what is difficult.
The advantage you have is a broader view on machine learning and the mathematical foundations. CS can be narrow with regards to this subject at some places.
Emily Hodgins
@ems_hodge · Community and Marketing, Product Hunt
Hi Naveen, what does the future of robotics look like?
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Naveen Rao
@naveen_rao · CEO, Nervana
@ems_hodge Robots are moving toward becoming real agents in the world. Currently, they are mostly fixed function...but once they can sense, process, and adapt, there will be a new world of how they can impact our lives.
Ben Tossell
@bentossell · Community Lead, Product Hunt
Hey - if you had to swap lives with a tech ceo/founder for a week, who would it be and why?
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Naveen Rao
@naveen_rao · CEO, Nervana
@bentossell Hmm...that's a tough one. I can't say Tony Stark can I? ;)