On the last episode of Season One, our guest is Ilya Sutskever. Ilya is the Co-Founder and Chief Scientist of OpenAI. As a PhD student at Toronto, Ilya was one of the authors on the 2012 AlexNet paper that completely changed the field of AI, resulting in the widespread adoption of deep learning and the avalanche of AI breakthroughs we’ve seen the past 10 years. After the AlexNet breakthrough in computer vision, at Google, among many other breakthroughs, Ilya showed that neural networks are unexpectedly great at machine translation, at least at the time it was unexpected, now it’s long become the norm to use neural nets for machine translation. Late 2015 Ilya left Google to co-found OpenAI, where he is Chief Scientist. Some of his breakthroughs include GPT, CLIP, DallE, Codex. Ilya’s academic work, less than 10 years out of his PhD, has ben cited over 250,000 times, reflecting his absolutely mind-blowing influence on the field. What's in this episode: 00:00:00 Introductions 00:03:00 Why take a closer look at neural net works originally? 00:08:25 What was going through Ilya's mind during the AlexNet discovery? 00:18:25 Ilya's early years 00:21:19 How Ilya stayed motivated 00:29:07 Sam Altman and the beginning of OpenAI 00:36:22 LSTM models and reinforcement learning 00:56:06 How will our productivity change? 01:00:22 Instruction-following models 01:12:13 Ilya's vision of the future of work 01:16:14 Ilya's advice to be productive | SUBSCRIBE TO THE ROBOT BRAINS PODCAST TODAY | Website: https://therobotbrains.ai Twitter: https://twitter.com/therobotbrains LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-robot-brains-podcast/ Host: Pieter Abbeel Executive Producers: Ricardo Reyes & Henry Tobias Jones Associate Producer: Alice Patel Audio: Kieron Matthew Banerji Video: Bo Obradovic Music: Alejandro Del Pozo

On the penultimate episode (Ep.21) of Season One of The Robot Brains Podcast our guest is Josh Lessing. Josh is the CTO of AppHarvest, one of the leading pioneers in Agricultural Technology (or AgTech). Farming is one of the world's oldest industries, but in many ways the technologies and techniques used by farmers hasn't progressed much in centuries. But with recent advances in AI and robotics, AgTech looks certain to transform the entire industry. At AppHarvest, Josh is helping to build some of America's largest and most technologically advanced greenhouses. AppHarvest’s flagship greenhouse is located in Morehead, Kentucky, and spans 60 acres. This modern greenhouse will use “90% less water than traditional open-field agriculture.” The company's greenhouse, which currently focuses on growing fruit, has a central US location that's within a day’s drive of 70% of the U.S. population, allowing AppHarvest to reduce the amount of fuel consumed in transportation by 80%. Inside the Greenhouse you’ll find conventional agriculture techniques combined with the most advanced AI and Robotics technologies to grow non-GMO, chemical-free produce. Josh joined AppHarvest through the acquisition of his own company Root-AI earlier this year. In his conversation with our host, Pieter Abbeel, Josh describes how AppHarvest's flagship tomato-picking robot actually works, what the future of AI farming looks like, and why Morehead, Kentucky is a great place to visit if you want to see robots in action. What's in this episode? 00:00:00 - Introduction to Josh Lessing and AppHarvest 00:05:42 - How the robotic hand works with produce 00:08:54 - How convolutional neural networks play a role in picking 00:18:04 - Can AgTech lower the cost of healthy foods? 00:21:55 - How AI individualizes the care for each different type of fruit and vegetable 00:33:44 - Josh's path to working at AppHarvest 00:48:59 - What types of produce AppHarvest grows 00:53:21 - Future expansion plans 00:57:31 - Martha Stewart on the board of directors Links: Josh Lessing's Twitter: https://twitter.com/joshua_lessing Company Website: https://www.appharvest.com/ Subscribe and listen to our podcast today: Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3mfpR8W Apple: https://apple.co/3k8esVG Google: https://bit.ly/3sx1mVN Host: Pieter Abbeel Executive Producers: Ricardo Reyes & Henry Tobias Jones Audio Production: Kieron Matthew Banerji. Video Production: Bo Obradovic.

On Ep.20 of The Robot Brains Podcast, Pieter Abbeel is joined by Fei-Fei Li. Her legendary status in the field of AI precedes her on our podcast because she's been discussed frequently by many of our previous guests - many of whom are her former students. She is the Sequoia Capital Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University, Co-Director of the Stanford Institute for Human-Centred Artificial Intelligence (Stanford HAI). She was also the leading scientist and instigator of ImageNet, arguably the most momentous episode in the history of AI which allowed vision systems and neural nets to break out of academia and into real industries all over the world. On the show we talk to Fei-Fei about her illustrious career in academia, her involvement in the ImageNet and AlexNet breakthroughs, and her new, deeply personal reasons for focusing her latest work on transforming healthcare with AI. What's in this episode: 00:00 Introductions 03:49 From the dry cleaners to AI 05:20 An education: Princeton, Physics and Academia 10:59 Fei-Fei's role in AlexNet/ImageNet 27:34 The 2012 Competition 40:17 A new journey into Healthcare AI 49:16 Ageing and Care with AI 51:38 Stanford HAI 55:00 AI and Public Policy 1:01:42 The US National AI Research Resource Taskforce 1:05:40 Is the US still a leader for AI academia? 1:07:43 The future of AI Links: Fei-Fei's Twitter: https://twitter.com/drfeifei Fei-Fei's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fei-fei-li-4541247/ Fei-Fei's Academic Profile: https://profiles.stanford.edu/fei-fei-li Fei-Fei's Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fei-Fei_Li Subscribe and listen to our podcast today: Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3CAcyWx Amazon: https://amzn.to/3xy3PjK Acast: https://bit.ly/3jJDYR8 Google: https://bit.ly/3yE2Ob3 Apple: https://apple.co/3vRqBlV Host: Pieter Abbeel Executive Producers: Ricardo Reyes & Henry Tobias Jones Audio Production: Kieron Matthew Banerji. Video Production: Bo Obradovic.

Joining us for episode 19 is Boris Krumrey, Global VP of Automation Solutions at UI Path. We have all heard of physical robots, autonomous machines that help humans with tasks in the real world, but what about "software robots"? Digital helpers who can be built, trained and used to help increasingly digital workforces with their computer based tasks - from HR teams onboarding new hires to updating spreadsheets or presentation slides. UIPath is a market leader in this new and exciting field of "robotics", in particular “Robotic Process Automation” - or RPA. At UiPath, Boris leads the charge on the development of their RPA and UiPath’s ambition to “give every person a robot”. He has helped to bring UiPath “software robots” to companies all over the globe, including: Google, AutoDesk, General Electric, DHL, PwC, among others. UiPath recently IPO’ed (in April 2021) and it was one of the largest IPOs in history, with a 35.8BB market cap at close on its first trading day. In our conversation, Boris describes the new field of RPA and software robotics, as well as describing his vision for the future of AI-enhanced digital work. What's in this episode? 00:00:00 Introductions 00:01:41 Software robots vs hardware robots 00:14:07 Capturing the human-driven workflow 00:19:31 UiPath's vision of a robot for every human 00:38:10 UiPath's platform 00:49:35 Task mining with UiPath 01:03:27 Software complementing hardware UiPath Twitter: https://twitter.com/UiPath UiPath Website: https://www.uipath.com/ SUBSCRIBE TO THE ROBOT BRAINS PODCAST TODAY Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3iUbRhH Apple: https://apple.co/3xb3UK6 Google: https://bit.ly/3rCwDq2 Amazon: https://amzn.to/3BQycFp Acast: https://bit.ly/3l4MdcB Host: Pieter Abbeel Executive Producers: Ricardo Reyes & Henry Tobias Jones Audio Production: Kieron Matthew Banerji. Video Production: Bo Obradovic.

In episode 18 of our host Pieter Abbeel meets Chris Urmson. Chris is one of the world-leading pioneers in self-driving. He led the Google self-driving project for several years - which later became Waymo. Then, in 2017, he co-founded his own self-driving company, Aurora where he is currently the CEO. In this episode, he discusses his involvement of the DARPA Grand Challenge, departure from Google, and his (and Aurora's) vision for the future of autonomous vehicles. What's in this episode: 00:00 Intro 00:58 The DARPA Grand Challenge 11:19 The DARPA Grand Challenge: Take Two 15:30 Urban Challenge and bringing AV tech to real vehicles 19:47 Chris' work leading Google's self-driving car project (later Waymo) 21:43 Founding Aurora 23:00 Aurora's partner network and customers 26:42 AI-trucks and highway driving 28:49 LiDAR and safety systems in autonomous vehicles 33:14 The business of selling an OS for self-driving vehicles 37:29 The Great Debate in self-driving: HD Maps vs Vision Systems 46:57 Aurora's SPAC 50:30 The future of Aurora SUBSCRIBE TO THE ROBOT BRAINS PODCAST TODAY Links: Chris' Twitter: https://twitter.com/keenanwyrobek?s=20 Chris' LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keenanwyrobek/ Aurora Website: https://flyzipline.com Aurora's Twitter: Aurora's LinkedIn: The DARPA Grand Challenge Website: https://www.darpa.mil/about-us/timeline/-grand-challenge-for-autonomous-vehicles Subscribe and listen to our podcast today: Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3iUbRhH Apple: https://apple.co/3xb3UK6 Google: https://bit.ly/3rCwDq2 Amazon: https://amzn.to/3BQycFp Acast: https://bit.ly/3l4MdcB Host: Pieter Abbeel Executive Producers: Ricardo Reyes & Henry Tobias Jones Audio Production: Kieron Matthew Banerji. Video Production: Bo Obradovic.

In episode 17 of our host Pieter Abbeel meets Peter Puchwein. Peter is the Vice President of Innovation at KNAPP, one of the world market leaders in warehouse logistics and automation. During their interview Pieter and Peter discuss the many ways that KNAPP has "innovation" in its DNA: from the company's forward-thinking founder Gunter Knapp back in 1952 to the multi-million investments made in hardware and software R&D today. Peter explains how the use of industrial robotics in particular are taking KNAPP to new heights, including towards their "Holy Grail" of fulfilling the "20 Minute Delivery" of anything to anywhere at any time. What's in this episode: 00:00 Introductions 02:54 Innovation inside KNAPP AG 07:23 KNAPP's founder and the "innovative" history of the company 11:40 Reshaping the logistics industry (post-Covid 19) 14:11 How did Peter Puchwein get into the logistics business? 18:58 What is KNAPP AG doing today? 24:46 "High Automation" explained 30:15 KNAPP warehouses and customers fulfilling your orders 31:38 What does a KNAPP warehouse do? 44:57 Automation for "Picking Solutions" 56:23 AI at KNAPP 1:03:55 Working with startups (like Covariant) 1:05:40 The "Holy Grail" of the 20 minute delivery of anything, anywhere 1:09:29 Drone deliveries in the future? Links: KNAPP's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/knapp-ag/ Peter's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-puchwein KNAPP's Website: https://www.knapp.com/en/ Subscribe and listen to our podcast today: Apple: https://apple.co/3eJkNFo Spotify:https://spoti.fi/3xViV3H Google:https://bit.ly/2V0Hu0P Amazon:https://amzn.to/2TwbvoQ Acast: https://bit.ly/3BugzuK Host: Pieter Abbeel Executive Producers: Ricardo Reyes & Henry Tobias Jones Audio Production: Kieron Matthew Banerji. Video Production: Bo Obradovic.

In Ep16 of The Robot Brains Podcast we were joined by Matanya Horowitz the founder and CEO of AMP Robotics an industrial AI firm that’s building #recycling robots to build a "world without waste". An estimated $200bn worth of recyclable materials are lost to landfill around the world including rare minerals that are expensive and costly (most of all ecologically) to mine. AMP’s incredible "waste sorting robots" recover this recyclable material from trash at superhuman speeds and with extremely high accuracy. Matanya's AI-powered robots employ advanced vision systems and robust robotics all for the ultimate aim of improving the ecological impact of waste on our environment. In his chat with Pieter Abbeel, Matanya explains how he started AMP Robotics, why he decided to get into the trash business, and what he imagines the future of a "waste free world" will look like? What's in this episode: 00:00 Introductions 05:07 Why landfill will be the mines of the future 06:39 The Recycling Process today 11:35 Matanya's past 17:52 How do you start automating waste 20:00 Waste Management Centers: An engineering challenge 31:45 Training the first AMP Robot 37:14 Waste "picking" robots 44:31 The high opportunity of "Secondary sort" 50:26 Where can you see AMP Robots in action? 54:06 Will the future be "waste free"? 1:03:53 High value materials in electronics 1:06:18 Advice for entrepreneurs Links: Matanya's Twitter: https://twitter.com/mhorowit Matanya's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matanya/ AMP Robotics' Website: https://www.amprobotics.com Subscribe and listen to our podcast today: Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3xGfHBb Acast: https://bit.ly/3el76ft Google: https://bit.ly/3xFu4pt Amazon: https://amzn.to/2UOTVwj Apple: https://apple.co/2Ubkrjx Host: Pieter Abbeel Executive Producers: Ricardo Reyes & Henry Tobias Jones Audio Production: Kieron Matthew Banerji. Video Production: Bo Obradovic.

In Ep.15 of The Robot Brains Podcast, Pieter is joined by Anca Dragan. Anca is a professor at UC Berkeley, where she is the director of the Interact Lab where she is working on the goal of enabling robots to work with, around, and in support of people. Because of her success in the field, Forbes magazine dubbed Anca: "the woman teaching AI about human values". Alongside her academic research, Anca is also a staff research scientist at the autonomous vehicle startup Waymo. In her discussion with Pieter, she explains why Asimov's three laws of robotics need updating if we want human robot interactions, why the future of robots probably isn't going to be a sci-fi dystopia, and how you teach a driverless car to understand human values. What's in this episode: 00:00 Intro 12:10 Why we need to update Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics 17:06 Forbes: "Meet the woman who is teaching robots to second guess us" 24:13 Equipping robots with self-awareness 33:05 A Theory of Mind for Robots 44:44 Decision-making and why humans don't get probability 58:40 Waymo - Self-driving cars and vision systems 1:11.09 Why Dystopian predictions for robot takeovers are wrong 1:21:00 Aligning AI with objectives 1:28:50 The happy life for robots 1:37:25 Enhancing human capability 1:40:36 The future of human-robot relations? 1:46:50 Understanding humans and our 200 biases Links: Anca's Website: http://people.eecs.berkeley.edu/~anca/ Anca's Twitter: https://twitter.com/ancadianadragan Subscribe and listen to our podcast today: Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3xARxI0 Google: https://bit.ly/3hC5MFK Amazon:https://amzn.to/3hj7Dk2 Acast: https://bit.ly/3yz983w Apple: https://apple.co/3dSAp90 Host: Pieter Abbeel Executive Producers: Ricardo Reyes & Henry Tobias Jones Audio Production: Kieron Matthew Banerji. Video Production: Bo Obradovic.