Best Usability Sciences Podcasts (2025)

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The best books we read this year 📚 15:21

Play Pause

23h ago15:21

15:21

To mark the season, we’re sharing twelve non-fiction selections for the twelve days of Christmas. These are books we enjoyed and found worth passing along, ranging from deep dives into semiconductor history to fresh looks at creative collaboration. Whether you’re looking for a companion for a long-haul flight, a thoughtful gift idea, or simply a qu…

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The Developer’s Guide to LLM Security 40:12

7d ago40:12

40:12

Steve Wilson, Chief AI and Product Officer at Exabeam and lead of the OWASP GenAI Security Project, discusses the practical realities of securing Large Language Models and agentic workflows. Subscribe to the Gradient Flow Newsletter 📩 https://gradientflow.substack.com/ Subscribe: Apple · Spotify · Overcast · Pocket Casts · AntennaPod · Podcast Addi…

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Is AI a Utility? Defining Usability and Public Trust 44:26

12d ago44:26

44:26

In this episode, Ben Lorica and Evangelos Simoudis of Synapse Partners explore the complex reality behind AI-driven layoffs, from automation and upskilling gaps to strategic shifts in R&D. They also dive into the massive capital investments in AI, discussing the growing pressure for ROI and the emergence of LLMOps as a form of financial management.…

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How to Build AI Copilots That Teach Rather Than Automate 30:25

14d ago30:25

30:25

In this episode, host Ben Lorica talks with Sakana AI research scientist Stefania Druga, formerly a research scientist at Google DeepMind, about building AI tools for young learners and what that teaches us about AI design for everyone. Subscribe to the Gradient Flow Newsletter 📩 https://gradientflow.substack.com/ Subscribe: Apple · Spotify · Overc…

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The AI Revolution Finally Comes to Structured Data 47:45

24d ago47:45

47:45

Stanford professor and Kumo.ai co-founder Jure Leskovec introduces the concept of a relational foundation model for structured enterprise data. Subscribe to the Gradient Flow Newsletter 📩 https://gradientflow.substack.com/ Subscribe: Apple · Spotify · Overcast · Pocket Casts · AntennaPod · Podcast Addict · Amazon · RSS. Detailed show notes - with l…

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Building the Knowledge Layer Your Agents Need 47:40

1M ago47:40

47:40

This episode features Philip Rathle, CTO of Neo4j, discussing the real-world state of Graph RAG and its journey from prototype to production in enterprise AI systems. Subscribe to the Gradient Flow Newsletter 📩 https://gradientflow.substack.com/ Subscribe: Apple · Spotify · Overcast · Pocket Casts · AntennaPod · Podcast Addict · Amazon · RSS. Detai…

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How Language Models Actually Think 26:20

1M ago26:20

26:20

Emmanuel Ameisen, an interpretability researcher at Anthropic, joins the podcast to demystify how large language models work. Subscribe to the Gradient Flow Newsletter 📩 https://gradientflow.substack.com/ Subscribe: Apple · Spotify · Overcast · Pocket Casts · AntennaPod · Podcast Addict · Amazon · RSS. Detailed show notes - with links to many refer…

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How AI Is Reshaping Jobs, Budgets, and Data Centers 32:38

1M ago32:38

32:38

Ben Lorica and Evangelos Simoudis of Synapse Partners explore the complex reality behind AI-driven layoffs, from automation and upskilling gaps to strategic shifts in R&D. They also dive into the massive capital investments in AI, discussing the growing pressure for ROI and the emergence of LLMOps as a form of financial management. Subscribe to the…

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Making Data Engineering Safe for Automation and Agents 49:41

1M ago49:41

49:41

Ciro Greco, Co-founder & CEO at Bauplan, joins the podcast to discuss a new paradigm for data engineering rooted in software engineering principles. He explains how treating the data lakehouse like a software project — with version control, branching, and transactional pipelines — creates a robust and safe environment for development. Subscribe to …

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Is Your Database Ready for an Army of AI Agents? 55:36

2M ago55:36

55:36

Mike Freedman and Ajay Kulkarni, founders of Tiger Data, join the podcast to unveil Agentic Postgres, a database re-imagined for AI agents. Subscribe to the Gradient Flow Newsletter 📩 https://gradientflow.substack.com/ Subscribe: Apple · Spotify · Overcast · Pocket Casts · AntennaPod · Podcast Addict · Amazon · RSS. Detailed show notes - with links…

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Ken Catchpole - Imparting Systems Thinking to Healthcare 33:59

2M ago33:59

33:59

Sharon Todd chats to Dr Ken Catchpole one of the HFESA's keynote speakers for the annual conference in Tasmania Australia in December. So who is he, what does he do and what can we expect? Dr Ken Catchpole is a cognitive scientist and human factors practitioner who seeks to understand and improve human performance in complex systems. After leading …

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Beyond the Dashboard: Collaborative Analytics in Slack 45:56

2M ago45:56

45:56

Nick Schrock, CTO of Dagster, discusses the critical role of data orchestration in the AI era, framing “context pipelines” as the new data pipelines that form the foundation of any AI strategy. He introduces Compass, a new Slack-native tool for collaborative, exploratory data analysis designed to replace the 80% of ad-hoc BI dashboards. Subscribe t…

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Stop Piloting, Start Shipping: A Playbook for Measurable AI 29:41

2M ago29:41

29:41

Ben Lorica and Evangelos Simoudis discuss AI-bubble signals (runaway revenue multiples, circular financing), why many enterprise pilots stall, and what separates leaders (use-case matrices, cross-functional ownership, hard metrics). They also examine U.S.–China tech competition in robotics and semiconductors, and offer a pragmatic view on humanoid …

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Databases for Machines, Not People 27:42

2M ago27:42

27:42

Luke Wroblewski of Sutter Hill Ventures joins the podcast to discuss the paradigm shift in building AI applications. He explains how the traditional model of “code + database” is being replaced by “URL + model,” where the AI agent itself becomes the application logic. Subscribe to the Gradient Flow Newsletter 📩 https://gradientflow.substack.com/ Su…

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Sidney Irwin - Trash Talk and Fatigue in Esports 36:05

2M ago36:05

36:05

Sidney Irwin is an early career researcher and lecturer at the School of Health, Medical and Applied Sciences at Central Queensland University. She received her doctorate from the same university. Her focus is on the normative rules of trash talk in esports and is expanding her expertise towards esport psychology, human factors and user experiences…

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When AI Agents Need to Talk: Inside the A2A Protocol 29:23

2M ago29:23

29:23

Heiko Hotz and Sokratis Kartakis of Google Cloud discuss the Agent-to-Agent (A2A) protocol, a new standard for enabling collaboration between AI agents built on different frameworks. Subscribe to the Gradient Flow Newsletter 📩 https://gradientflow.substack.com/ Subscribe: Apple · Spotify · Overcast · Pocket Casts · AntennaPod · Podcast Addict · Ama…

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The Infrastructure for Production AI 47:32

3M ago47:32

47:32

Zhen Lu, CEO of Runpod, joins the podcast to discuss what it means to build an “AI-first” cloud, moving beyond the architectures of the Web 2.0 era. Subscribe to the Gradient Flow Newsletter 📩 https://gradientflow.substack.com/ Subscribe: Apple · Spotify · Overcast · Pocket Casts · AntennaPod · Podcast Addict · Amazon · RSS. Detailed show notes - w…

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How to Make Your Data Truly AI-Ready 45:49

3M ago45:49

45:49

Yoni Leitersdorf, CEO of Solid, joins the podcast to demystify why simply pointing an LLM at a database for text-to-SQL doesn’t work. He explains the critical need for a semantic layer to provide business context, turning raw data into a “Rosetta Stone” that AI can actually understand. Subscribe to the Gradient Flow Newsletter 📩 https://gradientflo…

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Beyond the Agent Hype 29:35

3M ago29:35

29:35

Ben Lorica and Evangelos Simoudis discuss some takeaways for AI practitioners from the recent AI Conference. They cover the disconnect between the hype and reality of AI agents in the enterprise, the critical importance of building reliable and trustworthy AI applications, and the potential impact of new H-1B visa policies on tech startups and inno…

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How to Build and Optimize AI Research Agents 38:41

3M ago38:41

38:41

Jakub Zavrel, CEO of Zeta Alpha, joins the podcast to discuss the practical evolution from traditional enterprise search to powerful “deep research” systems. Subscribe to the Gradient Flow Newsletter 📩 https://gradientflow.substack.com/ Subscribe: Apple · Spotify · Overcast · Pocket Casts · AntennaPod · Podcast Addict · Amazon · RSS. Detailed show …

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Why Digital Work is the Perfect Training Ground for AI Agents 42:16

3M ago42:16

42:16

Andrew Rabinovich, CTO and Head of AI at Upwork, discusses how digital work marketplaces serve as ideal testing grounds for AI agents, exploring their custom reinforcement learning approach called RLEF (Reinforcement Learning from Experience). Subscribe to the Gradient Flow Newsletter 📩 https://gradientflow.substack.com/ Subscribe: Apple · Spotify …

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Beyond the Chatbot: What Actually Works in Enterprise AI 38:24

4M ago38:24

38:24

Jay Alammar is Director and Engineering Fellow at Cohere and co-author of the O’Reilly book “Hands-on Large Language Models.” Subscribe to the Gradient Flow Newsletter 📩 https://gradientflow.substack.com/ Subscribe: Apple · Spotify · Overcast · Pocket Casts · AntennaPod · Podcast Addict · Amazon · RSS. Detailed show notes - with links to many refer…

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Samantha Jackson and Gemma Read - Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS) safety 29:48

4M ago29:48

29:48

Gemma Read from the Centre for Human Factors and Sociotechnical Systems (UniSC) chats to Samantha Jackson about Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS) safety. Samantha Jackson is a registered psychologist, human factors professional, and PhD candidate. She holds a Bachelor of Arts (Psychology), a Bachelor of Social Science (Psychology)(Honours), a…

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Why China's Engineering Culture Gives Them an AI Advantage 52:45

4M ago52:45

52:45

Ben Lorica and Evangelos Simoudis discuss three critical topics for AI practitioners: the complexities of AI regulation, with debates over foundation model oversight versus domain-specific regulations and concerns about IP protection in AI training data. Subscribe to the Gradient Flow Newsletter 📩 https://gradientflow.substack.com/ Subscribe: Apple…

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Predictability Beats Accuracy in Enterprise AI 44:11

4M ago44:11

44:11

In this episode, Anant Bhardwaj, CEO of Instabase, provides a pragmatic guide for AI practitioners building enterprise solutions. Subscribe to the Gradient Flow Newsletter 📩 https://gradientflow.substack.com/ Subscribe: Apple · Spotify · Overcast · Pocket Casts · AntennaPod · Podcast Addict · Amazon · RSS. Detailed show notes - with links to many r…

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2025 AI Governance Survey 39:23

4M ago39:23

39:23

Ben Lorica and David Talby present findings from the 2025 AI Governance Survey of 350+ respondents, revealing that while 30% have AI models in production, there are significant gaps in risk management practices. 🚨 This episode is based on an online presentation, see the YouTube version for a visual presentation. Subscribe to the Gradient Flow Newsl…

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Mary Patterson - Florida Simulation Projects in Health 41:56

4M ago41:56

41:56

Mary Patterson MD, MEd is a pediatric emergency medicine physician and the Associate Dean of Experiential Learning and the Lou Oberndorf Professor of Healthcare Technology at the University of Florida where she has directed the Center for Experiential Learning and Simulation since 2018. She is past- president of the Society for Simulation in Health…

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The Fenic Approach to Production-Ready Data Processing 46:45

4M ago46:45

46:45

Kostas Paralis, co-founder of Typedef , discusses Fenic, an open-source data frame framework designed specifically for AI applications that treats inference as a first-class operation within the query engine. Subscribe to the Gradient Flow Newsletter 📩 https://gradientflow.substack.com/ Subscribe: Apple · Spotify · Overcast · Pocket Casts · Antenna…

1
When AI Eats the Bottom Rung of the Career Ladder 27:57

4M ago27:57

27:57

Ben Lorica and Evangelos Simoudis discuss three critical trends shaping the AI industry: the “Great Hollowing Out” where AI automation is eliminating entry-level positions and disrupting talent pipelines, the financial implications of rapid AI hardware depreciation versus traditional accounting practices, and OpenAI’s shift to router-based model se…

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From NotebookLM to Audio Companions: Why Google’s AI Team Went Startup 32:33

5M ago32:33

32:33

Raiza Martin, co-founder of Huxe and former leader of Google’s NotebookLM team, discusses leaving Google at the height of NotebookLM’s success to build an audio-first personal AI companion. Subscribe to the Gradient Flow Newsletter 📩 https://gradientflow.substack.com/ Subscribe: Apple · Spotify · Overcast · Pocket Casts · AntennaPod · Podcast Addic…

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Craig Fletcher - Using VR to Reduce Suicide & other HFE projects 37:13

5M ago37:13

37:13

Craig Fletcher and Sharon Todd explore the world of designing HFE into projects including some recent work on the use of VR to reduce suicide on the rail network. Craig has 25 years experience in the area of ergonomics and human factors, both in Australia and the UK. He is experienced in conducting human factors assessments for a broad range of ind…

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The AI-Native Notebook That Thinks Like a Spreadsheet 42:26

5M ago42:26

42:26

The discussion with CEO Akshay Agrawal covers how Marimo’s AI integration provides runtime context to LLMs for superior code generation, its adoption across industries from cybersecurity to DevOps, and the technical innovations that make notebooks viable for production environments. Subscribe to the Gradient Flow Newsletter 📩 https://gradientflow.s…

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How Agentic AI is Transforming Wall Street 40:09

5M ago40:09

40:09

Josh Pantony, CEO of Boosted AI, discusses Alfa, an agentic AI platform that creates persistent AI workers for finance professionals, moving beyond traditional prompt-response AI to proactive, autonomous systems. Subscribe to the Gradient Flow Newsletter 📩 https://gradientflow.substack.com/ Subscribe: Apple · Spotify · Overcast · Pocket Casts · Ant…

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IEA & The Human Factors Edge Resource 37:25

5M ago37:25

37:25

Karen Lange-Morales, David Caple and Andrew S. Imada discusses the work of the IEA and their new publication "Giving your business the Humans Factors Edge - Making it Happen" to improve productivity, quality of products and the wellbeing of employees. The International Ergonomics Association (IEA) is a non-profit international federation of ergonom…

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The Quantum Advantage Is Real—But Where's the Infrastructure? 45:53

5M ago45:53

45:53

Jennifer Prendki explains that while universal quantum computers are a decade away, specialized quantum accelerators are already tackling AI problems in finance and pharma. She argues the biggest hurdle isn’t the hardware but the profound software and infrastructure gap, as fundamental principles like the “no-cloning theorem” break traditional MLOp…

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From Human-Readable to Machine-Usable: The New API Stack 38:23

5M ago38:23

38:23

Sagar Batchu, CEO of Speakeasy, joins the podcast to discuss the critical shift in API development as AI agents become primary consumers. Subscribe to the Gradient Flow Newsletter 📩 https://gradientflow.substack.com/ Subscribe: Apple · Spotify · Overcast · Pocket Casts · AntennaPod · Podcast Addict · Amazon · RSS. Detailed show notes - with links t…

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Donna Duffy - Design Improves Life 35:25

6M ago35:25

35:25

Sharon Todd is chatting to Donna Duffy who is a Human Factors Engineering Specialist with over 25 years of experience in human factors and psychology. As a founding Co-Director of Human Engineered, Donna brings deep expertise to industries including Defence and aviation where she likes to drive organisational change and system design excellence. Pr…

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Why Voice Security Is Your Next Big Problem 41:37

6M ago41:37

41:37

In this episode, Yishay Carmiel and Roy Zanbel of Apollo Defend discuss the rapidly evolving landscape of voice AI and its emerging security threats. Subscribe to the Gradient Flow Newsletter 📩 https://gradientflow.substack.com/ Subscribe: Apple · Spotify · Overcast · Pocket Casts · AntennaPod · Podcast Addict · Amazon · RSS. Detailed show notes - …

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Unlocking Unstructured Data with LLMs 27:46

6M ago27:46

27:46

Shreya Shankar is a PhD student at UC Berkeley in the EECS department. This episode explores how Large Language Models (LLMs) are revolutionizing the processing of unstructured enterprise data like text documents and PDFs. It introduces DocETL, a framework using a MapReduce approach with LLMs for semantic extraction, thematic analysis, and summariz…

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Building Production-Grade RAG at Scale 31:24

6M ago31:24

31:24

Douwe Kiela, Founder and CEO of Contextual AI, discusses why RAG isn’t obsolete despite massive context windows, explaining how RAG 2.0 represents a fundamental shift to treating retrieval-augmented generation as an end-to-end trainable system. Subscribe to the Gradient Flow Newsletter 📩 https://gradientflow.substack.com/ Subscribe: Apple · Spotify…

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Unlocking AI Superpowers in Your Terminal 44:59

6M ago44:59

44:59

Zach Lloyd, Founder/CEO of Warp, joins the podcast to discuss how Warp is revolutionizing the command-line terminal by integrating AI. Subscribe to the Gradient Flow Newsletter 📩 https://gradientflow.substack.com/ Subscribe: Apple · Spotify · Overcast · Pocket Casts · AntennaPod · Podcast Addict · Amazon · RSS. Detailed show notes - with links to m…

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From Vibe Coding to Autonomous Agents 51:16

7M ago51:16

51:16

Jackie Brosamer and Brad Axen from Block discuss codename goose (Goose), their open-source AI agent designed to automate complex engineering and knowledge work. Subscribe to the Gradient Flow Newsletter 📩 https://gradientflow.substack.com/ Subscribe: Apple · Spotify · Overcast · Pocket Casts · AntennaPod · Podcast Addict · Amazon · RSS. Detailed sh…

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How a Public-Benefit Startup Plans to Make Open Source the Default for Serious AI 48:45

7M ago48:45

48:45

Oumi Labs CEO Manos Koukoumidis lays out a vision for “unconditionally open” foundation models—where data, code, weights, and recipes are all transparent and reproducible—arguing this is the only path to production-grade, trustworthy AI. Subscribe to the Gradient Flow Newsletter 📩 https://gradientflow.substack.com/ Subscribe: Apple · Spotify · Over…

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Prof Robyn Clay-Williams Designing Emergency Departments 37:06

7M ago37:06

37:06

Sharon Todd chats to Professor Robyn Clay-Williams about Emergency Department design for underserved cohorts. Robyn leads a research program at the Australian Institute of Health Innovation, Macquarie University, in the field of human factors in healthcare. Over a career spanning nearly 45 years in aviation and healthcare, Robyn has worked extensiv…

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The Highly Uncertain Future of OpenAI’s Dominance 54:07

7M ago54:07

54:07

Dan Schwarz (CEO & Co-Founder, Futuresearch) explains why his firm finds OpenAI’s $125 billion revenue projection highly implausible, citing fierce competition, pressure on ChatGPT/API revenue, and fleeting technical advantages. Subscribe to the Gradient Flow Newsletter 📩 https://gradientflow.substack.com/ Subscribe: Apple · Spotify · Overcast · Po…

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Beyond Guardrails: Defending LLMs Against Sophisticated Attacks 44:31

7M ago44:31

44:31

Jason Martin is an AI Security Researcher at HiddenLayer. This episode explores “policy puppetry,” a universal attack technique bypassing safety features in all major language models using structured formats like XML or JSON. Subscribe to the Gradient Flow Newsletter 📩 https://gradientflow.substack.com/ Subscribe: Apple · Spotify · Overcast · Pocke…

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Sam Gerges - Ergonomics in Vehicle Manufacturing 43:49

7M ago43:49

43:49

Sharon Todd is chatting to Sam Gerges about his ergonomics programs to minimise injuries and reduce injury costs in Vehicle Manufacturing. Sam is a qualified physiotherapist, egonomics and occupational health and safety specialist with over 15 years experience working in Australia, Japan and America. Experienced across many industries including man…

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Navigating the Generative AI Maze in Business 49:35

8M ago49:35

49:35

Evangelos Simoudis is Managing Director at Synapse Partners, a firm that helps corporations apply AI and invests in startups developing data-driven AI applications. This episode explores the current state of enterprise AI adoption, distinguishing between the steady progress of traditional AI and the experimental phase of generative AI. Subscribe to…

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The Practical Realities of AI Development 37:30

8M ago37:30

37:30

Lin Qiao, CEO of Fireworks AI, dives into the practical challenges AI developers face, from UX/DX hurdles to complex systems engineering. Discover key trends like the convergence of open-source and proprietary models, the rise of agentic workflows, and strategies for optimizing quality, speed, and cost. Subscribe to the Gradient Flow Newsletter 📩 h…

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Beyond the Demo: Building AI Systems That Actually Work 27:36

8M ago27:36

27:36

Hamel Husain is the founder of Parlance Labs. He discusses how successful AI implementation requires fundamental data science skills often overlooked in current educational resources that focus too heavily on tools and frameworks. Subscribe to the Gradient Flow Newsletter 📩 https://gradientflow.substack.com/ Support our work by leaving a small tip …