Lex interviews Stephen Balavan, the CEO of Lambda Labs, a company that provides GPU servers, workstations and cloud services for training neural networks. Stephen talks about his background in computer science, economics, and deep learning, and how his interest in AI began with reading Neuromancer by William Gibson. He discusses the history of AI research, the concept of perceptron, and the breakthrough of deep learning in 2012-2014 that enabled machines to recognize and categorize images better than humans. Stephen also talks about working for Perceptio – which started as an API for face recognition, and and later was acquired by Apple.
MENTIONED IN THE CONVERSATION
Lambda’s website: https://bit.ly/3j6nOVI
CEO’s Linkedin profile: https://bit.ly/3HAYhNv
Topics: fintech, artificial intelligence, neural networks, deep learning, generative AI
Companies: Lambda, Perceptio, Prisma, Apple, ChatGPT, Dall-E, Google, DeepDream, Dreamscope
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TIMESTAMPS
1’48”: Stephen’s academic training and how it formed a foundation for his career trajectory
7’17”: The history of facial recognition AI, what a perceptron is, how it fails, and the architecture thereof
11’59”: Deep neural networks advancing facial recognition progress and the social credit score dystopia in China
17’45”: Define DeepDream and deep style – Neural network reverse engineering perceptions, visualisations and hallucinations
22’34”: From DeepDream to Dream Scope (web app) to accelerate image accuracy, and addressing the competition: Prisma’s Lensa
27’38”: The advances in the AI math that are responsible for the step-change in progress resulting in OpenAI’s ChatGPT, for example
31’53”: Lambda – how the company started, how the perceptions around consumable AI have changed, and the progress thusfar
36’42”: Lambda’s ability to evolve given the current heightened demand, and the future of the market
39’32”: What the future looks like with AI embedded into our everyday lives
41’38”: Channels to use to connect with Stephen & learn more about Lambda
