The Derby Mill Series: Pushing AI to the Limit

In this unpacked episode, the team further expands its discussion of themes that came up in episode seven , which explored the automation of customer support with artificial intelligence. Our guests in that episode were a duo that is leading efforts in that space: CEO Mike Murchison and chief product and technology officer Mike Gozzo from Ada. In this episode, Intrepid Growth Partners cofounder an...

Meet Ada, a Canadian AI agent platform automating the resolution of customer service interactions. When customers have complex requests—such as resetting passwords, checking order status, or requesting a refund—Ada uses large language models to radically reduce the amount of human effort required to fulfill the customer’s inquiry. Here, Ada CEO Mike Murchison and Chief Product & Technology Officer...

In the first episode of The Derby Mill Series to post since our co-host Rich Sutton won the Turing Award, the highest distinction in the field of computer science, Sutton joins our panel of experts to further discuss the application of artificial intelligence to the task of mining exploration. What ensues is a remarkable conversation about the increasing relevance of cheap and easily discoverable...

Intrepid partner Ajay Agrawal and senior advisors Rich Sutton, Sendhil Mullainathan and Niamh Gavin are back to dig deep in this episode all about using artificial intelligence to increase the efficiency of mining exploration. That’s the act of using machine-learning techniques to analyze information from the earth, such as core samples, to decide multi-million-dollar questions, like where to buil...

The new environment for global trade is dominating discussions in many business sectors, including artificial intelligence. To discuss the implications for global software companies and start-ups, Intrepid Growth Partners co-founders Dr. Mark Machin, Mark Shulgan and Ajay Agrawal arranged a conversation with global trade expert Marc L. Busch, a professor of international business diplomacy at Geor...

In the first of our “unpacked” episodes, Intrepid partner Ajay Agrawal leads our senior advisors Rich Sutton, Sendhil Mullainathan and Niamh Gavin in a conversation that further explores the themes that arose in episode one. That episode featured a conversation with Rae Jeong, CEO of Maneva, which is using AI and reinforcement learning (RL) techniques to move factories toward autonomous operations...

The Chinese tech start-up DeepSeek used reinforcement learning and other creative techniques to develop an ultra-efficient chatbot that was less costly to make, uses fewer chips and requires much less electrical power than better-known alternatives, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Anthropic’s Claude. To discuss the implications, Intrepid Growth Partners gathered the Derby Mill team, including the pion...

In the premiere of the Intrepid Growth Partners’ podcast, we meet with Rae Jeong, the CEO of Maneva AI, a Toronto-based company whose mission is to use artificial intelligence to make factories autonomous—completely run, maintained and improved by machine-learning algorithms and manufacturing robots.  Rae joins our panel of experts: Ajay Agrawal, co-founder and partner, Intrepid Growth Partners  R...

Intrepid Growth Partners is excited to release the official sizzle reel for our new podcast: The Derby Mill Series: Intrepid Pioneers of the Next Economy. Featuring discussions with entrepreneurs at the forefront of deploying machine intelligence and brainstorming sessions about where the technology will go—at the limit.   Intrepid Senior Advisors Rich Sutton (pioneer of reinforcement learning), S...