Art and Science of AI

We kick off season 3 with a conversation about what makes the Codex Desktop app compelling as an AI workspace. Nikhil and Piyush break down the idea of an AI harness, why heartbeat automations matter, how shared browser context changes the feedback loop, and why moving beyond terminal-first workflows makes AI feel more usable for everyday work. The episode also explores how Codex is shifting from...

Nikhil and Piyush discuss the evolution of digital advertising and the transformative role of AI. We explore the shift from traditional advertising to the sophisticated AI-driven campaigns of today, and how AI has enabled companies like Airbnb to turn advertising from a cost center into a profit making machine. We discuss the importance of measurement and profitability, and how AI is automating so...

In this episode Nikhil and Piyush discuss Google's recent AI announcements from the Google Pixel event and the recent antitrust ruling in the US declaring Google to be a monopolist. We discuss new AI capabilities in Google Pixel such as Gemini Live, multimodal AI, and the challenges of integrating LLMs into AI assistants. We then discuss the Google antitrust ruling and its implications for Google...

Nikhil and Piyush welcome their first guest, Rukma Sen, an AI Product Marketing Manager at Google. Rukma shares her unique insights into how AI is transforming marketing strategies and operations, offering a detailed look at how she coaches AI tools to boost productivity and creativity in her role. From designing custom AI workflows to using cutting-edge tools, Rukma discusses the art and science...

In this episode, Nikhil and Piyush delve into the latest happenings in the world of AI focusing on Apple Intelligence, Meta AI, and OpenAI's SearchGPT. We discuss the recent delays in Apple Intelligence, the growing trend of companies over-promising and under-delivering on AI features, and the impact of European Union regulations on tech giants. We explore Meta’s significant advancements in op...

In this episode, Nikhil and Piyush discuss the fear of AI leading to mass unemployment. We consider historical precedents such as the Industrial Revolution and the advent of Personal Computers to understand how past technological revolutions led to both job loss as well as new job creation. We consider whether this time is truly different with the AI revolution, the societal implications of these...

In this episode, Piyush and Nikhil explore the AI value chain. We explore the different components that go into delivering an AI application from start to finish, including the compute layer, the foundational model layer, and the application layer. Drawing analogies to traditional supply chains, we discuss how companies like NVIDIA, OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, etc. fit into this ecosystem. Tune in...

In this episode we discuss how to go beyond mastering ChatGPT to automating your tasks using AI APIs. We introduce the concept of APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) and how they can be used to automate tasks to help you free up your time and scale up your productivity. Nikhil gives a live demo of an AI automation tool he built to help automate repetitive parts of Piyush's workflow as a...

This episode covers practical applications of AI in everyday life, from simple email drafting to sophisticated company research. We discuss different prompting techniques such as few-shot prompting and chain of thought prompting to improve the quality and accuracy of AI-generated responses. We also discuss custom instructions, custom GPTs, and explore the powerful potential of AI in automating rep...

Your one-stop-shop for all things Apple Intelligence! In this episode, we discuss the Apple Intelligence announcements from WWDC 2024. We discuss new AI capabilities in Apple’s apps and in Siri, the all-new AI assistant that can perform actions across multiple apps. We deep-dive into the architecture of Apple Intelligence, with a focus on privacy, and we discuss the implications of Apple Intellige...

In this episode we discuss the hype around AI and the challenges in achieving its full potential in 2024. The last 10% of solving problems with AI has proven to be difficult due to LLM hallucinations and reliability challenges. We discuss how this problem can be addressed by grounding LLMs with a knowledge base via the paradigm of Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG). We discuss the different appr...

Welcome to season 2 of Art and Science of AI! In this episode we reflect on our journey since season 1 last year. We discuss the impact of understanding AI on Piyush’s career in ad sales at Google. It enabled him to reimagine his job as selling AI rather than just selling ads. We also discuss the increasing importance of AI for Nikhil’s work as a Product Manager at Meta, and reflect on whether “AI...

In this episode we consider whether AI is having its "iPhone moment" as proclaimed by Nvidia’s CEO. The launch of the iPhone revolutionized the ways in which people interact with business and society, paving the way for innovative new businesses and social experiences such as Uber and Instagram. Will the rise of AI assistants and agents lead to a similar revolution? We discuss the evolut...

In this episode we discuss the limitations of ChatGPT such as its lack of up-to-date knowledge, lack of private / domain specific knowledge, and lack of tool use abilities. We then discuss innovative new solutions to these problems such as vector database retrieval, ChatGPT plugins, and AI agents with access to external tools that can orchestrate complex tasks and workflows autonomously. What are...

In this episode we delve into the world of generative AI with a focus on language modeling. We explore how text is transformed into semantically meaningful data through the use of vector embeddings, providing an in-depth look at the mechanics behind AI models like Open AI’s GPT-3. Discover the complexities of semantic relationships in language, the role of mathematical concepts in AI, and the adva...

In this episode we go beyond classical machine learning into the fascinating world of neural networks. We discuss how neural networks, inspired by the human brain, revolutionize our ability to process unstructured data like images and text. Using a detailed example of handwriting digit recognition, we break down how neural networks learn patterns, make predictions, and transform raw data into valu...

In this episode, we dive into the fundamentals of AI, starting with its basic definition and exploring how it has evolved over time. We discuss the differences between two approaches to AI — rule based systems and machine learning — using examples such as classification for spam filtering and linear regression for house price prediction. We dive deeper into classical machine learning, introducing...

In this introductory episode of Art and Science of AI we discuss our background, expertise, and motivation for embarking on this journey to demystify AI! Piyush shares his fascination with seemingly magical AI technologies like ChatGPT and MidJourney, and his desire to understand the underlying mechanics. Nikhil shares his background in AI, and his plan for demystifying ChatGPT in this season: sta...