S3E7 Questioning Everything with Jaron Lanier, Prime Unifying Scientist at Microsoft

As conversational AI continues to change the nature of UX, we're excited to bring you a practical (and thorough) conversation about hiring design talent with Aaron Cooper, Senior Director of Digital Experience at Banner Health. Aaron has lead the creation of multiple products involving conversational AI at companies like Honeywell and Optum Health, and was generous enough to open up about what he's looking for when hiring design talent and how he makes sure key people within his organization are partners in design. We've also got a special guest host for this episode: Elias Parker, the executive producer of our book, Age of Invisible Machines, and of this podcast. An ethnographer by training, Elias has been working with UX practitioners for more than a decade and has hired over 200 researchers and designers across disciplines.

As the former Chief Knowledge Officer at NASA, Roger Forsgren has a unique understanding of maintaining the administration's renowned gold standard of data management in extremely high-pressure environments. Having worked his way up from a mechanical engineering position with the space administration, Roger joins Robb and guest host Mike Lee for a conversation about the unique rhythms of data organization, retrieval, and maintenance. Exploring ideas from his book "Lean Knowledge Management: How NASA Implemented a Practical KM Program" this is an episode for information science enthusiasts everywhere.

Take a deep dive into the creation of an advanced digital assistant with Jeff McMillan and David Wu of Morgan Stanley. As the Head of AD&I, Morgan Stanley Wealth Management and the Head of Knowledge Management & Generative AI respectively, Jeff and David led the creation of an AI assistant for the global investment firm's advisors. Robb and Josh invite them in for a conversation about the technical work and strategic initiatives that enabled Morgan Stanley to create a knowledge base that's given them a massive leap forward with conversational AI.

Well-known researcher, professor, and author Richard Florida joins Robb and Josh for an expansive conversation about the relationship between cities and innovation. His books include "The Rise of the Creative Class" and "The New Urban Decay," which both explore the multi-layered relationship between people and the cities where creativity becomes innovation. Richard is a sought-after speaker and his strategy firm Creative Class Group works with Meta, Microsoft, WeWork, BMW, Cirque do Soliel, and Google.

Payal Arora is a Professor of Inclusive AI Cultures at Utrecht University and Co-Founder of FemLab. She's also the author of the award-winning "The Next Billion Users" from Harvard Press, and her new book "From Pessimism to Promise: Lessons from the Global South on Designing Inclusive Tech" will be released this fall by MIT Press. Payal joins Robb and Josh for a frank and eye-opening exploration of technology and innovation in the Global South.

As the Global CIO of Zoom, Gary Sorrentino spends a lot of time thinking about how technology can amplify human-to-human collaboration. He joins Robb and Josh for a conversation about the challenges of connecting people in hybrid work environments that are always evolving. As Gary points out, humans are in a joint venture with artificial intelligence, and this episode explores many of the inflection points we need to consider.

Author and UX Legend Greg Nudelman was one of the original guests on In Conversation with UX Magazine over eight years ago. He returns for a rich conversation about the frenzied intersection of UX and AI. Greg has honed his craft as a design lead at GE Digital, Cisco, and eBay and has worked with organizations like IBM, Oracle, Associated Press, and Intuit. He's currently a Distinguished Designer at Sumo and has written numerous books including The $1 Prototype and Designing Search. He joins Robb and Josh to discuss ways that we can iterate faster and further in the age of AI.

As a co-author of the often cited (and debated) Stochastic Parrots paper from 2021, Emily M. Bender is a staunch critic of large language models (LLMs). Having worked in computational linguistics for more than 20 years, Emily's deep understanding of LLM mechanics has her questioning many of the emerging use cases we see in the world. Also, Emily hosts Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000, where, alongside sociologist Dr. Alex Hanna, she breaks down the AI hype, separates fact from fiction, and distinguishes science from bloviation. She joins Robb and Josh for a provocative exploration of generative AI on an important episode of Invisible Machines.

Co-founder of VR technology as we know it Jaron Lanier is also an accomplished musician and artist. As the Prime Unifying Scientist at Microsoft, Jaron rejects the deceptive nature of terms like "AGI" and "decentralization" in favor of a vision of technology that's all about people collaborating with other people. Join Robb and Josh for an episode of Invisible Machines that questions everything.

Daron Acemoglu, Institute Professor of Economics at MIT and co-author of Power and Progress joins Robb and Josh for a deep exploration of the intersection of technology and economics. Daron's work has explored our thousand-year struggle with technology and prosperity and this conversation touches on how we might incentivize the changes that will improve our experiences as a species. There are layers of centralization that we need to think about in the wake of generative AI, and the trio discusses the ways we can challenge the norms associated with our personal data.