Data Driven

In this episode, Frank and Andy talk about staying motivated in the new year, answer questions from the audience, and share a little about their secret project.

This episode was originally recorded on an impromptu livestream and  in a delightful surprise Andy was able to join.

In this episode, Frank offers some encouragement for people hoping for a better year in 2021.

This episode was originally recorded on an impromptu livestream and  in a delightful surprise Andy was able to join.

Links:

Get a free Audible book on us at https://www.audible.com/ep/creator?source_code=PDTGBPD060314004R

Coming Soon

In this episode, Frank interview Baby Supriya about her journey from student to professional data scientist.

coming soon.

In this Thanksgiving Data Point, Frank sends a special message of thanks to you, the best audience in the world!

Did AT&T Predict the Future?

http://franksworld.com/2020/11/26/did-att-predict-the-future/

00:00:00 Frank 

Hey, what's up is Frank here from data driven? Just wanted to take a moment here. It's Thanksgiving here in the US. I'm actually sitting by the by the ocean on the beach. 

00:00:15 Frank 

And it's a beautiful day. 

00:00:19 Frank 

And God. 

00:00:21 Frank 

Some interesting interesting email the other day from website called Pod Stats or Pod Status. You'll see I have my other production assistant with me, but I just wanted to say thank you to all the listeners who helped made data driven successful over the years. Can't believe that tomorrow. 

00:00:42 Frank 

It's been four years since I had the idea for data driven. Next week will probably be. It'll be about four years since I asked Andy to be the cohost we've been rocking it pretty well. We're at about 160,000 downloads. 

00:00:55 Frank 

265 or 266 shows an. 

00:01:03 Frank 

Just wanted to say thank you. 

00:01:05 Frank 

Actually got an interesting email the other day from a website called Pod Stats Pod status. 

00:01:11 Frank 

And apparently we are very highly ranked where the 29th ranked podcast in technology in Italy. So I want to say gratze. We also rank very high and definitely in the top 50. In Sweden, Thailand, Norway in Brazil. 

00:01:30 Frank 

So thank you, I only know how to say thank you in. 

00:01:35 Frank 

Italian sorry, but I would have to go back and figure out how to say it in those other languages. 

00:01:46 Frank 

I'm sorry about that, but I will go back and figure out how to say it in the other language is another thing. If you've been very eagle eyed in terms of our show notes and the transcriptions. 

00:01:57 Frank 

Uh. 

00:01:58 Frank 

We have we have a name now for the AI voice over Lady probably do more formal show on it. But you know what? 

00:02:07 Frank 

Not gonna do it, figured I would just get the information out. Right now we call her Bailey which is an acronym for British AI Lady. You can look in the transcripts. You'll see her kind of listed as there is a name. 

00:02:23 Frank 

Interestingly enough, we changed up how we do our transcripts. I used to use video indexer but now word online you can actually upload the audio file, the MP3 file and it will actually not only do the transcription and the timestamp, but actually the speaker identification too. So we actually test this out. 

00:02:45 Frank 

And it's pretty accurate, so you'll so hopefully now are. 

00:02:52 Frank 

Hopefully now are. 

00:02:55 Frank 

Our transcripts are much more accessible. That's something we've been meaning to do and. 

00:03:01 Frank 

Yeah, oh, I see Andy's on hey what's up? Andy yeah we I shared that email with you and yeah, we are we're we're we're reaching the top 30 this is pretty good I'm I'm excited I'm happy about the show. Happy I'm thankful Thanksgiving right? 

00:03:18 Frank 

So I'm thankful for having Andy as a good friend and a cohost on this journey on this epic road trip down the information superhighway. As we say in our standard intro and but he was basically talking about all the things that look very futuristic in those commercials and. 

00:03:39 Frank 

The my dog is about to pull my arm off. I can feel it. 

00:03:43 Frank 

And. 

00:03:46 Frank 

So. 

00:03:47 Frank 

Yeah, so it's interesting that how how that you know. So he kind of goes through. It's interesting from a language point of view, 'cause I was alive in 1993. I was in the middle of college and all that stuff seemed I wouldn't say in pop. 

00:04:00 Frank 

Possible seems a little far fetched in a little improbable, but it's interesting how that video predicted touch screens. The widespread use of touch screens so it held up pretty well, except for the fact it wasn't really a T&T that was a major player in that, and if memory serves the AT&T we know today is actually a rebranding of singular, which was another company entirely so. 

00:04:24 Frank 

I'm sure someone will call me on the comments if I'm wrong. 

00:04:28 Frank 

But just wanna say I love you too man. 

00:04:32 Frank 

See Andy's comment. Yeah man, I'm just thankful to have good people in my life. Like Andy. I'm happy to have a great audience that I have happen. Will be happy to be able to, you know, spend some time and I'm unplugged by the ocean. 

00:04:48 Frank 

So happy Thanksgiving to everyone. I'm going to sign off now and might do another quantum show. Probably tomorrow, maybe not today because I had a mental breakthrough in terms of what I was able to figure out by watching this video. And I might even scored a new guest for that show. So with all of that. 

00:05:10 Frank 

From all of us to all of you. 

00:05:13 Frank 

You have a great Thanksgiving if you don't celebrate Thanksgiving. I hope you have a wonderful Thursday. 

In this Data Point, Frank livestreams from the beach to talk about how sometimes specific predictions of the future are correct, even if they miss some details.

In the 1990s, AT&T ran a series of commercials, highlighting the ways in which the internet would transform our lives. 

One that stands out is the prediction that we would eventually send faxes from the beach. In 2020, the fax machine is somewhat of a relic. In the 90s, the concept of livestreaming on a platform like Facebook, would have seemed too far fetched at the time.

Sending a fax from the beach: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kfIFDX9kE4

Data Driven Merchandise: https://www.amazon.com/s?rh=n%3A7141123011%2Cp_4%3AData+Driven&ref=w_bl_sl_s_ap_web_7141123011

Coming soon

In this episode, Frank and Andy interview Dana Mantilia on Why Humans are the Weakest Link in CyberSecurity.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/frank-lavigne_data-driven-live-with-dana-mantilia-activity-6735628251328204800-Qjwq

Coming soon!

AI Generated

00:00:05 BAILeY

Hello and welcome to data driven.

00:00:08 BAILeY

The podcast where we explore the emerging fields of data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence.

00:00:16 BAILeY

In this episode, Frank and Andy speak to Dana Mantilia about cybersecurity and why companies are not investing their time and attention where they should be.

00:00:26 BAILeY

This episode was originally recorded on a live stream and this was the first time we had a guest join us on the life stream for a show.

00:00:34 BAILeY

Season 4 just keeps the innovations coming.

00:00:38 BAILeY

Without further ado, here are your hosts Frank Lavigna and Andy Leonard.

00:00:44 Frank

Alright, thanks for tuning into data driven. If you're watching this live, thank you for taking time out of your day. I realize this being the lead up to the Holidays. Things are kind of hectic. I know in Chateau Lavigna things are very hectic today.

00:00:59 Frank

We

00:01:00 Frank

Andy and I are happy to announce a new guest that we have with us. I first saw her on LinkedIn when she would do these really cool training videos.

00:01:10 Frank

On basically security topics.

00:01:14 Frank

An with with Black Friday, literally a week from now Cyber Monday and the just the The Creativity alarmingly creative and flexibility of scammers that we've had in light of the kovid, pandemic etc etc.

00:01:32 Frank

I figured it would be worth having kind of a good discussion about just the basics of cyber security and why it's important my wife happens to be in the cyber security field, so I'd like to think that I'm better prepared, but I know if you think you're better prepared, that's probably a vulnerability.

00:01:50 Frank

So welcome to the show, Dana.

00:01:52 Dana

Well, thank you for having me nice to be here.

00:01:55 Frank

So this is you are actually the 1st guest. We're going to have on the show that we interviewed live on a live stream first on video.

00:02:02 Dana

Very honored, very.

00:02:03 Frank

Honored so awesome. We're trying to push the boundaries for season four, so tell us a little bit about you and your company for those that haven't seen your videos on LinkedIn.

00:02:15 Dana

OK sure yeah. My name is Dana Mantilia an I am the founder of identity Protection Planning an we tried to help educate people in very layman's terms on how they can protect themselves from identity thieves and cybercriminals. And so we have a variety of different kinds of training. Either you know, training data, webinars, some videos or we have an on line.

00:02:35 Dana

Platform that's short little videos that everyone is required to watch.

00:02:38 Dana

And just to kind of start spreading the word, I mean cybersecurity is not going away and unfortunately the the frontline workers are the people that really are maybe not educated on it and they also are the ones that are clicking on things they shouldn't be clicking on so.

00:02:54 Frank

No, so that's a good point. So one of your most recent videos, and this is the one that made me think we should have her on the show.

00:03:00 Frank

Was the one the gift card scam and how?

00:03:04 Frank

Somebody in your organization got snared up in this.

00:03:08 Dana

Yeah, I mean it's.

00:03:09 Dana

It's crazy, I mean that the way that I did that little video is how exactly how it happened. She came to my office door with her codon and I said, well, why do you have your code on and she said, oh I'm going to get that stuff you need and I said well, what stuff are you talking about? And she said this stuff, we were just messaging back and forth about. I said I was. I've been sitting here at my office just doing work I didn't.

00:03:28 Dana

Message you about anything.

00:03:30 Dana

So then she showed me and they they person initially sent an email that looked like it was kind of from my email very similar, which is always usually what they do. And then you know the urgency factor. I always tell people when there's a sense of urgency. We have to stop and say, is this really a big big emergency here to go buy gift cards? But people want to please their boss so they get these emails and they act upon them.

00:03:50 Dana

So she then then the person said, can you give me your email? I mean your cell phone. I wanted to text you this. So then the conversation jumped over to her cell phone and now they're texting back and forth and she said, well, how am I going to pay for these?

00:04:02 Dana

And then he said, well, you know what? Just when you get to the store, read off the numbers in the back of the card and then when you get back I'll reimburse you. So they were. I mean, it was just back and forth and back, but anybody would have fallen for this anybody.

00:04:13 Frank

Wow, the thing that struck me is the most insidious part.

00:04:17 Frank

It's how they moved away from email pretty early in the process, because maybe I mean it was a good. I mean, there's a I don't know. As a data scientist, I I hate giving out statistics, but let's say it was a 5050 chance that that person had your cell.

00:04:30 Frank

Phone number.

00:04:31 Frank

Millimeter like an an. It's a good gambit for them because I guess they didn't have your number already saved in their phone, so they could have this whole conversation with you, right? Yeah, an I would assume that folks in your organization are well trained.

00:04:46 Dana

Well, we're at least talking about this stuff right times. That's that's a startling factor, is that?

00:04:52 Dana

You know we're talking about all these things all the time and we we totally almost fell for it so.

00:04:57 Frank

Well, I never disclosed this publicly.

00:05:00 Frank

Until I'll do it now is that one time Microsoft? I work for Microsoft, they they pay the mortgage, they pay for the electricity and it goes through the my little monitor display there.

00:05:12 Frank

But they will routinely send out kind of phishing emails.

00:05:16 Frank

And it will be like urgent you have to, like, you know, do this because your expense report or something like this. And I shouldn't admit this publicly, but I did I was driving. I see this like emergency thing come through. I'm like the screen and I'm like.

00:05:30 Frank

So I didn't think I clicked on it and it it got it. It it it got a there was there was there should have been an animated GIF of like somebody?

00:05:38 Frank

At the company doing this, but it was like this. It was this like badge of shame of like hey you fell for this uh huh.

00:05:45 Frank

You know, and I was like crap and I was like I learned. 2 lessons one.

00:05:51 Frank

Pull over first.

00:05:53 Frank

If I can't mouse over the link.

00:05:56 Frank

Probably shouldn't click on it, right?

00:05:58 Frank

And three is just.

00:06:00 Frank

That sense of urgency.

00:06:01 Frank

Um was what really like, and maybe there's a psychological thing to this where it just tricks off like this. The primordial brain, or I know there's the three brain model and Andy and I go off on tangents a lot. Dan, I should warn you, but not us. Ultimately the idea is that once you're kind of anxious about something right, your higher brain functions are going, if not shut off kind of be pushed aside.

00:06:24 Frank

And all you have to do is click the link to get your answer or whatever I mean.

00:06:28 Frank

It seems like these folks are well versed in this type of psychology.

00:06:33 Dana

Yeah, and they also know too that you know every when you're on your mobile, everybody is rush rush rush rush rush for rushing on the mobile phone all the time and that is a little scary because sometimes even when you look on the mobile you can't even see who it's from. It'll it'll you know. Just say a name or something like even some of the Apple ones that come out. Don't say oh it's from Apple, but that's not the exact. Doesn't show you the phone number or whatever it is. It's just.

00:06:55 Dana

Summer has put up there. As you know The Who it's from kind of thing, so yeah.

00:07:00 Dana

There's a lot of things we need to all.

00:07:01 Dana

Start doing or not doing.

00:07:03 Frank

Right, it's it's an interesting. It's just fascinating that with all this advances in cybersecurity, and I've seen a lot of the things that the technical we're not going to go into.

00:07:14 Frank

Humans are like the weak link.

00:07:16 Dana

Yeah.

00:07:18 Frank

That's crazy.

00:07:20 Dana

Yeah, definitely, and that's the frontline to most of the stuff and you know the urgency factor just to go back to that real quick one. Scam that that that is targeted at seniors.

00:07:29 Dana

Is the grandparent scam, and So what they do is they will call up and pretend that there's someone's grandson or granddaughter and something crazy happened like there's held hostage in a Mexican jail or something and they need to have money right away wired to them so that they can, you know, get out of there. So then to make it even sound more valid, they put the prison guard on the phone and they say, you know who?

00:07:49 Dana

This is the information. This is where you need to send it to, and he's a very stern person and these people really do fall for this and a lot of the people Western unions around the country. They they know that this.

00:08:00 Dana

Time is running rampant, so they'll try to stop people. I did a speech to speech the other day or whatever. I talked the other day and they were about probably about 1000 people on there and nobody said anything when I brought this up. And then at the end when we had the Q&A, there had to at least be 25 to 50 people. That said, my my mother fell for this and she would not believe that it wasn't my son. You know another one.

00:08:20 Dana

Edit There there there's a scam was that they said that their grandson was had drugs in the car and was with some guy that he was going fishing with and it was just one after the.

00:08:30 Dana

And a lot of the time that seniors won't even admit that this happens because they're embarrassed by it, and then they're afraid that their children, their adult children are not going to let them manage their finances. So again, it's a whole play. An urgency plan, emotion, and you're not even thinking straight. I mean, if somebody came up to you and said your grandson is in a Mexican jail right now.

00:08:50 Dana

And we need to give money. You do stop and think a little bit, but the way we act on line is very different than the way we act when we're here. We act on the phone when somebody calls, we want to believe them. Then we would act.

00:09:00 Dana

As if they were standing in front of us, so that's kind of some of the awareness that I like to to spread is safe. Just ask yourself if this person was standing here and this conversation was happening, would it sound crazy, you know?

00:09:11 Andy

So Dana, we talked a lot about the problem and how do we make ourselves shift gears like that? How do we engage, you know, Mentale in a way that maybe defeats the Sergeant.

00:09:25 Dana

Well, you know cybersecurity training has been, you know, going on over the years. The problem is getting bigger and bigger and bigger and we're throwing more and more money at it. And it's not getting any better, right? Yeah, so I say we need to approach it. I look at things a little bit differently, so usually it's the IT department that's responsible for putting together a program to teach the regular, non technical people.

00:09:46 Dana

You know?

00:09:46 Dana

What they need to do and not do so, they're forced to sit through an hours worth of training. They're about to fall asleep. All they want to do is be able to get through it so they can check off the box that they actually went. They did it, that's it, and I don't think that's the best way to teach people what I think we should do is we should start teaching them how they can protect themselves, their families, their homes. There's going to get some interests are going to say hey, you know that's.

00:10:10 Dana

I better call my mother and tell her to watch out for that, or I better make sure my son's not doing that and there's a there's a buy in there. So now once you get that buy in, there's an awareness that we need to start protecting things.

00:10:20 Dana

And then when you're talking about the at the company, you've already educated them on how they should be looking at their emails. Then now they know how that they need to be looking at the emails with the company, 'cause emails is pretty much where most of the problems are starting from, so so I just think it's if we looked at it a little bit differently, maybe we would be getting through to people a little bit different.

00:10:37 Andy

Well, I like your approach because we've already kind of walked through a lot of this, and we've said that it's not a technical issue at all, an.

00:10:45 Andy

Being a night person and Frank just Frank admitted earlier that were high functioning. You know, savants. Basically Frank and I were both 80 D and you know. And it's.

00:10:58 Frank

A normal account cards in Vegas though, which I totally feel shaded. I'm sorry, alright cut off, that's OK, it was funny.

00:11:06 Andy

Yeah, but you know it.

00:11:08 Andy

Having the app when you were just describing that I was imagining people that you know, even my you know my cellphone Frank doing this and we're like I said kind of high functioning but normal IT people and nothing against normal IT people I love you, I mean it but having them try to explain something nontechnical. 'cause if if we've identified that the issue is not really a technical.

00:11:31 Andy

Problem and we throw money at it and bought deer. Develop software that others have built and all of that really what's happening here is very psychological.

00:11:39 Andy

So I would. I would think that that that approach you just described having a non technical person walk through this, which sounds to me very emotional scenario that comes at you. You know on.

00:11:55 Andy

People you love an urgency and it's on your phone. And it's like every card that the scammers have is being played against. Especially older people who are not familiar but not as familiar with the technology as some of us.

00:12:08 Dana

Uh-huh absolutely absolutely. So I just think it's a different way to approach things and it it comes across as if you're giving the employee a benefit as opposed to forcing them to sit down because you need to protect the company.

00:12:20 Dana

Yeah OK, great.

00:12:21 Dana

So that's what I have to do, you know, kind of thing.

00:12:24 Andy

So we'll just envision mandatory training. Sorry, I just had a vision of office space of.

00:12:30 Andy

Well, you know, is this good for the company that banner?

00:12:33 Frank

Friday is Crazy shirt day.

00:12:39 Frank

There's a movie reference for the show, Andy, that could you?

00:12:45 Frank

I don't have my sound board.

00:12:46 Andy

You don't have your sound.

00:12:48 Frank

Now that's one of the disadvantages of switching to LinkedIn. Live will fix it. You know us where engineers Andy?

00:12:55 Frank

So the the question I guess is.

00:13:01 Frank

How do so? Yeah, I mean I think it was really insightful. Was you know my wife bought a bunch of studies of books to study for the CI, SSP and all that. And it's like a I mean, it's a it's a book and.

00:13:15 Frank

It's not technical, you're right. I mean, people are the weak link and I think.

00:13:20 Frank

People, and then that whole like you brought out the whole shame factor. Like I'm not going to admit like I mean that thing would happen to me. I got caught by our internal team, right? I was a year ago and I'm just admitting it now. Like you know. And and I did that on purpose because, well, I didn't hide it on purpose. Well, I guess I did, but I wanted to.

00:13:40 Frank

To point out is that there's not a lot of shame. I mean, the shame of this, I think is a big barrier, isn't it? To protection, isn't it?

00:13:47 Dana

Yeah, definitely it is. Yeah, we all have to get over that. Oh my goodness, I don't wanna be the one that you know.

00:13:51 Dana

Took the company down. I don't want to be the one that you know did this or let this in or what you know, whatever. Whatever the case may be, it's definitely a shame factor is is a big thing and and recognizing that the people are the biggest thing and one thing is that cyber security training, right? So it's going on a little bit here and there. The big companies much more so some of the smaller companies and medium size companies. There is nothing. It's like the Wild West going on out there so you know whatever you think your secretary is comfortable clicking on.

00:14:16 Dana

That's what she's clicking on.

00:14:17 Dana

So that's where we need to say, OK, this is a whole new industry and it's you know, it's it's it's it's. It's exploding right now and I think over the next three to five years cybersecurity training is going to be. It's going to be everywhere and everybody. Even the small companies are going to have to going to have to do something along those lines, but.

00:14:34 Dana

That being said, so because it's so new again, going back to the IT department, if you said to anybody five years ago, you know something about cybersecurity, they probably don't even really know what you're talking about. They say you need to talk to the IT department.

00:14:46 Dana

So we always just that pass up. Oh, that's a night thing we don't get involved in that. It's a night thing and like you we've all just been talking about it's not it's it's the people that IT thing might be perfect. You know maybe they have at the firewall or whatever all that stuff they need to do. But it's the people are just clicking on it, downloading things, you're going nowhere.

00:15:04 Frank

No, that's true. I mean, you can have the best firewall and all that packets like lock down to the teeth, but I mean if if somebody behind the firewall clicks on the.

00:15:13 Frank

Clicks on the link.

00:15:16 Frank

It's kind of like if you want to imagine like this is. This is the image I have is well, First off. I think the problem might be the term cyber security, right? 'cause when you hear the term cyber security I think of like somebody like with this type of monitor setup. You know like yeah right. You know like hacking away at the matrix or something like that like yeah.

00:15:35 Frank

No, it's not. It doesn't have to be. I mean, there's a....

About a year ago, I read AI Superpowers by Kai-Fu Lee which details the struggle between the US and China for AI supremacy in the 21st century,

That got me thinking about a map I once made for the School of AI.

The US vs China debate leaves out one key player: India.

https://smefutures.com/india-the-next-emerging-superpower-in-artificial-intelligence/

Original Livestream

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/frank-lavigne_the-third-ai-superpower-activity-6732059581536600064-1_3M

This episode kicks off Season 4 of the show and we are quite excited to have Rick Hall to talk to us about data analytics, entrepreneurship, and the impact of COVID on remote work.

Rick Hall  is a software entrepreneur focused on the analytics market. He has led the development of over a dozen software products and taken several companies from the early stage to an eventual sale. He has been working in analytics and software for 30 years and has been apart of the evolution of several generations of technology and practices. Currently, he is the CEO at Aginity Corporation--Supercharge your SQL Experience with Analytics Management. Aginity Corporation is the only next-generation analytics management toolset designed specifically to empower analytic teams to take advantage of the top analytic platforms.

Sponsor: Audible.com - Get a free audio book when you sign up for a free trial!

Welcome to Season 4! (01:00)

ImpactQuantum is our new podcast. (02:30)

Rick owns and operates Aginity Corporation. (04:00)

Shoutouts to Bill Baker and the BI Advisory Council. (05:00)

"Stuff changes." (Paraphrased) (08:00)

OG can stand for Old Guy or Original Gangster." - Frank (08:30)

Getting data to the place where someone can actually use it for Analytics. (09:00)

"First, you get the data," referring to ETL, data engineering, data integration, data quality... (09:45)

Regarding GPT-3 (11:45)

"34 ways to measure coupons..." (14:20)

"It's more of a biology problem." (14:50)

On answering questions at the speed of business. (15:45)

"So many business questions are answered, initially, in the heat of the moment." (17:30)

A really honest answer on predicting the unpredictable. (18:35)

"I think we'll be talking about Covid for the next 20 years." - Frank (20:00)

Wait - did (THE) Rick Hall just say he listens to Data Driven?? (21:15)

On business travel and remote work during the pandemic... (22:30)

Rick, on pay for software engineers in Silicon Valley. (23:30)

"Innovation Happens Everywhere" - Frank (25:25)

"Everyone hears the story of the Google's of the world..." (27:30)

Rick started a company 10 Sep 2001. (28:15)

"If you don't double-down at the moment of greatest risk, well, no one's going to do it for you." - Rick (29:00)

"This is probably not the easiest way to make money." - Frank, on entrepreneurship (31:00)

"Get it useful fast." - Rick on Lean (32:00)

On starting lean and The Lean Startup. (32:45)

On startups and the cloud... (35:45)

He said it again! (THE) Rick Hall listens to Data Driven! (36:40)

Did you find data or did data find you? (38:00)

"Just shut up and go do it!" - Rick's boss (39:00)

What's the favorite part of your current gig? (40:45)

When I'm not working, I enjoy ___. (42:00)

I think the coolest thing in technology is ___. (42:25)

On Microsoft Azure engineering time-to-market. (43:00)

"Ware definitely moving forward with an Iteration Economy." - Frank (43:30)

I look forward to the day I can use technology to ___. (44:00)

Share something different about yourself (44:30)

Andy's story of being diagnosed with ADHD around age 47. (45:00)

"Ok, I know where he gets this..." - Andy (46:00)

Frank has a bunch of desks in his office (46:10)

Learn more about Aginity.com! (46:40)

Aginity.com is free to start! (47:00)

Follow Rick on LinkedIn. (47:30)

Rick's recommended Audible listens: (48:35)

The Lean Startup

Lean Analytics

Crossing the Chasm

"I love podcasts which is how I came to yours." - Rick

Aginity is platform agnostic. (49:45)

In this Data Point, Frank visits the new Barnes and Noble location in Rockville, MD which is the first store in the US to sport the book retailer's new design. Oddly enough, it looks a lot like the Amazon brick and mortar bookstore just down the road in Bethesda. (see previous data point http://datadriven.tv/episodes/thoughts-on-amazons-brick-and-mortar-bookstore/ )

With less space and a revamped layout, you have to think that the store's design is much more data-driven. (Pun somewhat intended.)

In this episode, Frank and Andy explore voice assistants and the behind the scenes technology that makes them tick.

00:00:02 British Voiceover AI Lady

Hello and welcome to data driven, the podcast where we explore the emerging fields of data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence and will not be the only AI generated voice today. As Frank and Andy interview, my Cousins Alexa, Cortana, Siri and the Google assistant.

00:00:18 British Voiceover AI Lady

Now that I think of it, the Google assistant needs a proper name.

00:00:22 British Voiceover AI Lady

Doesn't it?

00:00:23 British Voiceover AI Lady

Without further ado, here are your hosts Frank Lavigna and Andy Leonard.

00:00:29 Frank

So we're both together and we're going to be talking about voice assistants and kind of how they work and.

00:00:38 Frank

Uh, we have some special guests with us today.

00:00:42 Frank

Welcome once again, if you're just joining us live. It's Andy later tonight we are here and we are live streaming, data driven podcast where we explore the emerging fields of data science, machine learning an artificial intelligence.

00:00:55 Frank

How are you doing Andy?

00:00:56 Andy

I'm doing pretty good Frank. How are you?

00:00:59 Frank

I'm doing well. I know you have a hard stop so I won't Yammer too long we have.

00:01:04 Frank

Three special guests with us today.

00:01:06 Frank

And E 3 three.

00:01:09 Frank

That's a record. It is a record.

00:01:14 Frank

These guests are.

00:01:19 Andy

Alexa Hello Alexa.

00:01:22 Frank

She's going to say hello back, I'm sure.

00:01:26 Andy

Yeah.

00:01:28 Frank

Cortana.

00:01:30 Andy

Hello Cortana.

00:01:33 Frank

And.

00:01:36 Frank

On my phone, I have Google Assistant.

00:01:38 Andy

Hello Google Assistant Hey Google.

00:01:41 Frank

That didn't work. It now correctly phones on. Let me tell you whenever there's a training video or like a keynote where they talk about the integration between them. It's pandemonium in my Home Office, because I usually have all three and it's just harder pandemonium.

00:01:59 Frank

So I want to switch to, so we're recording this last. If you're watching live. Thank you. If you're watching later, thank you. We always try to respond to the comments. I think we're pretty good about that. And if you're watching this, if you're listening to this on the podcast, I will try to transcribe everything I'm saying. So let me switch.

00:02:18 Frank

Here.

00:02:19 Frank

An I'll see if I can put us in the little bottom here, how do?

00:02:22 Frank

I do that.

00:02:24 Frank

There we go.

00:02:27 Frank

Oh well anyway.

00:02:30 Andy

So there we.

00:02:31 Andy

Are were there this is a closed.

00:02:34 Frank

Almost there, this is the. This is a quote.

00:02:38 Frank

From Charles the 5th, who if you're not up in your history he was kind of a big deal. I think he was a hapsburg. I don't remember shame on me but he has this quote where he says I speak Spanish to God, Italian to women, French to men in German to my horse.

00:02:57 Frank

Now you're probably wondering what the heck does this have to do with anything? Well, here's what it has to do with.

00:03:03 Frank

Oh no, PowerPoint is going to crash.

00:03:07 Frank

No, you can tell.

00:03:08 Frank

We're live here we go. This is what I want to say.

00:03:11 Frank

This is the my my modern take on this. I speak to Elexa when I'm home to Cortana. When I'm at work and Google Assistant when I'm in my car or have my phone with me.

00:03:24 Frank

You can also replace that with Siri. I don't. I do have an iPad, but it's not with me.

00:03:28 Andy

That's Frank, the 1st right.

00:03:30 Frank

Frank the 1st.

00:03:34 Frank

I rather like that I rather like that.

00:03:38 Frank

So the idea here is you know how do these things work.

00:03:41 Frank

You know what?

00:03:44 Frank

An you know, in terms of the guests and and kind of things and I know you have a A Time Constraint so I just want to kind of demonstrate something that I've had the chance for a work engagement had a chance to kind of study up on all three because it was a competitive situation between Louis.

00:04:03 Frank

Which is ultimately what powers Cortana, kind of behind the scenes, and Lex which is the Alexa version for processing text and dialogue flow, which is the Google version, so it's a lot of mouthfuls an I did. Let's see if we can get our guests to introduce themselves Alexa.

00:04:24 Frank

Hi how are you?

00:04:27 Speaker 3

I'm feeling like a home run.

00:04:29 Speaker 3

This weekend I'll be watching a lot of my favorite sports.

00:04:35 Frank

OK.

00:04:38 Frank

I'm getting a warning sign on my stream ability here, so I don't know what's going on.

00:04:42 Andy

What's up with that?

00:04:43 Frank

I don't know Well, you're still hear me so that's a good sign.

00:04:46 Andy

Yeah, you're you're good with me and I'm out here on the in the boondocks with 25 minutes bro.

00:04:50 Frank

There you go.

00:04:52 Frank

Hey Cortana.

00:04:54 Frank

How are you?

00:04:57 Speaker 4

Great thanks.

00:04:59 Frank

There you go.

00:05:00 Frank

And let's see what our friend Google Assistant.

00:05:03 Frank

Has to say.

00:05:10 Frank

Hey court, I'm sorry. OK Google, how are you?

00:05:18 Frank

Oops, it's on my Bluetooth, that's why OK.

00:05:22 Frank

You could tell where life looks 'cause it's just all bloopers.

00:05:27 Frank

How are you?

00:05:32 Frank

So we've returned a bunch of short search results, OK?

00:05:39 Frank

What's interesting about these three is that they're all trying to solve essentially the same problem, right? The they they are trying to solve.

00:05:46 Frank

The ability to take human language.

00:05:49 Frank

And type, it in and convert it to let me see if I get this screen back up.

00:05:55 Frank

An I will maximize that there we go see my fancy setup I do. It's cool, isn't it? Yes.

00:06:04 Frank

Alright, so ultimately they're all trying to say the same problem. Hey, we have a comment wise guy. Yes I am miserable. OK, alright, so here's the problem that all these devices want to solve, right? This is a human. This is some speaker device thingy.

00:06:21 Frank

Right?

00:06:23 Frank

And.

00:06:25 Frank

You have the cloud.

00:06:27 Frank

Which I think is really makes this.

00:06:29 Frank

Possible in a lot of ways or not. Just possible and practical? Yeah yeah.

00:06:34 Frank

I say.

00:06:36 Frank

You know, turn.

00:06:39 Frank

I have to be careful 'cause I actually do have the lights in my Home Office so.

00:06:43

Set up to this.

00:06:46 Frank

Right, right? So this gets digitized into audio.

00:06:51 Frank

Right?

00:06:52 Frank

Here right, I'll draw that by Squiggly Lines.

00:06:55 Andy

Right, I like to squiggly lines.

00:06:57 Frank

See, I'm talented, I'm very.

00:06:59 Andy

Hard you are. You're an artist.

00:07:01 Frank

Then a cloud service, right? Whether that's Louis.

00:07:07 Frank

Dialogflow

00:07:09 Frank

Or Lax.

00:07:12 Frank

Converts that into.

00:07:15 Frank

Back into text or into text, right? Right turn the.

00:07:20 Frank

Lights on.

00:07:27 Frank

Then what happens is then you have to figure out what does that mean. What's the context here, right? What's the intent? That's the official word.

00:07:34 Frank

So that's turn lights.

00:07:38 Frank

And then on now most people will argue with me. Is that technically this is the intent?

00:07:43 Frank

And this is the the destination or slot.

00:07:48 Frank

Lex calls us a slot and this is the state that you want, right? So ultimately there's 100 different ways I can say that, and this is what makes the really kind of an LP problem, right? Please turn the lights on or do would you kindly turn the lights on right bioshock?

00:08:02 Frank

Right there for you.

00:08:05 Frank

Um?

00:08:06 Frank

That sort of thing, and then whatever that happens, is that this will then parse that into an action, right?

00:08:12 Frank

Which, if you have smart plugs, it will then send a message back through the magic of the Internet and then turn the actual.

00:08:20 Frank

Oh, I like how that's doing that. Turn the actual light on.

00:08:27 Frank

Right, so that's that's basically solving the same problem.

00:08:30 Frank

Right?

00:08:32 Frank

And what's interesting about this? I just realized I didn't say it out loud for folks listening on the podcast, but ultimately what happens is my words get translated into an electronic signal, right? A sign? A wave of sorts.

00:08:45 Frank

And then that is then.

00:08:47 Frank

Re on the other side, it's then sent from the speaker to the cloud, where it will turn those that sound form that sound wave back into text, right? Or words and then it'll go through and it'll parse out.

00:09:02 Frank

What I'm saying is try to get an intent from it or an action to it, and then based on that, some other program that also lives in the cloud.

00:09:11 Frank

Mostly, we'll then take an action based on that. Does that make sense like that? Explain that clearly.

00:09:17 Andy

I think so yeah, yeah I like it. I like the flow.

00:09:21 Frank

Yeah, and it's it's it's.

00:09:22 Frank

Amazing how simple this is, right? This is not rocket science inside your average in inside your average you know echo device. You know it's not rocket science, it's just well, this one is the fancy one with the screen, but you know the the typical kind of .1 or whatever is a microphone and speaker in a Wi-Fi connection. It's essentially all it is, right?

00:09:42 Frank

So ultimately the the goal then is that let me see if I can D minimize minimize this. So the the goal is is that I have an example of that, and this is essentially a build your own voice kit that I saw at Micro Center for.

00:10:01 Frank

Like $5 or something like that.

00:10:03 Frank

An inside is a speaker, a button, and a Cardboard box.

00:10:09 Frank

And if you attach your Raspberry Pi to this.

00:10:12 Frank

You basically have a Google home assistant.

00:10:17 Andy

That's nice, yeah.

00:10:19 Frank

Shame on me because I bought this longer ago than I care to admit and I haven't built it yet.

00:10:26 Frank

But that's just to demonstrate. The point is that these these actual devices are rather simple in terms of, you know, just them being their own thing, right? So what's interesting about this, and this is where the cutting edge comes is when you when I talk.

00:10:41 Frank

We have our human brains or whole.

00:10:44 Frank

Some will debate about.

00:10:45 Frank

Whether or not I have a human brain, but let's let's go with you.

00:10:49 Frank

So.

00:10:51 Frank

The short of it is, is that.

00:10:54 Frank

I have the ability to understand context right from my previous statement.

00:10:58 Frank

So I'm going to mute some of these devices because if I start to hear their name, they'll start going wild. What's interesting is how good Cortana is at this. How good the Google assistant is at this, and how.

00:11:14 Frank

Alexa needs some room for improvement, right, right? So for instance, if you haven't caught on the shirt I'm wearing says cream cash rules everything around me, that's from a Wu Tang clan song, so I will ask this simple question from Alexa Alexa, who is the Wu Tang clan.

00:11:36 Speaker 3

According to Wikipedia, Wu Tang clan is an American hip hop group formed in Staten Island, NY city in 1992 original.

00:11:45 British Voiceover AI Lady

Hopes.

00:11:46 Frank

Alexa.

00:11:48 Frank

What was their first album?

00:11:51 Speaker 3

According to Wikipedia, the first album is the debut studio album by German dual Modern Talking. It was released on April 1st, 19.

00:11:59 Frank

80 so you get the idea you and I know like if you asked me who they who the Wu Tang clan were an, then what was their first album? I would tell you right, right?

00:12:09 Frank

It does not have the notion of context. This is turns out to be very difficult problem for computers to solve. OK, because.

00:12:19 Frank

There's a lot going on, right? So if I start talking to you is like handy. I was at this great restaurant last night that and then we switch to another.

00:12:27 Frank

Topic.

00:12:28 Frank

Then

00:12:29 Frank

We would, we would then say, Hey where was that place? And then I would kind of know if you said place I would know what you were talking about right? That is humans have trouble with this right? 'cause I have many conversations with my wife that kind of go in different directions 'cause I have no idea where she's talking about.

00:12:47 Frank

But I mean it's hard for humans. It's really hard for machines, so let's try and see if Cortana does this any better. Hey Cortana?

00:12:54 Frank

Who is the Wu Tang clan?

00:12:58 Speaker 4

According to wikipedia.org Wu Tang, clan is an American hip hop group formed in Staten Island, NY city in 1992. Originally composed of rza.

00:13:10 Frank

Hey Cortana, what was their first album?

00:13:15 Speaker 4

Should I read a snippet from Wikipedia?

00:13:17 Speaker 4

That might be related.

00:13:19 Frank

Yeah, I'm afraid.

00:13:23 Speaker 4

The Wu Tang clan is a NYC based hip hop musical group consisting of 10 American rappers, rza, gza, Method Man, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah.

00:13:34 Frank

There's a lot of members of the Wu Tang clan. In case you didn't know.

00:13:37 Speaker 4

Cappadonna and the label dirty *******

00:13:42 Frank

Hey Cortana, what was their first album?

00:13:49 Speaker 4

There might be something on Wikipedia.

00:13:51 Speaker 4

Should I read it?

00:13:53 Frank

Yeah.

00:13:56 Speaker 4

The Wu Tang clan is a NYC.

00:13:58 Frank

Based all right?

00:13:59 Frank

Well, in the past she did get that right.

00:14:03 Andy

Well, she wasn't completely off base, wasn't completely off. Now she she kept it. Seems like some kind of workflow thing put her into.

00:14:11 Andy

It shot well at at least identify the context back to your previous question.

00:14:16 Frank

It did on that's a new active. That's a new behavior. I swear I I used to do this demo all the time and depending on the audience it would be Wu Tang clan or you know Aerosmith, you know. So let's see what Google has to say. OK, Google.

00:14:32 Frank

Who is the Wu Tang clan?

00:14:39 Frank

Alright, you're not very talkative today.

00:14:45 Frank

What was their first album?

00:14:50 Frank

OK, the demo gods are not kind to me today.

00:14:54 Frank

But in the past this has worked on.

00:14:56 Frank

On home assistant, an Cortana.

00:15:00 Frank

OK, so.

00:15:05 Frank

So the reason?

00:15:05 Frank

Why we're doing this today, and I know Andy has a hard stop in a couple of minutes is because we are hoping to get data driven as a flash briefing on Alexa.

00:15:15 Frank

And.

00:15:17 Frank

Alexa.

00:15:20 Frank

So I was trying to do this whole surprise thing, but apparently since the demo failed, I figured I'd break into that.

00:15:27 Frank

Into that, but that's ultimately the goal. But I also think this is an interesting, interesting topic, because for a lot of folks, this is just this magical black box. There is listening, right? An you know it's not magical and it all comes down to math and science, right? An and the key is to understand, kind of how it's built. And once you understand how it's built, you can build your own systems and it's actually not that hard.

00:15:47 Frank

There are more moving parts than you would think, but ultimately it just comes down to.

00:15:53 Frank

You know you're taking that speed that sound data, converting it into text, then taking that text and then converting that back into some kind of intent in action, right?

00:16:04 Frank

Yeah, and then on the other side, I'm sorry, go ahead.

00:16:07 Andy

No, Mark Taylor just said it's a do loop and he's right, he's.

00:16:10 Frank

A do loop. We have Mark joining us again. Thanks for watching mark.

00:16:14 Frank

I really should ask this.

00:16:17 Frank

But unfortunately to be is a bit of a bit of A.

00:16:21 Frank

Not a nice word or not a professional word for LinkedIn.

00:16:25

Yeah.

00:16:28 Frank

But they don't have enough memory. I think not at all.

00:16:33

No they don't.

00:16:34 Frank

But it's an interesting. It's an interesting thing where you, you know, 'cause I'm a nerd. I have I happen to have all three different types, but you know, actually 4 if you count Siri. Let's see if Siri will do any better on the on the album question.

00:16:49 Frank

So Andy, we actually have 4 special guests.

00:16:52 Andy

Wow, thank you.

00:16:54 Andy

Not crazy, that's that's a new record.

00:16:56 Frank

Hey Siri, who is the Wu Tang clan?

00:17:03 Speaker 4

Here's some information.

00:17:05 Frank

Alright, so she basically.

00:17:07 Frank

Pointed to Wikipedia.

00:17:13 Frank

What was their first album?

00:17:25 Frank

So it did the transcription.

00:17:27 Frank

What I said is good.

00:17:30 Speaker 3

I don't recognize this song.

00:17:32 Andy

OK oh OK.

00:17:34 Frank

So I swear this it did work before, but I mean ultimately it's a very hard problem. In fact, one of the things that they showed a couple of years ago at ignite I or build.

00:17:44 Frank

They showed this concept video of this lady talking to Cortana and it was on her phone.

00:17:51 Frank

More on that in a minute. It was on her phone an as she was driving into work. She'd be like, Oh, remind me to tell this person.

00:18:00 Frank

You know have a meeting with them.

00:18:03 Frank

And then the the logic would then go and then schedule the meeting through the through the outlook calendar and then tell her you know so and so rejected the request. But they are able to meet 30 minutes later. Is that OK? Yes, oh and invite so and so to this meeting as well.

00:18:20 Frank

Right,...