Dr Katja Hofmann is a Senior Researcher at the Machine Intelligence and Perception group at Microsoft Research Cambridge. Her research focuses on reinforcement learning with applications in video games, as she believes that games will drive a transformation of how people interact with AI technology. She is the research lead of Project Malmo, which uses the popular game Minecraft as an experimentation platform for developing intelligent technology. Her long-term goal is to develop AI systems that learn to collaborate with people, to empower their users and help solve complex real-world problems.

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Episode 166: S4E9: Katja Hofmann, Sr Researcher, Microsoft

Women in AI is a biweekly podcast from RE•WORK, meeting with leading female minds in AI, Deep Learning and Machine Learning. We will speak to CEOs, CTOs, Data Scientists, Engineers, Researchers and Industry Professionals to learn about their cutting edge work and technological advancements, as well as their impact on AI for social good and diversity in the workplace.

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Our guest this week is Dawn Harpster, Senior Conversation Architect at Talkdesk. Dawn is actively committed to the extinction of bad IVR and Virtual Agent experiences. Her passion for the nuances of human behavior, conversation, and technology lead her to a career in human to machine interaction design; evangelizing simplicity, clarity and great user experience. Dawn has worked with a variety of high profile clients including Apple, Alaska Airlines, Direct TV and Western Union. She has also worked as a TV engineer, writer/producer, a program director at a homeless shelter and a professional jouster.

Topics discussed include:
• What and where Conversational AI is
• Conversation design principles
• Challenges and opportunities of being a woman working in AI

Links:
• LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dawn-harpster-4b3130b/
• Women in AI Blogs: https://blog.re-work.co/tag/women-in-ai/

Episode 199: Conversational AI & Virtual Agents

Our guest this week is  Jen Wang, Senior Manager of Data Science at Wayfair. Jen joined the Wayfair team in 2016 and leads multiple teams of data scientists that develop customer-scoring, uplift modeling, and reinforcement learning systems to optimize marketing decisions at Wayfair. Prior to this she received her Ph.D. in Biophysical Chemistry from the University of Iowa, where she researched cancer-related drug development. 

Topics discussed include:
• Starting a career in AI
• Academia vs Industry
• Workplace changes due to COVID-19
• Advice for a career in STEM
• Female role-models

Links: 
• LinkedIn Profile:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenzhenwang/
• Women in AI Blogs:  https://blog.re-work.co/tag/women-in-ai/ 

Episode 198: What is the Problem you want to Solve in AI?

This week we're joined by  Ritika Gunnar, VP of Data & AI Expert Labs at  IBM. Ritika is one of IBM’s leading voices on trustworthy AI. Her team helps organizations embed principles and tools that build trust across the AI lifecycle, from preparing the data and building the model to deploying and managing it in real-time. As AI infiltrates almost every aspect of our lives, the lack of trust has never been a more pressing issue. 

Topics explored in the conversation include:
• COVID-19 and a shift in the importance of trust;
• The challenge of trust from a technology, education, management and culture perspective;
• Ensuring explainable plus trustworthy AI;
• The challenges of deploying models both responsibly and at scale;
• Starting a career in AI;
• COVID-19 and the impact of women in AI 

Links: 
• LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ritika-gunnar-4b4542/
• Upcoming events on Responsible AI & Trust: https://www.re-work.co/events/topics/ai-for-good

Episode 194: Deploying Responsible AI

This week's guest is  Rachel Alexander, CEO and founder of  Omina Technologies, an AI company dedicated to ethical AI solutions. Rachel is responsible for the technological vision and strategy of Omina Technologies and recently won the award for ‘Artificial Intelligence Person of the Year’ in Belgium, where she has lived and worked for the past twenty years, devoting herself to helping companies navigate new technological advances and incorporating them into their strategy. 

Topics explored in the conversation include:
• What does ethical and trustworthy AI mean to you? 
• Why should companies should invest in ethical and trustworthy AI?
• How can we ensure AI is accessible to all?
• What is the biggest challenge faced by organisations regarding explainable AI?
• How do different industries differ in working towards explainable AI?
• Has COVID had an impact on accelerating or hindering ethical and trustworthy AI?

Links:
• LinkedIn profile:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachelalexander777/
• Omina Technologies:  http://ominatechnologies.com/

• View upcoming events on Ethics here.

Episode 193: In Search of Trustworthy & Ethical AI

This episode features  Susanna Dillenbeck, Commercial Partnerships Manager at  Furhat Robotics, a startup based in Sweden, with a mission to enable a revolution in human-computer interaction through social and conversational robotics. Susanna focuses on creating collaborations to help them bring more applications to life on the Furhat platform.

Topics explored included:
• The meaning of Conversational AI and Social Robotics
• The positive impact of Social Robots for businesses and society
• The challenges faced with Social Robotics 
• Gender and Social Robotics
• The issue of being emotionally connected to machines
• The future of emotion AI
• Women in AI challenges
• Advice for women in AI coming from a non-technical background

Links:
• LinkedIn Profile:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/susanna-dillenbeck/
• View upcoming events on Conversational AI here:  https://www.re-work.co/events
• Read the transcript in full here:  https://blog.re-work.co/social-robotics-and-conversational-ai-with-susanna-dillenbeck

Episode 166: S4E9: Katja Hofmann, Sr Researcher, Microsoft

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