Kotecki On Tech

“The services that we use, they seem so simple, because everything is one touch, one click, one swipe” says Scalyr CEO Christine Heckart.  “But what is happening underneath to give you that very simple, elegant experience is an extremely complex labyrinth of interconnected microservices.”

“And it has become it has become so intertwined, so interdependent, so complex, that the average human brain - any human brain, even an extraordinary one - can’t keep the whole system in their head in real time because it’s always changing.”

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Artificial intelligence can seem like automated magic, but it takes an army of human data labelers to do the trick. Their work may appear  monotonous, but Scale CEO Alex Wang, says that for many around the world, it’s a welcome opportunity.

“It’s really hard for us being in America to fully grasp this, but around the world the reality is in a lot of areas there are really, really poor employment opportunities. . . . as our platform scales and as the Internet scales in the world, many, many people are getting access to jobs and employment opportunities when otherwise they simply wouldn’t.”

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Olive is a healthcare bot who’s been built not just to work with humans, but to seem like one. So what happens to real human workers as “she” keeps getting smarter? Olive CEO Sean Lane says humans will always be in charge - but jobs are going to change.

“Once you understand what it can do, and once you see Olive working and really realize the potential, your mind immediately goes to the inevitability that Olive will be doing a lot of the work that your humans are doing today. It really takes a reframing of how we think about work in general.”

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In a future flooded with digital forensic data, criminal justice will rely on A.I. to keep up. The challenge for the justice system, says Oxygen Forensics COO Lee Reiber, is keeping up with A.I.

“… as we progress to even more information and now utilizing these specific algorithms, boy - if the investigator’s not able to explain that to the prosecutor or the judge, how’s a prosecutor or judge going to understand that information?”

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Can big business save the planet? Sure, says hydrogen fuel cell maker Andy Marsh. The real question is whether America will lead the charge or get lapped by China.

“In the solar industry - the high tech portion of the solar industry - a lot of it’s in China at the moment. And if you look at China’s 2025 plan, it’s to have the fuel cell industry in China.”

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Can augmented reality kill business travel? Spatial’s Jacob Loewenstein invites to you to skip the trip, strap on some smart glasses, and hang out with holograms.

“We think of Spatial as the equivalent of giving people superpowers and enabling them to teleport and meet with people anywhere.”

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In an era of click-based comedy, topical TV goes way beyond the television.  Matt Negrin, a Senior Digital Producer on The Daily Show, respects the traditional timeslot while relishing the “weird and experimental” freedom of digital platforms.

“...we’re so integrated into the normal process of the show but at the same time, we do things that are original that don’t go on the show. We do things that are just for Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or sometimes just one of those platforms.”

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While building a social screen sharing app to fight loneliness, Esther Crawford finds herself in a lonely position of her own: female tech CEO.

“I’m not the male engineer who’s 22 from Stanford. Instead, I’m a designer who’s in my mid-30s. I’m a mom. I’m a woman. I’m working on a consumer social product. There are virtually no females out there working on consumer social. I don’t fit the narrative, and I’m totally ok with that.”

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“People say, well, is privacy dying? I would say no - privacy is completely dead.”

Keeper Security CEO Darren Guccione on perilous passwords, bad biometrics, and state-sponsored cyberwar.

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Imagining a future of ubiquitous automation, mass job disruption, and an economic model that rewards humans for helping bots.

“We think work is going to change to where people are part of the fabric of AI, as opposed to this divide where there’s AI on one side and people on another.” - Antony Brydon, CEO of Directly.

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